Content: college!AU, f!reader, academic rivals to lovers, angst, fluff, no mention of y/n, reader has a bad case of eldest daughter syndrome and former gifted kid, reader might come off as a bit childish, one sided hatred, family drama, mentions of MC.
Word count: 1k
a/n: hi! :D thank you so so much for giving me the confidence to keep writing! Sorry for the delay I was sick and swamped with work D:
Caleb was just walking out of class with a smile on his face since he just got great feedback on his latest calculus assignment. He could even see her walking ahead a bit agitated. Oh this could be good.
He hurried his step and followed the familiar heap of hair. He frowned when he saw her take a turn to a quiet hallway. He slowed down and moved his head discreetly to peek at her.
She had her hands to the wall and was clearly agitated. âStupidâŚStupid! Stupid!â She said and hit the wall with her hand. She seemed on the verge of panic so he walked up to her.
ââŚHey?â He called her name softly and she turned to look at him with wide eyes and frustration. It startled him and he took a step back so she wouldnât launch at him with punches. âAre you okay?â
Her week had been a shitshow. Truly. It started with a call from her parents who just had to tell her how hard her siblings were working. She even tried to get a word in about her own achievements so far but she was constantly interrupted by praise after praise for everyone but her.
And then she started failing her calculus quizzes. She had never been a genius at math but she had always done well enough to be confident she could do well at the DAA. It worked with calculus I and II and III. But recently, partial differential equations have been kicking her ass. She had been on a high in other courses, only to be hit with whiplash from the series of failures that came right after.
She hadnât even enjoyed bickering with Caleb lately. It was grinding her gears whenever she got a peek at his grades. He truly was flawless and incredibly smart. It was a growing envy that felt like it might explode any second.
And today, he had been laughing with his friends and gloating loudly for her to hear about how good he was doing. Also about how some professors were considering writing great recommendation letters as soon as he graduated. She swore she even heard that he got a contact with the Farspace Fleet.
She was furious, it was like the weight of a whole truck pressing on her chest. She felt the weight of her worries, the immense pressure to succeed and be the best to impress everyone, and her heavy envy. It was suffocating. So when she slumped against the wall and heard âAre you okay?â From the number one sources of her predicament, she snapped. She could not help it or stop it.
âAm I okay? Why? So you can laugh with your stupid friends about how silly little me was so dramatic! And then gloat once more about how great Caleb Xia is! Oh Caleb! Everyone likes him! Caleb, can you help me with this? Caleb, aren't you just so smart? How easy it must be to be you!â Her voice kept getting higher and higher. Even some students passing by looked at them with surprised faces at the commotion but kept walking.
âEasy? What are you talking about?â He frowned and looked all innocent and supposedly confused. She felt her anger rise even more as she took some steps towards him.
âYeah! Easy! Not all of us can be innate geniuses and breeze through every single thing they come across! Some of us have giant pressure and sometimes we struggle! Unlike you!â She yelled at him as she dug her finger on his chest with sharp taps. He looked at her with wide eyes. She probably looked insane to him.
âStruggling? Do you need help? I can share my notesââ He was halfway done rummaging his backpack when she made a loud frustrated noise.
âShare your notes?!â Just the idea of it felt insulting to her. It was rubbing salt on the wound. âDonât you dare insult me with such a thing! What you should do is keep your stupid mouth shut and leave me alone!â
She stomped away from him and didnât stop walking until she got to her dorm. Where she sat on the floor and finally, she let herself cry.
Caleb was stunned. He froze in place for a while after she left. He felt like he had just failed and greatly.
He felt like he was 10 again, trying his best to make sure everything was perfect for MC. Back then, whenever she came back to him crying despite his best efforts, he had felt like a complete failure.
And after todayâs fiasco, he felt like the worst of the worst once again. He never intended this game of push and pull. The stupid bickering about grades and âwho is the bestâ. It wasnât supposed to make her feel small. It wasnât supposed to hurt her.
But he did. And now he had no clue how to fix it.
He went back to his dorm and thought of sending a text. He had her number from a group chat for a party from ages ago. But what was he supposed to say? How could he apologize for fucking up this badly?
If he apologized and offered help once again, she would be furious. She might actually kill him on the spot.
At around 7 pm he was about to text her the cheesiest apology in the world when he heard a knock on his dorm door. He frowned since he didnât remember inviting anyone today. And MC wouldâve let him know if she was visiting. So he walked over to the door feeling a bit wary.
