You Can Be Partners With

"Alright, class. Settle down."

As if on cue, every student in Miss Wilder's one-room schoolhouse took their seats and paused their conversations. Miss Wilder stood in front of the class with a stack of papers in her hand.

"Now. As I had promised at the beginning of the semester, we will not be having a final exam." Miss Wilder could not finish her statement, as a cheer of excitement from every student filled the schoolhouse. "Alright, now. Instead, I will be assigning you all a project. It will be worth a significant portion of your final grade and will take a decent amount of time to complete. But hopefully, it will not be too difficult and might even be fun to work on."

"Do we have to write another boring paper again?" Willie Oleson called out.

"No, Willie. I have come up with a project that you all will do in pairs."

Immediately, the students of this small school began shooting glances and sharing nods. All except for Laura Ingalls, who was too focused on what Miss Wilder was saying to look around. Laura had been trying for months to get her grades high enough so she could take the school certification exam again. She wanted to become a teacher and impress her long-time crush, Almanzo Wilder.

"Now, this project will be a form of debate. Each pair will be given a set opposing statements. Then, they will have to work together to develop arguments to back each of the opposing sides." Miss Wilder went on to explain. "You could use facts, historical examples or common situations to support each statement. Finally, you will present your arguments to the class."

"So, do we have to debate the other person?" Willie interrupted once again.

Miss Wilder, a bit more annoyed, tried to answer the boy's question. "Not exactly. You will come up with the arguments together and chose which one of you will present each argument."

A hum of conversations and the rustling of papers filled the room. It would seem that the students were more excited about the final project than Miss Wilder expected them to be.

"Alright, class. You may sit with your partner and I will hand out the topics randomly." Everyone started moving around the room as Miss Wilder began passing out the papers.

Laura turned to her adopted-brother, Albert. "This is going to make for an interesting assignment."

Albert turned his head away, then looked back at his sister. "Yea. Well...actually...I was going to work with Andy on this one."

"What?" Laura asked, becoming very confused as her and Albert always paired up to do their schoolwork.

"Well, we worked on the last big project together." The younger boy tried to explain, being careful not to hurt Laura's feelings. "Besides, girls have a terrible way of arguing." Albert jumped out of his seat next to his sister and went to meet up with Andy.

Laura started anxiously looking around for someone to be her partner. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to have already found the person they were going to work with. The young girl bit her lip in distress.

"Laura, are you alright?" Miss Wilder asked, after walking by Laura and noticing the nervousness on her face.

"I don't have a partner." She stated directly.

The teacher looked around for a moment. "Here. You and Willie can be partners." Just then, Willie walked over, not knowing he had just been thrown into the conversation.

A look of disgust and disbelief fell over Laura's face. Partners with Willie Oleson? She could not think of anything worse. At least Nellie was smart. Willie was an annoying brat who never did any of his own work. She would never forgive Albert for leaving her to be partnered with Willie.

"Here are your topics." Miss Wilder handed Laura a sheet of paper and walked away.

Willie slid himself in the seat next to Laura, with a cocky half smile on his face. He knew that Laura would do everything in her power to get a good grade on this final project, which would make him look like an improved student. He would just have to let her do most of the work, throw an idea around here and there, and show up to class on the day of presentations.

"So, partner, what topic did we get?" Willie asked with a sly tone in his voice.

Laura sighed, finally excepting her fate. She turned over the paper and began reading aloud. "The first line says: A rich couple will have a better marriage. The second one says: A poor couple will have a better marriage."

"That's easy. I don't know why we would have to debate something as obvious as that?" Willie commented without hesitation.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Laura exclaimed.

"Class dismissed." Miss Wilder called from her desk.

Immediately, Willie jumped up and ran out of the schoolhouse, leaving Laura in the dust.

That night, all the Ingalls family were gathered around the dinning table, eating a wonderfully cooked meal. Laura, however, was quiet, not wanting to yell at her brother in front of her parents.

"So, Laura, Albert. I ran into Miss Wilder at the mercantile this afternoon and she told me about that big project you have to do." Caroline added to the conversation about schoolwork and grades.

"Oh, what kind of project is it?" Charles asked his kids, while slowly setting down his cup of coffee.

Albert swallowed his food to reply. "It's sort like a debate, in pairs."

"Well, what topic did you two get?" Pa asked, feeling some what interested.

"Actually, I'm working with Andy." The young boy explain, shoving another fork-full of food into his mouth.

Caroline looked over at her daughter. "So who are you working with, Laura?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes in her brother's direction. "Willie." Laura answered in a low tone.

Charles accidentally let out a small laugh. "How's that going to work out?"

"I don't know, Pa." Laura wondered herself. "And you'll never guess what topic Miss Wilder decided to give us."

"What?"

"Which is better: a rich marriage or a poor marriage?"