"So... how are we feeling?" Kelly said carefully after a few minutes of silent driving. The fancy subdivision had quickly given way to gas stations and highway driving.
"Fine, actually," Jeisson said, slouching down further into this seat, getting comfortable.
"Is that the Valium and champagne talking?"
"Probably."
"I've never seen anybody chug champagne like that before. You know, you're supposed to enjoy it. Not down it like you're shotgunning a beer can."
Jeisson shrugged and turned to look out the window, counting the cars that passed. Sure, maybe he had had a moment there where was he was a bit upset at his father. But what did it matter? His father's disinterest was nothing new to him. He hadn't spoken to the man in over a year. What did he expect?
Nothing, he expected nothing. And if you expect nothing, then you can't be disappointed. So he wasn't disappointed. He was just pissed because Bruce was an asshole. And Jeisson wasn't a fan of assholes.
They had passed four silver, two black, and a lime green car.. There weren't many lime greens out there, so that was a bit of a treat. Jeisson was having a bit of trouble concentrating though, so he turned his attention back into the car and turned on the radio.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. June. "Hello?" he answered.
"Pip, I'm so sorry."
"A great start to any conversation," Jeisson said, fiddling with the visor on the passenger side. He slid open the cover to the mirror and looked himself over. He didn't look too sloshed. At least, he didn't think so.
"They're really short-staffed at the hospital tonight. They called me in for an extra shift--"
"And you're taking it," Jeisson finished for her.
"Yeah, I really should. But there'll be other math competitions right?"
"Sure." God, what a sobering thought. Jeisson flashed his teeth in the mirror, making a grimace and then sticking his tongue out at himself. He heard Kelly chuckle beside him.
"You can take a Lyft to the competition. Use the credit card. I wanna hear all about it when I get home tomorrow morning, okay?"
"Sure thing, Mom." Jeisson shut the mirror and started messing with the air vent controls instead.
"Okay, love you!"
Jeisson hung up. "What the hell is this?" he asked, pointing to the radio. Some sort of tribal chanting was coming out of it.
"I don't know, you turned it on," Kelly said with a laugh. "I don't have my stations set for this bougie town."
Jeisson started scrolling through the channels.
"Isn't Valium a downer? Why are you so uppity?"
"Can you schedule a Lyft in advance here?" Jeisson asked, ignoring her question.
"No, only in the city. Why? You need to go somewhere?"
"Just this stupid math competition in Wilmington."
Kelly smiled wide, her eyes brightening in delight. "Hold the phone. A math competition?"
Jeisson groaned and pulled the lever to make his seat go all the way back.
"You're competing with your friends, right?" Kelly asked. "They're like... what is it?"
"Mathletes." Jeisson covered his eyes with his arm. "Why on earth did I agree to this?"
"I wanna go!" Kelly said, hitting the steering wheel with excitement. "Is it tonight?"
"Yep. Saturday night math competition. This is who I've become."
"Oh I'm so going. Where's it at, put it in my phone." Kelly showed her face to the phone to unlock it, then handed it to Jeisson. "While you're at it, pick some better music please."
Jeisson registered that the radio was now playing some kind of angry, screaming music. Not Kelly's thing. He put the address of the school they were playing at in Kelly's GPS, and then put on one of her poppy Spotify playlists.
"Oh, yes, that's my jam," Kelly said, bopping along to the music.
They were quiet for a while, listening to the music while Jeisson tried not to think about how ridiculously lame his evening was going to be.
"Hey, so, your dad's kind of a douche, no surprise there. But Nicole seems pretty nice. You don't get along with her either?"
Jeisson shook his head slowly. Why did everyone want to keep having real conversations with him today? He expected to get tense, but he was too buzzed for that. He was feeling good, and even talk of his stepmother apparently wasn't going to change that.
"It seems pretty tense between you too. I mean, I get it, I guess. She just... she seemed like maybe she was really trying to connect with you."
"I tried to kiss her once."
The music stopped, a momentary quiet between songs, but the sudden silence seemed only to further punctuate his words, and Kelly's shock. He could see it even out of the corner of his eyes, the way her bottom lip fell slightly open. It was a small thing. When Kelly was excited and surprised, her whole face would light up and show it. But this kind of surprise, the more serious kind, was subtle.
