Some people called it the calm before the storm, which sounded poetic but wasn't realistic to this situation. Yuki thought of it as the moment the crap hit the fan, the second before it got flung in every direction, when all a person could do was watch in horror, powerless to stop it.

After gaining one nuke from the USA, she'd gone to the USSR and lied that she'd be given seven if she switched alliances to the NATO nations. Sila had frowned, doubtless thinking of the army she'd handed to Yuki, and offered eight to stay loyal. Unfortunately for her, besides no consequences for starving your populace, there were no consequences for betraying allies either, unless you counted being shunned.

Yuki didn't count it. Not when she'd promised the third-world nations armies, resources, and nukes if they switched to her side this turn. They'd demanded insurance that their new alliance wouldn't simply be crushed and she'd promised it'd be given.

"The USSR trades eight nuclear weapons to El Salvador," Sila announced, while Yuki imagined chucking feces at a spinning ceiling fan. 

The classroom went dead quiet, everyone staring at Sila in disbelief, as if they couldn't have heard right. Everyone but Yuki and Rhett.

"I'm switching my alliance to El Salvador," Rhett said calmly. All according to the plan. And then the projectiles hit.

Aisha pushed her chair back and stood. "Brazil is allying with El Salvador too."

An uproar rose as the other nations clamored to change over and the two major blocs yelled back for them to know their place. Mr. Manalo tried to restore order. Yuki risked a look at Sila who'd gone quiet with understanding, some of her Eastern Bloc allies conferring in the corner with hissed whispers. 

Maybe she'd be able to bribe a few of those over in the coming rounds. Poland seemed like a good one to start with.

Yuki waited until the requests had died down. "I transfer two nukes each to Mexico and Brazil and half of El Salvador's army, divided among the next five countries who changed their alliances to me," she said.

"Noted." Mr. Manalo sighed, typing away at his desk. He likely hadn't expected this simulation to be so much work and the best was yet to come. Two major powers could keep each other in check, but multiple with nuclear power? It only took one to overextend and tip the scales. Once that first bomb dropped, there'd be no going back.

The bell rang in dismissal.

"You little liar," Sila spat with venom when Yuki walked by her desk.

"All's fair in love and war," Yuki said, a smile playing about her lips. "I didn't want to spend hours watching you and Cy throw meaningless threats at each other. This is more fun." She winked and skidded out into the hall before Sila could keep her there.

Rhett walked up beside her and caught her hand, swinging their arms together. "You have PE next period?"

"Yeah, but I don't get to do much." Her teacher had strict instructions from her grandparents not to let her overexert.

A girl wearing a hoodie with braided dark green hair peeking out, rolled her eyes at them as they passed. Get a room, it said. Yuki relished those looks. Besides, not like they were kissing in the halls like some of the school's other couples. 

"Why is it that you've quit all your sports?" Rhett asked, adjusting his glasses. "I thought you wanted to be a pro tennis player like Serena Williams."

"I don't know." Unlike quitting violin, this question didn't have an easy work-around. Rhett wasn't going to buy that she disliked tennis now, not when she'd forced him to play with her for hours even while the sun baked the court like a burnt brownie. 

"You don't know?" Rhett stopped both of them, pushing her bangs to the side to put a hand on her forehead. His eyebrows creased. "Yuki, you're not...sick, are you?"

"No, I'm fine." Yuki took his hand again and squeezed it. "You're the one who's been sick. Glad your parents weren't too upset though."

Rhett shrugged. "I only relapsed for a day and they understood how much I wanted to go once I told them. Though if you were to get sick too, I'm sure I'd be grounded for longer." 

One week of walking to school and no driving privileges. Yuki supposed there were worse consequences for sneaking out.

Down the hall, a girl shouted out, waving a handful of papers over heads. Once the other students parted, Sophia paraded up to the two of them. In preparation for PE, she'd changed into a burgundy pair of leggings and matching fitness jacket. 

"I've got Trig," Rhett said, giving Yuki a quick hug before leaving her to Sophia's clutches.

"I got an A+, Yuki!" Sophia squealed, jumping up and down. "Mrs. Dayang even kept me back to tell me how much she approved of me applying myself to the work." She'd colored her hair again with the new "oreo" trend, white streaks under black.

"That's great." Yuki tucked her own paper into the binder she carried. A paper marked with a B minus. She sucked on her cheek, trying to think of how she could get out of walking with Sophia to PE.

That concern evaporated as Sophia held out a folded check. Trying not to look desperate, Yuki took the payment with a nod. She needed a new schoolbag, clothes, and shoes. If she wore the same outfit to school twice, she'd be dead meat and her wardrobe needed the reset. 

While they walked out to the track to run laps, Sophia said, "Let me know if there's any other way I can repay you. An A+ deserves more, don't you think?" She turned with a small gasp of excitement, bouncing on her toes. "We could go on another shopping trip! My treat." 

Tempting, but shopping with Sophia happened to be an extreme sport Yuki had zero interest in. She eyed the ring on Sophia's finger. "There is something you could help me with, actually."

