Competition is Key
Truth was, Sophia was a brainiac. She’d never brag about it, but she was currently sitting at the very top of the class, probably going to be Valedictorian if she played her cards right. She always scored advanced in math and sciences, and while English and history weren’t her favorite, she tried so she could keep up her GPA.
Having to drag Billy’s ass through her weakest subject-history- didn’t make that any easier. But she did it. They got an A on their project (an A-, but still, there was an A in there) and she breathed a sigh of relief when the teacher made them go back to their original seats.
She thought she was done with Russo, free of his constant flirting and teasing.
She thought wrong.
From then on, she couldn’t escape his attention. In the lunchroom, he and his goons started inching their way closer to her table, until they sat so close they could whisper-shout his catcalls at her.
“Brainiac, come here, we need your help with a bet.” Billy called to her.
“Ignore him,” Ellie stabbed her meatloaf-maybe it was meatloaf? No one knew what the cafeteria put out each day, Sophia just knew she either ate it or starved-while keeping her eyes down at the table.
Ellie was Sophia’s one rock in life. They waitressed at the same diner, lived in the same neighborhood, and had the same dream: to get out. They depended on each other for pretty much everything, Ellie especially on Sophia. While Sophia was lucky enough to have both her parents at home, Ellie only had her mom, so Sophia’s family looked after her when they needed to.
“Let’s pretend these mashed potatoes are his brain.” Sophia used her fork to aggressively dig through the scoop of mashed potatoes on her tray.
“That’s assuming he has one,” Ellie snickered.
“Brainiac,” Billy called again. This time, Sophia looked up, with very sharp, very deadly metaphorical daggers in her eyes. “There she is! Hey, brainiac, tell me, how many guys’ve you screwed?” Billy’s goons smirked behind their hands.
Sophia’s face grew red, whether from anger or embarrassment she didn’t know.
“Billy, shouldn’t you be getting checked for the clap? Heard Angelica gave it to you. Or was that Marcie?“ Ellie was always the one with a comeback. Sophia sent her a grateful glance.
“Stay out of this, doll face, we’re talking to brainiac.” Billy slid his way down the bench until he was right next to Sophia. “See, Zeke over there thinks you’re some sort of secret freak in the sheets kinda gal. Me, on the other hand, I know how to spot a virgin a mile away.” He reached out to stroke her arm, but she caught his hand.
“Touch me, and you’ll have to use your left hand to jerk off for the next month.” She spat through her teeth.
“Darling, you’re assuming I couldn’t get someone to do that for me.” Billy leaned in. “Maybe I’d let you have the honor.”
Sophia laughed in his face. “Russo, I wouldn’t touch you if my life depended on it.”
A grin snuck its way across his face. “Says the girl still holding my hand.”
Sophia hadn’t realized she’d held onto him the whole time. She released his hand with a grunt of disgust. “Bye, Billy.” With a nod at Ellie, they picked up their trays and tossed their food, both girls having lost their appetite.
The next day, all the seniors were gathered into the auditorium for mandatory testing. Military aptitude testing, or the ASVAB, was required of all students. Even if you were absent when they gave the test, they’d make you take it whenever you got back to school.
“Wonderful how the military industrial complex preys on kids to go die in their wars, right?” Ellie sneered as the teachers passed out the packets.
“Gotta protect that oil,” Sophia laughed, but it was hollow. Affording college had always been a long shot for her, her parents not being below the poverty line, student loans being a massive scam, and her-recently checked-savings meager. At least, if she wanted to go anywhere with a decent engineering program. Even though her grades were good, her extracurricular activities were lacking, a.k.a they didn’t exist. And universities and state tests required application fees, and scholarships required essays and high test scores, something she had neither the time nor the money to do. She’d known for years now the military might be her only chance to get what she wanted, as much as she hated the idea. She’d even been drilling at home, getting herself ready for a day when she might possibly go to basic training, trying to prepare her body for whatever might come in the future as much as her mind.
The test was easy, most of it seeming like common sense to Sophia. She finished long before everyone else, giving her time to people watch, a favorite activity of hers (it was free entertainment, alright?) Since her name was at the end of the alphabet, she was stuck in the back of the room, giving her a great viewpoint to watch the students around her. She could tell who was taking the test seriously and who was blowing it off just by body language. Hunched shoulders versus slouchers, pencils gripped tightly or lightly tapping on the cheap plastic desktops attached to the auditorium seats. One body caught her eye, with hands behind their head, laid back in their seat. They had to finish right after me, she observed, her eyes continuing to scan the crowd.