He did not expect to see her on the other side of the door. âGideon gave me your address. Maybe I do need your notes.â She said with a beet red face and looking directly at the floor.
a/n: a bit of a shorter chapter i apologize!! It was not my strongest and I felt like I self inserted too hard with the reader snapping. but i hope you enjoy it anyway! :D what do we say? Do I make them friends and then make Caleb go through the whole explosion and colonel Caleb or do I give Caleb some happiness? Should I give them comfort then angst or just comfort? Let me know :D i have all sorts of ideas for these two!!
hey to my new followers thank you so much for the warm support!! i am shocked that people liked my writing! i promise to write more soon when my work slows down a little :D
Content: college!AU, f!reader, academic rivals to lovers, angst, clueless Caleb, no mention of y/n, reader has a bad case of eldest daughter syndrome and former gifted kid, reader might come off as a bit childish, one sided hatred, tired Caleb, Caleb just wants a hug :(
Word count: 1.2k
Authorâs Note: Hello! Due to the reaction to this post I got the confidence to write a little something. Itâs my first fic ever since I was in the trenches of wattpad in 2013. So if this sucks please let me know! I can take it (maybe). I did a little research into aviation engineering classes and aerodynamics classes and such but I am not sure if itâs fully accurate. And yes this is a bit of a self insert because I used some of my own experiences when I was in college.
Being in the DAA is not an easy feat. Especially when you are the eldest daughter and the first one in your family to make it to college. The pressure is like being trapped in a tiny glass box slowly getting smaller and smaller. The amount of work and all nighters really takes a toll on you. And standing out academically is an enormous challenge when people like Caleb Xia just have it so easy. If looks could kill, her looks would have dealt with Caleb ages ago.
It all started freshman year. As a former âgifted kidâ she was of course expecting the constant praise and validation she used to get easily when she was in high school. Though she learned quickly enough that not all gifted kids go to do great things later in life. She was actually struggling to keep up with some of the classes, her excitement over them and the genuine passion for the topics was not enough to pull through as it did years before. Not only that, but she started noticing the tall boy who seemed to be surrounded by a hoard of friends and girls sighing whenever he walked past. Caleb was the definition of effortless charm. He would ace tests and go through presentations not only with charisma but genuine interest and great intellect. It made something ugly in her stomach bubble up, and it tasted a lot like envy.
For the next few years, finding her up until the wee hours in the morning reading and drilling words and concepts into her brain was a normal occurrence. Only to sit down at the desk with her exam in front of her and blank out at the very last question. Panic and sweaty palms making the paper damp. Frantic erasing of her answers making the paper break and make it worse. She would not let it show later though, she would hold her chin high as she took her test as Caleb threw her a smirk her way as the professor praised him for a perfect score. She just scoffed and rolled her eyes and walked up to him after class. âItâs not like your argument on the structural composition of the wings on a B-2 Spirit and a F-22 Raptor is groundbreaking. Anyone with two brain cells can draw that conclusion!â
Caleb just glanced at her briefly as he walked towards the library. âWell, why donât you enlighten me, a simple peasant?â
She closed her fists and started walking with more of a stomp. âWell! Itâs obvious! Even though both need stealth, one needs more flight control while the other needs more temperature control. Crazy discovery you made there!â
âSo that is why you didnât argue it yourself on your exam?â He said before opening a water bottle and taking a sip like he didnât just rub salt to the wound.
Another usual for her would be throwing all nighter after all nighter for weeks, deep into engineering journals, standards documentation. Spending hours constructing her own model with different materials for a very detailed drop test for landing gear and the impact forces on landing systems.
For the first time in a while she felt victorious after her presentation. She even threw a little cocky glare at Caleb as she walked by him. He chuckled quietly and shook his head when she did that. âNice try, sweetheartâ He mumbled as he stood up to present his project. His dismissal made her even more annoyed at him so she huffed and walked back to her seat quicker.
Her smile faded when he started speaking. Of course Caleb Xia would learn how to do 3D models and do a digital drop test simulation and do the crazy configuration of the program just to humiliate her! He was just so sick and twisted. There he was, with his stupid golden retriever smile and pushing his hair back without breaking a sweat as he explained his stupid project.
She was so furious that she left as soon as the class was over. She was stomping over to a lonely hallway to kick at a wall and groan out of frustration. She was supposed to get the praise and validation from the professor and peers for her effort. Not him! She stood there seething before she composed herself and walked to her next class.
