Silence Is Golden (Muke)

Ch. 1 - English Project

*Luke's P.O.V*

"Luke Hemmings-" the teacher, Mrs. Dudley, announces finally, and I bite my lip, anxious to see who she is pairing me with for this assignment she has for us.

"I don't even have any friends in this class" I mutter to myself as I glance around the room, since I'm sitting right up the back.

"And Michael Clifford" Mrs. Dudley finishes her sentence after looking down at her clipboard.

"Who?" I ask myself in confusion, frowning at my English teacher for this year.

"Me" I hear a soft voice say from the seat beside me. Their voice was so soft that I almost didn't hear them over the teacher as she continued to call out the pairings.

My head snaps to the left, following the faint sound, and I see a guy with bright dyed-red hair staring at me shyly. "Oh, it's you" I mumble.

Michael Clifford, I guess I never actually knew his last name, he's a quiet guy- too quiet- and only really has one friend, who usually does all of his talking for him. I can't say I've ever been a bully towards him, but I also can't say I've been 100% nice to him.

The two of us always kind of just ignored each other all last year. Right at the start of year 9, Michael had tried to introduce himself to me, but I blew him off. It wasn't that he had hot pink hair and looked gay as all hell, it was just the fact that he seemed to have zero confidence, and that bored me a little.

"Okay, now that you all have your partners" Mrs. Dudley says, interrupting my thoughts, "Your first project of the year is that you have to write an essay/speech on your partner".

"What?" I ask under my breath, at the same time as the class starts to murmur.

"You will need to spend time together, friends or not, and you need to be able to write about what you discovered about your partner" she continues to explain our project to us.

"When is it due?" A girl, Sarah, asks.

"The end of the semester" Mrs. Dudley replies, "So you have two whole terms, no extensions, and you will be giving your speeches to the class".

Easy enough a project, as far as I can tell, but I can tell that Michael's worried about the speech, because he just started fidgeting with his hands on the desk.

"Are you alright?" I ask Michael quietly, leaning over towards him slightly. He gives me a hesitant nod and fakes a small smile. "You don't need to be scared" I say before pulling away so I'm back at my desk.

"There will not be any time to work on this project during class until the end of the semester" Mrs. Dudley continues to speak, "But for any group work we do in class, you will be working with your pair, just to make it easier".

The whole class remains silent, so Mrs. Dudley sits down at her desk and starts fiddling with her laptop. Seconds later and music is filling the room, leaving the whole class confused.

"Since it's the very first lesson of the year" Mrs. Dudley says with a smile, "Sit with your partner and start getting to know them".

Joyful murmurs fill the room as everyone moves to sit next to their partners. I glance over at Michael and he is just staring at the notebook in front of him, nervously nibbling on the inside of his thumb.

"Michael" I say quietly, catching his attention instantly, "Are you going to talk to me?".

Michael just nods slightly before bringing his chair closer to mine, leaving his desk in its place. "Hi" he says in a tiny voice, giving me a small smile.