AN: I thought I could write chapter five of Message Delivered, but it's giving me trouble. Meanwhile, this idea wants to get out of my head and be known, so please forgive me. Haha. Love ya, peeps! Thanks to AlwaysxAddicted for the idea. Ha ha. Mari – you really give me the craziest ideas. But thank you. Now upload "We're Only Friends" and I'll try to finish up chapter five of Message Delivered.
Warning: Spoilers only up to A New Kid in School. I'm re-writing More Than A Zombie To Me, and will probably be taking a different approach for Good Golly Miss Dolly and the two (or more) episodes after it. OUT-OF-CHARACTERNESS ABOUND!!!
Summary: Miley hated Jake... until she got to know him. But with her being in denial, and having too much pride; how on earth would they get together? Out of character present.
The English Project:
Pride and Prejudice
Chapter One: The Assignment
Miley and Lilly were in the school bathroom before first period. The latter was fixing her hair, and the former was just staring into space.
Miley Stewart was annoyed. She was not looking to another school day with Jake Ryan. He was obnoxious and egocentric. She can't believe how everybody in this school only saw his face and immediately scrammed to fall over him – she couldn't believe she almost revealed her secret a week ago just because she was jealous about how Jake got the star treatment!
She was really glad she didn't go through with it and actually got away without being found out! That reporter was incredibly gullible and stupid. No wonder she only got employed by the gossip showbiz programs and papers rather than by CNN and other REAL news networks and newspapers. What a nincompoop!
Speaking of nincompoops, Jake Ryan was the biggest idiot she had ever seen. And she can't believe how people easily fell for his act and how cool they thought he was. And she didn't know how he reveled in the attention.
Jake Ryan was SICKENING. He was nothing but a pretty face. Underneath all that glitz… he was nothing but an attention-starved boy who was lucky enough to get handpicked to play a zombie slayer in a TV show.
But still… he can be really charming and nice. She remembered when he wanted to apologize to her. Maybe she'll tell him to wear dorky glasses like the one Lilly wears when she runs out of contacts. And of course, maybe send him a wig to wear too, or different clothes. That should throw some people off his scent.
Of course… that is if she cared!
"Hey, you ok?" Lilly's voice cut into her musings.
"Oh I'm fine – just thinking."
"So, I was thinking – one behind and one over!"
Miley took a look. "Sure. Would you like a billboard sign with that as well? 'Hi, I'm trying too hard; please look at me!'"
"All right! No ears!" Lilly quickly fixed it. "So, what were you thinking about? 'Cause I was thinking about how I could get nervous and distracted when Jake says hi, you know? I can't believe that he goes to our school, it's really cool!"
Miley glared. "Oh I was just thinking about how I could make myself temporarily deaf because of how my best friend keeps mouthing about that guy. Seriously, he's just an ego maniac who relishes the attention everybody gives him in this school. Besides, he's not that good of an actor."
Lilly rolled her eyes. "Oh please! Who are you to talk? You don't know the first thing about acting!"
"What are you talking about? I act like…" Miley quickly checked the bathroom for any unwelcome ears. "… like I'm not Hannah Montana every day. I act like Oliver's jokes are funny. And yesterday? I acted like I liked that sweater you wore!"
"What?"
"Just kidding! See? I was acting!" Then after a pause Miley asked, "Or was I?"
"Ooooh, you are good. But really - come on! Deep down, you soooo like Jake."
"No, I don't! How can you say that?"
"Because every time his name comes up, you act like you can't stand him."
"That is not acting!"
"Or is it?"
"No!"
Lilly shrugged. "Well then you're the only girl at school who doesn't have a crush on him."
"Oh please! Don't ever put his name and mine with the word crush in the same sentence again! Besides, I think the others should be able to see through his phony little act by now…"
But apparently that wasn't the case. They walked out of the restrooms and towards Oliver's locker when they saw a crowd of girls surrounding Jake.
Miley crossed her arms at the spectacle with apparent disbelief and aversion. Lilly ogled and sighed dreamily, "I think you're wrong, Miles."
Miley rolled her eyes and averted her sights from the scene. "And parents wonder why their kids need higher scores for their SAT's to get into a good college." She quickly moved toward Lilly's locker and opened it.
