"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Mia glared at the giant mob outside the school and the numerous TV vans, not to mention all the reporters. Several news stations were doing a live broadcast outside the Alexandrettia, their faces serious, yet inquisitive. This could only mean one thing, given the recent circumstances...
"I'm gonna kill him," Mia said to herself, clenching her fists. "I'm actually gonna murder his ass."
"Mia! Mia, you gotta come see this!" Zoe and Anna came running out of the front doors, gasping for their breaths. "It's unbelievable, come on!"
"What? What did he trash this time?" She growled at her friends who immediately started dragging and pulling her inside the school, passing the barrier of reporters. "Did he steal something? I wouldn't be surprised."
"It has nothing to do with yesterday!" Zoe excitedly squealed. She never squealed. She was emo for Pete's sake. "This is something completely unrelated!"
"What is it?" Mia curiously asked, now getting her interest piqued. If it wasn't more vandalism, then what was it? What could possibly draw so many reporters out of their tabloid dens to a pristine school?
"Do you remember what I told you yesterday?" Zoe frantically asked as her and Anna continued to lead her down the hall, towards another massive crowd that had gathered around a specific door.
"Told me about what? You say a lot of things, Zo," Mia pointed out while her arm was getting pulled off. "What are you talking about?"
"The Fermat math problem!" Zoe almost shouted. "The one that nobody has been able to solve!"
"Yeah, what about it?" Mia frowned. "Don't tell me that someone actually—"
"—someone actually solved it!" Zoe squealed, jumping up and down from the excitement. In all her years of knowing Zoe, Mia had never seen her behave like this. "It's unbelievable, but that's not even the crazy part!"
"Then what is?" Mia asked as Anna and her squished her through the dense crowd in front of what Mia now knew was the Advanced Math auditorium. Working their way through reporters and other curious students, they finally made it to the other side.
"Nobody knows who solved it!" Zoe excitedly finished, gesturing to the giant blackboard.
Written across every inch of the right side of the blackboard, the mathematical problem offered by Mr Bleacher, Zoe's Math professor, posed itself proudly.
But it was the left side that had everyone losing their minds and probably had all the reporters in town circling the building like a giant pray.
With tight, thick letters, the longest, most brain-wrecking solution had been offered by a source it seemed nobody know. The equation was so long that whoever wrote it had written it in tiny letters to be able to fit it onto the blackboard. Even Mia who wasn't a mathematician could understand why everyone was staring at it with wide eyes. It was...
"Amazing," She breathed aloud, glaring shocked at the blackboard like the rest of them. "How can they not know who did it? Nobody's come forward yet?"
"Nope, and everyone here is in shock!" Zoe told in a voice just as befuddled as her own. "You should've seen the look on Bleacher's face this morning when he came into class! We were all staring at the board, and then when he saw it, he ordered everyone to step back and call the principal! I swear, he looked like a ghost!"
"I heard they contacted the linguistic section in the art department so they could come up and analyze the handwriting," Anna offered, looking impressed at the blackboard, too. "They're going to compare the penmanship to all the old essays of the current students and even the teachers to see if they can find a match."
"Forgive me, I just gotta ask," Mia hesitantly said. "It wasn't you, was it, Zoe?"
Zoe immediately shook her head, wildly. "I swear on my life it wasn't me. I wish it was, God, what an absolute genius that would make me!"
"You are a genius," Mia reminded her.
"Not as big as this one!"
"Didn't Mr Bleacher just pose the problem yesterday?" Anna queried.
"Exactly, that's why whoever did this is a real mathematical genius!" Zoe squealed again. "24 hours – solved! It took someone less than a day to solve a problem that literally thousands of people have been trying to solve for years! It's insane, you guys don't even..." She trailed off, but then suddenly turned to Mia and looked at her with wide, obsessed eyes. "Mia, I can't wait for the slow linguistics team to work out the handwriting! You're a skilled artist, can't you tell us anything about the penmanship?"
"Me?" Mia quipped, blinking perplexed. "I don't know, chirography isn't really my area."
"Just try, pleeease? I'm desperate, I've got to know!" Zoe folded her hands and begged Mia with bawling puppy eyes – it was quite a sight with all her gothic makeup, blue hair and piercings.
"Just give it go, babe," Anna encouraged, nudging Mia with her elbow. "You got it."
Sighing a little, Mia turned to the blackboard and squinted her eyes. The teachers had set up a barrier around the blackboard so nobody could touch or ruin what had been written with the delicate chalk. So with the distance she had to work with, she tilted her head and studied the lines of the ductus.
