As soon as I got to the apartment, Santana and Sarah were already awake and discussing something. Sarah was sitting at the kitchen counter and Santana, on the couch.

When I opened the door, they both looked at me with shocked expressions.

“AH! You’re not dead! That's a relief!” Sarah said in a reassured tone.

“D-dead?” I was left dumbfounded. Dead? Why would they think to such extremes?

Santana spoke up, “Yeah. When we got home, about 4:00 this morning, you were not here. We thought you died, because you told us you were going home.”

“Did I?”

“Yes. We thought you were kidnapped or something.” Santana stated.

“Kidnapped? Who would want to kidnap me?”

Santana put his hand on his chin and looked like he was seriously contemplating something. “True. They’d probably return you with an apology note.”

“...”

It somewhat irritated me because I couldn’t refute that.

“In any case, I WAS going to make dinner for you two, but--”

“No no, we were worried for you! You’re the best, Helix!”

“I didn’t even finish my sentence..”

“Oh, then finish it.”

“No, I’m too lazy now.” I didn’t have an ending after my sentence, so I gave up.

“What do you guys want for dinner?”

“Ah, whatever you like. The stuff’s in the fridge.”

I went to the fridge and looked inside it. The time was about 6 PM because Melody’s family kept me at their house for a while before I managed to leave.

I cooked them dinner and we all went to sleep.

 

The next morning I woke Santana up. We went outside and jogged to Mark’s house. Mark wasn’t up yet, so I had to knock on the door.

The door was opened and Melody was standing in the doorway.

Her eyes met mine and she started blushing.

“Hey, Mel. Is Mark awake?”

“Y-yes. He just woke up. Come in, please.”

“Alright.”

I walked in the house. Noticing a certain someone’s footsteps not following, I turned around and brought him in the house.

“You too, Santana.”

“But, isn’t it considered rude for me to go into a stranger’s home?”

“Stranger? Who? Mark isn’t a stranger.”

“No, I mean Mel--”

I cut him off. “Just come in. You’re too shy.”

Santana and I sat down on the couch and waited for Mark to come down so we could start the competition.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, Mark came downstairs. We made our way outside and I explained the rules.

“Alright, so first things first. We’ll have two competitions: running and swimming. Any questions? No? Okay.”

I didn’t give them a chance to speak because I also was eager to see how they would place.

“The running would be separated into two sections: distance and time. We’ll start here. The furthest distance is 20 miles, but I don’t expect you to run that far.”

They both nodded at my words.

“The reward for the first place will be decided by yourselves. So, what do you want if you win?”

Santana spoke first. “I want $1,000.”

I inwardly rolled my eyes thinking that if he won, I’d need to find a job.

“And Mark?”

While Santana was answering me, Mark was thinking about what he wanted if he won.

“I was thinking that I wanted you to be with Melody, but that’s not fair to you, or her. So, I want you to be our chef for a month.”

“Alright.”

They were about even because it’d take me a month of working a job to get $1,000 and the other was for the same duration.

“Alright, go as far as you can at any speed. I’ll run along with you guys to track you.”

“Ready…. And…. GO!”

We started running.

 

Running log and notes:

 

Mile 1: Santana’s power exploded so he is ahead. Mark is keeping a constant pace.

Speed: Santana: 13 mph Mark: 9 mph

Mile 2: Santana reached mile point 3 minutes before Mark.

Speed: Santana: 11 mph Mark 9 mph

Mile 3: Santana’s going at a constant pace. No notes for Mark.

Speed: Santana: 10 mph Mark: 10 mph

Mile 4: They both are going at a constant pace this mile.

Speed: Santana: 10 mph Mark: 10 mph

Mile 5: Due to his lead on Mark, Santana has a good 3.5 minute lead on Mark.

Speed: Santana: 10 mph Mark: 10 mph

Mile 6: Santana is keeping his pace. Mark is speeding up little by little.

Speed: Santana: 10 mph Mark: 10.5 mph

Mile 7: Mark is catching up slowly with each mile. Santana is getting tired.

