Anonymous
January 2025
Tyler and Nakshatra sat on the grass outside the library, their oversized Math-Off trophy between them. It was, for some inexplicable reason, shaped like a sine wave. Tyler had already named it “Sinny.”
“You ever feel like we peaked?” Tyler asked, twirling a blade of grass between his fingers.
“Peaked?” Nakshatra scoffed. “We’re barely in our prime. This is just the prologue to our epic story. The Odyssey of Math Nerds.”
“I hope the Odyssey has better snacks,” Tyler muttered, gesturing to their shared bag of questionably stale pretzels.
Nakshatra grinned. “It’s not about the snacks, Tyler. It’s about the journey. Like—” he picked up a pretzel and held it up dramatically—“this pretzel. See how it’s a perfect little twist? That’s us. Two parts of the same mathematical curve, forever intertwined.”
Tyler blinked, caught off guard. “Wow, that’s… poetic. And weird. Mostly weird.”
Nakshatra popped the pretzel into his mouth and shrugged. “Math is poetry, my dude.”
As the afternoon wore on, they worked on their next project: a DIY trebuchet for “educational purposes” (translation: launching water balloons at the football team).
“Okay,” Tyler said, holding up a diagram. “If we adjust the counterweight here, the launch angle should hit maximum range. What do you think?”
Nakshatra studied the diagram, nodding. “Solid. But… what if we just make it bigger? Like, absurdly bigger.”
Tyler gave him a look. “You want to scale up again? Dude, the last one already broke school regulations. And physics.”
Nakshatra grinned. “Exactly. It’s called innovation.”
By the time they’d built the monstrosity, a small crowd of students had gathered, drawn by the promise of chaos. Tyler and Nakshatra stood proudly behind their creation, which now resembled something from a medieval siege.
“All right,” Nakshatra said, rubbing his hands together. “Moment of truth. You ready?”
Tyler hesitated, his hand on the lever. “Uh… what if this, like, catastrophically fails?”
“Then we’ll go down as legends,” Nakshatra replied, grinning.
“Good enough for me.”
Tyler pulled the lever, and the trebuchet fired. The water balloon soared through the air in a perfect arc—before smacking directly into Principal Carver, who had just stepped out of the school.
The crowd gasped. Tyler froze. Nakshatra, ever the quick thinker, grabbed the trophy and held it in front of them like a shield.
“WE WON THE MATH-OFF!” he shouted. “LOOK AT OUR ACHIEVEMENTS!”
Principal Carver stared at them, dripping wet, and pointed to his office.
Two hours and one very stern lecture later, Tyler and Nakshatra sat in detention, still trying to keep a straight face.
“That was… legendary,” Tyler whispered, his voice shaking with suppressed laughter.
“I told you,” Nakshatra replied smugly. “Innovation.”
Their laughter eventually subsided, and they sat in comfortable silence. Tyler glanced at Nakshatra, noticing how the sunlight from the window caught the sharp angles of his face.
“You know,” Tyler said, breaking the quiet, “you’re, like, ridiculously confident about everything.”
Nakshatra raised an eyebrow. “And you’re not?”
“Not even close,” Tyler admitted. “I’m pretty much faking it all the time.”
Nakshatra looked at him, his usual teasing grin replaced by something softer. “Well, for what it’s worth… you’re a lot better than you think. You’re like… the cosine to my sine. Together, we cover all the angles.”
Tyler blinked, then laughed. “That is simultaneously the nerdiest and nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“Hey, I aim to impress,” Nakshatra said, leaning back in his chair. “But don’t let it go to your head. I’m still the sine. You’re just the cosine.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever. But next time, I’m picking the project.”
“Deal,” Nakshatra said, smirking.
They sat there, side by side, their bond feeling stronger than ever. For now, it was just about friendship, equations, and trebuchet-sized trouble. But maybe—just maybe—there was an undefined variable waiting for them down the line.
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