the London Project

4

Hero

  Aurelia seemed sweet. Really kind. She probably is, but not towards me. She would murder me in my sleep with her highlighters that she uses to study. "Child of Micheal and Veronica Harris, the famous Hero died. Cause of death: stabbed 13 times with markers in his chest."
  Chances are high.
  When I actually said that she looked kind at first glance, she rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Don't trust everything you see. Even salt looks like sugar."
   "Where is my brush?" Aurelia stomps her feet against the ground. She throws a tantrum like a two year old on a daily basis, but it's cute seeing her all angry over of a brush. The irony is that I know where it is.
   "Stop acting like a two year old." I unpause my reading; enough Aurelia watching for this morning.
  "Stop acting like a complete asshole." She runs around the dorm. "I bet you know where it is, but you don't want to tell me."
  "Bingo, smart-ass."
  I don't know why she expects me to give her the location of her hairbrush, maybe argue it out of me, I don't really know.
  "Give me the damn brush!" She pulls my hair, although it doesn't really hurt. She wouldn't step on an ant or threaten anyone, except me. She could definitely do more than just hurt me a bit. Let's say that splitting my face would be her appetiser.
  "What is the magic word?" I chuckle, knowing there is no way she would say-
  "Please?"
  "No it's actually "Can you please give me the hair brush Hero. You are the most beautiful creature in the whole big world I wish I was in your league so I can score you" but close enough Gataki." I teased her- it's something that has been going on for a good amount of time, probably a week.
  "Get over yourself!"
~
  History- a subject that Aurelia and I are fighting over in the first place. We are fighting for every subject, if I dare to speak the truth.
  She is actually intelligent. Beauty is attractive, but there is nothing more attractive than talent and intelligence. It's sad that she has that fierce tongue of hers. We already had an exam from English Literature and she got the maximum amount of points on it(I got 97/100, but there is no way that I would tell her that).
  "Good morning students. We have something quite interesting going on for today. We are picking partners for the upcoming project. Today is 8th of September, so the deadline is 20th of October." Our history teacher walked around the room. "The topic is Society, economy and culture across the period 1509-1745. For example, work and leisure in town and country, religion and superstition in daily life, theatre, art, music and literature. Any questions about the project or can we move on to partners?" he searched the classroom for any raised hands, but there were none. "Okay then."
  "I bet that he'll pair us up boy and girl." Adrian whispered. He was still sweaty since he had P.E first period.
  "Yeah, I bet. Last year I got paired up with Brianna Johnson- the girl is a major pick me, I couldn't stand her." I murmured.
  "We will make this actually quite fun. I wrote numbers in pairs from one to fifteen on these papers. Then, you will split up with the person who has the same number as you!" Mr N started passing out random papers.
  When he gave me mine, I opened it and saw the number 13(aka Taylor Swift's lucky number).
  "Who's the number 13?" I asked, raising my paper, showing the number written with black ink-just like reputation.
  "Oh God, no!" Aurelia gasped. I immediately knew what happened.
  Doing a project with miss Bigmouth will be living hell.
"Mr. N? Miss Gataki and I can't do this together." I said.
  "Why is that?" Our teacher smiled, making me wonder if this was staged. He would always put me on project with either girls that liked me or with girls that hated me.
  "My intelligence would bring her down." I turned around finding her jaw on the floor. I mouthed smart-ass, the nickname I gave her.
  "Oh please. In order to bring me down you would have to reach me first." She rolled her eyes.
  I grinned in response. "Keep rolling your eyes, maybe you'll find something back there."
  "Keep using that tongue of yours, and it will be tied in a knot very easily." She gave me a wide smile, showing off her perfect teeth, all butterflies and rainbows.
  "Run fast! She once threatened my brother to hold him at gun point. She did it- didn't shoot him though." Naomi confronted me. "Aurelia said she just wanted him to be scared of her. And guess what, Hero? Mission accomplished."
  Damn.
  "I learned to shoot when I was seven. My brother went to police school and now is the youngest chief of the police to ever work in California." She simply implied to Naomi's story about her threatening her older brother to kill him.
  "That's legal?" Adrian asked confused.
  She shrugged nonchalantly. "I got a gun license last year when I was sixteen." She wrote something in her notebook.
  "So you can literally kill me?" I stressed. I'm doing a project with a girl that knows how to shoot people. Perfect.
   She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I don't want to end up in jail. Orange is not my color."
  "You're too pretty for jail." Jolie laughed.
  Kayden whispered in Aurelia's ear. "There's nothing sexier than a woman who can kill."
  "Cut the crap out Kai." Adrian hit him in the head. "If a woman threatened you with a gun, you would pee your pants."
  "Gataki, Harris, Zhao, Elias, Bernadi, Winston- could you please shush? The other option is to split you all up!" Our history teacher said.
  "Sorry Mr. N, Kayden is just being Kayden again." Naomi hit Kai with her shoulder, making him wince. It was quite obvious that they still had a thing for each other. Out of all girls that Kayden dated, she lasted the longest.
  "Okay then, please don't interrupt my class."
  "Sorry." Kayden yelled to the teacher.
  Mr N. was pretty old. He didn't hear a lot of stuff we said, so he especially wouldn't hear Kai in the back of the class unless he yelled.