Speed: Santana: 8 mph Mark: 11 mph

Mile 8: Mark caught up to Santana. They are both tired.

Speed: Santana: 7 mph Mark: 9 mph

Mile 9: Mark surpassed Santana. Mark and Santana are nearing their limits.

Speed: Santana: 5 mph Mark: 7 mph

Mile 10: Mark has a good 1.5 minute lead on Santana. Both are burnt out and running on fumes.

Speed: Santana: 1 mph Mark: 2 mph

Mile 11: Santana collapsed from exhaustion, Mark followed soon after.

Speed: Santana: 1 -> 0 mph Mark: 2 -> 0 mph

 

They finally collapsed at mile 11. After Mark collapsed, I went back for Santana who was a distance away and carried him to the side of the road. The running competition lasted 2 hours. Both Santana and Mark were drenched in sweat. I was impressed.

“Guys. Both of you did well.”

They looked up at me, waiting for the results. And so, I told them.

“Santana you did really well, but  you exploded at the beginning to get a head start. Have you heard of the tortoise and the hare?”

“Yes, but I really wanted to win.”

“Well, you could have done it in a smarter way. In any case, good job. You surpassed double the normal route. You have been practicing.”

“Mm” He was too tired to reply with words any longer.

“And Mark. Good job. You won.”

Mark was lit up with joy. He wore a triumphant smile as his ego grew.

“However”

Once I said these words, his smile instantly disappeared.

“You also wanted to catch up and that affected your running. You could have done better. Your impatience led you to barely winning when you could have won by a long shot.”

He nodded as well, agreeing to my words.

“Alright, my students. Now that you’re all rested up, let’s head to the pool.”

It was a 15 mile walk, so they could regain their energy and stretch out at the same time before swimming.

“I hope you brought your bathing suits.”

They looked at each other.

“...”

“...”

“Then we’ll pick them up along the way.”

It was a 3 hour and 45 minute walk to the YMCA pool and we picked up swimsuits from our houses along the way.

We got to the pool and there just happened to be two lanes open.

“We’ll do a race. Fastest time wins. Freestyle. 8 laps.”

“Okay. get in position.”

They stood on top of the starting block. 

“Ready!”

Their hands were on the edge of the block as they were crouched down.

“Set!”

As I said this, they leaned back and got ready to basically launch themselves off the board and into the pool.

“GO!”

And they went off.

They both were about even, although Santana was gaining speed.

By the third lap, Santana was about a foot ahead of Mark.

In the sixth lap, They were evenly matched again.

When the test ended, they both finished at the same time.

“Wow.”

They both got out of the pool and dried themselves off.

Santana grew again. He now stood at 6’3.

Standing next to Mark, who was 2 inches taller, he looked a lot more grown up. I wonder who Santana’s parents are. They are never at the apartment.

In any case, they were both staring at me, waiting for the results.

“Tied.” I said with a straight face.

Their jaws dropped to the floor.

“No, I won.” Mark claimed.

“ No, I did!” Santana argued back.

“No.”

“Yes”

“No.”

“Yes!”

These manchildren are too much. Mark, who is probably in his 40’s or 30’s (I forgot) and Santana who is still in high school, are arguing like elementary school children.

I went to them, took the towels they were wearing off, and pushed them back in the pool. They tried to grab back onto me as they fell, but ultimately failed.

They can’t argue without air, can they?

It seemed to do the trick because they got back out, now drenched, and didn’t speak a word after that.

“So, Mark will get the prize, and Santana, keep practicing.”

 

We soon headed back to our homes. I was about to go with Santana because my stuff is over there, but Mark dragged me back to his house.

“Mark. My house is that way. I live with Santana.”

“Not anymore.”

“Huh?! What do you mean by that? I have a family, you know!”

“But you also have a master, mistress, and young master.”

“What does that mean? Why would I want those?”

“You’re our chef. You work for us for a month. Wasn’t that the prize I wanted?”

