The Vixen

Presentation

"We're not making a skit," Jasmine insisted.
Lester made an annoyed face. "Why not?" He asked. "You're a were-fox. You could easily act out the parts."
"I don't want to," she said flatly.
He stared at her. She raised an eyebrow. He looked away and sighed. "Fine, you win," he said, ruffling his hair.
"Good," Jasmine replied,  beaming.
"What are we going to do if our presentation is not a skit?" he asked quizzically.
      "We could make a poster and then a Kahoot," Jasmine suggested.
       Lester rolled his eyes. "Wow, this is going to be a great presentation," he said, sarcasm oozing from his voice.
   Jasmine's face reddened. "It's simple," she insisted. "It's not about being best. It's about teaching the class what they need to know. Besides, kids in my middle school always lived Kahoots."
   "Fine," Lester grumbled.
*****
On Friday, Jasmine was nervous all day. The presentation felt like an elephant stomping on her back all day. She also still was without a date for the school dance. She tried to shrug off her anxieties, but the elephant kept trumpeting loudly, making her every worry harder to ignore than before.
When she walked into Heritage class, her stomach was doing an elaborate gymnastics routine. She had hardly eaten today; her lunch had been a few crackers, but she still felt queasy. Mr. Heartshine's voice broke into her thoughts. "I trust you all are ready," he said genially. "Rachel and Loup will present first. Jasmine and Lester are second."
Rachel and Loup walked up, both shooting each other disgusted looks. Rachel was holding a poster covered in pictures of sheep. "Were-sheep," she began," are some of the most utterly boring creatures in existence, ranking only above yeast in terms of excitement."
A wet clump if wool bounced off her head. "I'll get you for that, Jackie!" Rachel screamed.
Jackie stood up, her eyes narrowed and breathing growing increasingly rapid. She tossed another wet clump of wool, which hit Loup in the eye. "Mr. Hearthshine!" he yelped.
Mr. Hearthshine indeed got up and sent both squabbling parties to the office. "Lester and Jasmine are up next," he announced.
"How are we supposed to present after that?" Jasmine whispered to her partner, who shrugged.
   The presentation was okay. Jasmine didn't stutter too much and Lester made the class laugh a couple times. No objects were thrown. "Alright," Jasmine said, pulling up the Kahoot. "Join and we can start this review game."
   The class perked up. Soon they were starting the Kahoot with usernames like Fiestywere-sheep and Were-sheepkill popular. The game had the class on their toes and stirred up  the competitive atmosphere, but in the end Flyingsheep won.
      After all the presentations, the bell rang and the class shuffled out, gossiping over the flying wool incident. "You did good," Lester told Jasmine.
   She shrugged. "Want to go to the dance tonight?" he asked.
    Jasmine stared at him. He was quite annoying. He reddened. "Sorry," he muttered.
   Jasmine saw the first sign of self-doubt in him. Perhaps he was not too bad. Jasmine cut him off. "I'll go," she answered.