Jefferson High School was boring; very few students would deny that. After three weeks of the semester, most of them felt like the school year should be over already. 16-year-old Tempe Brennan was not one of those students. She was listening very intently to their Civics & Government teacher drone about the percentages of taxes.
A few rows up, sophomore Jack Hodgins' mind was milling. He was accusing the government of ripping off the people of America. He didn't usually tell people about his conspiracy theories. The people he did tell usually called him weird, like Seeley Booth, who was on the other side of the room.
Seeley couldn't have been more bored if he tried. Civics wasn't his thing. Neither was math, or English, or anything but ice hockey really. He aimed and fired another paper football at the boy in front of him.
Zack Addy turned around. "Can you please stop that?" At age 13, Zack was a junior, just like Seeley. That was one of the reasons Seeley didn't like him very much. Also, it was funny to see how scared he got around the older teen.
Seeley just fired another football at the kid's face. It was intercepted by Zack's neighbor. Angela Montenegro dropped the paper back on Seeley's desk. "You're so hilarious," she quipped, and turned back to the teacher.
Seeley studied her. She was really pretty, and she could be really popular if she wanted. In fact, the football team's QB had asked her out, but she'd turned him down. Seeley didn't blame her, though; Jimmy was a jerk.
"Seeley Booth." His head shot up at the teacher's call. "What kinds of things do taxes pay for?"
"Uh… the retirement community you should be in?" A few students laughed. Angela rolled her eyes.
"Thank you, Mr. Booth." Mrs. Mallard didn't have very high expectations for Seeley, but she enjoyed calling him out anyway. "How about we talk about your class projects next?" The class groaned. "You will work in groups of five, which, yes, I have already picked for you. If you don't like your partners, deal with it. Learn to work with them for the next three weeks, or else you have the possibility of failing. Ms. Cam, please pass out the assignments."
Ms. Cam was their student teacher. She was big on rules, like Mrs. Mallard, but she was a bit nicer about it.
She passed a stack of papers around the room while Mrs. Mallard spoke. "Your assignment is to be a family. For three weeks you will function as a household with money, jobs and bills. In each family there will be a mom, a dad, and at least one child. Yes, you will have to spend time with each other, and yes, I mean outside of school too. You will keep a journal of your feelings and experiences each day. If you have any questions, read your assignment sheet. You will figure out specifics with your family tomorrow."
She began to read the list. "Group one; Joseph, Aaron, Lucy, Airi and Ross. Group two; Terri, Moises, Oliver, Marie and Steve. Group three; Zack, Seeley, Temperance, Jack and Angela. Group four; Shannon, Amy, Dan, Chelsea and Colin. There's the bell, you can go."
After school, Seeley was walking down the hall with Oliver. "Dude, you got stuck with the Nerd Herd!" Ollie thought it was hilarious.
"Hey, I'll get an A without doing any work. That's cool with me." He high-fived his friend.
"Dream on, skater boy." Seeley stopped and watched Angela brush by with Tempe.
"Dude, are you gonna ask her out? If not, I am."
"Be my guest." Ollie took off after her. As Seeley watched, a few more of his buddies from the hockey team came up.
"What are you staring at?" Mike Roup asked.
"Ollie being rejected by yet another girl." They watched as Angela shook her head, and patted Ollie's. He came back over.
"She just can't handle the Oll-man yet." Seeley clapped his shoulder.
"None of them can." The team laughed.
a/n: so watcha guys think? I wrote this while waiting for document manager to work, so who knows where it'll go… sweets will probably come in very soon if you were worried… please review =)