𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐲'𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞

40 | 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟

For the first time in my life, I felt somewhat complete.

Sullivan and I were hand-in-hand sauntering down the hallway and I wore black skinny ripped jeans and my red silk camisole. My backpack loosely wrapped around my bare shoulder. My smile plastered happily on my nude lip.

My heart filled with an uncontainable amount of energy, rolling inside of me from the bundles of nerves that wouldn't settle. My hand felt clammy within his grasp, and besides the anxiety of that, we were walking to English class. Just like how I imagined. He drew me into the classroom, catching everyone's eyes. 

We were that couple now.

He planted a kiss on my lips and we parted ways. I ambled down the aisle of desks and sat myself, peering over my shoulder to the desk that Victor always sat in, in the back of the room--but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Sullivan with a blank expression as if he was thinking. Of course I didn't question it, allowing the moment to pass while Mrs. Allen trotted to the board, exhibiting our next big assignment.

"This quarter, we are beginning a new partner project!" She seemed extra happy. That or caffeinated, the barrier between the two were practically invisible with her. She flipped to the next slide in her powerpoint, the bright yellow and green colors were not changing the anticipation in my heart. Something uneasy began to transpire while I squirmed anxiously in the blue metal seat.

At least I'd be with Sullivan.

"We are picking new partners!" Mrs. Allen exclaimed, making my stomach drop to the first floor of the school building and for me to be replaced with an airy exhaust that clouded my mind. I couldn't hear her next sentence, but the thought of doing a project with anyone else made me feel awfully alone. Besides, I was not friends with anyone in the class besides Sullivan, Jay, Rowan, Olivia, Penny, and Victor. Okay--that was a lot, but with a twenty-two person class, it was impossible to admit that my chances of getting Wolfie, Sam, the high school perv, or Kayla were remarkably just as high.

"I will be doing the same computer generator as last time.In light of this, we will also be going more into depth with the true meaning of literature and filmography which has many aspects of writing also." She paused and revealed the project to us on the next slide while she ventured to the top of each aisle and passed back the packets of pink paper.

I stared at the pages dumbly as if I couldn't read or listen to such nonsense. Unfortunately, I eventually gazed up and saw her smile as she said, "this project will be focusing on a person's decipherment of writing. We will each be given a manilla envelope--" She demonstrated. "Contained in these envelopes is a mixture of twenty pieces of literature, sections of movies, and or, episodes from TV shows that you and your partner will have to write a paragraph summary and reaction on--separately." She raised the packet and waved it in the air. "It will all be described in the rubric here."

Wolfie's hand flung to the ceiling, but without her noticing, asked, "how the hell does this work?"

Mrs. Allen stopped in her tracks. "Well, actually, each pair will receive a different set of literature, you will see--but they're all different, not one is alike." She paused again, drinking from her water bottle. "We will do a presentation during the week of prom in March. We'll go over it more."

She jogged to her computer, typing in a few things before the screen developed to the familiar blue and green. I paused in my tracks as she announced, "we are only doing it one time!"

I felt a turmoil of anguish come over me and I wanted to book it out of the classroom. The possibilities were high up by my ears and I needed somebody I knew, somebody I was friends with, somebody that I wouldn't have to stress about. These personal projects were stressful enough, but having to do it with a practical stranger scared me.