  Aurelia

  I was horrified. Of course I would be, who wouldn't? Imagine having to do a project with your worst enemy. But I didn't have time to think about it, I needed to be somewhere- in the library, finding books about the culture of the period from 1509 to 1745.
  May anyone who became haunted in that period goddamn Mr N.
  The problem is, I don't have a car to go to the library in the city center. All the bus stops are far away from the Academy; there was no way that I was walking to the library since it's a half an hour drive.
  "Where is Jolie? I need her to drive me to the library." I asked Adrian and Naomi, who were playing chess- it seemed like Naomi was winning.
  "She went to the mall with a girl from our class. She won't be back in at least three hours, Aur. Ever since she got her braces off, she hasn't driven us anywhere." Adrian murmured, trying to concentrate.
  "I can drive you to the library." Hero said from the kitchen.
  He was studying for the Chemistry test that we had planned, which reminded me to also study when I get back. I dont want anything less than a 100/100 points on it.
  I have to prove that I am the best. Why I need to prove that- it's pretty obvious who is the mastermind.
  "I think I will just walk to the bus stop." I started, getting my sweater on. If Hero wants to drive me, I might as well take the bus.
  "There is no way that you will go with a bus, Aurelia Calista Gataki. It's rainy, so Hero will drive you." Naomi didn't suggest, she commanded. She was always worried about me going somewhere alone in the rain, especially if I'm walking, since my mother got hit by a car that was driving in the rain. She was supposed to pick me up from preschool. My mother never showed up, and Naomi's dad had to drive me home. The worst fifteen minute drive ever.
  "Fine then. Hero, let's go." I opened the door, the late summer breeze hitting me in the face.
~
  The silence was loud. What were we supposed to talk about when the only thing we have in common is the urge to be the best and teasing each other?
  The both of us were scared to say anything, wondering in our own minds who will break the silence first. "So..uh..what is your type?" Hero asked me all of the sudden, changing the radio to something more of his liking.
  The song, "betty" by Taylor Swift started playing. Yeah, the third thing we have in common is we are two big Swifties.
  "Why are you asking me this? Do you have any questions that aren't awkward? Like what is my favorite color?"
  "You like all of the colors, but pink and yellow are your favorites." He hummed, the melody vibrating through his voice. "Okay, what is my favorite food then?"
  "Chocolate chip cookies."
  "My favorite hobby?"
  "Trick question, you have multiple: baking, knitting, pottery, reading."
  "My favorite music artist?" I tried to think of a question he didn't know. "Easy work, smart ass- Taylor Swift. Bonus point: your favorite era is reputation, but your favorite album is lover."
  That went for the next twenty minutes. He listed at least 35 facts about me. But how?