“Yeah, but I can go to your house early and at night. Why do I have to go with you?”

“Because it’s easier this way.”

“What do you mean, ‘easier’?”

Mark chuckled, “You know exactly what I mean.” and he winked.

“...”

‘Damn old man. He’s trying to take two pigeons with one bean. He purposefully let me know what his first wish was, and told me the second one so I’d agree.’

“No fair.”

“Life isn’t fair.”

“Touche.”

“So, what’s the plan now?”

“You’ll stay at our house for the month you serve us food.”

“...”

“Okay.”

It can’t be helped. I agreed to it. He’s walking along the boundary, this one.

“You can sleep on the couch, but you need to wake up early. I go to work at 5 AM.”

“Got it. But I’ll make your lunch, breakfast, and dinner choices. And you buy the ingredients.”

“Okay. That sounds fair.”

After he got to his house, he stopped dragging me and let me go.

We entered the house and I started on making dinner. The whole competition took about 7 hours.

After everyone ate, including me, we went to sleep. I had school the next day along with Melody.

 

The next morning, Mark gave me some of his old clothes. He owned black skinny jeans and a red shirt. He also gave me his old Adidas that he used to wear. They were the classic black and white design.

Melody and I walked to school. We separated for our class.

It was Math class, and Santana was sitting next to me.

“Santana. I won’t be able to come home for a while.”

“Why?”

“He kidnapped me. I’m now a chef working in his household.”

“Oh. Alright then. I’ll have to miss out on your cooking for a month. I’ll win next time.” Santana sounded down as he said this, but there was determination in his voice as he steeled his resolve.

The class let out two hours later and it was time for my next class.

Clara was extremely happy the entire history class, so I decided to ask her about it.

“Clara, what’s got you in such a good mood?”

“You really want to know?”

I was going to say that I couldn’t care either way, but she had an expression like she wanted to tell me really bad.

“Yes.”

“Okay okay, so prom was amazing. Santana and I…”

She stopped her words and blushed.

‘Oh. I see now.’

I decided to probe further.

“You did…. What..?”

“Kissed!” She squeaked the last word of her sentence out. She was blushing really hard and I could practically see her happiness radiating off of her.

“Oh? Are you two going to get together?”

“I don’t know. I want to, but he hasn’t asked me yet.”

“Oh. I see.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“You can do many things. Personally, I’d wait, but you could also ask him yourself.”

“Huh? I don’t want to be rejected..”

“It’s probably the same for him. He might not be asking you out because he’s scared you’ll reject him. You never know.”

“Oh. I didn’t think of looking at it like that.”

“Mhm.”

The bell sounded right as we finished our conversation and we made our way to 5th period.

In gym class, it was Mile Monday again. There was a group of guys discussing in a group as we made our way to the track.

“The coach is a sadist. A sadist, I tell you!”

“No, the coach has major epicaricacy.”

“No no. He must think we’re masochists.”

“But we’re not.”

“But does he know that?”

The boys all felt a shiver crawl down their spine.

“Scary to even think about it..”

“At least we see the girls running.”

“What’s so fun about that? They’re slow.”

“Not all of them. A couple were faster than you.”

“Anyway, the god part about watching the girls run…..”

I decided to not listen to their perverted conversation any longer.

After the mile, it took less time, so we had 20 minutes to rest. Melody sat next to me and started a conversation.

“I’ve decided.”

“Good. What’s your decision?”

“I’ll accept Mark and connect more with my family. I’ve thought about what I’ve been doing these past few years for a while and I came to realize that it didn’t amount to much.”

“I see.”

I got up from where I had been sitting down. “So, is that all you need to tell me?” I dusted off the gym shorts I’d been wearing because there was grass and dirt on them.

“Um.” She blushed and looked to the floor as she got up from where she was.

“Hm?” I asked.

“Thank you for being here for me. You’re an amazing person, and I’d like to hang out with you more.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll see a lot of each other from now on.”

With that last sentence, I walked to the locker room and went about the rest of my day.