Love or rivalry?

Chapter 1

I couldn't take my eyes off John as he spoke in front of the class. How was that even possible? It was only the first day of senior year, and he already had some kind of presentation! Then again... this was John. He always had something to talk about — his internship at his father's company, some trip, volunteer work, charity projects, camps — business camps, football camps, surf camps, physics camps, just camps in general... The list was endless.

But he had changed. He looked more mature now, more masculine — stronger, with those newly defined biceps. Today he was talking about a sports camp, which made perfect sense. And God, he'd become so good-looking. He'd always been cute, but now... it was on another level. I definitely still felt attracted to him — maybe even liked him. Wait, did I just admit that to myself? That's bad. Even worse, Mr. Smith for some reason decided to seat us together.

"This will heat up your competition, push you to a new level, and improve your performance," he said.

Yeah, right. The only thing heating up and reaching a new level here were definitely my feelings.

Stop it. Enough! I ordered myself to focus — not on the way he spoke, or how when he spread his arms you could see his shirt stretch perfectly across his chest — but on what he was actually saying.

John finished his speech, the class applauded, and he sat down next to me. Unfortunately.

"I was great, wasn't I?" he asked, smug as ever.

"No. You were arrogant, as always. Honestly, I can't imagine who'd ever find what you say interesting." Just then, the bell rang.

"See you next week, and congratulations on the start of a new school year! I'm sure you've all been waiting for this all summer!" said Mr. Smith, and the class burst out laughing. Everyone began packing up and heading out. Someone called for Mr. Smith in the hallway, and he left too.

John turned to me again.

"Uh-huh. But you were totally into it. Couldn't take your eyes off me. By the way, when did you turn into such a knockout? And what's with that annoyed look on your face? Oh, I get it — you were planning to talk about your finance internship and brag about the sports camp too, but I beat you to it, and now you've got nothing to present next lesson?"

That's when it hit me — I'd been so distracted watching him that I'd completely missed the main point of his presentation: the finance internship. Of course. It all made sense now since this was an economics class after all. As I pieced that together, the silence between us stretched. Then I realised I was just... sitting there, staring at him and he was staring back at me. His gaze gave me butterflies in my stomach, and my breath caught. John suddenly reached his hand toward my face. Was he really going to kiss me right here? But then I remembered where I was and quickly pushed his hand away.

"What are you doing?"

"You have an eyelash on your cheek."

I can't believe I actually thought he was going to kiss me! I turned away from him, ran my fingers over my cheek to remove the imaginary or the real eyelash, and started closing my textbooks. My cheeks were burning — I must be blushing, and it seemed like he noticed. I could still feel his gaze on me, but I kept gathering my notebooks.

"You wanted me to kiss you, didn't you?" he asked quietly.

I did.

"I didn't," I snapped and stood up to pack my things. He followed my lead. "You're weird. The next class starts soon, and I was supposed to get extra work from Mr. Smith — which you knew. Were you seriously distracting me this whole time just so I'd forget?" For a second, I thought he looked hurt, but then his expression turned blank, indifferent as if nothing had happened.

"Yep. Nailed it on the first try."

We stood up and headed toward the door at the same time.

"Ladies first," John said.

"Funny. I didn't think you even considered me a lady. And for the record, I don't trust you at all, so you go first."

"Are you seeing someone?" His question and interest surprised me a lot. Unfortunately, I wasn't seeing anyone, and nothing had happened in my personal life over the summer - but that was something he definitely didn't need to know.

"I'm not going to share details of my personal life with you. Just let me through, please." We finally left the classroom. "Where did Mr. Smith even go?" I asked, looking around the hallway.

"Don't see him either," John said. "And it was a simple question. Maybe I just wanted to get to know you better? You know — keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"Oh, please. After nine years of studying together and the occasional family vacation, you still think you don't know me well enough? Can you go bother someone else please?"

His face suddenly grew serious.

"You know... that could've been our personal life."

I froze, turning to look at him. I searched his eyes, trying to tell if he was joking.

"Hey, John, dude, where've you been? We were supposed to play pool during this break." David's voice boomed from down the hall as he slung an arm around John's shoulders. A joke or not, the moment has passed.

"Oh, hey, Katie!" David said cheerfully, finally noticing me. "Didn't even recognise you!" He took my hand and spun me around like we were dancing. I laughed — David was always so upbeat and joyful, it was impossible to stay in a bad mood around him.

Over the summer, I'd taken up all sorts of sports — tennis, golf, and dance — and dyed my hair blonde, cutting it shorter than ever. I still wasn't used to the new length, but other than that, I didn't think I'd changed much. Sure, I'd updated my wardrobe a bit and spent countless hours finally mastering makeup — I even knew what words like eyelash curler, highlighter and contouring meant now.

But I was still me — a little shy, a straight-A student, predictable as ever. So the reaction of my classmates both surprised and flattered me... and, honestly, made me a bit nervous. I wasn't ready for that much attention — though I couldn't say I didn't enjoy it.

And the look on John's face — that mix of admiration and, maybe, jealousy — made every effort feel worth it.

He didn't say a word to David's comment, just busied himself on his phone.

"Dude, George only sunk one ball. I nearly fell asleep! Don't bail on me next break," David said, glancing between us. "Come on, we'll be late for class."

We headed toward math. I hung back a little — I needed a breather after everything that had just happened in the last few minutes.