章 36: Proposals
Emma's eyes widened.
It was not until James completed his sentence that Emma could breathe once again.
"What if I propose we have a competition?" He suggested.
While one part of her was relieved to find out that proposing to her was not his current intention, another part of her told her to take the suggestion and have some competition between the two.
She tilted her head.
"Some friendly competition?" She asked.
James smirked.
"Let's go with that," he replied.
"What do I get if I win it?" Emma joked around, acting confident.
James casually answered.
"You get to decide if you win," he said.
He regained that arrogance of his, starting to boast about his achievements.
"I've never lost a competition before, so this will be no exception," he answered confidently.
He looked at Emma.
"So? Scared you're going to lose?" He asked, his signature smirk still plastered on his handsome face.
Emma smiled.
"You bet I'm not. Game on," she said.
He scoffed.
"Being confident will get you nowhere," he replied.
Emma laughed.
"Look who's talking," she remarked.
James narrowed his eyes, immediately changing the subject.
"Well, if I do win, which is inevitable, you have to give your word that you'll accept whatever it is I want as a prize," he told Emma.
Emma nodded.
'What was the worst he could do?' She asked herself, wondering what James wanted her to do if he did win.
As if on cue, Professor Celine handed both of them a quiz paper.
The two exchanged one last look, pens at the ready as the competition began.
It was after a switch of their papers, and a brief session of checking each other's work that the two students finally got their scores. They hadn't counted each others' scores while checking, so their scores remained unknown.
James piped up.
"So," he started.
Emma rolled her eyes playfully.
"How much did you score?" She asked.
When he remained quiet, she pestered him even more.
"What is it? You know you can tell me," she reminded him.
"Not if you don't tell me what you got first," James replied.
The two had their scores at the ready, and the two of them wondered how much the other person got.
It was when James admitted how much he had gotten, that Emma was silently celebrating her victorious win.
James stared at his paper, while every once in a while looking at his adversary's paper. With his mouth agape, as he took in the information that he had been beaten.
Emma had thought of her win to be more victorious, and filled with much more celebrating, but the expression on James' face held a different story.
Yet, what Emma chose as her prize would satisfy James more than it would her. She just needed the perfect time to inform him of her decision.
The two head over to Professor Celine's desk, where she was already working on the analysis on the liquid.
All the other classmates, oblivious to what was happening, had already left the classroom to prepare for their next class.
It was only when Professor Celine had insisted on them leaving her to work on the analysis by herself, that they were able to leave the laboratory.
One reason Professor Celine was so insistent on it was since she worked best on her own, and that it'd be suspicious to the Dean of ZALE if she was caught with two students analysing a liquid thought to have contained poison.
Meanwhile, with Emma and James, James tried on his best poker face as he and Emma walked out of the laboratory.
James silently admitted his defeat.
He hadn't lost by much if you considered half a mark much in the first place.
While she had gotten the best score you could've gotten for a quiz, he had gotten half a mark less than it.
This reminded him of the times he used to lose to his sister, Carina Carrington.
She was the perfect child. Smart, pretty, witty, logical, and competitive. Though she had no intention to take the throne, she was loved by her people, known as their perfect princess.
James was just as loved by Amaris' people, but with his parents, it was a different story.
Sighing at the thought, James turned to ask Emma, his tone sombre, "Well, you won. Since I can't go back on my word, you get whatever you want."
Emma stayed silent, looking around the hallway with a few
"So, what is it that you want?" James asked, curiosity evident in his dulcet voice.
Emma faced him.
"James," Emma said as she took his hands in hers once more.
"What I want, is for you to be happy," she said as she trailed off, looking into his grey eyes.
"...and smile," she said as she stood on her tippy toes and kissed him fervidly.
She let go of his hands, as she wrapped her arms around his neck instinctively.
It was as if time had stopped right there, and her whole body tingled as she felt the feel of his frame on hers. Emma's heart pounded in her chest as her knees got weaker and weaker. She had initiated the kiss, but she now could only focus on how soft his lips felt against hers.
For James, he wasn't completely sure if he was supposed to be ecstatic, or disappointed in himself.
On one hand, every breath he took smelled like that tempting aroma of vanilla beans that Emma smelt of, while the warm feeling of her breath warmed the coldest parts of his heart and was as inviting as it was destabilizing.
On the other, he had failed his expectations.
At that moment, he couldn't have cared less about anything that had previously happened as he could only focus on what was happening now.
As he and Emma separated, the two gasped for air.
"That's my prize for beating you on that quiz," Emma admitted.
James' face widened with the biggest smile.
"Well, maybe I should lose to you more often then," he joked, finally coming to terms with his defeat.
If losing to her meant that she'd kiss him, he'd lose to her millions and millions of times any day.
"Don't make it a habit," Emma replied, radiating warmth.
James smiled gratefully at the girl.
"Emma, thank you. Truly," he said as he got lost in those eyes of hers.
Something much more passionate was about to ensue if not for the brief interruption of one of their classmates running towards them, breaking multiple ZALE rules in the process, though also getting off the hook since no staff member or teacher was there to stop her.
She stopped right before she ran into Emma as she panted, trying to compose herself and calm herself down from the sprinting she had just done.
Out of her words that were mixed with her need to breathe every few seconds, Emma could make out these few words that were the best news she'd heard all day.
"Nurse...said...Lily...awake...clinic...now."
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