Team Chaos: The Final Theorem

Anonymous High School Student

April/May 2025

It had been a month since the Breadinator Incident, and somehow, Tyler and Nakshatra had not been expelled. The legend of the Sandwich Catastrophe lived on in the hallways of their school, spoken of in hushed, reverent tones by underclassmen and cafeteria staff alike. And yet, nothing had really changed. They still hung out in the library. They still built stupid machines. They still tried (and failed) to convince the chemistry teacher to let them experiment with mild explosives “for educational purposes.” But something was… different. One evening, as they sat on the bleachers after yet another failed attempt to build a bike-powered slushie machine, Tyler sighed.

“Hey, Nakshatra?” “Yeah?” “Do you ever… I don’t know… feel like people keep shipping us?” Nakshatra blinked.

“Bro. Constantly. Sarah literally asked me yesterday if we were ‘a thing.’” Tyler groaned, covering his face.

“Same! Jason from AP Calc called us ‘Tyshatra.’” Nakshatra burst out laughing.

“That’s actually amazing. We should get matching jackets.” Tyler chuckled, then hesitated. “Do you think we… like… are?”

There was a long pause.

Nakshatra scratched the back of his head. “I mean… I love you, man. Like, I’d take a metaphorical trebuchet for you. But I don’t think I’m in love with you. I don’t, you know… get butterflies or whatever.”

“Same,” Tyler admitted. “I thought maybe… since everyone else kept saying it, I should… check. But no butterflies. Just… chaos.” “

Exactly,” Nakshatra said, grinning. “We’re not soulmates. We’re chaos-mates.”

Tyler laughed so hard he almost fell off the bleachers. Two weeks later, both Tyler and Nakshatra ended up accidentally dating girls from the science club. Tyler started seeing Emma, who admired his math skills and laughed at his terrible puns. She even pretended to be impressed when he solved a Rubik’s cube in under a minute. Nakshatra started dating Priya, a fellow inventor who called his trebuchet “structurally irresponsible” but still helped him test it behind the school.

One day, during lunch, the four of them sat at a table together, and Emma asked, “Wait — didn’t people think you two were dating?”

“Pretty sure the entire school still thinks that,” Priya added, smirking. Tyler and Nakshatra exchanged a look.

Nakshatra raised his juice box. “To Team Chaos.” Tyler grinned and clinked his juice box against it.

“Forever undefined.” They all laughed. And just like that, Tyler and Nakshatra officially upgraded from “potentially gay panic bros” to Best Friends™ for Life. Sure, there’d be other crushes, and more science fairs, and probably several more incidents involving Principal Carver. But nothing would ever match the bond forged in math, mischief, and misfired water balloons. Because at the end of the day, they didn’t need labels. They had chaos. And really, what’s a better love story than that? THE END.

Alternate ending: It happened on a Wednesday. Because, of course it did. The two of them were crammed side by side in the tech lab after school, hunched over a busted circuit board from an old robot they’d salvaged from the janitor’s closet. The air smelled faintly of solder and orange soda. Tyler’s blond hair was a little messy from running his hands through it, and Nakshatra had a streak of grease on his cheek. Neither of them cared.

“Okay, moment of truth,” Tyler grinned, flipping the switch. The robot let out a pitiful whirr and promptly burst into a tiny puff of smoke. Both of them stared. Then burst out laughing. Tyler wiped a tear from his eye.

“Dude, we are objectively terrible at this.”

“I prefer to call it aggressively experimental,” Nakshatra grinned, nudging Tyler with his shoulder. And Tyler, still grinning, nudged him back.

And then — the moment stretched. The laughing faded, replaced by that weird, quiet, heart-thumpy silence that had started happening more and more. Tyler’s smile softened, his hazel eyes flickering down to Nakshatra’s lips for a half-second too long. Nakshatra’s heart stuttered in his chest, the realization hitting him like one of their rogue catapults. Neither of them spoke. Then, without thinking — because neither of them were particularly good at thinking in moments like this — Tyler leaned in. It wasn’t dramatic. No swelling music or thunder crashing outside. Just a soft, slightly awkward, slightly fizzy sort of kiss. The kind that tasted like orange soda and smelled faintly of burnt wires. Tyler’s hand brushed against Nakshatra’s, fingers curling loosely. Nakshatra, startled for half a second, then smiled into it — that lopsided, chaos-loving grin Tyler adored. When they finally pulled apart, it wasn’t some grand, cinematic pause. It was Nakshatra chuckling under his breath.

“So… that was new.” Tyler laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. Uh… sorry if I—”

“Dude.” Nakshatra cut him off, eyes crinkling at the corners. “I’ve been waiting for you to do that since the Sandwich Catastrophe.”

Tyler grinned, leaning his forehead against Nakshatra’s. “Guess I’m a little late, huh?” “Better late than never, Chaos Boy.”

And just like that, they went back to tinkering with the robot — hands still brushing, smiles still lingering — like it was the most natural thing in the world. Because for them? It was.

The Real End.