"Well... whoever wrote it is old-school," She said, thinking so her brain was steaming. "The slight sloppy curves to the S's and the poorly written K's could indicate that whoever wrote it probably didn't finish middle school. The rest of the letters are fine, but the S's and K's are practically kindergarten level."
"That's good, but can't you tell us something more specific?" Zoe eagerly asked. "Like... do you think it's a boy or a girl?"
Furrowing her brows in concentration, Mia took another glance. "I'd definitely say it's a guy. It's just too masculine a penmanship to be girl's. Plus, look at the intensity they used to write with. That has to be a man's hand, a woman would've been more neat."
"Not all girls are neat and some are bad at writing with chalk?" Anna pointed out.
"I told you, I'm not a professional," Mia reminded them. "That's just what I think, and if we take the most likely of scenarios, the evidence points towards a guy. If you want the rest of it, you'll have to wait for the linguistics team," She glanced at Zoe who pouted. "Sorry."
"It's okay," She sighed, slumping down a little. "I just can't believe it. The biggest breakthrough since Fermat, and whoever did it won't come forward. It's not fair."
"You don't think that someone might try and... take the credit for it?" Mia hesitantly said, biting her lip.
"That someone might try and pass off the answer as theirs?" Zoe scoffed. "No way. We are in one of the finest schools in the state with some of the brightest kids in the world. Trust me, they won't have the audacity to try and take the credit, they have more brain than that; they know they'll be expelled and promised a bleak future as a fraud if they get caught."
"Alright, you make a decent point," Mia muttered, but then sighed. The excitement wore off quickly when you couldn't congratulate the one responsible. "Do you guys wanna get outta here? My head is beginning to buzz from all these reporters and—what the hell is he doing in here?!"
Zoe and Anna both followed Mia's malignant stare and found her glaring at a person in the far back of the auditorium.
Eli was walking around in his janitorial jumpsuit, wearing his cap like yesterday, but was carrying a large garbage bag around instead of a broomstick this time. He looked to be cleaning up old paper balls and empty water bottles from the seats, but Mia saw how he was glancing down at the giant mob of people every now and then, his eyes skimming over the amazed crowd. His eyes rolled, but Mia bet that he was silently laughing at them all imploding over something he probably thought was dumb.
"I guess he's just cleaning up from yesterday," Zoe said. "Some people are really messy, bringing their lunch boxes and leaving their old banana peels..."
"Whatever, he shouldn't be in here. He'll destroy that blackboard the first chance he gets, he's a troublemaker," Mia angrily voiced, shooting daggers at him with her eyes. And then like yesterday, his eyes suddenly met her stare, as if sensing it, and then narrowed at her, threateningly. A second later, he flicked them away again and continued his job. Mia blinked and looked away, too. Those eyes.
"They'll probably throw everyone out in a few minutes and lock the place off until the genius who solved this is found," Zoe voiced with a bored tone. "But you're right, let's leave. The reporters are bugging me, too."
~~~
"No, no, no, Mia," Mr Valenches sighed and rubbed his forehead with his thumb. "You're not doing your best. What's going on with you lately? I know you can paint better than this."
Making a frustrated sound, Mia placed her paintbrush on the edge of the easel and ran her paint-splotched fingers through her hair. "I don't know. There's nothing wrong with me, I'm doing just fine? I don't know what the problem is, Mr Valenches."
"Maybe that is the problem," He replied, giving her a studying look. Valenches was one of the nicest teachers at the school and he was a goddamn brilliant artist, too. He was incredibly well-achieved for his young age and could paint motives that resembled an almost Kandinsky-like stroke; That was why his word was golden. "Maybe your problem is that you have no problems right now."
"What?" Mia frowned.
Valenches picked up her paintbrush and twirled it in his skillful fingers. "Just like a singer can't write lyrics without heartfelt experiences, an artist can't create his or her work if they haven't experienced something to inspire them." He gave her a small frown. "You've lost your inspiration, Mia. You have to go find it again, and I'm not letting you into this class until you found something that's going to blow me and the rest of the class off our feet."
"What?! No! But—"
"No buts, Mia," He said sympathetically. "I'm sorry. It's either this or fail your class, and, from the looks of this, the rest of your exams," He glanced at the painting Mia had been making. "If you don't find something that touches your heart that you can put on a blank canvas, you're going to flunk. Take a walk, Mia. Get some air."
