Partners // l.r.h

DAY ONE

"What is it?" Luke looked at the paper, and I sighed, looking back down at mine. At the top of the paper in bold, capital letters was, "MARRIAGE WEEK".

Underneath the title, it explained the project. I just couldn't get over the title. I knew this was going to be a terrible project and the worst week of my life.

I read underneath the title, looking at Luke every few words. The paper read, "For one week, you and your partner will pretend that you are married. One night during the week, you will have an electronic baby doll to take care of. Once during the week, you will be given a problem you need to handle, and another time you will be given something to help you in your 'marriage'. You will write essays about how you handle your problem and what you do with your help. Use your imagination and make this week a lot more fun!"

I groaned while most of the class seemed to be fine with it since they were paired up with their boyfriend or girlfriend or at least someone they could stand.

The bell rang and took me out of my misery. Talk about Saved By The Bell, huh? I still had to spend a week pretending that I was married to Luke Hemmings. Ugh.

I grabbed my books and tried to get out of the Home Ec room as quick as I could. Luke stopped me by seizing my arm, and I dropped all of my books.

"Thanks a lot, Luke," I growled, picking all of my books up. He just looked at me with a mad expression on his face.

"You think I like this any more than you do?" He held up the paper, "I don't."

"Well, your my husband for the week, so.. I'll see you later," I told him, walking out of the room. He ran up behind me, "so do you want to sit by me at lunch today and we can sort of, um, discuss this project?"

Was he asking me to sit with him and his friends? The popular kids? I wasn't unpopular, but I wasn't popular. I was sort of in the middle, and I had a few popular friends, but Luke would never want me sitting with him at lunch. He's never liked me for some reason. He's always been rude to me, so I've never liked him very much either.

"Sure," I shrugged, gripping my books as I walked towards my locker to go to my next class.

------

At lunch, I went through the line and walked into the cafeteria. I scanned the room, looking for Luke. I watched him stand up and motion me over to his table.

I walked over and whispered rudely in his ear, "why are you doing this? We both know we don't like each other."

"Well, now that you're my wife for a week, I thought we'd get to know each other a little better. Maybe we hate each other for no reason," he shrugged, sitting back down.

"I doubt it," I scoffed while I sat down in the chair beside Luke, looking around at the people also sitting at the table I was sitting at with Luke.

"Guys, this is my wife, Willow.." Luke motioned to me. Everyone looked at him with big eyes, really confused.

"It's not like that.. It's for this project for Home Ec. We're partners in a project where we have to pretend to be married for a week."

"Good," his one friend laughed, "I thought you guys hated each other."

"Sort of, yeah, but we were made partners by Mrs. Miller, so," Luke shrugged. He looked at me. I smiled a completely fake smile. He knew it was fake, and I didn't care.

"Willow, how do you think we'll work with having a baby to care for some night this week?" Luke asked me, looking me right in the eyes. He was taking this project seriously, and he was asking a very important question, one I really didn't know that good of an answer to.

"I don't know, to be honest. Maybe you could stay over at my house for the night so we can both care for it over the night?" I suggested, shrugging.

He stared at me for just a moment before adding, "maybe you could just care for it over night and say that we worked together?"

"That's not going to happen. We're partners in this project, and I'm not going to let you get away with having me do all of the work. You're going to help me with this project. We are married, after all."

"That's true," he agreed, looking down at his food: meatloaf and mashed potatoes with gravy on top. It wasn't his favorite meal; I could tell.

I looked around the table, seeing many pairs of eyes on me, looking at me in disgust. I had no idea why they didn't seem to like me. Maybe Luke has told them rumors about me?

"Luke.." I mumbled, facing Luke. He looked up at me with a questioning face as if to politely ask, "what do you want?"

"Why am I being stared at and judged as if I'm picking my nose. They're looking at me like that's what I'm doing.." I wondered, worriedly.

"Don't worry. They just don't like it when someone they haven't invited sits at 'their' table," he rolled his eyes, "you're completely fine sitting here, though."

"Guys, stop looking at Willow like that. You're not being very nice," he scolded, glaring at his friends.

"Sorry," one scoffed, looking away from him and me. The others seemed to do the same.

"Whatever," Luke groaned, then murmured to me, "they can be like this sometimes.. It gets really annoying when they do it often. They ignore people that supposedly annoy them."

"Oh," I nodded, grabbing my fork in my right hand and stabbing at my meatloaf, taking off a minuscule bite and placing it in my mouth before taking others.

I finished both my meatloaf and my potatoes. When I stood up to take my tray and drop it off, Luke stood up as well. We walked up to the window together and put our trays in front of the ladies standing in there.

"Are you sure your friends are okay with me sitting there with you guys?" I asked Luke for the hundredth time. He laughed a little and nodded, "of course."