it had been a week since that new boy had joined the school and everyone was betting that he would be kicked out in the next one. i'd discovered that he was in at least half of my classes, and boy was he a troublemaker. the teachers would constantly yell at him for refusing to do the work, he'd been sent to the principal's office twice already and he was always getting set out of the class for arguing with the teachers. I wouldn't be surprised if he disappeared in about a month.
me and my friends entered our English classroom hastily as we were running late. our teacher didn't really mind though, she just reminded us to be quicker next time. she was probably the nicest teacher that I or any of my friends had. we sat down in our seats on our table; we all sat on a table together. it was the only lesson we were all together for, which is why it was the most fun. as the teacher whizzed around the classroom finishing some final errands, I realised something: none of our books were out. this was weird as usually they were already out when we walked in the room. maybe we weren't working in them today.
my English teacher (mrs christa) stood at the front of the classroom and asked politely for everyone to listen. all of the students respected her, so they did as she asked instantly. she smiled at us all before beginning to speak.
"as of today, you will not be doing normal classwork for the next month. this is because we are starting a project which is going to be a presentation of how literature and poetry have changed over the years." me and my friends looked at each other excited. no normal classwork for a month and i'd get to work with my best friends to do it? sweet! she continued to explain more of the rules and explained what we would be doing on that day specifically, which was to create an initial plan on the project. I was super excited and ready to get to work, but then she added something that crushed me.
"you will be working in pairs and I have already chosen those pairs for you." everyone on the table rolled their eyes and exchanged looks of disgust.
"she likes us. she knows how well we get along, she won't put us all with random people surely." mark commented hopefully. everyone nodded but things only got worse from there. she picked up a piece of paper that was on her desk. it was a list of the people she had partnered up for this project. she began reading them out and everyone was on tenterhooks.
"okay...remember your partner because once i'm finished speaking i'll ask you to go sit next to them. first off, tom, you're with phil." I knew tom and phil. they were pretty good friends. I was going to be really mad if she partnered everyone else up with their friends and me and my group all got separated.
"Evelien, you're with mika. pj, you're with emma. ryan, you're with matt." perhaps I wouldn't be put with a random person after all. so far, everybody she had called out were friends anyway. maybe she picked people that she knew would get along.
"signe, you're with marzia. mark..." we all stared at each other, feeling tense.
"you're with ethan." I saw the two boys punch the air before giving each other a fist bump, clearly very happy that they'd been put together. this gave me some form of hope. hopefully bob and wade would be put together and i'd be with ken.
"dan, you're with bob." we all glared at each other. now this wasn't a good sign. bob tried his hardest not to show his disgust and disappointment, but he was finding it incredibly difficult. dan and bob had never talked to each other, not even once. this was a bit of an omen.
"wade, you're with tyler. ken, you're with mary." what the fuck was happening? she gets to us and suddenly it all goes haywire! this just left me. I was pretty sure everybody else in the class had already been called out. maybe I would have to work in a three and I could choose who to go with.