She did a double take back to the relaxed figure. No way. Billy Russo already done? Did he even know how to read?
Like he could hear her thoughts, he turned and gave her his biggest shit eating smile. She fumed, suddenly finding her cuticles extremely interesting.
Once they were dismissed from testing, Sophia tried to exit without running into Billy, but of course had no such luck.
“Brainiac, what took you so long in there? Thought you’d never finish that test.” Billy teased.
He’d found it, Sophia’s one button not to push. “Excuse me?” She turned on her heel, staring up at him. He was much taller than her, which didn’t help her when she was trying to be intimidating. “I was the first one done!”
“You wish, Einstein, I finished about two minutes before you, just took my time writing my name real nice at the top.” Billy took another step towards her, closing the already short distance between their chests. “What? Surprised someone like me could be all smart like you?”
“Please,” she huffed, “it doesn’t take brains to fill in B for every answer.”
She turned to walk away, but he caught her arm. His grip wasn’t harsh, not domineering like she thought it’d be. No, his long fingers wrapped lightly around her arm, just holding her in place.
“Keep underestimating me, beautiful, and I’ll surprise you one of these days.” There was stone in his gaze, a solid layer of determination and will.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” With that final remark, Sophia turned out of his grip and walked away.
It was a week later when results came in. Normally Sophia would have been confident she came in at the top of the class, no need to go peeking at other peoples results. But this time, there was one person she needed to make sure didn’t out-score her.
Fate gave her the perfect opportunity to confront him when the top scoring students were called in for a special meeting with an army representative. She stepped into the gym with about 15 other students, two of them girls, and one Billy Russo looking smug as ever.
The representative wanted to test their physical capabilities, just some standard push-ups, sit ups, and a pull up hold. Sophia thanked the universe for her foresight to start working out months ago. At least now she wouldn’t be totally embarrassed. They were all given a few minutes to change into their gym clothes, which gave Sophia a perfect time to see what Billy made on the test.
She changed quickly, sneaking out into the hallway where they were all instructed to leave their backpacks. Billy’s was all black, a few rips along some of the seams. It was barely even snooping when she could see half the shit in his backpack from 5 feet away. She pulled the results paper from the bag, examining each category.
Arithmetic Reasoning- 98th percentile
Mathematics Knowledge- 97th percentile
Paragraph Comprehension- 99th percentile
Word Knowledge- 99th percentile
She was stunned to say the least. Billy hadn’t been bullshitting. He really tried on the test, AND finished it before her. To say she was fuming was a serious understatement.
She returned his papers to his backpack, and snuck back into the gym just as some other students were exiting the locker rooms. Everyone was wearing the school issued gym attire- white t-shirt with the school mascot, black shorts, white ankle socks and athletic shoes. Sophia’s own shorts had grown a little small for her, since she’d grown a couple more inches in the last year. Where the other two girls' shorts came to below fingertip length, Sophia’s didn’t even reach mid thigh. Billy of course took a gleeful notice of her exposed, and surprisingly toned, legs.
“Look at you, Einstein, didn’t know you had all that hidden under those baggy clothes.” He whispered under his breath.
“Shut up, or I’ll tell everyone big-bad-Billy Russo scored in the top percentiles on that little test we all took.” Maria flashed him a tight grin.
His smile was wiped off his face. “How’d you know?”
“I have my ways.” Sophia batted her eyes at him. “And just so you know, I was 99th percentile for every category, so I still out-scored you. Guess you could say you finished quick and left me unimpressed.” With that lovely remark, she left him gaping behind her, as all the students were paired up to start with push ups.
Sophia was paired with a boy named Mark, while Billy was paired with one of the other girls, Layla. Their mats just happened to be right beside each other. Layla and Mark each did their push ups first while Billy and Sophia kept count. Layla fell out at 25, while Mark kept going to 43. The army rep kept calling out “Down! Up!” until the last student was too tired to continue. “Switch!” He instructed.
Sophia and Billy took their positions. “Down!”
Both their arms bent until their chests were to the floor. “Up!”
10 push-ups. Billy turned his head as they went down for 11, “This is one area I won’t leave you unimpressed, brainiac.”
Sophia pushed herself back up. “Keep talking yourself up, Russo, seems like you need it.”
20 push ups. “Getting tired, beautiful?”
