Through the Looking Glass ⇒ Alice the Amazing Short Stories

[XVI] AU Week #4: Project Partners

A/N from 2020: This is an interlude between Parts 2 and 3 of Alice the Amazing and takes place before the events of "The Jabberwocky"/Season 3.

PROJECT PARTNERS

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{January 1985 // pre-season 3}

Alice and Billy Hargrove sat opposite each other at a table in the high school's library.

They stared at each other with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

"Are you going to say something, Hargrove?" Alice said.

Billy shrugged.

"Good. Neither am I."

She opened her battered science textbook and continued reading.

In a terrible turn of events, Alice and Billy had gotten paired up for the science fair. Mr. Myers usually let students pick their own partners, but he decided to change things up for the new semester.

"There's a mix of 11th and 12th graders in here," he had said, "and I usually notice that juniors work with juniors and seniors work with seniors. I want this classroom to be a place where new friendships are born and fostered, so I'll be assigning partners for your science fair project."

Alice had hoped she'd get paired with Jonathan, her only friend in the class. Unfortunately, Mr. Myers was true to his word and put her with a senior—and said senior just happened to be Alice's least favorite person in school, Billy.

She hadn't been there when Steve and Billy had their big fight last fall—on account of the corrupted powers, and the almost freezing to death, and the suspicious miracle cure that Dr. Owens had fashioned. However, she'd heard all about it, and had been thinking for months of ways to get revenge.

Now was her chance—she could tank her part of the project and give Billy a bad grade! Unfortunately, a bad grade for Billy meant a bad grade for Alice, and after missing school because of her coma sophomore year, she couldn't afford to fail.

Just because she had to work with Billy didn't mean she'd like it. Not one bit.

Which is why the two of them sat in silence reading their textbooks. Well, Alice read her textbook. All Billy did was wink at Heather and Tina from across the library.

"Have something in your eye?" Alice quipped.

Billy scowled at her.

"What's wrong, Henderson?" he said. "Jealous?"

"I'm not jealous," Alice scoffed.

"That's right," Billy said with a dark chuckle. "You're Harrington's new side piece, right?"

Alice felt her face warm, but she wasn't going to give Billy any satisfaction.

"He's just my friend," Alice said—but even she didn't believe it. She cocked her head to the side. "Are you jealous, Billy?"

"Of Harrington?" Billy said. He barked out a laugh. "Not even a little."

Before Alice could retort, Heather sauntered up to their table.