Jeisson didn't want this to be serious. He didn't even know why he had said it. Kelly had a way of making him talk. Or maybe it was the champagne. He was drunker than he realized.
"You tried to kiss your stepmom?" Kelly repeated slowly, making sure she had heard him right.
"I was twelve, it was stupid," Jeisson said, regretting opening his mouth about the subject. "But, I dunno, I feel like I can't look her in the eye ever since."
"Was this before or after she and your dad--"
"Before," Jeisson said quickly. "I think. I mean, I don't really know when they started fucking. If they were, I didn't know about it."
"So you knew her before she and your dad got together?"
"Yeah. She was one of my math tutors."
"Oh, wow." Kelly processed this information for a few moments. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you do it?"
Jeisson had known that's what Kelly had meant, but he hadn't wanted to answer the question. Or maybe he just didn't know how. How had he gotten himself into this conversation? He brought the chair forward again and pulled his knees up to his chest.
"I don't know," Jeisson said simply. He turned to look out the window but the cars just seemed to blur by. He couldn't focus.
He didn't like thinking back to that moment. It was after some stupid science competition in sixth grade. Nicole had been there to support him. Neither Bruce or June had shown up. Jeisson couldn't remember why now. All he remembered was that mortifying moment when he had leaned in and she had jumped back, startled, before his lips could touch hers. He shuddered now just thinking about it.
"I wrote a love letter to my third grade math teacher and mailed it to his house," Kelly said suddenly.
Jeisson looked over at her in surprise, a smile tugging at his lips in spite of everything. "What's that now?"
"Yeah. I made the card myself too. It was heart shaped. Of course. Pink. And I declared my undying love for him. I got his address somehow, I can't even remember how. I was crafty then, and not just with my card making."
"You still are. What'd he say?"
"He called my parents. I was so embarrassed. But, the fact that he told on me like that really put an end to my crush. I hated him after that."
Jeisson laughed then, and Kelly joined him. "Kids do weird things sometimes," she said with a shrug.
"Yeah. I guess they do." He smirked at Kelly and poked her arm. " What other weird things did you do?"
"Oh, boy. Well, my friend, let me tell you."
And she did. She told him stories upon stories of the crazy things she got up to when she was a kid. Stories of getting stuck in trees and having to get rescued by handsome firemen. Stories of kissing Billy Parker on a dare in fourth grade and then punching him in the face directly after on impulse. Stories of getting pulled into a lake off a dock while fishing with her dad because the fish was too big for her.
Jeisson knew what she was doing. And knew she was doing it for him. Getting his mind off his shitty childhood and shitty parents and all the shitty things he had done. He appreciated her for it.
Soon they were at Wilmington High School, where the Mathletes competition was taking place. The parking lot was actually pretty full. Jeisson watched as groups of people headed into the main entrance.
"Quite a crowd," Kelly said, turning off the car.
"Who would have thought?"
They got out of the car and went into the school. It was a small school, Jeisson imagined it couldn't have more than a thousand or so students total. There were signs pointing towards the gym, but Jeisson and Kelly mostly just followed the people.
The gym had been setup with large tables for each team and a giant wooden scoreboard underneath one of the basketball hoops on one side. There was a podium with a mic as well as a large screen, which currently had "MATH COUNTS Preliminary Math Competition Round One" in projected on it in big blue letters.
"Jeisson! Over here!"
Jeisson saw Kyle standing by one of the tables, waving to him. He and Remington were the only ones who had arrived so far. Jeisson walked over with Kelly, eyeing the crowd in surprise. It really was quite large. The bleachers were filling up. Jeisson caught the eye of Remington's parents, sitting front row near their table, and they gave him a wave.
"Isn't this exciting?" Kyle asked, bouncing on his feet. "I'm so nervous."
"Super exciting!" Kelly said with a wide smile, not a single note of sarcasm in her voice. Jeisson didn't understand why this stuff actually interested her.
"I thought you said you weren't going to bring Kelly," Remington said, his voice more disinterested than accusatory.
"Did I?"
"Yes. Kyle asked if Kelly was coming and you said 'fuck no.' Then Kyle asked why you wouldn't want your girlfriend supporting you and you got irritated and said she wasn't your girlfriend and then we talked about how the two of you had sex in our room. Remember?"