“Not a chance, pretty boy.”
“Oh, so you think I’m pretty?”
30.
40.
50.
“Gorgeous, you gotta be close to giving up now.” Billy huffed. Even he was feeling a little tired after 50 in a row, especially at this guy's pace.
“Feel free to call it anytime, Russo.”
60.
70.
Sophia’s arms started to shake, but hell if she’d let Billy have this one on her.
80.
85.
90.
Billy’s arms were screaming. They were the last two still going, had been since about 57, and now all eyes were on them. No way he was letting a girl-a nerd and a girl at that- beat him at this.
“Up! That’s 100, we’re calling it here. We gotta move on to the next round.” The army rep stared down at the two possible recruits, both more than a little sweaty at this point.
Billy stared at Sophia, indignant at what just happened. “How the hell are you that strong?” He wiped some of the sweat from his brow with the bottom of his shirt, giving Layla and Sophia a quick view of his toned stomach. Sophia quickly turned away, where Layla took a second to admire Billy unabashedly.
“Keep underestimating me, Russo, and I’ll keep surprising you.” Sophia nearly sang the words, she was so giddy to use them against him.
Sit ups were nearly the same. They called it at 60 this time, neither Sophia nor Billy giving in to the other and everyone else ready to move on.
The pull up bar was the real challenge. In their little apartment, Sophia could do sit ups and push ups all day, but they didn’t have a pull up bar. She gulped, her arms already feeling like spaghetti noodles from earlier. Billy wouldn’t show it, but he was more than a little nervous, too. He couldn’t let word get out that a chick beat him in here, and the other guys were already giving him suspicious looks, like they were starting to doubt if Billy Russo was even all that tough.
There was only one bar, so one person could go at a time. It was a test to see how long you could hold yourself up, automatically stopped at 1 minute- more than an excellent time for teenagers.
One by one students stepped up to the bar. Some could barely get their chins above the bar, falling out in less than 10 seconds. Several of the more athletic boys held for 20-30 seconds, a good amount of time. Then Sophia was up.
She gripped the bar, took a deep breath, and, summoning every ounce of spite in her body, lifted herself above the bar.
Time seemed to creep by, every second dragging.
“10 seconds.”
Her arms burned, screaming in protest, but she refused to let Russo win this one.
“20 seconds.”
Some of the boys were cheering her on now, encouragement booming with their deep voices.
“30 seconds.”
She was officially the longest time now, if she could just… hold… on…
Her arms gave out at 39 seconds, her legs barely catching her before she hit the ground. A few whoops rang out from her newfound cheer squad. She bowed to them, sweat heading down her face.
“Russo, Billy, you’re up!” The rep called.
With ease, he lifted himself up to the bar. The timer clicked. The seconds dragged on.
10 seconds.
Billy felt a twitch in his right arm. His muscles were protesting everything he did, but he didn’t care. This was about saving face.
20 seconds.
He closed his eyes, focused on his breathing.
30 seconds.
His hands were slick. He should’ve wiped them before he got up here, but of course he didn’t. 8 seconds to beat her and he could feel his grip start to slide.
5. His pinkies were off the bar.
4. His ring fingers.
3. He couldn’t hold it.
2.
He fell to the mat with an unceremonious thud.
“38 seconds.” The army rep clicked his timer, jotting down the final time in his notes.
Sophia couldn’t believe it. She’d won. She actually beat him at what was supposed to be his game. A squeal of delight escaped her lips before she could even think about it.
Billy turned to her, fire in his eyes. He’d really underestimated this girl, thought she was just some dorky chick. He’d been proven a fool.
Billy hated looking like a fool.
Wiping his hands on his shorts, he made his way over to where she stood, surrounded by about 10 guys.
“Sophia!” He called.
Billy using her actual name certainly got her attention. She’d started to think he’d forgotten it completely.
She left her new entourage, meeting him in the middle of the court. He offered his hand to her, a peaceful gesture surely. She took it, only to find his grip vice-like and clammy.
He pulled her in until he towered over her, making her bend back just a little to meet his gaze. “That’s the last time you laugh at my expense. It’s game on now.” Sophia’s eyes widened, a little bit of fear worming its way into her brain. She’d seen charming Billy, but never this side of him. A tiny, stupid part of her noticed he almost grew more handsome the angrier he was.
With that, he turned on his heels, leaving her shaking her hand to gain feeling in her fingers again.