And the piano class was full of talented kids,
so Olivia dropped martial arts and went back
to focusing on piano.
Г
Linda hated martial arts, anyway. “All that
fighting is so barbaric,” she’d sniffed. “She’ll
end up all muscled and no one will want to
marry her!”
I figured the real reason Olivia quit was
because I’d signed up first. She figured she
couldn’t beat me, so why bother?
After she quit, she came up to me, trying to
act tough. She said pretty much the same
things as Linda, then added, “And Ethan will
be mine, too!”
I beat her up again.
Every time I punched Olivia, Linda would
storm over to our house when Dad was at
work, demanding an explanation from Mom.
<
Mom would try to lecture me, but my
response was always the same: “If she hadn’t
been a jerk, I wouldn’t have touched her.”
That always shut her up.
Dad was always on my side.
In second grade, Linda tried to “teach me a
lesson” when my parents were out. Even
though she was much bigger than me, I’d
been taking martial arts for two years. Plus,
she underestimated me. I got a few bruises,
but I gave as good as I got. I got a few slaps,
punches, and kicks in, but I bit a chunk out of
Linda’s arm.
I held back a little with Olivia because she
was my age, but with Linda? No mercy. If
someone hadn’t pulled me off, I would have
く
bitten off another chunk.
When people found out what happened, no
one blamed me. They all blamed Linda for
bullying a little kid.
Linda was injured and humiliated. She was
furious, but there was nothing she could do.
Dad even called the cops on her. Her husband
bailed her out.
After that, Linda and Olivia became our
common enemies, mine and Dad’s.
Mom finally started distancing herself from
Linda after that. But she couldn’t bring herself
to cut Linda off completely. She still listened
to Linda’s complaining sometimes.
Except for not playing piano, and taking
martial arts, I kept my grades exactly the
same as I remembered them.
Olivia, with her foreknowledge, aced
everything.
She finally got her wish: she was “better”
than me.
But she’d gotten smarter. After second grade,
she only taunted me from a distance. I guess.
biting her mom had left a lasting impression.
It was funny. She knew what it felt like to
have a good life, a life worth living. And she
wasn’t willing to lose it.
I ignored her. She and Linda had to settle for
bothering my mom.
く
Every time report cards came out, Linda
would brag to Mom. “Olivia got another A+!”
she’d crow. “How did little Mia do? What
were her scores?”
At first, Mom would say, “Mia did great, too.”
Then Linda would sneer. “Oh really? Olivia
said Mia only got a B. That’s like, fiftieth in
the entire grade! You’re so easygoing. If
Olivia ever brought home a B, I’d ground her
for life!”
Eventually, Mom figured out Linda was just
trying to get a rise out of her. She started
giving one–word answers: “Okay.” “Uh–huh.”
“Sure.
99
Linda thought Mom was just upset about
being shown up, which made her even
く
smugger.
One time, though, Linda suggested to Mom
that she should hit me. I overheard.
I was in middle school by then. Thanks to
martial arts, I was taller than in my past life,
almost as tall as Linda. I stood there,
backpack slung over one shoulder, and glared
at her. She shut up.
I sat in the living room for a while, just
watching her. She didn’t say another word
and finally left.
Mom didn’t scold me for being rude. Instead,
she made a huge dinner of all my favorite
foods.
By high school, Olivia started struggling in
school.
Especially with math, physics, and chemistry. Those subjects required deep understanding.
You had to grasp the concepts to solve the
problems.
I’d noticed a while back that Olivia was better
at humanities than sciences.
Her scores were always higher in those
subjects, whether it was the seven subjects in
middle school or the nine in high school.
Of course, I only noticed because she kept
trying to one–up me. If her science scores
weren’t as good as mine, she’d brag about
her humanities scores.
I didn’t care. I was focused on myself. Which
く
kind of ruined her fun.
I think that’s why she chose science in her
past life, just to spite me.
Who knows?
This time, to make sure she picked science
again, I pretended to badmouth humanities in
front of her.
“What’s so great about humanities?” I’d
scoff. “It’s all memorization. Anyone can do
that. Science is where it’s at. It’s the future.”
Then, when she wasn’t around, I’d tell my
friends, “Humanities requires serious
understanding, too. It’s not just memorization.
If it were so easy, there wouldn’t be such a
difference in the number of science and
く
humanities students.‘