"Name it," Sophia said with a confident tilt of her chin. "Nothing is too much."

Yuki could think of several things that were too much. Peak physical health, her family's reputation, her grandparents' approval, having her own self-confidence back. Sophia couldn't hand those things over like a check. Even Era with all her omnipotence probably couldn't. Better yet, why would they want to?

It could be hard to sympathize with someone when you had everything and more.

"You're not playing the fortune, are you? I'd like to use your ring," Yuki answered.

"What for?" Sophia asked with casual curiosity but already slipping it off her finger to hand over, as if it were made of paper—not even the green kind—instead of Yuki's highest hopes and dreams. "And no, my university path is already arranged. I don't really want to run a club either. It sounds like too much work."

Yuki tucked the ring into a zipped pocket of her bag, trying to avoid stepping in some of the wetter patches of grass. The school buildings formed a ring around what everyone called "The Park", which included a football field, baseball diamond, tennis court, and a track. 

"I'd like to win the presidency if I can," Yuki said, waving to their PE teacher. 

The middle-aged woman gestured to the bench where Yuki picked up the stopwatch and pad of paper to record stats for their monthly physical evaluation.

"Go do your stretches with the others, Lim," the teacher ordered.

Sophia gave her a note which was received with pursed lips and a terse nod toward the bench.

"I'm concerned about my feet," she whispered to Yuki. "The doctor said my wearing heels might be causing the pain but that can't be it. It has to be running on this old track."

The track, Yuki noted, looked to have been redone in the past couple years with freshly painted white lines and a well-maintained surface. 

"Why the track suit then?" Yuki mumbled, half to herself.

Sophia scoffed. "I have to look my best. You slip one day when it comes to fashion and you'll be slipping the rest of your life. But anyways, does the ring have to do with Tudor? I figured he can't be your perfect match. Era would know better than that."

"And why is that?" Yuki flipped through the pad, trying to sort where everyone was so she could jot down the numbers without too much time spent looking. Alphabetical. Easy peasy.

"Well...you know he just isn't like us. Even if he is quite the heartthrob and on the honor role, his family has no connections."

Yuki almost snapped her pencil. Sometimes she could forget social status, but it always reared its ugly head in the most unassuming ways. Wealth wasn't often a topic of discussion among her peers, because being from money meant you didn't talk about it. The people who flaunted it played in the minor leagues.

And so even though she'd pieced together that the Chaidees led in Lego shares and owned a tech company, the Lims had connections to the legendary Samsung family, and the Wangs ran several huge law firms, none of the information had come straight from the sources. 

"People like him are how wealth is built though," Yuki said. "At some point, our ancestors were smarter or more ambitious than the rest to achieve what they did for us to have this life."

"Or they took advantage of someone else's fall," Sophia replied, sounding serious for once, her voice pitched lower than normal.

"They could've," Yuki agreed. Ambitious people did that, but she couldn't see Rhett stepping on someone's back to reach the top. With a pang of discomfort, she realized, in a way, that she was stepping on his. After clicking the stopwatch on for the one mile-run, Yuki decided to make use of this golden opportunity.

"Are you going to miss Era when she graduates?"

"Probably," Sophia said, tugging at the laces of her shiny white shoes. "She's one of the few who puts up with me."

Yuki took a deep breath. "Did you know her friend Pearl?"

Sophia paused. "Not well and I didn't want to. You didn't hear it from me, but Pearl was a wild party-goer. Had an extremely well-faked ID and didn't come to school half the time because she must've been passed out at home. If you'd known Era then, she was a completely different person too—Pearl rubbed off on her."

A sharp sensation snapped Yuki out of her focused obsession. She'd drawn blood from her hand with the tip the pencil. "What happened to her? Is it true that Pearl crashed a car?"

"I shouldn't say anything else." Sophia looked away and gestured to the track.

Yuki barely started noting down the runners' stats in time. 

"If you really want to know, you should ask Era." When Sophia laughed, all the tension released from the air and her easy-going, almost teasing way of talking returned. "Or better yet, why not ask your boyfriend?"

Of course. Ethan was a freshman this year, so he wouldn't have been attending Zenith yet. Rhett, on the other hand, would've been a freshman last year so he'd at least have known about Pearl if not talked to her.

After the last runner passed the line, Yuki clicked off the stopwatch and glanced at Sophia out of the corner of her eye. Had Sophia's grades been failing before they made the homework deal? She couldn't remember. And now, looking through a different lens, Yuki noted that she looked fit, with more muscle tone than a girl could have from just drinking iced coffees and walking around shopping malls all day.

Ever since she broke that fortune cookie, Yuki had been nagged by a sinking notion, like an anchor chained to her feet, that she'd stepped off the deep end into something she didn't understand.

Or rather she should say, she'd been pitched at high velocity toward whirling blades and this was the moment before impact. The second before she hit the fan and it shredded her to pieces.

Chapter Word Count: 1,991