Kelly burst out laughing while Kyle turned red and Jeisson clenched his jaw. "Thanks for the recap, Bud," he said. "Now I remember."
"Do they record this?" Kelly asked, glancing at something behind them. Jeisson turned to see a camera being set up in the back of the bleachers.
"Yeah, just local TV," Kyle said. "No one watches it."
"Look at that," Kelly said, smiling at Jeisson. "You're going to be famous."
Jeisson gave her a fake smile and then turned to the table. "When does this start? I want to get this over with."
Remington glanced at his watch. "Seventeen minutes. The others should be here soon."
"I'm gonna find a seat," Kelly said. "Good luck, guys! Or break a leg, or whatever." She dashed off and Jeisson could see Remington's parents waving her over.
Over the next ten minutes, the rest of the team arrived. Kyle wasn't the only one who seemed nervous. Alice was wringing her hands and Shang wouldn't even talk, his nose just pressed in his calculus book.
"Come on, guys," Nat said loudly, trying to rally the team. "We practiced. We got this."
"We always practice, we still lose," Kyle said.
"But now we have our secret weapon," Alice said, smiling at Jeisson.
There was a loud screech, and all eyes turned to the podium. A man in a suit that was too large for him smiled sheepishly, then moved the mic around a bit, causing a few more screeches. "Sorry about that, folks," he said when the sound had died down. "Welcome to the first round of the Math Counts competition. We have a lot of great teams here today."
The guy kept talking while the Mathletes took their seats, and Jeisson stopped listening. A few pages started walking around the tables and handing out the work packets. There was already a neat pile of mechanical pencils on the table, as well as scratch paper.
The first round was the sprint round. Forty problems in thirty minutes, no calculator allowed. Once every team had their packets, the guy at the podium rang a bell, and a large timer on the scoreboard started counting down.
It did not go well. Nat was slow, taking too long to make sure everything was perfect, and didn't finish the problems. Shang seemed to have some kind of performance anxiety when he didn't have his book in front of him, something that they had not thought of or troubleshooted at all during practice. He bombed the round. Remington was too slow, Kyle was too nervous, Alice was too unsure of herself to commit to her answers and kept circling back to them.
Jeisson watched all of it going down and knew they were going to lose, and lose hard. Because on top of all that, he was way too drunk to do well. It didn't matter that he could do some of these problems in his sleep, he couldn't focus and he was sloppy. Even writing was a challenge.
They didn't need their sheets scored to know they had all failed. Jeisson could see the disappointed looks on all of their faces when the round was called. The next three rounds -- the target, team, and sprint rounds -- went no better. After bombing the first round everyone's confidence was shaken and that helped nothing. They bickered for the entirety of the team round, and Nat kept triple checking everyone's work, costing them precious time.
When the last bell dinged, Jeisson was just glad that they were being put out of their misery.
"Do we have to stay for the final tally?" Alice said dejectedly, putting her head down on the table.
"I guess it's good sportsmanship," Kyle said.
"We did not do well," Remington said.
Nat shook her head. "Last place here we come."
"What the hell happened, guys?" Jeisson asked the group. "We practiced. We talked about this stuff. You can do these problems. You're all smart enough and learned enough to win this competition."
"You're one to talk," Nat said, rolling her eyes. "What the hell happened to you, huh? You were supposed to be our secret weapon. You crashed and burned, too."
For some reason this annoyed Jeisson more than the loss. "I can't hold this entire team up. You can't count on me to come in and save the day. You guys have to do the work yourselves."
"Didn't answer my question," Nat grumbled.
Okay, so maybe Jeisson had fucked up, too. Maybe he shouldn't have come to the competition shit-faced, even if he was normally a fairly functional drunk. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Okay, obviously, what we're doing in practice isn't enough. We need... something more."
Kyle leaned forward. "Like what?"
Jeisson's eyes went to Kelly in the crowd. She was chatting animatedly with Remington's parents. Of course she would become fast friends with them. But seeing her gave him a thought.
"What are you guys doing tonight?"
"We just spent our evening doing a math competition," Alice said bitingly, "you think we have any major party plans after that?"
"Perfect. I have an idea."
***
A/N: Hello readers! I'm sorry I took last week off. It was a necessary break. But now I'm back to my regular weekly updates! Have you ever been to a math competition? It's not riveting. XD