You're My Sunset

Chapter 2 - The Project

Beeeeeeeeep

Beeep

Beeeep

I groaned and slammed my hand down on the annoying alarm clock. I stumbled to the bathroom to take a shower. I decided to slightly curl my long brown hair. Since it was warm, I wore my jean shorts with a filmy white tunic with flowers on it. I did my makeup natural then slipped into my converses. I flew downstairs and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. "Bye, Mom," I said and slipped behind the wheel of my four-door Maserati.

  I drove to school in five minutes and parked my car. I met up with Amber by my locker before first period. "We still on for tomorrow?" I asked, gathering books from my locker. "Yeah, course. I'll pick you up around noon, so be ready," she replied. "Cool," I said. "So what's up with the social world?" I asked, shutting my locker.

 Amber was my general informant on the social scene because I paid no attention to the grapevine. "Well, Ryder had sex with a girl last night, he now has two new bros who sit with him at lunch, and I want donuts." "Who was the girl?" I asked out of curiosity.  "It was Claudia," she said. Claudia was the queen bitch of our school. Pretty and popular, yes. Mean to the core, pompous, and self-centered, yes. The one-minute bell rang overhead, and we both rushed off to first period.

                                                                                 ***

I met Amber at her locker before 4th hour so we could walk together. "What's up, girlfriend?" I asked. She said nothing and I could see tears glistening on her cheeks. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Claudia called me fat," she said. "So? What does Claudia matter? She's obviously wrong about you. Look at yourself, Amber. What do you see? I see a beautiful brown haired girl with blue eyes who is not fat. And, obviously, my opinion rules over all others, " I said smiling. Amber smiled, too. "You're the best, Lily." "I know," I said. And we walked to history together.

                                                                               ***

"Okay, class. We will be doing a partner project as a big part of your grade this year. You will have all this week to work on it. You will need to make a model of any historic event using Popsicle sticks that I will provide. As I said, you will be working in partners, which I have chosen." I looked at Amber and held up my crossed fingers and she held up hers. I hoped we would be together like last year. "All right, class, here are the pairs: Ellie and Faith, Amber and Mark....." I let out a sigh. Well, I wouldn't be working with Amber. I hoped my partner was someone I could get along with all right. ".......And lastly, Lily and Ryder."

                                                            FUDGE MY LIFE!

"You may now get with your partners and discuss ideas for your projects. Tomorrow you will be making your first practice models, so make sure you have your plans ready by tomorrow. You will make your final model, the one for a grade, on the 26th." I slowly made my way over to Ryder. "So do you want me to come over today so we can work on it?" I asked him. "Yeah," he replied. "Here's my address." He wrote it down and gave it to me. He pulled out his phone and we sat without talking.

                                                                                  ***

I drove to Ryder's house that afternoon. It was a plain, two-story building . I rang the doorbell and a middle-aged woman with a bright smile opened the door. "Hi. I'm here to see Ryder. We have a school project to work on." "Oh, come in! He's upstairs in his room. Second door on your left." "Kay, thanks." I climbed the stairs and quickly found the correct door and knocked.

 "Come in!" a muffled voice shouted. I turned the doorknob to see a neat and tidy room. I was surprised. I figured a boy like Ryder would have a very messy room, but everything appeared to be in it's proper place. His four poster bed was in the center of the room. Beside it was a dresser. Opposite the dresser was a small ornate desk with a laptop on it. In front of the bed was an enormous beanbag chair. He gestured to the chair and I sat.

"So I was thinking we could do a model of the Twin Towers," I suggested. "That's fine with me," Ryder replied. "Okay, so, um, why don't we both sketch out some ideas for the model." He went to his desk and took out two pieces of paper and two pencils. He handed one of each to me and we started drawing.

After a few minutes I noticed a presence. Ryder had dropped down beside me and was now gazing over my shoulder, watching me draw. "Whatcha got there, Cupcake?" he asked. "My name is Lily," I said tersely. "I like Cupcake better," he said. I didn't bother to argue. "This is my idea for a model," I said. It was a picture of a tower standing up and another tower crumbling in a heap. "Looks good," Ryder said. "I couldn't come up with anything beyond the two towers standing there." I looked at his paper and laughed. "Looks like your drawing skills need a little help!" "Why, Cupcake, I take offense to that. I am very proud of the fact that my drawings look like crap!"

 I laughed at the indignant face he was making. He looked so ridiculous, I fell off the beanbag chair and erupted in laughter. He laughed too and soon fell on top of me. He started tickling me and I giggled trying to push him off. He was more persistent and soon I had tears running down my cheeks. All of a sudden Ryder got off of me and walked back to the bed. I sighed in relief. "Don't do that again." Ryder's voice was steely cold. Don't do what again, bitch, I thought.

 I looked at my watch and decided to leave. "Bye, Ryder," I said, and walked to the door almost as soon as his mother opened it. "Dinner's done," she announced.  She turned to me. "You can stay if you like. We're having pasta." Well, I do love pasta and I was extremely hungry, so I accepted her offer. We went downstairs and I sat next to her. Her name is Sandy. Ryder ignored me all evening, which was fine with me. I did meet his little sister Kristy. She is sooooo cute! Only five years old. The pasta was delicious and I thanked Sandy before leaving.

I quickly got ready for bed once I was home. My last thought before I went to sleep was, I can't wait until this project is done so I can stop associating with Ryder.

Authors note: Hey guys so I hope you like the story so far! Obviously Ryder and her are enemies even though they were laughing. And what did Ryder mean when he said don't do that again? Soon to find out, because a Ryder's p.o.v. is coming soon!

All my love,

Em