Tochukwu was the smartest guy in his school. No, that wasn't bragging, it was a fact as obvious as the fact that the sun rose in the morning and set every night.
Did he enjoy being seen as such, again question that was too ridiculous to be asked. Why wouldn't he enjoy being seen as such when the perks for being that was title of Head Boy.
He had no threat to his throne of being both the Head Boy and being the smartest guy in his school, but he had one threat to the constantly contested throne of being the smartest student in school; Temitope.
She was the yin to his yang, the black to his white, the hell to his heaven, the constant thorn in his side, she was his ultimate competitor.
For years, during his primary school days, she had been the smartest student, not girl, student, while he bad, just been one of the other dumbheads that had been in class with her.
She had been his number one enemy from the moment they entered junior secondary school and due to his pride, he had gone and done everything within his power to be better than her in every way.
If she studied for three hours after school, he studied four hours. If she went through four textbooks to research a topic he went through five. If she slept by 9 pm doing extra home work, he slept by 10pm. If she woke by 6:00 am, he woke by 5 am
Not that he had any idea when she slept nor when she awoke because be wasn't a jobless stalker, and did they stay in the same in neighborhood. He just hypothesized those times from conversations with her minions; boys and girls who worshipped the ground she walked
"You're glaring a little too hard at your result. Did you miss one?" He heard the mocking voice, of his nemesis ask as he held the marked test paper their Maths teacher had shared to them.
"This is, Maths, my strongest suit. You the other hand should be worried about your result." He said with a smirk as he looked straight at her. "Or are you looking at your failure and looking for someone to cry with?"
"Failure, for missing one questions?" She asked with a chuckle. "That's not a failure, Tochukwu, that's an unmitigatable disaster that could end your academic run of full marks in eleven out of eleven subjects three years in a row."
"Since you're so obsessed with my result, how about we show each other our papers in 3. 2, 1." He said with a smirk and showed her his result while she showed him hers.
The gasp from the rest of the class, who most of them had gotten half marks from the impromptu Maths test the previous day, was all anyone needed in order to understand that the both of them got full marks as usual.
"Huh we got the same full marks, despite the fact, that I didn't study for this test the day before." She said with a smug smile
"Really? What if I told you I haven't studied this week at all?" He leaned into his chair with a bigger smug smile while folding his arms across his chest.
"I would tell you you lied out your teeth." She replied as she turned back around to face the board as another teacher walked in.
"Why, did you stalk me all through week?" He gloated as she gave him the middle finger.
The seating arrangement of all the student in the class never seemed to amaze him. The class was split right, down the middle with the left being Temitope's people, and the right, being his people while the both of them sat side by side each other. For being mutual haters of one another, that was the most surprising.
They hated each other. He hated her for pushing him too hard to near exhaustion, and yet they got the same result while she probably hated him because he had made an academic comeback.
"I have an announcement to make, one that would no doubt bring joy to this room. There is going to be a science competition held in Lagos and schools have been told to bring two students from SSS 3 to compete. The winners get a scholarship to any university of their choice, bypassing the JAMB exam. The scholarship will cover your tuition, feeding, accommodation and transport."
"Who are the representatives." Jumoke, one of Temitope's minion asked.
"Who else would they be? Surely you're not nominating yourself? Tunde, one of his fans asked as the class burst out laughing
"Our pair would be Temitope and Tochukwu and they will win this competition, and make themselves proud, make their parents proud and place this school on the map!" She yelled, enthusiastically, to glee of their classmates, but the mutual disgust on Tochukwu and Temitope's face.