She's Such A Nerd

10: I'm Not Complaining!

10: I'm Not Complaining!

I walk into English on Monday to find that for once I'm not the first one in class. Standing next to Ms. Kelley is a guy who I can already tell is taller than me and has dark hair. He glances over at me (oh gosh, he has blue eyes) and I immediately turn to put my backpack down at my seat. "Emaline," Ms. Kelley waves me over. I walk to her desk quietly and she informs the mystery guy, "I'm sure she'd be glad to help make sure you feel welcome here." I glance at the new boy to find him smiling at me. Shyly, I smile back at him. "Oh, and Emaline?" I look back at Ms. Kelley. "It's too late to have him write the essay. Would you mind if he joined you and Jake?" Have a cute guy to help me be less annoyed by a certain someone? Yes, please!

"No problem," I reply with a smile. "He's more than welcome in our group." I give him a huge smile and head back to my seat. I sit down and he takes the seat next to me. Not where Jake usually sits, but that's fine.

He holds his hand out to me and says, "I'm Mark."

I smile and shake his hand. "Emaline. You can call me Emmy."

He smiles and holds my hand a little longer than he needs to. Not that I mind. "Nice to meet you, Emmy." As I'm explaining the project and topic to Mark, Jake walks in. He looks over at us, a confused expression forming on his face. He sits down in his usual spot and I say, "Good afternoon, Jake. This is Mark. He's new and will be joining our group. Mark, this is Jake."

Jake looks at Mark, who smiles and hold his hand out. He's very formal. They shake hands, but it ends quickly. Jake turns to me and asks, "I thought it was a partner thing, not a group project."

I frown. "That's very rude of you."

Mark speaks up. "No, that's okay. I didn't want to intrude-"

"You aren't intruding. I'm glad to have you in our group." I turn to see Jake rolling his eyes. I give him a disapproving look then say to Mark, "Actually, we were going to work on the project at my house after school if you'd like to join us."

He smiles and replies with, "Sure. What time?"

I can predict Jake's protest so I say, "I can give you my address so you can come over whenever. Or I can give you a ride right after school. Whichever works."

Mark thinks for a moment. "A ride after school should work, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind. Not at all," I say with a smile. Class goes by quicker than it usually does. Jake sits on his phone the entire class period. I don't bother taking it from him. I look up, feeling eyes on me. Mark is smiling at me. I can feel a blush spreading across my cheeks. "What?"

He smiles even more. "What?"

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Can't I just look at a pretty girl?" He raises an eyebrow. If possible, I blush even more. Luckily, the bell is my excuse to not respond. I stand up and start putting my things away. I leave a couple books out to put in my locker. As we're walking, Mark takes my books from me. I smile and thank him.

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I pull up to the house and look over to see Mark completely in awe. I smile to myself. I may have forgot to mention I live in a mansion. Oops? Pulling into the driveway, I bring the car to a stop and take the keys out of the ignition. Before I can get out of the car, Mark says, "Wait, you live here?"

I smile and nod, opening my door. "Yep," I say as I step out of the car.

By the time Jake arrives, I've already explained the project and Mark has gotten used to the fact that my room is gigantic. Of course, Jake just had to take his sweet time. Maria knocks on the door to let me know when he's here. I stand up and give him a hug. Sadly, I still have to pretend Jake's my boyfriend, even if I'm angry with him. At least he pretends in front of Maria. He hugs me back, kissing my cheek lightly.

I back away as soon as Maria leaves and take a seat at my desk, prepared to get (hopefully) a lot done on this project. As I type, delete, and edit the essay portion of our project, I notice there's an awkward silence hanging in the air. I turn around to Jake on his phone and Mark sitting there awkwardly, smiling at me when I turn. I smile back and take note of the fact that Jake hasn't looked up from his phone.

An evil smile forms as I come up with a plan. I motion for Mark to keep quiet then point at Jake's phone. He smiles and laughs silently. I stand up from my desk chair. Still no reaction. I walk over and take the phone out of Jake's hand, turning it off before sticking it in my back pocket. Jake looks at me in disbelief. I can tell he's getting mad.

"Why'd you do that?" Jake all but yells at me.

"You weren't paying attention," I state simply. "We're working on this project. Together. You don't get to just sit back and relax while we do all the work."

"I worked," he argues. I roll my eyes. "And you can't expect us to try to help when we know you'll just tell us to let you do it yourself!"

By this point, I'm getting mad. "What exactly are you implying?!"

"You, Emaline Thompson, are controlling," Jake spits out.

My jaw drops. "Controlling?! I'm controlling?! I'm the one who has done the majority of this project while you sit there on your phone, acting as if I would do the entire thing for you! Just because I'm doing most of the work does not make me controlling!"

Jake yells back, "You've already 'edited' most of the work I've put into it!"

"There were grammatical errors!"

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, grammatical errors. Okay." As I'm about to argue, he says, "Quit complaining. At least I helped!"

"Oh, so now I'm controlling and complaining?! What about you, you arrogant-" I'm cut off by the door opening. Before I know it, Jake grabs me and pulls me onto his lap, kissing me.