The Redamancy of Shade and Art (BOOK 2)

Chapter 6

For the first time in a long time, Shade had competition. And it was a competition that was neck-in-neck for a solid fucking month.

God fucking damn it—

He was in a race with Tobi in every recitation, every class. It was good he read a quarter's worth ahead, but it looked like Tobi read two quarters ahead. Putang ina, Shade had to read an extra hour of academics when he got home, whether exhausted from training or not. He read and made notes and grit his teeth through every test, nodded at every perfect score, and crossed his fingers for every output he submitted. (That was the one advantage he had over Tobi. Shade didn't procrastinate.)

But...

Shade received his Science test back.

His heart broke when he saw Ms. Corazon's straight-lined handwriting.

Five mistakes.

Ms. Corazon gave Shade a pitiful smile. Shade tracked her movements to see her positively beam at Tobi.

"Marinova was the only student who scored perfect," she announced. "Congratulations, Marinova."

Tobi preened underneath all the praise.

Art clapped along and said, "Good job, love!"

To which Tobi nodded in Art's direction and blew them a kiss.

Shade glared at Tobi. Art's affection for Tobi pissed him off even more, and Shade dimly thought he deserved that attention more than Tobi did by a fucking long shot. By tenfolds. By multitudes.

Before Shade could get called out for it—because Art was already turning to scowl at him—he turned back to glare at his paper.

Five mistakes.

In the essay portion?

Shade looked to the back of his paper.

He was given a minus point for using the em dash in all his essays.

"It is improper. Please use the semicolon, comma, or period next time."

Putang ina.

Shade shoved the test in his bag, ripping it apart.

"Flo," Angelo said softly. He was peering at Shade past Art, who was still dutifully ignoring Shade like the hard-headed asshole they were.

"Uy. Flo. Are you okay?"

Shade ignored him.

~

It was grueling, to say the least.

Every day, Shade made notes. Every day, he was getting exhausted of exerting maximum effort and getting mistakes in return. He just—he couldn't do well in Science. And he couldn't do as well as Tobi in Math.

I don't make mistakes, Flo, seemed to be the correct way to put Tobi's rigid scores. His meticulousness. His quick pace when he answered Math and Science like he lived and breathed in the knowledge.

Shade could barely keep up.

His test scores came back good.

But Shade's best wasn't on par with Tobi's.

He was stressed as hell as the first quarter exams rolled in. He worked well under pressure (usually), but the presence of an actual and close threat to his top spot made him... antsy. And it made him want to throw up on most days.

It didn't help when Dad called him to ask about his grades. And when Shade mentioned his test with five mistakes, he was yelled at for ten minutes.