Wrong Pairing
The announcement board outside the main hall was already crowded.
Scarlet didn’t even need to push through to know what it said she could feel it in the way people were talking.
Excited. Nervous. Competitive.
She tightened her grip on her backpack strap and stepped closer anyway.
And then she saw it.
ACADEMIC SHOWCASE TEAMS FINAL PAIRINGS
Her eyes scanned the list fast.
Too fast.
Her name was there.
Scarlet Vire.
Good.
She kept reading.
Rose and two others.
Joanna and --
Her breath caught slightly.
Then she saw it.
Nash Calloway Partner: Scarlet Vire
For a second, she thought the letters were rearranging themselves just to mess with her.
No.
No, no, no.
“That’s not real,” she muttered under her breath.
“Unfortunately, it is.”
The voice came from behind her.
Low. Calm. Infuriatingly sure of itself.
Scarlet turned slowly.
Nash was leaning against the edge of the board like he had been there the entire time just waiting for her reaction.
Like he already knew what it would be.
Dark hair slightly messy, expression unreadable, eyes too observant for someone who pretended not to care about anything.
He glanced at the paper once, then back at her.
“Looks like we’re stuck together.”
Scarlet stared at him.
Then at the list again.
Then back at him.
“No,” she said flatly. “We are not.”
One corner of his mouth twitched.
“Oh? You planning to argue with the school system?”
“I’m planning to fix a mistake.”
“That implies they made one.”
“They did.”
Nash pushed off the wall slightly, finally facing her fully now.
“Care to explain how you’re going to convince them that pairing you with me is a mistake?”
Scarlet crossed her arms.
“Easy. I just tell them I work better alone.”
A pause.
Then Nash nodded slowly like he was genuinely considering that.
“Yeah,” he said. “That checks out.”
Something about his tone made her narrow her eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“You look like the type,” he added casually. “Doesn’t like depending on people. Doesn’t like people depending on her. Probably gets annoyed when someone breathes too loudly near her.”
Scarlet blinked once.
Twice.
Then stepped closer.
“Do you always talk like you know people after five seconds of looking at them?”
“No,” he said. “Sometimes it takes three.”
Her jaw tightened.
“Lucky me.”
“Very.”
There was a beat of silence.
Not empty.
Not comfortable either.
Something in between like the air itself didn’t know what it was supposed to be doing around them.
Scarlet turned away first.
“Forget it,” she said. “I’m going to fix this.”
Nash didn’t move.
“You can try,” he said lightly. “But the competition rules are pretty clear. Once pairs are assigned, they don’t change them.”
She stopped walking.
Slowly turned back.
“Competition?”
That got him.
Just slightly.
His gaze flickered.
“You didn’t read the email?”
“I skimmed it.”
He sighed like that explained everything about her as a person.
“For the Academic Showcase,” he said. “Two-person teams. Finals project determines scholarship placement.”
Scarlet’s stomach dropped a little.
Scholarship placement.
Of course.
Of course they’d do something like that.
She looked back at the list again like it might suddenly change out of mercy.
It didn’t.
Nash shoved his hands into his pockets.
“You’re welcome, by the way.”
Scarlet snapped her head toward him.
“For what?”
“For not letting you find out later.”
“I didn’t ask for emotional support.”
“That’s good,” he said. “I’m not offering any.”
She scoffed.
“Great. My partner is useless and annoying.”
“Correction,” Nash said. “I’m your partner who is forced into this against his will.”
Scarlet gave him a look.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Were you hoping for someone else? Maybe someone who enjoys your personality?”
That finally got a real reaction.
A faint smirk.
Barely there.
But real.
“I don’t hope for people,” he said. “It leads to disappointment.”
Something about the way he said it made her pause for half a second.
Then she shook it off immediately.
“Good,” she said. “Because I don’t work well with distractions.”
“Same,” he replied.
Another pause.
Longer this time.
They both seemed to realize at the same moment that agreeing made this worse, not better.
Scarlet exhaled sharply.
“This is going to be a disaster.”
Nash tilted his head slightly.
“Probably.”
“And you’re fine with that?”
“I didn’t say I was fine with it,” he said. “I said it’s predictable.”
That word stuck in her mind longer than she wanted it to.
Predictable.
Like they were already a story that had been written without asking either of them.
Scarlet turned away again, more firmly this time.
“I’m talking to the coordinator.”
“Good luck,” Nash called after her. “Try not to scare them.”
She didn’t look back.
“I don’t scare people.”
A beat.
Then, quieter almost like he was talking to himself:
“That’s not what I meant.”
The coordinator office smelled like paper, stress, and bad decisions.
Scarlet stood in front of the desk, arms crossed tightly.
“I need to be reassigned.”
The woman behind the desk didn’t even look up.
“No.”
“One of us is clearly not compatible with the other.”
The woman finally looked up.
“That’s the point.”
Scarlet blinked.
“…what?”
“This isn’t just academics,” the coordinator said. “It’s teamwork under pressure. You don’t get to pick comfortable partners.”
Scarlet’s stomach tightened again.
“I don’t need comfortable. I need functional.”
A pause.
Then—
A knock at the door.
Scarlet didn’t even need to turn.
She already knew.
“Sorry I’m late,” Nash said casually as he stepped inside. “Had to watch my academic future get emotionally dismantled in real time.”
The coordinator sighed.
“You two are perfect.”
Scarlet whipped around.
“Excuse me?”
Nash looked at her.
Then the coordinator.
Then back at her.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “This is going great already.”
Ten minutes later, they were outside again.
Together.
Against her will.
Against his too, apparently but he looked far less emotionally affected by it, which somehow made it worse.
Scarlet walked fast.
Nash kept pace without trying.
“So,” he said, breaking the silence. “Do we hate each other immediately, or do we ease into it?”
She didn’t look at him.
“We already started.”
“Fair.”
They walked a little further.
Scarlet finally stopped.
“This is serious,” she said.
Nash stopped too.
“I’m aware.”
“If we fail this, it affects scholarships.”
“I heard that part too.”
She turned to face him fully.
“Then we need rules.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?”
“Professional only. No distractions. No jokes. No unnecessary commentary.”
Nash considered that.
“Sounds boring.”
“It sounds efficient.”
He nodded slowly.
“Alright.”
Scarlet blinked slightly.
“That was easy.”
“Don’t get used to it,” he said. “I just like winning more than I like arguing.”
That landed in a way she didn’t expect.
Because for a second
Just a second
She realized they might be the same in that way.
And that thought made her more nervous than it should have.
Nash started walking again.
“Come on,” he said. “Partner.”
Scarlet hesitated.
Then followed.
But as she fell into step beside him, she couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t just a competition pairing.
It felt like something had already started.
And neither of them had signed up for what it was going to turn into.
