"Well, if it isn't Your Hyperbolic Highness himself." a familiar voice spoke from behind.
Knowing the nickname all too well, Noah turned around and playfully rolled his eyes and smirked as he replied, "Hey, Ciara. Good to see you again, Queen Quarrelsome. How was your summer?"
"Meh. It was decent enough. I don't even need to ask about yours."
"Don't even speak of it. It was complete hell. So, what class do you have first?"
"AP Biology. You?"
"Same," Noah said, "we can catch up on the way to class." And with that, the two walked to room 605, ready to begin the new school year with their first class.
Noah and Ciara became friends last year during their sophomore year of high school. They first met when both of them joined their high school's debate team and were assigned partners. After getting to know each other, they learned about their common love for books, video games (although of the two Noah was more obsessed with these), and good films. Ciara warmed up to his sarcastic humor, and even liked it a little bit (although she would never admit it), thus the nickname Your Hyperbolic Highness. Feeling the need to give her a mocking nickname as well, Noah called her Queen Quarrelsome because when Ciara strongly disagrees with someone's opinion (which is quite often), she has a tendency to get into heated, but calm, arguments. But Noah did find her to be a strong debate partner and a very intelligent arguer. He liked that about her; Ciara was never afraid to stand her ground and smartly get her points across. Besides their many debate-coordination and study sessions at the coffeehouse near their school, they never spent much time together. Noah had never been one for attending social events and Ciara only went to them on occasion. When Noah was a contestant on Total Drama Island this summer, he couldn't fit all of his books into one suitcase, so Ciara sent him weekly packages of her favorites with a letter attached. Noah had to bribe Chris (as no mail was technically allowed), but it was worth it. Neither of them had ever really thought of dating anyone. Ciara knew that a relationship with Noah would never happen because he was not the type of person to enter a relationship. She sometimes mentally joked that he would die happily single. But sometimes she didn't really know how to feel about that. Noah remembered when Cody kept pestering him about Ciara's packages on the island…
"Dude, did you get another package from that girl?" Cody asked as Noah entered the Screaming Gopher's cabin.
"Yes, I did." Noah replied brusquely.
"She must be one dedicated girlfriend."
"Ciara isn't my 'girlfriend', she's just a friend who's sending me books because I couldn't fit all of mine into my suitcase." Noah gave him a sharp glare.
Noah opened her letter with an attached picture of Ciara maliciously holding a copy of the recently released Kosmic Kaos 2, much to Noah's jealously. Peeking over his shoulder, Cody exclaimed, "Wow, she's cute!"
Flashing him a glare of annoyance, Noah replied, "Would you leave?"
"Sorry, man. I'll stop."
Noah had never thought of Ciara as anyone more than a friend, but he couldn't lie, she was a pretty girl. She possessed waist-length auburn hair, olive skin with slightly darker lips, and a petit body. She was nearly Noah's height, just shy of one inch. Everyone had always seen him as a sarcastic, rude loner, so Noah had just given up on finding a significant other ages ago.
