His Little Brother

Chapter One

"Ms. Smith, are you listening?"

Jazz jumped in her seat at the sound of her name. She was met with her gym teacher's usual glare, only this time it was directed at her. "Jasmine, did you hear me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Carter, I was distracted."

"I'm well aware of that," he said. His expression was colored with annoyance as he stared at the drawings in her notebook. "You're welcome to doodle as much as you like Ms. Smith, but not in my class."

Jazz quickly closed her notebook, hoping that he didn't get a glimpse of the imaginary wedding invitation she was writing. "It won't happen again, Mr. Carter."

Ignoring her apology, he addressed the class again in that tone that he usually used when he was torturing them in gym class. "As I was saying, since Mrs. Spencer couldn't get back from her meeting in time, she told me to go ahead and let you pick names for your final project."

"Ms. Smith," he paused, peering down at Jazz again. " You can take your pick first."

Painfully aware of the eyes that were glued to her hands (which were the source of chipped nail polish), Jazz chose the smallest piece of paper from the bag before handing it back to Mr. Carter.

He inspected it as if he was looking for a stain of some sort.

"David Cunningham?" he finally called out. "Looks like Jasmine Smith is your project partner. You two can get acquainted and discuss potential topics when everyone else is partnered up."

Jazz froze at her desk and shifted uncomfortably in her seat when her desk mate, Sadie Johnson, nudged her foot and whispered, "Oh my gosh, Jazz!"

The only thing Jazz knew to do in the moment was nod her head in disbelief.

David Cunningham is the most popular boy in their  class.

The guy she has been crushing on since she laid eyes on him in the third grade. The guy whose very initials were next to hers on the wedding invitation she was caught doodling.

She was working with him on their final paper?

Jazz could feel the rays of annoyance and envy that every girl in the class was shooting at her with their eyes. Except Sadie, of course, who was happily dating the school's debate team leader.

It was a known fact in the entire school that David and his longtime girlfriend Fiona Dickson had broken up exactly three months ago.

Jazz couldn't contain her excitement when she heard the news and had been mustering up the courage for the past month to make herself known. The only problem was that every time she tried to talk to David, she failed.

Miserably.

She tried her best to steal a glance at him like she usually did during fourth period English class, and gasped when she locked eyes with him. He looked curious, as if he was only just realizing that she was in his class.

Typical. 

Jazz could feel the beads of sweat forming on her forehead and resisted the urge to touch her face. The only thing she thought to do at that moment was to give him a weak smile.

His expression of curiosity was quickly replaced with a warm smile, as though he wanted to assure her that they would do well on their paper. Jazz's nerves however had nothing to do with the paper that was worth 40% of their grade. She was more than capable of scoring a high mark with ease. What she was terrified of however, was embarrassing herself in front of David, yet again.