Their Last Summer

Partner Up (2021)

"Henry! Get up, I came in here three times already! You're going to be late!" My mom says, turning on the light.

I wake up and jump out of bed. It's already 7:40, "I'm up mama, I'm coming." I say.

I rush to get ready, there's no time for breakfast. "Bye mama, I love you!" I yelled before closing the door.

I have to check in at the front office when I arrive at school, "Henry! How have you been Mr.Dawton?" Dr.Drew asked me.

"I've been good, See you later principal Drew." I say hurrying to class.

I walk into class and go straight to my seat, it takes me a minute to realize that the other students are in partners. I look around the classroom to find that June is the only one without a partner, including myself.

"Nice for you to join us Henry. You and June can just partner up together. Hurry and get yourselves settled." Mr.Hart says.

Unbelievable, God must be playing some sick joke on me. I look up and see June already making her way towards me, the good news is she doesn't even look irritated about the whole thing. She looked down at me in my seat, she could probably tell by my face I wasn't too excited about being her partner.

She sits down next to me and neither of us say anything. I sit up in my chair and open my notebook, we have to at least try and look like we're working.

June looked at me and I thought she was about to say something, but instead she just looked back down. She did it again. Does she have something to say?

"Say it." I say looking up and meeting her gaze.

"Huh?" June asked.

"June come on, I know you. You've been staring at me for five minutes, and haven't said a word. But it seems like you have a mouthful, but don't have anything to say." I say, sitting up a little in my chair.

"I have not been looking at you, get over yourself! And excuse me but I haven't heard you say anything either... Just been looking down at an empty notebook." June says, leaning back and crossing her arms.

We both stare at each other, for what seemed like forever.

¨So do you plan on working today Grandpa? Or you just want to keep staring at me?¨ June asked.

"You're one to talk grandma, it took you forever to make it over here to my desk. Back giving you trouble?" I ask, June laughs which makes me laugh.

June takes out her pencil and looks down at the math sheet, "What even is this? When did we go over this?"

"We went over this the day you and Maggie wouldn't shut up. You two were talking about Jalen and some girl he was talking to on the phone. You guys would not shut up about it." I say.

"Umm stalker much? And besides I don't really even care about that whole thing, I'm kind of over all the drama that comes with Jalen. I think Maggie was more upset about it than me." June says laughing.

"I could tell, based on how she was yapping about it. She seems like a good friend though, I'm glad you have a friend who cares about you June." I say.

"Yeah me too. She's really protective over me, she stays getting on Jalen about the things he does." June says.

We ended up catching each other up on things that we've missed over our "break". She was telling me that her and Jalen were in a rocky place. She also mentioned some lake house she visited in Tennessee with Maggie over Christmas break. I told her about some of the trips I went on with Isaac and Debbie. I may have mentioned this girl at the diner, it was a lie but she didn't have to know that.

June and I were just about to start up another conversation when the bell rang. We were packing up our things and I saw him. Jalen was at the door waiting for June.

"Henry, I'll see you later okay?" June says, but she doesn't leave. She waits for my response.

"Yeah definitely June!" I say.