Page 39 of Advanced Chemistry

“Sports teaches kids discipline and teamwork as well as builds their confidence, and those skills seem more important than knowing what calcium carbonate is,” I said with a dark chuckle. “But that’s just my opinion.”

“And opinions aren’t facts,” said Chase, with a backbone in his tone that I didn’t expect from him.

“Two things can be true at once. You guys wanna play darts?” Anton pointed his thumb at the dartboard on the wall.

“There’s only two sets of darts, though,” Chase said.

“We can improvise, take turns.”

“I want to play Chase.” I narrowed my eyes at our former teacher. “If he’s up for the challenge.”

“I’m always up for a challenge,” Chase shot back. I always took games way too seriously, and I had a feeling that Chase was built the same way.

“This’ll be good. Chase versus Seb.” Anton watched from the sidelines, apparently clueless as to the real competition going on.

“I’ll let you go first.” I handed Chase the darts. “Respecting my elders and all.”

“Elder denotes a position of authority in several cultures, so I appreciate the compliment.” Chase swiped the darts from my hand. He held the first dart right up to his eye, pointing toward the board. Back and forth his arm went, practicing his shot but not taking it.

“Sometime this year,” I said.

“I’m sizing up the spatial obstacles of the game to better calibrate the velocity required to hit the board,” Chase said.

Was all his technical speak a way to mentally fuck with me? I’d faced all sorts of opponents on the wrestling mat. He wasn’t going to psych me out.

“I’m going to give each of you ten seconds to shoot. How’s that?” Anton squeezed the dip between Chase’s shoulder blades and let his hand drift down his back.

I cut between them. “You’re distracting him, Anton.”

“Anton is invoking Pareto’s Principle. The task will be completed in the timeframe one is given,” said Chase.

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked.

“It means I’m going right now.” Chase sent his darts into the air, where all three hit two rungs above the bullseye. Not bad but not great. Chase seemed to have the same opinion.

“Seb, you’re up.” Anton gave me a light pat on the ass. I blocked out my reaction to his touch and focused on the game.

Usually, I was meticulous like Chase. But here, I used the element of surprise to psych him out. I fired off three darts in quick succession.

Where Chase’s darts all clustered together, mine were all over the place. One hit just above the bullseye, one far above that, and the third hit the edge of the board.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath.

“Hey, it’s all good. You almost hit the bullseye,” Anton said.

“Almost,” Chase snarked. He pulled the darts off the board and motioned for me to step aside.

“Round two,” Anton called out. He smoothed his thumb over my elbow. I tensed under his touch and stayed laser-focused on the game. I refused to lose to Chase. Not at darts, nor with Anton.

While I was distracted by Anton’s touch, Chase usurped my strategy and flicked his three darts onto the board, quick jabs of his arm like he touched a hot stove. The third dart hit the bullseye.

“Damn!” Anton called out.

Chase remained quiet, a pleased grin as he stared at his shots.

“Your turn, Sebastian.”

“You got this, Seb.” Anton went to pat my ass again, which really pissed me off. Was he really trying to stay neutral, like a horny Switzerland? I threw his hand off me with lots of unnecessary force.

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