Two Love

Chapter 11

"I'm going to put you in pairs for the psychology project," said Mrs Green.

Marty waited eagerly to see which girl he would be put with. Although none were as beautiful as Lucy, a few were still pretty cute. Priya, for instance.

His hopes of being paired with a hottie were dashed, however. "Marty, you go with Katherine."

He sneaked a look over at Katherine, who was already vacating her seat at the front of the class to come to sit with him. She was certainly something to look at, but not in the same way as a hot girl like Lucy. She had countless colourful butterfly bracelets on her wrists, Mickey Mouse earrings and wavy hair the colour of candy floss.

"Hi, Katherine," he said, feeling that he ought to break the silence between them before her stare became too much to handle. "How are you?"

"Mentally and emotionally, I'm very well. Physically, though, not so well," she said matter-of-factly. She then proceeded to place her right hand in front of Marty's eyes. "See this? It's a papercut. I acquired it by flipping through a textbook too swiftly. Perhaps skim reading isn't such a panacea after all."

Marty blinked. Even after being in the same school as her for five years, she still surprised him with her strangeness. "Ouch," he said to acknowledge the pain of her papercut. "So, do you have any ideas for the project? I was thinking we could do something about the psychology of romantic love."

"That is because you like Lucy, isn't it?"

"Er – no, no it isn't." Katherine was looking at him with her strange stare again, so he hastily said: "Okay, that might be a contributing factor. But isn't everyone fascinated by romantic love?"

"Not me," said Katherine dreamily. "I figured out in year 9 that I'm aromantic. I think romance is repulsive."

Marty sighed. At this rate, coming up with an idea for the psychology project was going to be impossible. "Do you have any ideas for the project?" he repeated.

She tilted her head for a moment, as if poised in thought, then looked back at Marty with nonplussed green eyes. "No, I do not. Let's go with your idea."

So they drew up plans of what their hypothesis was, how they would test it and how they would present their findings to the class. Through the project, Marty hoped to find out what people – particularly Lucy – looked for in a potential romantic partner. 

Finally, the survey layout was complete. They'd agreed on a 1 to 5 scale (from super gross to super hot) for each of the qualities that they had come up with. There were Biblical values provided by Katherine, whose parents were Christian - joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Marty added in a few questionable qualities, like audacity, quirkiness and dominance, as well as more lauded ones like intelligence, curiosity and confidence.

The final part was an empty box that the respondents would fill in with their idea of a dream partner. This was the part that Marty was most looking forward to reading - especially since one of the responses would be Lucy's. Although the surveys were to be anonymous, Lucy's elegant handwriting had been memorised by Marty. He would know which was hers.

After the lesson ended, Marty set off for the library with Katherine so he could type up and print out the surveys.

"Are you certain that you do not mind relinquishing your recreation time to do this?" asked Katherine, panting slightly as she entered the library after the speed-walking Marty.

"Don't worry, I'm certain."

Katherine twirled the silver butterfly ring on her thin pinky, watching the way it caught the light in wonder. "You must truly like Lucy."