"What do you think his chances are?", Zephyr asked.
"What are you talking about?", Alex asked, looking up from her blue index cards.
"Luke", Zephyr explained, "What do you think the chances of him passing his egg project without help are?".
Alex didn't even take a second to think and answered, "Zero".
"Don't you have any faith in him?", Zephyr asked, "No matter how stupid, he is still your brother".
"It's because he's my brother that I'm being honest", Alex replied, rolling her eyes, "And besides, he's probably going to try and copy mine".
"I can't disagree with that", Zephyr agreed, having previously caught Luke snooping around in Alex's room.
"How did you do on your egg project?", Alex asked.
"Hm", Zephyr hummed, "I passed".
"Really?", Alex questioned, surprised by his answer.
"Yeah", Zephyr replied, "Why?".
"I thought that you'd have failed because ... well ... you know", Alex said, referring to his attitude in school.
"I couldn't be asked to put too much effort so I made a cube made of sponge with a hollow centre for the egg", Zephyr explained, "The cube had 4 parachutes attached and there were springs on the bottom to reduce the collision impact".
"That's really smart", Alex commented, "How many stories could you drop it from".
"It broke when dropped from 7 stories", Zephyr answered, quickly jotting something down.
"Oh", Alex muttered, slightly disappointed.
Hearing this, Zephyr quickly looked up and asked, "What's wrong?".
"It's just that the egg of mine broke when dropped from 6 stories", Alex dejectedly remarked.
"It's probably because the parachute was too small", Zephyr analysed, "If it was bigger, there would be greater air resistance which would decrease the speed that the egg fell for".
"You're right", Alex said, nodding her head in agreement.
Noticing this, Zephyr let out an exasperated sigh, "Don't tell me you're upset because I beat you".
"I'm not", Alex declared, not meeting his gaze.
"Come on!", Zephyr whined, "That was like three years ago". Seeing no reaction from her, Zephyr decided to pull out the big guns and hugged her from behind and whispered into her ear, "I know something that will cheer you up Do you know what it is?"
Shivering from the cool sensation of his breath on her ears, Alex remained unwavering.
Observing that there was no change, Zephyr quickly swerved Alex around and before she recovered from the sudden movement, she found his lips on hers. Although she tried to resist for a moment, she quickly melted into his embrace and returned the kiss in return. After a few heated seconds, their lips unwillingly separated.
"Are you feeling better now?", Zephyr asked, staring into Alex's eyes.
Incapable of looking away from his gaze, Alex meekly nodded her head.
"Good", Zephyr muttered, giving her a quick hug, "Now hurry up and finish so we can have some fun".
Although irritated by his rapid change, Alex nodded and returned to her studying. Unfortunately, Alex couldn't focus on her studies because of Claire's screams. Sighing, both of them made their way to the stairs and looked down at what was happening.
"Luke!", Claire yelled as she slipped due to the egg that had fallen on the floor, "Why?!".
"I'm sorry", Luke apologised, "But it's for school. I'm meant to design a container that's meant to protect an egg in a one-story drop".
"So you thought to go with an egg carton", Claire exclaimed as she wiped some egg yolk off her face.
"What if the best idea was under my nose this whole time?", Luke defended.
"You're going to need to come down here and clean this up", Claire muttered as she looked up at Luke.
Luke groaned, "I wouldn't have to do any of this if Alex let me borrow hers from when she did the class".
"Never!", Alex shouted, "That design is my intellectual property. I think it has applications for unmanned space flight". Before Luke could retort, Alex and Zephyr walked away, returning to their studies.
However, Zephyr didn't even spend a minute looking at his notes before he commented, "You know he's up to something right?"
"Who? Luke?", Alex asked.
"Yep", Zephyr answered, "He purposely waited until your Mom was coming before he dropped the egg to make it obvious he had no chance of passing. He's probably colluding with Manny to use Jay's and Claire's competitiveness against each other".
"How'd you figure that out?", Alex questioned.
"I'm the best detective in the world!", Zephyr declared, puffing his chest.
"Tell me the truth", Alex demanded, rolling her eyes.
