Chapter 4: Fatal frenemies

She pressed her hand right under my chest, where I hid my biggest secret. I screamed in pain. For the time in forever, I begged. "Stop it! I beg of you! I'll never even think of hurting." She finally got up removing her hand. I sighed in relief. She held my chin tight and turned me harshly. "Listen, prince charming, I don't have time for kids joke. I don't play around the bushes unless I have to. You better stop underestimating women before it's too late. Think about your little secret. You mess up with me one more time, your secret won't be safe anymore. Clear?" her eyes dark.

"Crystal. Now please leave." I told breathing in and out to calm myself down. She left. Just like that. She messed up with me in the first place and hurt me and now she's leaving me like she did nothing.

Just then my eyes met with Tyler's. He came to me looking worried as ever. "Jack, you ok? Did it hurt much? Do you need to go to the hospital?" concern genuinely visible in his eyes. "No thanks, mom. I'm fine." I replied in sarcasm. "Stop playing around. I could tell by just looking at your eyes from far. I was just scared of that Mia girl. She's scary. How did she know about it by the way?" I spaced out for some minutes.

"She's a magician." I got up walking in the direction of our dorm. I heard Tyler's footsteps as he was running behind me to catch up. I entered our room and laid on the bed feeling exhausted as ever. I told Tyler to get me my lunch. I ate my lunch and left to do my daily duties.

After such a long day I was sitting on one of the benches out there. My eyes wandered around the whole field until it landed on a paper placed on the bench right next to mine. I stretched my arm to get it. Unfortunately, a wind came out of nowhere and threw it far away. I stood up and started chasing it like a kid. When I finally caught it I figured it was Mia's evaluation paper.

I sat down feeling really happy that I'm going to read whatever she wrote about me. I bet I'll get fired once she submits this to the headquarters. She hates me, so do I.

Mia's Monday note

Evaluation on "Captain" Jackson

· Although he is a good teacher, he is very rude to his students.

· Apparently, he teaches them well. It looks like he's taking advantage of being their teacher, however.

· A teacher is supposed to teach with examples, which he doesn't do.

· From my observation, he never showed them shooting himself. As a result, I have a doubt that he can shoot.

· He shouts at the students.

· He orders them to do other unrelated things when they fail to hit their target when he was supposed to give them extra lessons so they can improve.

Gosh. She's evil. She wrote good sentences with 'but's, 'however' and words like that. She just saw me today but she wrote it as she saw me for months. Why did she write my title with quotations? Does she have a doubt or something? What's her issue? Does she ha-

"Ah, you found the paper, captain." I heard a voice behind me, which made me jump in surprise as I didn't notice anyone coming in my way. I was just too focused on the paper to notice someone coming my way. "Oh, h-h-hey! Mia, you came? When d-did you come?" I stammered. "I came when I saw someone touching something they shouldn't. May I ask why you are stuttering, captain?" she emphasized on the last word.

"You may not ask, thank you. And what is your problem when it comes to my title, may I ask?" I answered. "In that case, you may not ask too and no I don't have a problem with your title. What made you say so?" I could feel the tension rising in the air. "If you don't then stop emphasizing when you say it and stop using quotations when you write it," I said and left throwing the paper right on her face.

"That was fake, however, what you did seconds ago will matter a lot." She blasted a bomb on me and walked away casually. I held my head, which was going to blow anytime soon. I messed up. Big time.

Jake came running to me, smiling widely. "What's up, Jake?" I asked. "We are going to have our final basketball match in the next town. Tomorrow." He instantly lightened up my mood. "I'm really glad. Tell everyone else. Also, tell them to prepare well." I demanded. He nodded and left.

Basketball is my life. I knew nothing about it until Colonel Kyle introduced me to it. It's the same thing with Tyler by the way. We are both obsessed. In other words, it's our weakness. I'm the captain of our team. This final match is very important to the whole battalion. We won four years in a row and everyone knows losing this year is not an option. Why? When we win five years in a row we get a prize. Big prize. We get advanced guns, tanks, and all the other cool types of weapons. The match is between battalion in a different part of the country.

I'm just very excited to play.

We were practicing for the match when I saw Mia standing. She was staring right at me in a scary way. I frowned and walked over to her. She quickly looked away. She's very different. In her own way, of course. You can't just tell what she's thinking by just looking at her face. She mastered hiding her expressions. "What's up, Mia?" I smirked. "Am I that handsome?"

"Tomorrow is going to tough for your team. For you especially. I mean it." She left without saying more. 'Weird' I thought. What she said was really bothering me though. I was trapped in between her words to even see the ball that was coming towards my face. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor bleeding heavily. When the ball hit my head, the back of my head slammed against the pole that was behind me.

Natalie was passing by. The moment she saw me she came towards the circle, which was created by my teammates. Jake was the one to hit me though it was my fault. We were playing and I just trailed off. He came to treat my wound. He just ripped his shirt and wrapped it around the fresh wound. Natalie took out a tissue from her backpack and started to wipe the blood that was dripping down my back. Jake then accidentally touched her hand when he was going to take tissue from her hand.

I was there sitting injured, while my dearest friend was blushing to stare at my enemy's dearest friend. "Wake up, idiot, your life isn't a movie. She's not your princess and you are not her prince charming. Take me to our dorm." I said bluntly.

Natalie helped me get upholding my arm when "prince charming" was still busy staring at her. She was blushing. For someone who didn't see the whole thing, it might look like she's sick by looking at how red her cheeks were. Without me realizing it, we already arrived at the dorm. Not my dorm. Their dorm. Natalie's and Mia's dorm.

She opened the door and let me in. I saw Mia lying down on her bed reading a book. I don't think she even noticed our presence. "Sit down. I'll get the ointments." She smiled sweetly. She went out and closed the door, not realizing the danger she is going to face when she comes back. Who knew she could have gotten two dead bodies.

Mia looked up and smiled. "Hey. Why are you here?"

"Hey. Thanks for the invitation." I replied in an attempt to annoy but it failed. "No problem. What happened to your head? Did you hit something?" she asked. I nodded. "How's your little secret down there anyway?" she asked casually. For her it's nothing but for me it's everything.

I stood glaring down at her. "Good night," I said turning back and walking fast to avoid her annoying words. "I'll keep it a secret as long as you behave. Don't play smart with me. I can have some mercy on you if you act like a good boy. Good night. Good luck for tomorrow." She had a smug smile plastered on her face.

"I'll keep that in mind. Aren't you coming to the match?" I asked coldly. "No." she simply replied and went to read her book.

I, myself, can't believe what I did after that.