Chapter 23 Wrong pairing

Chapter 23 Wrong pairing
Alex

I was in an unusually good mood. That was strange for me because normally, my mornings involved caffeine, exhaustion, and mentally preparing myself not to commit homicide before third period.

But lately? Things felt… lighter.

Not perfect. Definitely not perfect.

Mom still worked herself half to death trying to keep things together. Bills still existed and Barry still looked at me like I personally offended him by breathing.

But something inside me had loosened. Maybe deleting the video helped more than I expected. Maybe finally talking to Cecilia like a normal human being instead of a sworn enemy relieved some invisible pressure in my chest. Or maybe I was just sleep deprived and hallucinating emotional stability.

Either way, I walked into school that morning feeling almost relaxed. Which naturally meant that life decided to humble me immediately.

“Why are you smiling like that?” I looked up from my locker to find Luke staring at me suspiciously.

My smile faded immediately. “I’m not smiling.”

“You absolutely are.”

I frowned. “Mind your business.”

Luke narrowed his eyes. “Something’s definitely up.”

Before I could reply, someone bumped into my shoulder intentionally while walking past. A familiar floral scent followed immediately.
Cecilia.

“Move,” she muttered without slowing down.

I scoffed loudly. “Good morning to you too, menace.”

She glanced back briefly. Despite her annoyed expression, I noticed the tiny smile she was trying to hide.

Interesting.

I ignored the weird satisfaction her reaction caused and headed towards class. By the time I sat down, most students were already there.
Including Cecilia. She sat two rows ahead of me, lazily twirling a pen between her fingers while Amber whispered something dramatic beside her.

For a brief second, Cecilia looked back. Our eyes met and she immediately rolled her eyes. I smirked slightly.

We were normal again. Well, our own version of normal. Which mostly consisted of insults and psychological warfare.

Mr. Holloway entered the classroom a few seconds later carrying a stack of papers. The room went quiet immediately.

“Good morning, class.” A few tired greetings echoed back. Mr. Holloway adjusted his glasses before speaking again.

“Today, I’ll be assigning your final debate project for the semester.”

A collective groan filled the room instantly. He ignored it. “This project will be completed in pairs.”

That immediately got everyone’s attention. Students started glancing around excitedly. Amber literally grabbed Cecilia’s arm dramatically.

Across the room, someone yelled, “Can we pick our partners?”

Mr. Holloway smiled. “No.”

The class booed loudly. I leaned back in my chair with a sigh. This already sounded terrible. I didn't like group project. I was usually paired with a girl who was absolutely smitten with me, or a guy who fought me on every decision. Either way, it was always exhausting.

“Each pair will receive a debate topic,” Mr. Holloway continued. “One student will argue in support while the other argues against.”

He started reading names from a paper. The moment he said the words “intentional pairing,” my stomach dropped slightly. Because there was absolutely no way…

“Alex Gomez and Cecilia Evans.”

Of course. Of fucking course. Before Mr. Holloway even finished speaking, Cecilia and I looked at each other simultaneously. Her expression mirrored mine exactly.
Horror and disgust.

“Absolutely fucking not.” Cecilia announced immediately.

The class burst into laughter. Mr. Holloway frowned. “Language, Ms Evans.”

“Sorry sir.” Cecilia said in a sickeningly sweet voice. “Absolutely not.”

I agreed with her. We were already spending so much time together with the tutoring, this pairing means even more time together. I had a feeling it wouldn't exactly turn out like everyone expected.

But our teacher doesn't seem to care. He simply began passing papers down each row.

“Your topic,” he said, “is whether athletic achievements should be considered more important than academic achievements.”

The second Cecilia read the paper, her entire expression changed. Something flickered across her face too quickly for me to fully understand.

Then she straightened immediately. “I’m opposing.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I’m arguing that athletics are just as important as academics.” she clarified.

“No.”

She stared at me flatly. “Excuse me?”

“I will be opposing.” I said..

She scoffed. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“Yes I do.”

Cecilia glared at me harder. “Alex.”

“Cecilia.” I glared at her right back.

The student in front of us slowly slid farther away from both of us like she feared collateral damage.

Cecilia lowered her voice slightly. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“You don’t even care about sports that much anymore.”

