RING! RING! Carl’s alarm clock screeched, interrupting Carl’s much valued sleep. Groaning, Carl managed to lift himself upright then bring his fist down on the snooze button before turning the obnoxious clock off. He sleepily shuffled down the hallway, absent-mindedly carrying his blanket with him and dropping on the floor on the way. He hurriedly brushes his teeth, washes his face, and takes a quick bath, then leaves the bathroom much more awake than he entered it.
After rushing to the kitchen and rapidly devouring a few toasted waffles, Carl ran out his house and onto the street, his backpack hanging loosely from one shoulder with most of its zippers open. He reached his school in the nick of time, all of his school supplies falling out as he stopped abruptly in front of his classroom.
Carl sat down on his usually creaky chair in his usually quiet and calm classroom. There was one thing unusual, however; there was someone sitting in the usually empty seat across the room.
Hmm.. Now that I think about it, I do remember hearing the teacher talking about a new student yesterday, thought Carl. He peered at the large name tag on the new arrival’s desk. So his name is Charles, he thought.
After one and a half hours of language arts, the class moved on to math. Carl, whose favorite subject was math, always made sure he finished first and far ahead of anyone else. In Carl’s class, there was no one who rivaled his skill in math. At least, not until now…
As soon as the teacher let them start, Carl immediately started writing down the answers to all the questions, taking only a few seconds for even the word problems. After finishing all 30 problems in a minute and a half, he looked at all his other classmates, who were still working hard. Except one, that is. The new person, named Charles was also finished with his work, seeming to do the same thing as Carl. Then he looked over to Carl’s side of the room, and they made eye contact. Seeing the smug look on his face, he immediately felt annoyance at first sight. At that moment, the recess bell rang, temporarily distracting Carl’s brain from thoughts of Charles.
“Is everyone back?” the teacher asked as the bell for class to start again rung.
“Yes,” a few of the students replied monotonously.
“Good,” the teacher said. “Then we can start with our lesson. As you may have noticed, this is our new student, Charles. Forgive me for not introducing you to our class earlier,” she said, grinning brightly. Charles made no effort to even look at the class, acting as if he was superior, which only made Carl feel even more annoyed at him.
“Oh!” the teacher said, glancing at the clock placed on the wall opposite to her. “I lost track of time. You can go to lunch now,” she told the class. All of the students rushed to the door at once and squeezed through each other to get out first. Carl went down to the usual spot where he ate lunch with his friends. There was no one in his class, unfortunately, that he was close with, so school was starting to get kind of boring for him. He was about to join his friends’ conversation when he spotted Charles out of the corner of his eye, sitting a few tables away and surrounded by several students. He decided to check out what was going on.
“Wow,” he heard one of his classmates say, in awe. “How can someone solve anything that hard so fast.” When he took a closer look he saw Charles solving some math problems. He immediately felt a spark of jealousy.
I could solve that too, and probably faster than him he thought. I should be the one getting attention, not him.
“That’s not really that hard,” Carl said casually. “I could probably do it faster.” He slowly
“Really? Then why don’t you try,” Charles asked him, not unkindly. Taking the chance, Carl took another one of the problems from the quadratic formula worksheet, finishing it with ease, faster than Charles.
“That’s impossible,” said Charles, his face reddening by the second. “You cheated.”
“Don’t get mad just because I’m smarter,” Carl taunted. “There will always be someone better than you.”
“I wasn’t even trying that time!” Carl shouted. “Fine, let’s have a math contest to see who really is better.” Neither of them noticed that the crowd surrounding them was slowly getting larger. Both Carl and Charles selected some problems from the algebra 1 textbook they had found from the older 6th and 7th grader’s classroom. They decided whoever could get more correct and faster would win.
Charles, who had a wristwatch, started a timer after Carl got his pencils out. “Start!” he said after pressing a few buttons.
Carl immediately started from problem number 1, not needing to check his answers because he trusted himself. He had to resist the urge to see where Charles was on his paper. He knew that trying to see how far you are compared to someone was like looking behind you in a race; it only made you slower. He scribbled down answers as fast as he could without showing his work.
“Done!” Carl cried, standing up.
“He got all his answers correct,” the person checking his paper said in wonder.
“Wha-?!” said Charles in disbelief.
“See,” Carl said.” You shouldn’t be so cheeky. You aren’t really that smart,”
“One contest doesn’t decide everything!” Charles said, in denial.
The fight became worse and worse until Charles tried to lunge at Carl; at that time, the crowd was so large, about a fourth of the school was there. The students in the crowd pulled them apart before the fight could get physical. The bell rung, and the crowd dissipated, leaving Carl and Charles alone. They didn’t talk to each other, and took separate routes to go to their classroom.
I can’t believe no one told the principal yet thought Carl. It must only be a matter of time. It was four days after the fight, and looking back at the event, Carl regretted his actions.
Then, right on cue, the loudspeaker announced, “Carl Green and Charles Donovan, please come to the office.” The entire class turned to look at both of them.
Well, I guess I deserve it Carl thought. My ego got in the way and made me say some pretty hurtful things.  They both walked together, not speaking to each other, towards the building everyone dreaded going into.
“I’m sorry, you know,” Carl said, stopping in front of the principal’s office.“I didn’t mean all those things. I wasn’t thinking at the time. It must have been a really bad experience, being your first day and all.” Carl waited for him to respond.
“I know,” Charles replied. “I did the same thing before, and I felt the same way too. I guess I really must have looked like a brat.”
They were both silent for a while, standing in the same place.
“But I’m still better at math!” Carl interrupted, grinning.
They both laughed, and Carl decided that maybe everything that happened was meant to be after all.