She was still locker-less since Tony revamped Jake's. She itched to punch both parties in the face… and not those pansy little punches she and Lilly gave Oliver from time to time. Since she was locker-less, she was sharing lockers with Lilly, Oliver and Becca. Lilly had her gym clothes and toiletries, and science book. Oliver had her history, drama and Spanish books. Becca had her English books (vocabulary and literature) and music folder for choir. On the days her dad packed lunch for her, she would put it in Lilly's. She didn't want to stink up Becca's locker, and she didn't trust Oliver with it.
It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. But it was still a pain. Especially since occasionally, Jake the Ego Maniac would use Becca's locker mirror every time Miley was there and he was passing by. And then he would just smile at her and tease her through the mirror. It was as if he lived to annoy her. Just thinking about it made her fists clench.
BOOM! SPLAT!
Miley said, "Sweet niblets!"
She had gotten completely mad at the thought of Jake… and completely forgot that she was holding a Ziploc bag that contained an egg salad sandwich her dad made her for lunch.
Then a really annoying voice said, "Wow, Miley!" She turned to face Jake Ryan who continued to smile that annoying grin of his a couple of steps away from her. "If I had known that having girls around me would make you so jealous, I'd have dismissed them all. You know you're my number one."
"Awwww," Miley smiled. "You're so sweet, Jake." She moved closer to him and he moved closer as well, much to the dismay of onlookers.
Jake smirked. "Well, naturally!" He just reached her within hugging distance when she closed Lilly's locker without looking and walked away.
"But don't confuse me with your groupies." She said as she disappeared through the doors of the cafeteria. She threw the Ziploc bag in the first trash can she saw.
"Oh my God!" Lilly screamed as she ran after Miley, who made a beeline for the pizza line, which was empty. She started saying stuff in gibberish, which Miley didn't pay attention to.
Ahh, they were serving broccoli pizza today. "Hi, a slice of the cheese pizza please?" Miley ignored Lilly who was patiently waiting for a response as she got her own lunch.
Miley grabbed an apple, a water bottle, a Snapple Peach, silverware and napkins then handed the lunch lady her lunch card. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, dear," the lunch lady said. She handed the card back to Miley, who turned to Lilly.
She said, "Okay. What were you saying?"
"How could you do that?"
"Simple: quite easily."
"There's no normal girl who would do that to Jake Ryan."
"Lilly, did you forget that I'm not a normal girl?"
"When you're Miley – you're supposed to be one!"
They went towards their table where Becca and Oliver were sitting already.
"Hey!" Miley and Lilly said as they sat down.
Becca smiled. "So, Miley, did you really leave Jake Ryan hanging by Lilly's locker before he could kiss you?"
Miley made a face. "Eww. No. Whatever you heard, that's not true."
"What happened?"
Miley and Lilly exchanged a look. The latter told the story.
"Wow." Becca said. "I don't know how you do it, Miley. You're like, the only girl who's single at school who doesn't like him."
"Oh, please. He has enough girls and boys, teachers… he has enough people in this school to fall over him. I refuse to be added to that statistic."
Immediately after that statement, Jake came in the cafeteria with a throng of girls and boys and Mr. Corelli behind him.
"I think I've lost my appetite." She just took two bites out of her pizza.
Oliver suddenly said, "OH!"
They turned to him. "What?"
"Did you guys hear? Mr. Aaron is going to give a two-person project in English class."
Lilly clapped her hands, "Yeah! I heard about that!"
Miley and Becca exchanged looks. "Okay, so what's so exciting about it?"
Oliver said, "Well, Amber and Ashley cried because they don't have Jake in their English class… and it's supposed to be a boy-and-girl joint project."
Miley scoffed at this. "Big whoop. Why is it that everybody can't function normally because of that guy? I mean, look!" She pointed out how Jake was milking everyone's attention… again. "It's disgusting!"
Lilly said, "Oh, come on! You're telling me that if Jake Ryan asked you out, you wouldn't say yes?"
"Yes."
"Yes, you'd say no? Or yes, you'd say yes?"
"No! Yes, I'd say no!"
Lilly's, Becca's and Oliver's faces scrunched in confusion.
They ate in silence after that.
Miley and Becca headed to the latter's locker and got their books. "So what do you think this project's going to be about, Miley?"
"To be honest I think whatever it is, is going to be a warm up to writing a term paper. So Mr. A will probably ask the group to read a really difficult book and research it then write a fifteen-page or so essay with two hundred note cards, a work cited page and all those things."
"Well, I can't wait. I hope that Oliver and I get to work on this; he's pretty good in English."
