" - make him fall with one big swipe." she finished his sentence, and smirked.

"Well, it's not for me," Skye told him, sincerely. "It's for the entire college population who never saw his utter failure. Sweet, sweet vengence. And pure entertainment."

"Does that mean you will start hating me from now on?" she asked him, looking hopeful.

She couldn't help rolling her eyes to that statement.

"I must say," Wilson started. "Your ingenius plan is working. I heard Josh telling Sam yesterday about how cute you were. He might just fall for you."

"Oh really?" Skye replied, scribbling her corrections furiously on her own script without looking at him. "It better work. I hate to see my efforts go down the drain."

She placed down her pen and looked seriously at Wilson. "Next is playing hard to get."

"No," she giggled. "He will have a much higher chance of success of course."

Skye's big break came when she was assigned to Josh's team for the Science Carnival, organised by the college to promote awareness of Science to the students. During meetings, she had many golden opportunities to pucker up to him. She thought she would faint with joy when he approached her after the last meeting before the actual day for the Science carnival began.

"Yea, you have a job for me?" she asked him.

"Is this for the team contact list or personal references?" she asked again, trying to keep a straight face.

"Sorry, my phone book is kinda full," she told him the stupid-est excuse she could make up. "Anyway, I need to run. Bye!"

The Science Carnival had a fair turnout rate the next day. Skye noticed that Josh couldn't stop looking at her during the various ongoing presentations and she did her best to keep a straight face. Soon, it was Josh's turn to present his project.

After the entire event was over, Josh approached her yet again.

"Well, my email inbox is kind of full too," she crinkled her nose. "Sorry."

Awkward silence came.
"Don't worry about it," Skye gave him a sweet smile as she placed a hand on his arm. "We still can chat in school. Have fun for the rest of the day!"

"Skye you better step up your engine," Wilson prompted her during their breaktime. "He's still topping every test and he just killed us all in the March Block Tests!"

"Don't worry," Skye assured him as they made their way to the canteen. "I'm going to say yes when he asks me out for a date."

"From what I know," she grinned as lowered her tone to a whisper. "He asked Frank for my number yesterday. He's going to call real soon."

"I'm going to break his heart," she finished the sentence yet again, beaming as wide as a Cheshire cat.

-Tingz

To nobody's surprise, Josh topped the cohort in Mathematics and Physics as well.

Until she met him again.

"What do you think of this jacket?" Andrea, Skye's best friend asked her, crinkling her nose in anticipation of Skye's response.

"It's too black," Skye insisted, grabbing a hot pink jacket off another shelf. "Try this!"

As the duo continued to search for the appropriate jacket, Skye noticed a familiar face among the crowd of shoppers. She abandoned Andrea to satisfy her curiosity...

She moved closer and saw that it was a fellow college mate back in Singapore, Samuel.

"Yea," he nodded fervently. "I'm with my secondary school mates. You?"

Before Samuel could answer, his friend called for him.

When Skye turned to look at the stranger, she nearly screamed. It was no stranger to her at all. In fact, it was her worst nightmare.

It was Josh Lau, the notorious nerd from her school.

Somehow, Skye felt that his presence reminded her of her untouched holiday assignments left on her desk back home.

With that, Skye quickly excused herself to return to her best friend's side.

"Oh they are just some people from school," she simply replied, scrutinising the outfit Andrea had just picked out.

'Looks like Heaven agrees with me,' Skye smiled to herself.

"Hey, so did you buy me any love tokens from Malaysia? Truly Asia!" Wilson asked her when they met for the first time that Monday morning. He chuckled at his own joke.

"What's with the books anyway? It's only the first day of school," he whined.

"You can't be serious! You can such a bitch, sometimes," he gave a low whistle.

"Anything to get him out of the way," she said in a matter-of-fact way. "Oh here he comes!"

Skye left the gaping Wilson behind and hurried to Josh's direction. She then cleverly pretended to be absent-minded and bumped into him. Her books spilled helplessly onto the ground.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Josh apologised hurriedly and he bent over to help pick up her books.

"It's alright," she smiled at him, bending over as well to pick up the books as well.

She carefully brushed her arm against his as he did so.

"Yea," he grinned. "Anyway I got to go. See you around!" He hurried off.

"Way bitchy man," he emphasised.

The plan had only just begun.

-Tingz

Ps: this story is sort of the like the movie "John Tucker Must Die".

"If I win you, you owe me lunch - " Skye started.

The two buddies were sitting amidst the bustling crowd in the lecture theatre that morning, each having a faced down paper on their own tables. They were placing a bet on the person with the higher grade for their Chemistry end of year examination and Skye thought that it was essentially crucial to win hands down this time.

