With You ✔

4

Ellie

I'm only a couple of minutes late to class but Mr. Mattox doesn't seem to mind. All of the seats in the class are full except for one so I make my way towards the empty seat in the back of the room and then see who I will be sitting by.

Kit looks up at me,"Hey Ellie."

"Hey, Kit. Hope you weren't saving this seat."

"It's all yours." He motions towards the chair next to him and I notice the girls seated in front of us staring at Kit, their expressions mimicking that of Gwen and Maci's at lunch.

Mr.Mattox starts his speech about how he is not going to waste a day going over a syllabus like our other teachers. Instead, we're diving straight into our semester long projects today. For the project we will be paired with a classmate and pretend to be married. We'll also be assigned jobs, a family, and bills to go along with our new spouse. The point of this project was to teach us real life business math and I roll my eyes along with the rest of the class as he explains more details.

"Okay, so lets have Jane and Derek as partners, Cody and Grace, Kit and Ellie, Matt and Reese..."

I stop listening after he says Kit and Ellie. I look over at Kit who is already looking at me and smiling, "Hey wifey."

I hide my smile and laugh behind my hand as the girls in front of me once again turn and stare in awe, causing me to bite my lip and look down at the desk in front of me. Kit lets out a low laugh at my embarrassment as Mr. Mattox hands us the paper with our assignment information on it. Gwen and Maci had said that Kit doesn't talk to anyone, but it doesn't seem that way to me.

Everyone moves to sit beside their partners and Kit moves his chair closer to mine, angling the paper between the two of us. "So it looks like you're a teacher and I'm a lawyer."

"Don't forget we have twins. Boy and girl, eight months old." I point to the paper where it shows us our family situation.

"That's a little ironic. But how could I forget? They cry all night." Kit laughs as he makes the joke and I notice that even more people are looking at us now. Kit must notice it too because he looks around the classroom and then back to me, "They're staring at me, not you. Don't worry."

I don't get a chance to reply though because Mr. Mattox starts talking about how there are certain expenses that he has left up to us to decide if we want or not. As he talks, he walks around the room passing out that sheet to the groups, diverting everyone's gaze from Kit and I.

Kit takes the expenses page and looks over it, "Well, what do you say? Should we buy a boat?"

"Hmmm. I don't think we really have the time to enjoy a boat. You're a lawyer and we have two infants."

"Pretty and smart. I lucked out in this marriage." He and puts an X beside the boat option as I jokingly shove his shoulder. We spend the rest of the class deciding what we will and won't buy. Kit talks the entire time, he even cracks some jokes and laughs. I notice people looking at us the entire hour but decide to ignore it. When class ends we walk out the door together. Before parting ways I hear Kit say, "See you tomorrow, wifey."

"Bye, Kit. " I laugh and wave as he goes the opposite direction.

Maci is waiting for me across the hall and she's looking from me to Kit and then back to me then back to Kit as Kit walks farther and farther down the hallway. "What the hell, El? Are you magic or something? How are you getting him to talk? And he called you wifey, what's that all about?"