Partners // l.r.h

DAY TWO

I sat in my regular seat in Home Economics the next day. Mrs. Miller was writing something on the chalk board, and I was watching her when I felt someone plop down into the seat next to me. When I looked to my left, there sat Luke.

"Hey wifey," he whispered in my ear, taking out his book from his backpack.

"You took your Home Ec book home?" I asked, pointing to his backpack and inferring that since his book had been in his backpack, he must've taken it home.

"Yeah, why does it matter? I just wanted to read some things. Who cares, anyways?" He shrugged, turning away from me. He was hiding something. What was it, though?

I quickly grabbed his book, and he noticed. He tried to pry it out of my hands, but I didn't let go. I pulled it out of his grasp and it fell onto the table and open to a page that was marked with a dog-eared corner.

"Marriage" was at the top of the two pages. "How to treat your wife" was on one side, while "How to treat your husband" was on the other. He had made some notes on the "how to treat your wife" side..

I flipped a few pages to see another dog-eared page. The heading on that one was "successful marriages". More notes were there. I looked at Luke and smiled. He looked down to his lap, not making eye contact with me.

"Okay, class! Quiet down!" Mrs. Miller exclaimed. I closed the book and slid it over to Luke who still didn't look at me.

"Today," Mrs. Miller started once the class was quiet, "I will be giving you all a problem to work through in your marriage."

"Ugh," I rolled my eyes, looking at Luke. He still seemed sort of embarrassed. I didn't mind him looking at that stuff in the book. I actually thought it was kind of cute that he had thought to do that. But I thought he hated me? Maybe it wasn't about me. I was getting too far ahead of myself.

"Miss Willow," Mrs. Miller stood above me with a small basket with papers in it. I slowly chose one and pulled it out, handing it to Luke to open. Mrs. Miller went onto the next person when Luke opened the paper.

"Not spending enough time with each other," Luke read to me. I wasn't sure what we'd do with this part of the project.

"Now that you all have your problems, you and your partner will both get a piece of paper, and you will write down what you would do. Then, throughout the day, I want you to pretend like you actually have this problem. Tomorrow before you come into class, I want you to right down a different answer," Mrs. Miller explained.

A girl in the back of the class had raised her hand, and Mrs. Miller called on her once she was done talking.

"When are we doing the part of the project with the babies?" She asked, putting her hand down.

"Good question," Mrs. Miller smiled, "we will be getting the dolls in three days on Friday, and I have a surprise tied in with that."

I saw the girl in the back of the room nod, while some others in the room did too when Mrs. Miller finished speaking.

"But that will be over the weekend that we'll have the baby dolls," one of the guys in the class protested.

"Yes, thats correct," Mrs. Miller nodded.

"But some of us have plans this weekend. We actually have lives outside of school and homework and stupid projects," he scoffed.

"Well, you'll have to work that out with your partner. You'll both have to contribute to helping take care of the baby. I don't want one person working on the project and not the other," Mrs. Miller specified.

Some people groaned. Others were smiling, knowing hey wouldn't be forced to do the project by themselves. Luke's hand went up. What did he want to ask?

"Yes, Luke?" Mrs. Miller focused on Luke who pulled his hand down. She had pointed at him and looked right at him.

"Well.. Will we be able to make the babies?" He smirked. Some of the other guys in the class agreed with him, shouting out, "yeah!!"

"I'd advise not, Mr. Hemmings," Mrs. Miller looked pissed at Luke. I looked at Luke, and he looked back at me. I shook my head, looking down at my paper. Mrs. Miller walked over to behind her desk and left us to write.

Whenever it was time to leave class, I picked up my papers, shoved them in my folder and stacked up my books and papers. I saw Luke in the corner of my eye placing his book and his folders and papers sloppily into his backpack.

I stood up after pushing my chair back. I walked out from in front of my chair, then pushed it back in. Luke had grabbed his backpack, slung it over his shoulder and sped out of the class. I sauntered out of the room, saying goodbye to Mrs. Miller in the process.

I walked towards my locker and switched out my books and folders while stacking them neatly in my arms. I shut my locker calmly and turned around to go to my next class but ended up looking across the hall to see Luke at his locker. He was throwing folders into his locker and snatching others up and dropping them into the grasp of his arms. He slammed his locker door shut and turned on his heels, racing to his next class.

I strolled towards my class, knowing I wouldn't be late. Plus, I had Spanish next, and my teacher wasn't there right away anyways.

"Hola," I smiled at my friend Caylen as I walked into the classroom, "what are we doing today?"

"Talking about you being paired up with Luke Hemmings for the marriage project in Home Ec! You didn't tell me that! He's so hot," she gushed. Luke was her crush, if you couldn't tell.

"It's not really that important. I think he's rude, to be honest. He's sort of an ass sometimes. He's okay, but not my favorite," I shrugged, looking at the board to see our agenda for the day.

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After a few classes, I walked back to my locker before going to lunch. I placed my books on the shelf in a nice stack before placing my binders and folders standing up in the bottom of my locker. While looking at the bottom of my locker, I found a small piece of paper. I unfolded it, not sure of what it was.

I read the words that had been written in messy, yet surely readable handwriting, "You. Me. Lunch. -L"

I walked off to lunch, went through the line, and looked around until I saw that too-familiar face. I walked towards him, smiling slightly. I had to give it to Caylen. He was pretty cute.