SIX

"Woah, wait!" Zack's baritone voice echoed inside the room. He looked baffled as he turned to his silver watch. He ran from the field which made his breathing unstable as he spoke, "Wow, you're early, Zeekie!"

Zack made a sour face as sweat cooled on his thick brows down to his full lips. I could smell the scent of fields and grass when he positioned himself below the air conditioner. His wet look made him more manly than ever. I was busy staring at the veins that form in his arms when I heard him chuckle.

"Quit staring, Zeekie. I might fall."

Zack thick eyebrows met above his pointed nose, and a devilish smile formed his lips.

"Stop calling me Zeekie!" I rolled my eyes. "My name is Zee Katie Liu Zamora. Stop mixing Zee and Kie from Katie, Zacky!" I emphasized the last word.

"I'm Zack Jersey Mendoza Zendaya. Stop calling me Zacky!" He imitated my voice before laughing his ass out. He's my best friend since seventh grade, and sometimes I don't know why.

After cooling, he placed his bag in the seat beside me. "What makes you early today?"

"Why, can I not be early?"

"Why? Can I not be early?" he mimicked my voice. He loved to do that every day. I eyed him as he laughed.

"Are you going to start your training?" he asked.

"Yeah, though, I still need to go to the hospital for my check-up," I replied.

"Great then. I'm so excited to see you in your swimsuit again."

"Pervert!" I stuck my tongue out.

"What?" He widened his eyes. "I'm really happy you'd be back after a year and what happened," he said seriously. "Your brother would love to see you get that gold medal again."

The memories of the car accident started to flash in my mind again. My heart ached knowing I would live each day without my brother telling how proud he is of me. I would trade anything just to have him again.

"You can do it!" Zack cheered. "Wait, did you already find a house to rent?"

"Yeah, I'll be moving later to my Aunt's house," I said. "It's a five-minute walk to school."

"Nice. Is it free?"

"Yes, but I have to do chores and pay for the bills."

"That's good. You don't need to travel two to three hours."

I agreed.

I spent my entire childhood in this town, growing up with Gab and some of my classmates now. There's a lot of memories I couldn't let go of in this town, especially in the house where I grew up. But, we have to move on. Life moves on.

When my brother died, my parents decided to sell the house and move into another town to forget. They just can't bear the pain of still living in our old house filled with happy memories of my brother. It was a loss we never expected to happen, and the death we will forever mourn.

That's the reason why I had to travel for hours to reach our school. It was the consequence my parents gave me because I don't want to transfer to another school. I was surviving until my math teacher made me realize she will drop me from the subject the next time I miss it. Also, I'm back to the swimming team so I really have to stay for morning and evening practice.

"By the way, you owe me," Zack said after a while. He opened his backpack and handed me the paper with his name. "That's the 10th activity in math."

"Uh!" I scratched my head. "Right, I missed all nine activities. Help me with that, please?" I pouted. "Why do we even have to study math?" I whined.

"C'mon, math is fun if you try to love it," he replied. It's a lie. I have been finding the word fun in math since seventh grade but got no luck.

"Just copy the answer and not my name," he added.

"Are you sure this is right - ouch!" He knocked on my head. I was about to hit him back when he ran towards the door.

"You jerk!" I yelled.

"Baka!" he yelled back. It means idiot in Japanese. We both liked watching anime, so we used it as our expression.

"You know how awesome I am with numbers!" Zack shouted from behind the door.

"I know, idiot," I told myself. "You won't be our Math Wizard for nothing."

"Get the rest of the activity to Aae. He has all the copies." He waved mid-air before running outside to change into his uniform. He needs a shower.

Aae stared at me and it was awkward. Sometimes, he gave me creeps and I don't know why. I always sensed he wanted to say something to me, yet couldn't find the words. I wondered what's inside his mind as he stared. His eyes felt nostalgic.

"Hey!" I stopped when my classmates started to enter. They raised their eyebrows while checking their watch. It was a miracle to see me listening to math lectures.

"Finally, you're early!" Chad reacted. He's also a childhood friend of mine, same with Geralt who seconded the motion.

"By the way, we have recitation in Math!" Charish announced.

I cursed in my mind. "Uh. I hate it. I still have to take all the quizzes!" I reacted and continued copying Zack's answer.

"You're early?" Gab wondered as she entered the room five minutes before the bell. She dropped her bag to get her comb. Gab's long silky coal-black hair wasn't tousled, yet she has a habit of combing it to set her mood.

"We said that a while ago," Charish uttered and the rest of my classmates agreed.

"Whatever!" I frowned. I focused my attention on the activity sheets. Why is there so much solution for one question? Ugh!

"Is that Zack's activity sheet?" Gab sat beside me and started copying it. My classmates also started gathering in front of us to check if they had the same answer as Zack.

"Damn!" I heard Chad reacted upon looking at his activity sheets. "Zack is so damn amazing!"

"How was he able to solve the last number?" Charish added. "I need his brain."

"We all need his brain," Gab agreed. So did I.

I missed math lectures for a month, so it was my first time listening to lessons. I thought I was going to get bored like all the math classes I attended in my entire life.

I was wrong. Who would get bored if two Math Wizards - Zack and Aae, used the whole hour to compete for math problems? Of course, we were all happy because they took all the recitation problems and we just watched them. Bravo!

I know how genius Zack is when it comes to Math, so I was shocked to see someone who could actually compete with him. Honestly, nothing could beat him in numbers since seventh grade. It's not only inside our class, but in the entire high school department.

"Wow," I whispered to Gab in front of me. "Aae was also good in Math. Finally, someone can actually beat Zack."

"Yes, he is good," Gab nodded. "But no," She showed me her notebook which includes tallied scores of Zack and Aae from Day 1. "Zack's always one-point lead."

"Woah! That's my best friend! I'm proud of you!" I whispered to myself as I looked at Zack. He met my eyes and grinned.

"Amazed?" he asked as he sat beside me.

I told him I wasn't amazed, but my eyes couldn't lie.