Devoted to You

Chapter 14 - Calm Before the Storm

It was Wednesday - One day before the tournament. Max was worried incase Theo hadn't started studying yet, though their worries quickly vanished once they saw him enter the school, looking as tired as always.
"You were up all night studying, am I right? Take it easy, it's not like our lives depend on this tournament."

Theo looked up to face Max with pure fatigue in his eyes.
"It wasn't all night, just until like, what? 4 AM? I still got a couple hours of sleep in."

"I doubt that's enough. Did you at least eat breakfast?", Max sighed.
Theo laughed awkwardly. "That's it, I'm buying you something later on."
Max could barely finish their sentence when Olive suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind Theo.

"So you did sign up for the tournament, huh? I knew you would! The two of you are absolutely gonna rock it!", she said, now looking at Max as well.

Before Max could agree with Olive, someone from down the hallway yelled their name.
"Oi, Max, you coming or not?", the voice shouted.
"Seems like Aiden is a little impatient today.. Well, gotta go, I'll see the two of you later!"

And just like that, they were off to class.
"I think we should get going as well, class will start soon.", Olive announced.
"Mhm, though they'll probably only go on about that stupid tournament..", Theo sighed as he and Olive made their way to their classroom.

time skip because cat toes

The bell rang and the teacher dismissed the class. All the students stormed off to the cafeteria, and so did Theo, Fin and Olive. The two boys couldn't look each other in the eyes, thus Olive was walking between them. Confused, she first looked at Fin, then Theo.

"Something's up with you guys, I can feel it. And I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. What exactly happened when Theo was tutoring Fi- AHHH!!"
Olive shrieked at the bag of pretzels that flew across the hallway, into Theo's hands.

"MAX YOU BASTARD! HOW ABOUT A WARNING?!", she yelled.
"Chill out, shortie." they softly said, walking up to the frightened girl, then looking up to Theo again, softly saying: "There ya go, buddy, you'll need it. Make sure you stay hydrated as well."

Olive was still shouting at and scolding Max for their unannounced toss of pretzels. Theo, on the other hand, now had a faint smile on his face. He was glad to have such a caring friend like Max. He was sure that he could easily pass the tournament with them by his side.

Both Fin and Theo were now laughing at Max getting a scolding as a small "Thanks." left Theo's mouth.