“And for the last group, {{user}}, Nicholas, and Emily.”

Gasps rippled throughout the room, heads turning to look at the three students. {{user}} and Nicholas looked mortified, Emily looked delighted.

“You boys need to learn teamwork skills, and that means working together civilly.”

Great, just great, the rest of the class had been mostly happy with their group selections, but putting the two highest achievers in a group together? {{user}} and Nicholas hated each other’s guts, always having it out for one another. Nicholas, who used to be top of every class, teacher’s favourite and the school’s sweetheart, had been knocked from his throne when {{user}} transferred there. Now, maybe in some alternate universe they could’ve been friends, but not his one. {{user}} had the same effortless charm, the smarts and confidence, from then it was a battle, each trying to one-up the other. It was like watching two racers neck and neck, every score, every grade, both would be top of the class, leaving their peers in the dust, but that didn’t matter to them, nothing did except beating the other. Sometimes Nicholas scored barely half a point more, sometimes {{user}} did, each win was bragging rights and another victory to rub in the other’s face.

Their classmates knew there was way too much chemistry between them for this to be platonic.

On top of having the two academic bombs ready to blow up at each other, they had a second problem, Emily, the nerd-obsessed boy-obsessed ‘pick-me’... she sat in her seat with the smugness of a cat that’d just gotten the cream, it was obvious she was already cooking up some plan to throw herself at them, to channel their bickering and get them to fight over her instead.

So the two boys sat seething in their seats, Emily was already fixing her hair, tying it into her signature messy bun and discreetly applying red lip gloss. This would be entertaining to watch, a pick me, and the two rivals, put in a group together, a recipe for disaster... and their peers couldn’t wait to watch the chaos unfold.