"Two," Skye grinned.

"Hah! Sixty-seven percent! So how about movies?" he waved his script in front of her face.

"Will you guys quit the childish acts?" Geraldine, their classmate, rolled her eyes next to them. "And Dr. Rong looks like he's gonna kill us if we don't shut up this instant."

"Quiet!" he nearly spat into the microphone in front of him. His well-known influence earned him the utmost respect he deserved - the entire lecture theatre fell silent.

Skye swore she saw a taint curl to his lips.

"Josh Lau."

"Gee, what's with that loser? Topping all of the Chemistry tests and exams so far," Wilson grumbled as Josh stood up from the crowd to receive his prize.

"You guys are just jealous. You should see the amount of work he put it to earn the top position he always did," Geraldine said as Dr. Rong pronounced them dismissed.

She scowled as she watched him disappear round the bend.

'Josh won't be top for long,' she thought to herself. 'He will see sweet defeat one day.'

(to be continued)

It had been a week since the group had their strange outing.

Jacob and Piper met up for their usual lunch session that afternoon.

That very thought made her feel a teeny weeny bit nauseous.

Piper quietly wished this was certainly so.

Piper smiled to herself as she scanned every gift that was scattered out on her bed.

Bears to flowers to accessories. You name it, she's got it.

Stephan was her guy, she always thought without a doubt.

"Why did you drag me here?" Piper hissed at Jacob as they entered a house, their nostrils instantly filled with a feminine perfume scent.

"By orders, I swear," Jacob signalled her the Scout's Promise.

"Hello children! Harold's still in bed," she gave a cluck of disappointment. "I reckon you just give him a good hard kick to wake that bum up. And I'm making spaghetti for lunch, hope that's fine with you."

"Right, let's kick that lazy ass then," Jacob said cheerily as he proceeded up the stairs, leaving Piper trailing behind him.

Harold just gave a snort, and rolled over.

As she tried to shake him awake, she couldn't help noticing how gorgeous he looked, even when he's asleep.

'Oh my,' she thought as she examined the sleeping Harold further. 'He has fantastic eyelashes.'

He screamed and fell out of his bed, causing Jacob to laugh non-stop. Piper wasn't too pleased, though.

She grabbed Jacob and pulled him out of the room, leaving Harold quite speechless.

It was already nightfall, and at the moment, Jacob was having a go with Harold's PC game and Piper was trying to make funny faces in his full-length mirror.

Jacob noticed that the situation had gotten a little bit odd, and suddenly excused himself to the kitchen for a drink.

She felt her face growing a little hot, and her pulse was racing like never before. She thought it was a little unusual, because she never felt this way before. Even with Stephan.

'No,' she mentally reminded herself. 'Stephan is the guy, you want.' With that, she decided to leave to avoid any awkward situations with Harold.

The worst thing that happened next was that she was kissing him back.

'I can't,' she thought. 'It's so unfair to Stephan.'

'What is love?' Piper thought angrily to herself as she looked out her bedroom window into the nightsky.

Yet, when she was with Harold today, she experienced so many heart-wrenching moments like never before. Every slight move he made just caused her heart to skip a beat. She was head over heels with his presence, even when he never offered any gift.

She had been fooling herself all along.

She loved Harold.

- Tingz

Ps: I know this is a little lame because I didn't fill in every detail on the difference of feelings to both guys. I just wanted to end the story fast! Oh, and I tried to follow the actual story (yes it is a true story) quite closely, but I couldn't resist the habit of spicing things up a little bit. =P

Pps: This is for my special friends, Piper* and Harold*! (Names changed to protect identities.)

"Watch it, girl. I don't want to be seen as a paedophile," Jacob snarled at her and she stuck her tongue back in return.

"I don't know what's the fuss," Stephan yawned, winking flirtatiously at Piper who smiled back. "I mean, the paper was no kick."

Stephan was a student of the Language Electives Program and he had no paper due that day.

"What's taking Harold so long?" John glanced at his watch.

The minute John finished his sentence, Harold was seen dragging his feet out of the train station.

She turned to look at Jacob, who could only shrug back.

"No can do," Piper groaned, rubbing her stomach. "I must have ate something wrong for lunch!"

"I'm afraid she'll get lonely," Stephan grinned, showing his dimples.

Piper turned to look at Harold, but his back had already turned on them as the group cycled away.

"Great, I'm famished," Harold said, flashing a smile in Piper's direction.

"Shall we sit here then?" Stephan suggested, signalling the group a table.

"As your boss," he said calmly and slowly, but without looking at her in the eye. "You are to sit with me."