He patted her on her shoulder and then walked away with her paintbrush. Gaping hopelessly after him, Mia felt tears press in the corner of her eyes. This couldn't be happening...
Silently, after a moment of letting the shock sink in, Mia quietly stood up and walked out of class, feeling the rest of the class staring after her with their itching stares.
How could you get criticized for being fine? How could not having a problem be a problem? What had the world come to?
Mia hopelessly walked down the halls and continued out the back doors to the outside space behind a dumpster, a place she knew she could be alone to think. And cry.
But as she opened the emergency exit and walked out, she froze up solidly when she found her secret spot was taken.
Glaring bored at her, Eli stood leaned up against the giant metal dumpster, looking as comfortable as one could be. He cocked a brow at her when she just kept staring with an open mouth, doing nothing.
Finally, she managed to compile her vocabulary skills again. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Eli rolled his eyes and then raised a cigarette to his lips she didn't realize he had been holding. "I'm getting some fresh air."
She watched with a small grimace as he sucked on the cigarette and inhaled the smoke, before calmly blowing it out through his nose. Disgusting. She hated smokers. "And you have to do that out here?"
"Well, you guys are pretty stuck-up when it comes to smoking indoors..."
"Actually it's a law, but you don't seem to care about those, do you?" Mia retorted, suddenly feeling the anger she had been suppressing for many days boil up. Maybe this was exactly what she needed; To yell at the guy who had ruined her hallway and then go back to class and put that anger on her canvas.
"Here we go, don't we?" He flatly replied, his voice as bored as they came. He inhaled another puff on his blunt, then exhaled as he spoke; "You're gonna yell at me and give me the layman's definition of what I am now, aren't you? Well, get it over with baby, give me your fucking best."
Did he just call her baby? Mia thought, angrily.
"Do you have any idea of what you destroyed?" She then said through gnashed teeth. He glared flatly back at her. "Precious artifacts by some of the greatest artists in the world, all ruined because of one childish, immature, irresponsible, dickhead—"
"—Jesus Christ, princess, calm your fucking tits," He interrupted, throwing his now finished cigarette bud on the ground. He blew out the last smoke through his mouth and then glared at her. "It's not like I destroyed the Mona Lisa."
"You might as well have!" Mia yelled at him. God, it felt good to get her frustrations out. "The stuff in those exhibitions were—where do you think you're going?!"
"I'm going on a grand search for a fuck to give," Eli sarcastically informed her over his shoulder. "Wish me luck."
"God, you're a jerk," Mia seethed. "You don't even feel remorse, do you? This is all one big joke to you. Well there are people inside that building who are fighting to make it in life—"
"Oh, shut your big fucking mouth," He suddenly snarled and whipped around. He stalked up to Mia in three strides and made Mia hurriedly back up against the dumpster when his threatening figure thundered towards her. She flinched as he stopped up right in front of her and then hulked over her, leaning down until their faces were inches apart.
Mia thought he was going to hit her. She really thought he would. He had the strength to do and clearly didn't give a fuck about who he pissed off in the process. As she felt the warm sensation of his cigarette breath fan across her face, she cringed in fear and looked up at him. Her heart flew into her throat as their eyes met.
They were thundering.
"You honestly think the people in there know jackshit about real struggles?" He then lowly whispered in a provocative voice, his eyes drilling into hers. His piercings glinted. "They grew up drinking fucking Dom Perignon from their baby bottles and had wads of money as rattle toys. The students in there, like you, are acting up and creating drama over expensive shit that was collecting dust on a shelf. It got smashed. You think that's a problem? Try living on the streets for a month, then come back and lecture me about the fucking struggles in life."
Mia couldn't breathe as he pushed away from her and then stalked towards the exit door, ripping it open and slamming it shut after him. She stood completely frozen in her spot, trembling and hardly functioning while her brain tried to reboot.
Finally she sucked in a shaky breath and then slowly blew it out.
That was not how she had expected her de-frustration session to go. At all.
Where the hell did all of that come from? Mia had pegged Eli to be the silent, brooding type, yet here she was, paralyzed after his harsh speech.
She didn't really know what to make of his words. Obviously rich people had problems too. Just because they weren't the same as the ones people on the street had, didn't mean they didn't have real problems. Attending an expensive school didn't mean they automatically had life all figured out; Money couldn't fix everything.
Screw him, Mia thought and then snapped out of her shock. His words were shit – just idiotic words from an idiotic guy with tattoos up and down his neck and skull. How much sense did someone really have if they did that to themselves?
