The next month passes by in a quick blur: go to school, argue with Julie, annoy Julie, go to hockey, sleep, repeat.
I have to hand it to Julie and I. We established quite a routine.
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Monday - Three Weeks Ago
I walk into calculus seeing Julie already sitting in her desk, leg bouncing uncontrollably.
"Did you see the test scores yet in the gradebook?" Julie asks as I slide into my desk.
I shake my head. "You?"
Julie shakes her head, playing with her hoodie strings. "No. I've been too nervous too."
I don't blame her. This is past derivatives test was hard, and there's only two unit tests being put in the gradebook for this marking period so it can significantly impact our grade.
"Ok class. I'm handing back your tests now. While you're going over them, put up any questions you'll like to be shown or explained in further detail."
Miss. Rice starts to make her way through the rows, handing back each student's test face down.
I swear this lady is taking her sweet time, and the anticipation is killing Julie and I.
Finally she reaches our desks. She places both tests face down, smiling at the two of us before going to give Madison and Parker their tests.
Julie turns around. "On the count of three, we flip them over and see our scores."
I nod, hands slightly shaking as I grab a hold of the paper.
"Three." Julie starts off.
"Two."
"One."
Both of us flip over our tests, face up, on my desk.
Written in red ink on the top of my test is a 98.
Written on Julie's test is a 95.
Julie eyes widen in horror as she stares down at our tests.
"Ha! I got a higher score!" I brag. I don't mean to be a dick about it, but this is the first time I've bested Julie academically this year and now with the stakes being higher, might as well celebrate.
Madison turns around looking between the two of us. "You two are ridiculous."
Julie pulls at her hair, looking through her test, still in disbelief. "I studied! I was sure I was going to get a higher score!"
I hold up my paper, grinning like a Cheshire cat, wiggling the stupid paper in her face. "Well this says opposite."
Julie shakes her head, pulling out her phone. "Check your total grade."
I pull out my phone and log into our student portal. I nod towards Julie's phone. "What do you have?"
"96."
"98."
Julie groans as she flips through her test, looking at the questions she got wrong.
Julie - 2, Jace - 1
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Wednesday - Two Weeks Ago
I rush into our duel enrollment English class, sliding into the seat next to Julie who already has her phone out.
"Did he put in the grade?" I ask, quickly whipping out my phone to start logging into my portal.
Julie only nods her head, typing in her log in information.
Last week, our English teacher assigned us a five to ten page research paper involving a topic of our choice that encompasses what we've been learning so far. It's a hundred point assignment, and I worked my ass off on that paper to start this class off on the right foot.
"Ready?" Julie asks. All her information is typed in, ready to log in. She seems a little tense, but understandable.
"Ready."
We both log in, bracing ourselves for the grade we'd received.
Julie's eyebrows furrow, and her leg starts to bounce. "My grade dropped."
I look at my total grade, seeing it also dropped but not by much. "So did mine."
"Another 96." Julie sighs, looking disappointed in herself. She looks over towards my phone.
I zoom into my grade for the paper. "Another 98." I let out a sigh of relief. Thank fuck I didn't bomb that paper.
"Total grade in the class?" Julie asks.
"96." I respond, smiling like a goof because I'm proud of myself for besting Julie again.
"95." Julie says through gritted teeth.
Juliana - 2, Jace - 2
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Tuesday - A Week Ago
Julie's leg bounces uncontrollably as we wait for our teacher to finish grading our psychology tests.
Out of all the units we've done so far, biopsychology is definitely the hardest.
I lean a little closer to the anxious girl, lowering my voice, so our teacher doesn't yell at us. "How do you feel?"
Julie shakes her head, running a hand against her face, obviously stressed out. "I don't feel great about it honestly. You?" She looks me up and down, analyzing me, looking for any signs of stress.
"I honestly feel great about it."
My answer causes Julie to groan. I don't mean to make her feel bad. I honestly feel horrible when I score higher than her. In the moment, I'm happy, but guilt settles in my stomach afterwards. Why? I have no idea, but at the end of the day, we both have to keep in mind our end goal.
Mrs. Johnson, our AP Psychology teacher, come in with our tests.
She hands them out wordlessly, and I see Julie from the corner of my eye bouncing her leg uncontrollably while shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
Mrs. Johnson gives Julie her test first. Julie's face falls flat when she looks at her score, and she immediately flips the test over, face down.
Mrs. Johnson hands me mine.
"Score?" Julie asks completely defeated.
"94." I state. I'm a little scared to hear Julie's score after hearing the monotone in her voice. As much as I hate her and this is a competition, I don't want her beating herself up over a stupid grade which I know she will.
