The Prodigy Series

My eyes were red as I closed the tab on my laptop after finishing a round. I was tired and I really needed to rest. I looked around the computer room to find half of the students asleep by their desks or in the sleeping bags they were asked to bring along. I let my eyes wandered to the back to find Mrs. Green talking to Mr. Philip. She had a mug cupped in her hands and it probably contained coffee.

Bringing my palm to my mouth, I yawned. We still had at least three hours until the twenty-four hours of the competition was up.

I got up from my seat, heading to the back of the room to look for Ji-Hun amongst the trail of sleeping bags. I squatted next to his sleeping bag before shaking him awake. He blinked, looking up at me briefly before letting out a groan.

"Is it time already? Can I have ten more minutes? Please?" he asked, making a small smile form on my lips.

"Get up, you've been sleeping for over an hour," I said, shaking him by his shoulder again. He sat up this time, muttering a string of words in dissatisfaction before reaching up with his balled palms to rub his tired eyes.

"Don't go back to sleep," I warned, getting up before heading to the table where they'd put a coffee dispenser. Taking one of the paper cups from the pile beside it, I filled a cup for myself before heading out of the computer room.

I hummed, taking a sip of coffee when the warmer air in the hallway hit me as I stepped out. Taking a sip of my coffee, I looked around. Aiyana and the other English Literature competitors were in the study room a distance away.

Maybe I should go and see how she's doing. I thought, cradling my cup of coffee in one hand as I used my free one to adjust the sweater I had on.

I headed down the hallway afterward, turning towards the path that led to the study hall the English students were using.

Turning the doorknob, I stepped into the study room before looking around. Like I'd suspected half the students in the room were asleep, while some were still on their laptops looking lifeless as they typed with their headphones on.

I spotted Aiyana at the travel at the far back of the room. I smiled, noting how tired she looked even from the distance I was away from her. Walking to her table, I took the seat beside her and watched her work on her laptop. She was presently participating in a round, typing strings of sentence es to collect points. The round finally finished with finishing in second place out of the six people playing.

She minimized the tab, removing her headphones before looking at me.

"How do I look?"

"Dead," I answered honestly, making her let out a painful laugh. She already had bags under her eyes from nights of practice. Her bronze skin complexion was now dull and it didn't look like she'd been paying much attention to her hair since it looked like she hadn't used a comb in a week.

"I can't believe we have to do this every year- I don't think I'll ever be used to it," she g.r.o.a.n.e.d, rubbing her eyes with her balled palms before letting out a yawn. I gave her a look of pity before reaching out to maximize the tab to see what she'd been doing on the side.

"YouTube, really?"

"That's the only reason I'm awake, so shut up," she said in a joking tone as her eyes wandered to the paper cup I'd dropped on the table. "Is that coffee?"

"Yeah," I answered, sliding the cup towards her. She smiled, taking it from the table before tapping an area and asking if she could drink from there. I nodded before I watched her bring it to her mouth to drink.

I stayed with Aiyana in the study room for a while in an attempt to combat sleep. When she finally laid her head on the wooded study table in defeat, I let my eyes wander to the wall clock to check for the time. It was an hour to one in the afternoon and we've been behind our computers since the timer started by twelve in the afternoon the previous day. I just had to survive another hour to be awake when the results were final.

Leaving the study room, I headed back to the computer room. I shivered when I stepped into the air-conditioned room, letting my eyes roam the room in search of Ji-Hun. Surprisingly, he was awake and behind his computer. Miss Jones was hovering behind him and so was Mr. Philip. I headed to my table that was beside Ji-Hun's, opening up my laptop so I could finish off my remaining rounds.

"Oh, I was wondering where you were Wyatt," Miss Jones said with a smile before she made her way to stand behind my chair instead.

"I hope you didn't abandon the contest for too long. The Malaysian students are still awake and gathering points," she said as I loaded a round.

I continued gathering points until I'd reached the maximum amount of round I could partake in. It seemed Ji-Hun had reached the maximum as well since he was now sleeping peacefully on his desk.

Most of the teachers were in the control room watching the timer run as they discussed amongst themselves.

Twenty minutes — we had just twenty minutes left.

It didn't seem like a lot of time but another school could overtake us as the fifth overall school during the brief period, and students who hadn't exhausted their rounds could work on improving our school's total average as well.

A smile formed on my lips when I spotted Ji-Hun as the first in the science category. The gap between him and the person who was second place was so much that I didn't think a couple of extra rounds could be used to overtake him.

I was eight in science at the moment, but the two immediate students under me were still gathering points and catching up to me. I looked over at the timer again after a while of browsing the scores.

Five minutes.

Most of the students in the computer room were awake at the time, and they were all viewing the timer via their laptops or the school's desktops.

As the timer hit twenty seconds everyone waited until they could start counting down from ten. My head was buzzing with excitement while Ji-Hun continued to nap like a baby with all the noise everyone was making.

The timer hit zero and every student that had still been playing were kicked out from the rounds so that the total scores were calculated. Everything on the scoreboards was now set and nothing was changing anymore.

"Where's Ji-Hun!" Mr. Philip's voice echoed through ten room. I turned on my sit to find him leaving the computer control room in a hurry as he headed towards Ji-Hun's seat. He shook him by the shoulders when he got to him, making him wake up.

"First place in science in the whole world! We've got ourselves a Genius!" He yelled as a laugh of excitement escaped his lips. The highest a student had ever made in our school was third in maths, and that was Ben. He was second this time, but I guess the excitement of having a gold student got a hold of Mr. Philp.

"We also have tenth in science." I jumped hearing Miss Jones' voice as her hands pat my shoulder. I had no idea that she had come up behind me.

"The seniors did well too, and we have five literature students all in the positions from twenty to twenty-five," Mr. Richard said. He was standing by the exit, yawning as he covered his mouth with his palm. It was kind of odd to see him without make-up. His eyeliner to be exact.

The students in the room started chatting away and so did the teachers as they made effort to contact the school's management and tell them the news. In the midst of the noise, I felt a hand take mine. I turned towards the edge of my table to find out that Ji-Hun had outstretched his hand to take mine, lacing his fingers with my own.

"How did you do?" he asked. His head was still on the desk, and his eyes were half open and tired looking as he stared at me.

"Tenth," I mumbled, watching as a smile formed on his lips.

"That's my Genius," he muttered, making me chuckle.

"But you're the Genius. First, in the world, remember?" I laughed, scooting with my chair so that we were closer.

Ji-Hun seemed to pause for a minute before he started talking. "But you're my Genius... I don't know, I just love you. I'm tired..." He trailed as his eyes closed.

I felt my face warm up at that, and in the midst of all the shouting and celebration concerning grades and positions, I simply didn't care much for once.

For once it actually didn't bother me that X or Y student did better than me. For once I was satisfied with my effort, and for once I saw myself as more than just the academic genius people said I was.

It was weird, seeing as my intelligence has always been something I latched on to as my only defining factor.

The fact that I could see myself outside that made me happy, and I've never been so grateful to have Ji-Hun with me.

Someone cares.

I thought.

And it's not just because I'm a Genius.