Three weeks. That's how long it took for the dramatic headline, 'Starling's wonder kid Rejects Rival's Bribe' to become old news, pushed off the front page by articles about the upcoming league and cup matches, about the now forth-coming baticadious. And trust me, the school paper was buzzing for the whole of those three week.
Life at Starling Strike had mostly returned to normal, thanks entirely to the fact that I had chosen the team publicly.
The guys were cool. Jensen gave me a hard time for about 4 hours, calling me "The Almost Traitor" and asking if Victory's blazers were softer than ours. But it was just noise. They understood that I chose the family, and that was the bottom line. Our loyalty was re-cemented, thicker than before. Coach was the only one who inflicted real pain, and he did it with a quiet, professional fury. He didn't yell about the disloyalty. He didn't question my pride. He targeted my commitment.
Coach fuckface: You wasted two days, Keima. Two days you could have been studying drills, or improving your conditioning, or getting rest. You allowed that secret to be a distraction, which means you put your own needs before the team's preparation. Your penalty is one week off. One full week, starting now. No practice. No drill. No gym time. No match. No nothing. Go prove to me you can manage your personal life without dragging the team into it. Be useful elsewhere.
It was a brilliant but annoying punishment. Of course it was humiliating to be benched after I proved my loyalty and after I grinded my ass to be perfect, but I knew he was right. I had to focus on getting my academic life back in order.
But none of the restored normal mattered, because the one thing that hadn't changed was the silence from Tephnine.
It had been twenty-two days since she hung up on me. Twenty-two days since I'd seen her face. She was avoiding me. If I showed up at the cafeteria, she was already gone. If I waited outside her class, she took the long route around the building with her friends. She made it a goal to avoid me, sometimes I tried using Jensen, but he'll just find a new excuse, for some reason, he never runs out of them.
I was standing outside the gym, on the final day of my giving 'time off', watching the rest of the team finish practice. I wasn't allowed inside, which just added to the frustration. Jensen walked out, wiping sweat from his brow.
Jensen: Hey. Last day of your bench sentence.
Me: yeah, can't wait to resume training.
Jensen: so I may have something of a good news.
Me: yeah?.
Jensen: yeah.
Me: okay let's hear it.
Jensen: I've seen how you've been going around looking for a way to apologise to Tephnine. I think I can help
Me: yeah?. How?.
He threw me a water bottle.
Jensen: I'm meeting up with her at the school garden
Keima: Does she know I now know?.
Jensen: I don't know?. Question should be, what would you do with this new information.
Me: I wanna talk to her
Jensen: I know you do. That's the whole reason I'm doing this. I'll be honest with you. She's in a terrible state right now. Mostly all your fault, so it's also up to you to bring her back to the cheerful person we know her as. Come to the garden exactly 5 minutes after me by then I'd have done my best to butter her up.
Me: okay
Jensen: don't mess this up
Me: I promise. I won't
EXACTLY 4 MINUTES LATER ***
I walked toward the school garden, my adrenaline was spiking, not from a clutch shot in a game, but from the terrifying prospect of talking to Tephnine. I was going to give Jensen the agreed-upon five minutes, but the dread of her silence had me running ahead of schedule.
When I stepped under the trellis, I found her exactly where Jensen said she'd be, but her appearance was far from composed. She was sitting rigidly, surrounded by a fortress of books. Her hair was pulled back carelessly, and she was aggressively chewing on the end of a wooden HB pencil. On the Beautifully carved wooden table in front of her was a sheet of paper covered in furious scribbles and a math problem that looked like something kayode would conjure from the depths of academic hell:
'Given the differential equation: Dy/DX= k.y.(1-y/l) ( logistic model), find the solution y(t) and determine the inspection point'.
Of course it had to be calculus.
Jensen was standing over her, looking uncomfortable. He saw me and quickly tapped her shoulder.
Jensen: Look, T, I've really got to go check on Coach. I'll see you at dinner.
Tephnine didn't look up, but her voice was sharp, laced with genuine exhaustion, yet casual when aimed at her brother.
Tephnine: Go, you big dweeb. Not like you've provided any reasonable help. I pity your future, dense brother of mine.
Jensen chuckled, shot me a quick, 'Don't mess this up,' look, and walked past, escaping the emotional minefield. I stepped forward.
Me: hey babe
She snapped her head up, her eyes blazing.
Tephnine: Keima. Please just get out of here.
Me: at least let me speak.
Tephnine: Seriously. I am not in the mood for your flimsy excuses or your cheap apologies.
She stabbed her pencil at the paper.
Tephnine: Can't you see I'm busy?. I've been on this for more than an hour!. I had to put my studies on hold for two weeks because I was stressed out worrying about you, about the whole Victory debacle, and now I have to play catch-up. I don't have time to hold your hand. So please just let me be for now.
She was hurting, and her frustration was genuine. I could sense the panic rising beneath her controlled anger.