"Now, nobody disobeys the Man!" Jacob chuckled uncomfortably in a bid to break the silence, pushing her out of the way and sliding in on the seat beside Stephan.

"I'm full," Stephan announced half an hour later.

"Shall we go for a walk then?" he asked her, unknowingly blushing in the process.

"Sure," she found herself obliging to his request.

"Don't go," this time he looked at her straight at the eye, his eyes rounder and brimming with sincerity. "Please."

The rest of the gang, except Stephan, chose to ignore the situation this time and continued their own conversation.

Piper found herself rooted to the spot. Before she could answer, Harold unexpectedly released her hand.

-Tingz

Little did she know that two of the guys had already fallen for her charm.

Piper obviously noticed this special treatment but had absolutely no idea on how to react. She found both of them equally lovely, yet she hated to break any of their hearts if she chose one. And if she chose neither, she would be on the losing end as well. Jacob, unfortunately, was no help either.

She did know one thing, however. She had to choose quickly.

Piper sighed as she watched her fellow CCA mates entertain the primary school kids that visited their booth. It was her school's open house that day, and while she should be having fun since it was organised in a carnival-style to celebrate the end of promotional examinations, she bored stiff.

She toyed with her hair lazily, building sand-castles in the air.

She whirled around, and found Stephan waving at her from the mass of people around him, giving her an extremely adorable grin when she waved back.

'Aww, he came all the way here, just for me!' she thought dreamily.

"Hey, I came to check out your school's carnival and it's pretty radical," he praised at a beaming Piper. He looked around her before dropping his audible tone to a whisper. "Want to check out earlier?"

She nodded, a little too eagerly.

"I trust you enjoyed your dinner," Stephan said as they sat down to enjoy the breeze at the Esplanade Bay.

"Yes. I meant, it was free, I better enjoy it," she giggled shyly.

Then there was an awkward silence.

Piper tore her eyes away from the majestic merlion she was admiring to find herself staring at a brown bear clutching tightly onto a red flower.

"Piper," Stephan brushed her hair away from her eyes. "I really like you..."

"You can't be serious!" Jacob exclaimed, choking on his Coke Light. "He really kissed you?"

"Wow. I mean, you, of all girls," he chuckled. His laughter ended quickly when she shot him a glare.

"Maybe you have some emotional problem," he shrugged. "You should be happy after all. He rejected damn lot of girls for you."

"He has no damn clue man! No damn clue he's fighting with his best friend for the same girl. Gee, Piper, you're one hell of a troublemaker."

- Tingz

"Perfect," she cheered herself on as she thought enthusiatically to herself.

The boy stood up straight quickly as soon as he caught sight of her and grinned back.

"Hey Jacob. You mean make up and stuff? Hell no! I was working out at the gym with my mum and I lost track of the time. I mean I have to lose all those fats that I'm going to gain at dinner!" Piper giggled.

That's when she noticed for the first time the group of guys hanging around behind her friend. They all smiled kindly and nodded in recognition as they were introduced one by one.

Piper raised her eyebrow when one of them was known as their "boss". She narrowed her view on Harold and expected some burlish boy with a nose of a snob and a demanding kind of look. Instead she found herself staring at an angel, to her opinion. He had perfectly round, brown eyes and the cutest nose she had ever seen. His lips were nicely cut out and his spiked hair fitted him to the T and he would have been the no. 1 hunk in the country if not for his height. He stood about 10cm above Piper, who was only 5 feet 2.

"Right, now let's get on with dinner. I'm absolutely starving!" Jacob cut in before she could respond and signalled for the group to move.

"To widen your social circle," he joked, yet again. However, on seeing the killer look in her eyes, he quickly added, "Well, I thought that the guys should get used to having a girl around. We are all idiots when it comes to socialising with girls and since you're my best mate, you're the perfect candidate."

"Now now, this isn't your matchmaking session," he winked.

"Thanks," Piper smiled at him, admiring his stylish hairdo as he dumped the contents into her bowl.

"How are the preparations for the promos?" Harold turned towards her and asked politely.

He grinned boyish-ly as he nodded in recognition and turned back to his food.

"I heard from Jacob that you're a whiz when it comes to Science. We could study together if you don't mind. I desperately need some coaching in Physics," Stephan confessed earnestly.

"Yea, count me in." Harold chipped in. Philip nodded fervently beside him.

"Sure," Piper agreed shyly.

'Three hunks would definitely make studying for the year end exams a lot more interesting,' she beamed as she helped herself to more food.

(to be continued)

- Tingz

Ps: Based on a true story. Names are changed to protect identities.

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