Playing Perfect

11. Supplier

"Oh, okay, I've got this," Emily muttered, more to herself than to Alice. A second passed. Her lips moved silently, mouthing words as her brow furrowed. She looked towards the ceiling, grimacing. "I swear, I know this... What's the first word?"

Alice looked down at the page. "It."

"Second word?"

"Is."

"It is?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's not a very helpful hint, is it?"

Alice snorted, rolling her eyes. "You asked for the first two words."

"Alright, well, scratch that. Hint, please?"

"It's the most famous quote from the book. About a truth... universally acknowledged..."

Emily wrinkled her nose, thinking for a moment before admitting, "I don't think I read that far."

Alice lifted a brow. "It's literally the first line of the book."

"My point remains." Emily groaned, burying her face into her arms. Her voice came out muffled as she said, "I'm never going to pass trials. I'll get a mystery ATAR and end up on the streets, disowned."

Across the table, Heather scoffed. "Maybe you should have read the book."

Emily looked up from the desk to glare at her, settling her chin on her folded arms. "Heather, how are you not completely freaking out about trials?"

"Well, I did the clever thing and took English Standard," she replied. "Work smarter, not harder. Besides, isn't all this up on SparkNotes, anyway? Why are we even here?"

"Our trials are important if we want to do well," Alice replied simply. "Our school assessments count for half of our HSC mark, remember?"

Heather frowned. "Alright, Miss Prefect, we get it. I just don't think all this is necessary."

Theo glanced at her paper and lifted a brow. "Heather, you realise you've gotten all of the questions wrong so far, don't you?"

Blushing, she muttered an embarrassed, "Well, I wasn't really paying attention."

Alice stifled a laugh, meeting Theo's eye. He threw her a wink before turning back to his own paper. She smiled to herself, feeling her face warm after something so small as a playful wink.

Between trials and Theo's rugby training, they barely had time to see each other anymore outside of study dates and late-night phone calls—and even then, he had been calling her less often than usual.

A part of her wondered if he'd grown bored of her.

Alice never felt that she was very interesting to be around. She was a prude. She was a goodie-two-shoes who obeyed the rules and forced others to as well. She had responsibilities that always had to come first.

And now Theo was growing bored of her.

She stared after him for a moment too long, memorising the way his brown hair fell from his forehead. The way his eyes scanned the page. How his tongue poked out his lips as he hesitated on a question. She tried to convince herself that he'd just been busy, the same as she had been.

"What's he doing here?"

Alice blinked, returning to reality.

Emily had whispered in her ear, tugging on her sleeve, and Alice turned to find her staring wide-eyed at the entrance. She spun, heart pounding, following her gaze to find Finn Cauley standing at the door.