Me: Sorry but I'm not leaving. You're the one who said you needed a partner you could trust, not a liability you protect. I'm here to prove I'm your partner. And I mean it. I'm done being the lazy guy who looks for the easy way out. I burnt that bridge, remember?. Now I'm taking the hard road.
Tephnine: Unfortunately, we both know that's a far-fetched dream with no hope of ever being realized.
Me: you think so?.
Tephnine: i know so
Me: how about I start with this problem of yours.
Tephnine: (scoffing) You?, Solve a differential equation?. Keima, you still think education as a whole is a waste of time.
Me: Hey, that was a one-time thing, and I've learned. Show me the problem. Tell me what you know about it.
She hesitated, her breathing quick and shallow, before finally sliding the sheet towards me. She was too desperate for a solution to stay mad for long.
Tephnine: It's a Logistic Model. It describes population growth with a limiting factor. I know I have to use Separation of Variables to solve it, but the partial fraction decomposition is killing me. I can't figure out the constants, A and B, for the life of me.
I leaned over the paper, ignoring the complex symbols. I didn't need to know the textbook theory. I needed to find the path of least resistance, the easiest way to the answer. Now you lot might be wondering why I always find the easy way, it's something my father taught me. Father of the year I tell you. But then again, fuck kayode. What kind of evil question was he giving my damsel in distress.
Me: Okay, forget A and B. Don't look at the math. Let's look at the logic.
I took the pencil from her and pointed to the term (1 - y/L).
Me: You said it describes growth with a limiting factor, L. Right?. That means the growth stops when y hits L. So, where did you start?.
Tephnine: (pointing to her rough book) here
Me: oh that explains why you've been going crazy. You should have isolated DT on one side and everything with y on the other side.
I quickly wrote the separated form, then started the partial fraction setup: L/y(L-y)Dy = k DT
Me: Look, the right side is easy, kt + C. The left side is your headache. You want the integral of L/y(L-y). Instead of dealing with A and B, let's simplify the numerator. See this L?. We can rewrite the numerator as L - y + y. That doesn't change the value, right?, It's just L.
I rewrote the fraction, splitting it into two simpler, more manageable fractions: l-y+y/y(l-y)= l-y/ y(l-y) + y/y(l-y)
Me: Now, look at those two new fractions. They cancel. The first one becomes 1/y. The second one becomes 1/L-y. See?, No A or B constants, no messy decomposition. Just two simple logarithmic integrals.
Tephnine's eyes widened, her pencil dropping onto the table.
Tephnine: You... you just used a substitution trick. That is so much cleaner than the textbook decomposition. I spent an hour trying to solve a system of simultaneous equations for A and B.
Me: All thanks to my way, the keima way. Just find the easiest and less stressful way to your goal. That's what I do best. I find the simple line in the middle of chaos.
I quickly finished the integration and solved for the inflection point where d^2y/dt^2=0, which I knew from memory for the logistic model should be y=L/2. She watched, entirely focused, as the answer appeared on the page.
I dropped the pencil and looked at her, no longer seeing a math problem, but seeing the deep-seated worry in her eyes.
Me: I can find the easy way out of anything, T. But I realized when I was standing in front of Mr Okoro that the easy way wasn't worth the price. I can replace an MVP award, but I can't replace the family I have here. And I certainly can't replace the woman who sees right through my weakness and demands I be better.
I reached out and gently brushed the hair away from her face.
Me: I lied to you because I was afraid you'd see the parasite and leave. I chose the team in public, but I'm choosing you in private cause you're everything I need in life. I am never going to lie to you again. I swear it. You are my motive, my end goal, and my happiness. I grow because of you, not despite you. I was scared that if you saw me, the Wonder Kid, actually struggling with school, actually being tempted by a scholarship that said I could stop pretending, you would realize I wasn't good enough for the high standards you are.
Tephnine shook her head slowly, her eyes searching mine.
Tephnine: babe what are you talking about?, when it comes to you I have no standards. Yes I want you to be your best self but I don't want you to hide things from me in the process. You belong to me, but that also means that I belong to you too. I share everything with you, I just expected you to do the same.
Me: I know. I know that Teph, and I'm sorry. I was wrong. Mr Okoro offered me a shield from stress, but you offer me motive and challenge. You make me want to face the hard things instead of running from them. I'd never walk away from what we have
Tephnine's voice dropped, becoming a low whisper filled with emotion.
Tephnine: And you think I could ever walk away from that?, From you?. Even when you're being the biggest idiot?.
Me: (cracking a lil smile) I thought my secret was protecting you from the trouble, making me look strong. Instead, it just hurt you. I am never going to lie to you again. I swear it. I swear.
She leaned in slightly, a fierce, beautiful look in her eyes.
Tephnine: Good. Because I demand honesty, babe. Not perfection.
Her expression softened, the exhaustion replaced by a warmth that felt like victory. Her eyes dropped to my lips.
Tephnine: You stupid idiot. I'm just realising you used a math trick to make me love you again.
