Let It Be

Chapter 7

I started splitting my time between Sam, and Mina and Dylan and all their friends during downtime. Sam hastily rejected my offer to sit with them. He doesn't like crowds, he said.

That Thursday, nearly a week since Sam and I had sat together at lunch for the first time, Mrs. Reynolds nearly skipped into our third period Humanities class, and we all knew it was a bad sign. "Alright, class," she sang, "the next few days, we're going to do be doing research papers!"

There were loud groans and shouts of protests throughout the room. "You didn't let me finish," Mrs. Reynolds scolded. "They're going to be partner papers."

Everyone darted looks over to their friends, quietly claiming their buddies as partners for the project none of us wanted to do. My desk vibrated when Sam nudged the bar of my chair to get my attention. I looked up. "Partner?" he mouthed.

I smiled back. Definitely. It was nice to be sought out, by anyone, not just Sam. Nothing to boost our friendship like a good research paper.

"What are you researching, you ask?" Mrs. Reynolds said, even though nobody had. She smiled excitedly anyways. "You'll be assigned different exhibits of the Green Oak Museum of Natural History to explore!"

"What?" somebody shouted in outrage.

"Mrs. Reynolds, Green Oak is like, an hour away."

"No more than twenty minutes, actually," Mrs. Reynolds corrected.

"Still!"

"Mrs. Reynolds, some of us don't have the time to go out to Green Oak," a guy on the football team pointed out. I nodded. With volleyball practice and watching the boys, I'd need to sit down with Birdie and we'd have to figure something out; neither of us had the money for the boys to just tag along with me...

Aw, dang, the money.

But Mrs. Reynolds didn't give in to our demands. My heart sank. When she came by to give me and Sam our assignment, I asked her nervously, "Will we get in free, since it's a school project?"

"Tickets are only eight dollars with the student rate," she replied.

Only? She obviously hadn't looked at my bank account before giving us the assignment. Hartford was a relatively affluent suburban town, so I imagined it wasn't a big deal for most students. "I'm sure you can give up one weekend movie for this assignment, Ms. Shea," she mocked.

I tried to smile back while churning through my mind, trying to figure how I'd work my budget for an extra eight dollars.

Mrs. Reynolds turned to Sam in surprise. "Mr. Durand! No argument today about partners?"

"No ma'am," he replied. "I'm working with Abby."

"Really?" she asked, not believing him. "I don't think you've ever actually worked with a partner on a project before."

With a forced almost-smile on his face, he replied, "There's a first time for everything."

"Well. We'll see how this works. You're a brave soul," Mrs. Reynolds said, turning back to me.

"Okay," I said, having no idea how I was supposed to respond to that. She stuck out the hat to me and I reached in to grab a slip for our assignment.

Dinosaur Exhibit

"Exciting," I said flatly, not sure how to react. Mrs. Reynolds patted me on the back for good luck, then moved on to the next pair. Sam and I resorted to figuring out when we could make a trip down to Green Oak.