I almost laughed. “Did you forget I used to play basketball?”

“That was before you became emotionally repressed.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“It makes perfect sense.” I leaned forward slightly. “You should argue in support.”

“No.” she said flatly.

“You’re being stubborn.”

“You’re being annoying.”

“That’s permanent, unfortunately.”

Cecilia folded her arms tightly. “I want to oppose.”

“And I want you to support. I’ve seen you debate since we were in middle school. You always choose topics that you feel emotionally attached to and you stop thinking about it logically. You're doing the same thing now.” I explained.

She narrowed her eyes to slits. “Why do you care so much?”

I opened my mouth automatically and then paused. Because honestly, why do I care? I didn’t know. At least not entirely. But I was certain it wasn't just for tutoring sake.

Either ways, I decided to stick with my original reason. Cecilia was emotionally attached to athletics.

Before cancer, Cecilia Evans had been everywhere. Football games, competitions, dance performances. People used to chant her name in the gym like she was some celebrity. Now she barely talked about any of it. And maybe forcing her to argue the harder side would push her. Challenge her, make her think beyond emotion.

I stared at her for another second before shrugging casually. “As you tutor, I know you’ll do better supporting.”

She looked genuinely offended. “Wow.”

“What?”

“You think I can’t defend athletics?”

“I think you’ll get emotional defending athletics.”

Her jaw tightened immediately. “I do not get emotional.”

I simply stared at her in a knowing way. She glared at mr then sighed dramatically and dropped back into her seat. “Fine.”

I blinked. “Fine?”

“I’ll support.”

That surprised me a little bit. I was certainly expecting her to fight me to the death before agreeing. “You’re agreeing?”

“No,” she muttered darkly. “I’m choosing peace.”

Yeah, that sounds right. I snorted a laugh.

Cecilia pointed at me threateningly with her pen. “If we fail this project, I will make your life a living nightmare.”

“More than you already do?” I raised an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes again and I chuckled.

The rest of class passed with occasional arguments over research sources and debate structure. At one point, Cecilia kicked my chair because I corrected one of her points.

When the bell finally rang, students immediately rushed out noisily. I packed my bag slowly while Cecilia shoved her notes aggressively into her backpack.

Then suddenly she paused. “You really think I’ll do better this way?”

The question caught me off guard. I shrugged lightly. “Yeah.”

Her expression softened slightly. Then immediately hardened again because apparently vulnerability physically harmed her.

“Well,” she muttered, “if this goes badly, I’m ruining your life.”

“Get in line.”

She snorted softly before heading toward the door. And I caught myself smiling again.

The entire drive home afterward, my brain kept circling back to the same question. Why did I care so much whether Cecilia struggled or not?

A few months ago, I would’ve happily let her fail out of spite. Now I was actively trying to push her toward her strengths. What the hell happened to me?

I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel thoughtfully while stopping at a red light. Maybe it was because I understood her better now. Or maybe because somewhere along the way, Cecilia stopped feeling like competition and started feeling…

My phone buzzed suddenly through the car speakers. Josh.

A small smile appeared on my face instantly as I answered through voice command.

“What’s up?” My little brother’s excited voice filled the car immediately.

“When are you coming home?”

The smile widened before I could stop it. “Soon.”

“You said that yesterday.”

“Wow,” I muttered.

“You promised we’d play Mario Kart today.” he whined.

Right. Today was my off day.

“I’ll be home early,” I promised.

“Really?” his voice immediately changed to excitement.

“Really.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m offended you think so little of me.”

“You ate my fries last week.”

“That’s…unrelated.”

He gasped dramatically. “You’re a criminal.”

I laughed quietly for the first time all day. “I’ll bring snacks home.”

“Then I forgive you.”

“Thought so.”

After ending the call, I leaned back slightly against the seat while waiting for the traffic light to change.

For a moment, things felt almost normal. Simple. Then my brain immediately betrayed me again by replaying Cecilia’s expression when she asked if I thought she’d do better. And annoyingly, I realized that I cared whether she believed me.

The light turned green and I began to drive again, wondering why despite all my efforts not to think about complicated feelings, Cecilia Evans kept coming to my mind.