She didn't wait for a response. She reached up, pulling me down to her for a kiss that wasn't sudden or possessive, but soft, relieved, and felt entirely earned.
When she finally pulled back, she fixed her gaze on the books on the table.
Tephnine: Alright, Wonder Kid. You get a pass on this, but don't think you're done. Now that you've found the 'simple line in the middle of chaos,' you're going to teach me Separation of Variables the long way, too. You owe me that much.
Me: you're joking right?.
Tephnine: we both know I'm not
Me: babe, my brain haven't rebooted yet, do you know how much effort this took.
HOURS ON***
The library was quiet enough to hear the neon lights hum. It was 9:00 PM. I was here to pay a debt to the study group I had thrown to the side
I met the three of them at a large oak table. Chiamanda sat at the head of the table. She was the one with the real brainpower, quiet and focused. Beside her was Cynthia, constantly glancing at me with a soft, concerned look.
And then there was Barry Cooper. Barry sat facing me. He was the sole prosecutor, ready to leverage his intellect against my ego.
I slid into the remaining chair, dropping my already worn out jotter with a decisive thud.
Chiamanda cleared her throat, her voice calm and authoritative.
Chiamanda: Let's be efficient. We have a month until the baticadious, and we need to move quickly through the geometry foundational blocks. Barry, since this is your favorite topic, why don't you start?.
Barry smirked, instantly seizing control.
Barry cooper: Got it.
He stood and drew a complex polygon on the portable whiteboard.
Barry cooper: We're starting with trigonometry and geometric ratio. Consider a polygon with N sides. What is the formula for the sum of the interior angles, Keima?, I'm sure even a basketball player must have counted to N before.
Me: The sum of the angles?. It's (N-2) times 180 degrees. Basic geometry, Barry. You might want to try harder.
I mean if we're being honest this is basic, and I'm not dumb, not to brag. I'm a genius, just lazy to further it.
Barry cooper: (looking dissatisfied) Correct. Now, for the real test. Reflection. If we reflect a triangle across the line y = x, what are the new coordinates of a vertex P(a, b)?.
What the fuck?. Is this still under vector. Of course I hesitated, the answer shooting blanks in my memory.
Cynthia, seeing my blank stare and Barry's eagerness to disgrace me, immediately spoke up, her voice softening slightly when she looked at me.
Cynthia: The coordinates swap, Keima. P(a, b) becomes P'(b, a). It's an easy concept to forget if you haven't seen it recently.
Thank you so much my angel, my enemies wished to drag me down.
Barry immediately shot Cynthia a look of intense annoyance.
Barry cooper: Thank you, Cynthia, but the point is for him to understand. We need him to be able to explain the logic, not just memorize things.
Me: (I leaned forward, mocking his rigidity.) Barry, she did exactly that. It only worked for her because, unlike your methods, the right answer sometimes just presents itself with a kind smile. Maybe show more of those dying brownish teeth and who knows, I might pick up a thing or two.
Barry cooper: You're a dumb fool Keima, You actively resist learning anything deeper than the surface level!.
Chiamanda, who had been silent, gently slid the whiteboard away from Barry. Her expression was concerned, but she spoke directly to me, not Barry.
Chiamanda: Keima, he is making valid points about your fundamental gaps, even if he delivers them poorly. We love having you on the team, but we need you to focus. We are doing this to help you pass, not fight.
For some reason Barry got all furious that both girls were speaking calmly to me and he just didn't take any of that.
Barry cooper: The problem is his ego. He relies so much on that little fame of his.
Chiamanda slammed her notebook shut. Her eyes fixed on Barry.
Chiamanda: Barry, you are crossing a line. Keima has done more for this school than anyone. We should be trying to help him work on his minuses.
Oh my Sheila, there's literal tears in my eyes. She always have my back.
Barry cooper: do you hear yourselves?. Do any of you hear yourselves?. You're jeopardising the future of this group for what?, to please an egoistic piece of shit.
Me: I can take anything from you, Jimmy Neutron, but I won't have you speak harshly to the girls. Who the fuck do you eve---
I had barely finished speaking when the booming voice from the center of the room cut me short.
Librarian: I have asked this table to quiet down two times already!. This is a library, not an arena!, If I hear one more word, all four of you are out!.
Barry threw his hands up in theatrical exasperation. Chiamanda sighed, already packing her bag.
Chiamanda: We are done. This is counterproductive. She looked at me, her expression conveying a little disappointment.
Chiamanda: See what happens when we fight?. We will reconvene tomorrow. Bring your geometry notes. And bring some emotional control, both of you.
I grabbed my things, a small, twisted sense of victory in my stomach because I hadn't been fully exposed for the fraud I was. I know I promised Tephnine to work hard or whatever. But I can't be stressing my brain honestly.
As we walked toward the exit, Cynthia lingered, tapping my arm lightly.
Cynthia: Don't pay any heed to him, we both know you're smarter than this. So just wear you big boy pants tomorrow and act matured, okay?.
Me: No promises
TO BE CONTINUED****