I hate science, thought Carlos Garcia as he strolled down the hallway with his friends Kendall Knight and James Diamond. He was on his way to his least favorite class of the day, biology. Even though both Kendall and James were in the same class, he still hated it. It just bored him, science bored him. Carlos wasn't interested in learning about how the world works, he just wanted to simply live in it.
Carlos was the more easy-going of his two friends; they were both really focused on what they wanted from life, but Carlos didn't know what he wanted to do with himself, he just lived for the now.
All three boys were very well-liked and popular. They were the hockey stars of the school and everyone admired and respected them. People watched as they walked down the hallways together to biology; James loved the attention, but Kendall despised it. Carlos didn't seem to pay much attention to it, as he didn't really care.
"So Carlos, I'm going on a date with Jo on Friday, I was wondering if you wanted to come with Jennifer and make it a double?" Kendall asked as they walked into the classroom.
Carlos frowned at him. "Actually, she dumped me last night…"
"Oh, I'm sorry man. Don't worry about her, you could probably have any girl in the school at the snap of your fingers." Kendall reassured.
"Ha. James has already dated half the girls in the school, I don't want to date his leftovers." Carlos laughed.
James chuckled. "Ouch. That burns. You better move quick because I'm making my way to the other half soon and then you won't have any choice but to date my leftovers."
The boys sat down in their seats and waited for their teacher to start their daily lecture. They had only been in school for a week and Mr. Lawrence had already bored them to the point where they never wanted to come to biology class again.
"Settle down, class." Mr. Lawrence shouted. The room was suddenly silent. "Today is our first lab of the year. We will do a lab every Wednesday from now on. The lab partners you choose today will be your permanent partners for the year. You will do every lab and project with them, so choose wisely."
He sat down and waited for partners to be chosen. The room suddenly burst with energy. Everyone was scrambling around to find a partner. Carlos turned around to claim one of his friends.
"I call Kendall!" James yelled.
Carlos groaned. He had no idea who he would partner up with now. Everyone seemed to have already chosen their partner when Carlos turned back around. Mr. Lawrence stood up again with a satisfied expression on his face.
"Alright class, it seems that everyone has chosen their partners."
Carlos rose his hand. "I don't have a partner, sir. It looks like I'll have to work in a group of three…" He turned around and smirked at Kendall and James.
"Good try, Mr. Garcia, but there is someone you can work with. Mr. Mitchell can be your partner." Mr. Lawrence gestured to the back of the room.
Carlos turned around to see an awkward boy with dark hair and pale skin sitting at his desk reading a book. The boy looked up and grimaced. Carlos had never seen him before, he was strange looking. He must have been new.
Carlos rolled his eyes. "Alright." he said as he got up from his chair and sauntered over to the boy.
I'm not too thrilled to work with you either, Logan thought when he saw Carlos roll his eyes. Logan knew this type. The big jock that ruled the school, he probably shoved kids like Logan in lockers on a daily basis. Logan did not like this pairing, he'd probably end up doing all the work anyways, why couldn't he just work alone and let Carlos be with his douchey friends?
Logan watched the Latino boy sit down next to him. "Hey, I'm Carlos."
"Logan." he introduced as they shook hands.
"Are you new, I've never seen you before?"
Logan looked slightly offended. "No… I've been going to school in this town since kindergarten…"
Carlos was somewhat embarrassed. How could he not notice someone who grew up with him? "Oh."
Mr. Lawrence pointed to the board where the lab instructions and materials were written, he then began to hand out a sheet of lab questions they had to answer. Logan carefully read the board as Carlos played around with his pen. Idiot, Logan thought.
Carlos watched Logan read the board as he played with his pen. What an overachiever. Can this year just be over with? This class is bad enough already without this dork making me look stupid.
"Alright, let's get to work." Logan said as he began to set up the lab.
"Okay." Carlos sounded so timid around people he didn't know. It was ironic that he was so popular.
Logan sighed. "Listen, you probably don't even want to do anything, so just let me handle this. You can try to answer the lab questions."
Carlos was offended. Does he think I'm retarded or something? He nodded at Logan anyways, just wanting this lab to be over with. He grabbed the sheet of questions from Logan's side of the table and got ready to write.
"Wait" Logan stopped him. "Write them on a separate sheet of paper just in case you mess something up."
Carlos was ready to punch Logan in the face, but he complied ignoring the rude comments. He had the capability to at least help with the lab, he wasn't that dumb. He sat and worked on the questions in silence, hoping he would never have to speak to Logan again.
Minutes passed, but they seemed like hours. These questions were easy, Carlos had actually listened to Mr. Lawrence's lectures this week. He at least tried in school.
Logan was surprised to see how fast Carlos managed to answer the questions. He felt bad for saying what he did, but he couldn't afford for anyone to mess this up for him. School was important, friends weren't.
"Done." Carlos muttered as he finished the last question.
Logan was cleaning up the lab as Carlos finished, they both appeared to be quick workers. Carlos looked at the clock and noticed the bell was about to ring. Thank God. Logan got up to put his safety goggles in the bin.
"I can take yours for you if you want." he said quietly.
Carlos nodded, just to make him go away. He couldn't believe he would have to deal with Logan's crap for the rest of the year. I guess even the most popular of people must have enemies.
The minute Logan got home from school, he threw himself onto his bed. He was exhausted. He was up so late the night before and he still had a ton of homework to do. All he really wanted to do was sleep at this point, he was sick of trying so hard.
He looked over to his window and saw his plants. They were dead. He frowned.
"Dammit! I just got these yesterday! I'm so bad with… life." he sighed.
He decided that he would worry about his plants later and he closed his eyes. He promised himself that he wouldn't drift off, but accidentally fell asleep without thinking.