They joined up with Oliver who put his arm around Becca and Lilly who quickly slipped a note in Miley's hand. She told her to open it later. They got to room 123, and quickly sat in their seats where they took their binders out.
Mr. Aaron was the only teacher who didn't fall over Jake. He was not strict or stern, but he was less lenient than the rest of the teachers at Seaview. He believed that education was really important and did not like everybody to waste time. As such, he writes a "Do Now" on the board which must be finished as soon as possible.
Seconds later, they could hear Jake say good-bye to his fans and sit down behind Miley then started to do what the writing on the board asked him to.
Even he paid careful attention in this class.
"Do Now: Answer the question; what does Juliet mean when she says 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?' in Act II, scene ii?"
The bell rang and Mr. Aaron clapped his hands. "Okay, before I move onto the Do Now, I want you all to stand up. I taped something on your seats face down so please – extract them but don't look at them yet. When you finish, don't sit down."
They all did as they were told and finally saw a flimsy, translucent playing card in the middle of the back rest. When everybody finished, he continued.
"Okay. Don't make a sound and go look at them."
Everybody turned their cards over then frowned.
Mr. Aaron continued to talk. "You must have heard the start of a rumor about a two-person project. And yes, that is quite true. This is actually a practice for your research papers, except it's not going to be an essay. Now I want the reds and the blacks to split up. Reds to my right, blacks to my left."
The girls went to Mr. Aaron's right while the guys went to his left. Oliver and Jake were standing next to each other at the end of the guy's line near the door. Miley was standing in between Becca and Lilly in the middle of the girl's line.
"Now, reds will be picking a piece of paper from this box," he held up a three-by-five carton box, "The blacks will be picking from this can." He held up an empty chocolate wafer tin can. "When I call your suit and character, please come forward and pick."
He put the can on a desk towards the blacks and the box towards the reds.
"Queen of Diamonds, and Three of Clubs."
Becca and a kid with glasses went up. They were about to read the papers when they were interrupted with an, "Oh, don't look at them yet."
Everybody rolled their eyes.
Eventually, everybody but Miley and this nerdy kid got up to get their papers.
"Ah yes, the Queen of Hearts and Ten of Spades."
Miley ambled her way up and got the last piece of paper in the carton.
"Now that everybody got one, you can open them."
Everybody opened and read them.
"Now I want to see if you guys can mix these authors and titles correctly. When I call upon the black suits, just say the title of the book you'll be working on, and those who think they know the author of the book can raise their hands and vice versa when I call upon the red suits. That said… Let's start with the King of Spades."
A kid with a blue shirt on said, "Lord of the Flies."
A girl with pigtails and black-framed glasses raised her hand. Since nobody else had their arm up, Mr. Aaron beckoned for her to answer. "William Golding."
"Correct, so who has Golding?" Another girl raised her hand. "Okay, Miss Afferbach, please sit down right next to Mr. Steins. Oh and yes, for the duration of this project, if you sit far away from your partner, you shall be moved accordingly. Next, Five of Diamonds."
The girl standing on Becca's other side said, "Herman Melville."
The class chorused, "Moby Dick." They read that in 7th grade.
Mr. Aaron said, "True, but that's not the title I included for this project."
The same girl who answered the previous question raised her hand again.
"Yes Sarah?"
"Billy Budd, Sailor."
"Correct. Who has it?"
Dandruff Danny raised his hand. "Okay, Miss Cosgrove, since you sit in front of Mr. Winkler, just please turn your seat around to face him and sit down. Next, Jack of Clubs."
Oliver spoke up, "Charles Dickens."
Becca smiled as she raised her hand.
"Miss Weller?"
"David Copperfield."
"Right on. Please take your seats."
Since they sat right next to each other (come on, is there any other way?), they didn't need to do anything else.
"Jack of Hearts?"
Lilly said, "My paper is a blank, Mr. Aaron."
"Ahh. Anonymous. This story you're going to be doing, Miss Trustcott, has been penned from oral tradition. Any guesses as to what this story is?"
Jake raised his hand.
"Yes, Mr. Ryan?"
"Beowulf."
"Quite right, Mr. Ryan. May I assume that you know this because of the hint in the slip of paper you drew?"
"Actually, no – you may not. It's my mom's favorite book. She read it to me when I was a kid. Then I would read it occasionally in my spare time when I learned how to read. In the copy she gave me, they noted that it was passed down through word of mouth before a monk finally wrote it out."