"Luke accidentally messaged me saying 'The plan is in motion'", Zephyr answered, "Since I was curious, I hacked into his phone and looked at the messages between Manny and Luke and found out their plan".
"Huh", Alex muttered, "Never knew Luke had it in him".
"He doesn't", Zephyr clarified, "Manny's the one who came up with the plan and Luke decided to go along because he knows he won't be able to pass otherwise".
"That sounds more realistic", Alex replied, nodding her head.
"So. How long till you're done?", Zephyr queried, looking at Alex expectantly.
"How are you done already?", Alex asked, "I need another hour before I can finish the AP Biology homework".
"Ugh", Zephyr groaned, "How can you take so long?"
"Not everyone is like you", Alex remarked, rolling her eyes, "And besides, if you helped, maybe things would go a bit quicker".
Hearing her words, Zephyr jolted up from his seat and appeared right next to Alex. "Let's do this!", Zephyr exclaimed.
Alex rolled her eyes at his antics but smiled nonetheless.
[Time Skip]
Zephyr and Alex made out passionately in the room, their lips interlocked in a fervent dance. Their hands explored each other's curves and contours, fingers occasionally tracing the edges of their partner's hair and caressing their cheeks, soft sighs of pleasure escaping their lips.
Despite being lost in each other's embrace, they were interrupted by a shout. "Alex! Zephyr!", Claire yelled, disrupting the moment.
Reluctantly separating their lips, Zephyr muttered, "Let's just ignore her".
"Don't ignore me!", Claire shouted.
"Just tell her we're studying", Zephyr tried.
"I know you're not studying!", Claire screamed. Observing that there was no response, she added, "I'm going to give you 5 seconds before I come up there!".
Hearing this, Zephyr and Zephyr unwillingly parted with Alex popping her head down the entrance to the attic, "I'm not giving you my design"
"Who said anything about giving?", Claire spluttered, "We can work out an arrangement".
"That's cheating", Alex clarified.
"What do you want? Money?", Claire asked, "I got a little something set aside". Shaking her head, Alex rolled her eyes and moved away, ignoring Claire's rant, "You know, I made the egg that made that project so in a lot of ways that design is already mine!".
[Time Skip]
"This isn't going to end well", Zephyt whispered to Alex who nodded in return.
"That's a pretty nice piece of handiwork for a 13-year-old", Claire commented.
"Luke did pretty well too", Jay complimented, "For a kid who still needs help getting out of his backpack".
"Okay. Let's do this", Claire muttered, "Watch out! They're coming down".
In response, Luke, Manny, Alex and Zephyr took a few steps forward and under the cover of the staircase.
"Three. Two. One", Jay counted down before dripping his container with Claire following right after them. After the containers both hit the ground, Zephyr and Alex both walked over to one and inspected the safety of the egg.
"How'd we do?", Claire asked.
"Luke's egg is okay", Zephyr informed.
"So is Manny's", Alex added.
"Great", Manny commented, "That means we both win".
"Unacceptable", Jay complained, "We're going up another level".
"Alex. Zephyr. Meet us on the third floor!", Claire shouted.
"Wait. You don't have to do this", Manny tried, "The assignment was for a one-story drop. We both passed, so we both get As". Unfortunately, Manny's words fell on deaf ears as both Claire and Jay ignored him.
[A few seconds later]
"They're not even paying attention", Jay observed as he looked down at the crouching figures of Manny and Luke, "This is the best part".
Claire looked at the duo and commented, "Actually. Manny looks kind of upset".
"Why would he?", Jay questioned, "He's about to kick Luke's butt".
"Oh please", Zephyr muttered.
"Luke and Manny had as much to do with this as they did the Manhattan Project", Alex added.
"You think that's what's wrong?", Claire questioned, "They're upset because we took over".
"Maybe", Jay murmured, "This was meant to be an opportunity for them to learn but our competitiveness got in the way and now we've ruined it for them".
"We should go talk to them", Claire remarked, receiving a nod from Jay.
(AN: I'm going to be really busy tomorrow so I won't have the opportunity to upload another chapter. To make up for this, I'll upload a chapter on Saturday)