Zero to none, Mia decided, and then calmly walked back inside the building again, shaking off what had just happened.
~~~
"I am exhausted!" Zoe complained, yawning tiredly as she exited a different Advanced Math auditorium instead of the usual one, since the regular one had been locked off from the public. It had practically become a sacred shrine to the mysterious genius. "We had to take tests all day long so that Mr Bleacher could get our handwriting down clearly. We had to do everything with ink pens so we couldn't cheat our way into making our letters resemble the ones on the blackboard. It was exhausting," She groaned. "This day started out so great, now I'm sorta hating whoever solved it. All that trouble for just one person who doesn't even have the guts to come forward? Come on!"
"Hey, don't think about it anymore. I'm making mac and cheese for dinner," Mia told and grinned. "You guys want to come over for an early girls night? I know it's only Tuesday—"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Anna cheered. "I love your mac and cheese, you make it so..."
"Cheesy?"
"Yes, that's exactly it!"
Rolling her eyes, Mia looked at Zoe who was practically sleepwalking. "What about you, you up for some girly time?"
"Sure, I could use some mac and cheese therapy," She tiredly mumbled. "As long as I don't have to help with anything. I might fall asleep in the car."
"You poor thing," Anna chuckled, throwing her arm around her. "Don't worry. Mia will drive while I pick the music. I'll keep the jam sweet for your liking," She winked, knowing that Zoe only really listened to rock bands.
"Fine, whatever," She yawned as they all walked into the parking area. The air was chilly, but not cold. "I need my scarf, hold on a sec."
She started rummaging through her backpack, pausing, then suddenly frantically going at it.
"We'll be in the car in a moment," Mia said, impatiently. "Can't you make it across the parking lot without your scarf?"
Zoe looked panicked into her bag. "I forgot my math book back in the auditorium! Crap, it had all my notes!"
"Hey, don't worry, I'll just run in and get it for you," Mia replied and smiled. "Here, take the keys, you two start the car and get the heat going. I'll be back in a moment."
"Oh my God, thank you, you're the best friend ever!" Zoe called after Mia as she ran back inside the school. They hadn't closed up yet, it was only just past five. She ran down the hallway until she reached the second auditorium.
Only, just as she was about to step inside, she caught a movement inside the room and quickly stopped up. She frowned and warily looked through the little, square window when she noticed the lights were dimly on, too. Peering in, her eyes quickly widened when she saw Eli in there, holding Zoe's book in his hand. He was leafing through it, and to her complete horrification, was writing in it.
Mia immediately pushed through the door and stepped inside. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Eli slammed the book shut and looked like he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar – which he had. Once he saw who was speaking, his eyes immediately darkened. "Nothing."
"That book doesn't belong to you," Mia snapped, taking a few steps towards him.
"No shit. Some idiot left their book in here and I was just trying to figure out who the fuck it belonged to."
"Sure you were," Mia snorted, crossing her arms. "And I guess writing stuff inside it was just to help some lucky-ducky with their homework, right?"
"Who said I was writing?"
"So more vandalism? The hall wasn't enough for you?"
"You can never get enough of trouble, princess."
Mia gritted her teeth, angrily. "Will you stop calling me that?"
"Why? Does it make you cream your panties?"
She stared in utter shock at him. He just said it so smoothly, it sounded like he was asking her about her favorite pizza topping.
"Sorry, shitheads don't grind my gear," She tossed back, flatly. "And definitely not idiots like you. What were you even doing trying to read a mathematicians book? Wanted to get a glimpse of what you'll never have the brain to understand?"
She saw his eyes flash with something and then a muscle ticked in his jaw. For a moment, he just stood there while Mia smirked cockily at him, knowing she had him this time. And true enough, after a moment, he blew out a harsh breath and then looked hard at her. "Fine. You want the shitty book? Take it."
He flung the book at her and it almost hit Mia square in the face if she hadn't quickly ducked down and shielded herself. Zoe's paper notes spread everywhere, scattered all around her.
"Are you fucking stupid?!" Mia screeched as the papers flew around and settled on the floor. "You're crazy, you asshole!"
"Don't you fucking forget it." Eli walked straight past her, stepping over all the papers, and then headed out the door, slamming it open. It shut automatically behind him and left Mia alone and stunned in the auditorium. She then furiously started picking up all the scattered papers, stuffing them back into Zoe's book.
– Sooner or later, she really was going to murder that fucking psycho.
• • •
I'm wasted right now. Don't drink and write.