Mr. Aaron applauded him for the first time without sarcasm. "That's correct. Now, who has Beowulf?"
Henry raised his hand.
"Mr. Smith, Miss Truscott, please take your seats." Henry, it turned out, sat in front of Lilly. "Next on the list, Ace of Spades."
Jake stepped up. "Jane Austen."
Miley's head whipped towards him so fast that she almost had a whiplash.
Mr. Aaron noticed. "Miss Stewart, would you care to read off the title of the book you and Mr. Ryan will be doing for this project?"
Lilly was about to say something when Becca waved at her so she wouldn't say anything. Becca already had a hand on Oliver's mouth. They didn't need to get into trouble.
Miley sighed. Out of all the people in this room, why did she have to work with the Ego Maniac? And what on earth was he smiling about? Glaring at Jake, she announced, "Pride and Prejudice," to the entire class.
Mr. Aaron asked them to sit down and asked her to turn her seat around. She did so violently, staring daggers at Jake who was still smiling.
Finally, everybody got their partners and Mr. Aaron started giving the packets out. He gave one to each group. "Read it and weep, ladies and gents. This project will count for 70 of your grades this marking period and as such you'll have until November 23rd to do this. It's only October 2. The tear fest shouldn't start now. If you have any questions, you can ask them – but I believe I've written the directions and required components of the assignment in the packets I'm giving you. And yes – you must work on this together; you can photocopy them but I will only accept the original packet when you submit this project to me. Okay – please, peruse the packet. I'll give you guys a couple of minutes for you to absorb the information. I know it's a lot to take in, my little honors chickadees."
Miley just skimmed through the packet. "I can't believe this."
Jake asked for the packet with his hand. "Oh come on. It can't be that bad."
She almost chucked it at him. She didn't want this. It not only cut into her Miley time a lot, but she would have to ask him over (she refused to go to his house) to work on it. This sucked big time!
He was gingerly looking at each page. There was a scholarly frown that actually on his forehead. You know, that one you get when you feel like getting a migraine from information overload? "Wow. Three hundred note cards and a two-to-three page outline? We need a diagram for a class presentation with a written report? This is a lot of work. You'll actually have to crash some of my Zombie High shoots if we need to get this done."
What? Did she hear him right? She almost gaped at him. He was still busy analyzing the project. "You know, you might want to stop thinking – I can see smoke coming out of your ears."
Jake looked up, made a face at her before giving her a disarming smile. "Okay. Well, I think we should make a list… like a plan of what we should do first. We could split some of the tasks up, like taking notes and personal observations." He pointed at the page he was reading on, "You know, he said we can have a debate as our class presentation. One could be the plaintiff and the other the defendant; the class will be the jury and Mr. Aaron would be the judge. Whoever wins gets an A+ automatically and the loser gets a grade based on his or her written materials."
Miley took the packet back from him. Okay, maybe it was the smile – but he actually cared about the grade rather than working with her about this. Maybe she should drop the animosity until he hits on her. "But there has to be a minimum of eighteen evidences."
He leaned back in his chair and stretched. Okay… he was pretty built for a fourteen-year-old… stop it Miley! Focus! He said, "That just means that anybody who planned to read Spark Notes or Cliff Notes won't get a good grade. Mr. Aaron actually wants us to exhaust every little detail that the author might have missed. He wants us to pick an area where we can attack/defend Austen's book and quote the text to justify what we say."
She said, "We need other sources."
"Not a problem – I have a bunch of books at my house… my mom's an English professor at Stanford. I can bring some to school or over to your house."
"Wait, what makes you think I want you over my house?"
"Because I know you won't come over my house. And we do need to work on this at some place that's not in school."
"We can meet at library."
"Come on, Miley – we both know if we go to the library we wouldn't get a thing done."
Drat. He got her there. "Fine. You can come over my house."
Mr. Aaron chose to speak up. "Okay, enough about the project, people. Time to talk about Romeo and Juliet."
Miley turned her seat back around to face the board. Then she felt Jake lean over her shoulder and whisper, "Fine. I'm really not a bad guy, but I won't push you to get to know me when you don't want to. Let me know when you want to work on this project. But I promise you – if you show one ounce of interest in getting to know me beyond my façade, you'll like me." Then she felt him move away.
Great. Now she felt like the bad guy. She stifled a groan at his display of self-esteem and tried to focus on the lesson.
She regretted getting into Honors English.