For the next few weeks, she threw herself into being the best version of herself. She made sure to answer in class before Caleb had the chance to even think of lifting his hand. She was living off of energy drinks and coffee just so she could pull perfect scores on quizzes and tests. Every time she did better than him she would slap the paper in front of Calebâs table. âIt seems like you forgot the most important part in a propulsion system. I guess the charm canât compare to brains, huh?â She gave him a little hair flip for a more dramatic display of victory.
It made her feel like herself again. Every single time she had a little win it felt like a huge accomplishment. But she tried to not get too ahead of herself and enjoy them too much. She had many other wins to prepare for.
For Caleb, it was just a game. Every time he made a mistake he would smirk. He knew that she would come up to him in about two minutes to tell him how much of an idiot he was and go on her little rants on the topic and the correct answer. He would just lean his face on his hand and listen to her ramble on. âYeah? I mean I can see that. But what about the electrical system?â He would say in a condescending tone just so her face would turn beet red and get her to go on another ramble along with some insults.
It was even better when he did better than her. Oh, how he enjoyed seeing her face scrunch up to a frown and the knives she liked to throw at him with her glares. Her stomps usually gave away that she was following him after class to tear into how his thinking is far inferior than hers.
Since he was a child, Caleb had always been on high alert. Most of the thoughts in his head revolved around âIs this a threat? How do I fix this? How can I make this happen?â. There was not a second he wasnât thinking of home and how to make everyoneâs lives easier. It wasnât that he was putting himself last, it was that he wasnât even considering himself in the equation.
So to Caleb, having something that was this amusing and entertaining was incredibly refreshing. She was not looking to rely on him, that would be so absurd that she would have laughed. She was fascinated with him, and the feeling was definitely mutual.
He had always let her ramble on and on just so he could finally turn off his brain. It was a little indulgence he liked to partake in whenever she gave him the time of day. His desire to provoke her was like a natural progression to his little treat. Push her with a quip and he got more time with her.
To everyone else he just looked cocky and condescending, and maybe he was. But it was a small price to pay to finally enjoy a glimpse of normalcy.
Though just like everything in Calebâs life, the game was a fragile decor piece about to hit the ground.
a/n: i feel like this was ass :/ but if even one person wants more of this i could potentially make some bullshit with this
a/n 2: hey so thank you so much for the warm support!! i am shocked that people liked this! i will write some more soon! if you wish to be on the tag list let me know! :D also! if you have any suggestions or ideas you would like me to write my asks are open :) or if you would like to say anything else that is fine as well!
since i see that my vision on this has been getting across
i want to expand on it a little more and with the other LIs
i feel like Zayne wouldnât be competitive in academic spaces let alone at work so i canât really expand on that since in my head i canât see it (i am open to discussion in the comments or my asks!)
AND also idk why i also donât see Rafayel super competitive at least in like oh this is non!MC my rival in art (either as a job or at uni) because i think he would die before seeing art as a competition (once again open to discussion!)
NOW dare i say the biggest contenders for rivals/enemies to lovers besides Caleb are definitely Xavier and Sylus! Like come on the fic basically writes itself.
Like I just know Sylus would be internally kicking his feet and twirling his hair if he had a hot enemy (like a mafia princess for example) and as THE ragebaiterâ˘ď¸ he would THRIVE just making non!MCâs life super inconvenient with a smirk on his face
And though I think Xavier would not give a fuck at first if a coworker was competitive with him (which for reader would be even more frustrating), i KNOW it would start to chip at him if non!MC started doing better and maybe rubbing it inâŚ
like am i cooking or am i cooking?
and i think some of these could be done well with MC or vague reader as well like it could be fun
I am speaking this into the void but⌠Hear me outâŚ
Academic rivals to lovers with Caleb x non!MC. Like walk with me here.
Total nerd DAA!Caleb where he is the guy who just breezes through classes and aces tests and presentations like itâs nothing.
And then we have DAA!non!MC who is also very good at her classes but she is the type to put all of her effort and come just a point short behind Caleb.
Pulled an all nighter for her deep research for a presentation on some plane engineering class and Caleb gets all the praise for his research instead.
Like for non!MC itâs THAT serious. She is sick and tired of golden boy Caleb. Everything goes well for Caleb. She has an internal competition with him. She is snappy at him and canât stand him.
BUT! Once again walk with me. Come on letâs hold hands everyone.
But for Caleb itâs just endearing the little competition they have. He is just humoring non!MC because he likes seeing her riled up and snap at him. Call her nicknames just to get her to glare at him. Purposefully mentions a certain class just to get her to lecture him about how she had a better final presentation topic.
Is anyone getting my vision� I wanna write something like this but I feel like I might not do it justice D:
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