"80." Julie sighs, placing her head in her hands, looking like she'd might cry.
Like instinct, I lean over, hand lightly brushing her back causing her to sit up a little stiffer probably from the shock. She quickly relaxes as I just brush her back lightly.
Why am I comforting her? I'm going to blame it on the guilt. Yeah. I want to make myself feel better.
"Sorry Julie. You'll get it next time." I offer her a small smile which she can't see.
Julie's cheeks lift slightly, for a moment, before they lift completely looking like Julie's smiling, throwing me off guard.
Why is she smiling? I didn't say anything funny?
Julie starts to chuckle before she starts laughing uncontrollably. My hand stops rubbing circles on her back, and I stare at her like she's insane which, right now, I think she is.
She removes her hand from her face, turning to me, smiling her bright smile like the bad grade didn't impact her.
She pats me on the shoulder, shaking her head, smirking at me. "Oh Jace. You're so naive." I continue to look at her like she lost it, and she turns her paper around. My jaw drops to the floor when I see a 100 written in the corner of her test. "You didn't think you actually beat me, did you?"
I continue to gawk at her, completely astonished by her acting skills. She comes up to me, ruffling my hair. "It's good to see you have a heart in there Jace."
She smirks at me again before turning to talk to another person, leaving her test next to mine, tormenting me.
Julie - 3, Jace - 2
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Monday - Present Day
I sit in the locker room, taping my stick for practice today, minding my own business. The team chatters around me, some of them taping their sticks or putting on their body armor, while others goof off and joke with each other. Typical routines for all of us.
As I'm finishing up taping the toe, Parker, who's locker is across from mine, walks over and sits down next to me on the bench.
Parker and I are friends. It's typical for us to talk during practice or a game, but we don't talk much outside of hockey. Well, until recently at least.
There's nothing wrong with the kid. He's a great player and friend, but something about him irks me and I can't pinpoint what exactly.
"Hey Jace." Parker starts. He's already dressed and ready to go for practice as the early bird he is.
"What's up?" I ask, cutting the tape off. Parker scratches the back of neck, body physically tense, as he looks around the locker room avoiding eye contact with me. "Is something wrong?"
He snaps out of whatever thoughts he was having, shaking his head quickly. "No. No. No. Everything is fine. It's just-" Parker's voice trails off towards the end. I turn to look at him, and he stares off towards his locker, trying to form his thoughts into words. "I know we talked about this a while ago, but there's nothing going on between you and Juliana, right?"
His words catches me off guard. "What?"
"Sorry. I know this isn't the perfect time to talk about this, but-" He leans in close to my ear. "I just need to know whether something is going on between the two of you."
Before I start overthinking the situation, I blurt, "There's nothing going on between Julie and I."
Relief washes over his face, and his body relaxes. "Thank god. I thought there was."
Parker thought there is something going on between Julie and I? Is he insane?
"Definitely not. Why would there be? We hate each other." I state like it's a fact.
Parker shrugs, leaning against the lockers. "I don't know. I always assumed there was something going on between the two of you even before Juliana moved."
"We've always been friends." I squint my eyes, looking at Parker suspiciously. "Where is this going?"
"Well, Juliana and I have been talking a bit since she came back. We've been texting and snapping, and... I like her. I just wanted to make sure nothing is happening between the two of you before I ask her out on a date."
I don't know whether I should be proud of myself for being correct about Parker liking her or whether I should slam my head against the lockers.
Parker actually likes her, and they've been talking outside of school? I thought their relationship was based solely in school, but I should've known Parker would make a move.
The biggest question of all, does Julie like him?
Wait - why am I thinking about this? Why am I thinking about Julie liking him back? She's a full grown woman who can make her own decisions. Most of all, we hate each other, so why am I even contemplating about this?
But why does a small part of me feel hurt? Why does that small part feel like I'm losing Julie again?
"Jace?" Parker's voice snaps me out of my thoughts. "You good?"
I shake my head, trying to clear it of these irrational thoughts. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"So - you're ok with me asking her?" Parker asks, hope in his voice.
The words come tumbling out of my mouth like word vomit. "Yeah. I am. Good luck man."
Parker places a hand on my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Thanks Jace. I'll let you know how it goes."
With that, Parker grabs his stick and leaves the locker room, leaving me sitting here with my thoughts.
I let out a long, deep sigh, trying to shake some of these thoughts off so my head is clear for practice, but I can't shake off the nagging feeling that I've made the worst decision in my entire life.