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Chapter 7-Partners
I continuously hit my pen against my desk until it begins to annoy me. Instead, I play with my hair. But that begins to bore me too. There's just nothing interesting going on in journalism, which is surprising. This is my favorite class. We all have to silently read an article, but I finished a while ago. Everyone else is still reading. I decide to rest my head on my desk and slowly doze off, until my teacher's voice startles me.
"Everyone, for the next two weeks, you'll be doing a project with a partner. You both need to write an article on something that means a lot to you or deeply concerns you. Anything you're interested in, as long as it's not childish." The teacher says.
I see students getting out of their seats ready to pick their partners, but the teacher interrupts them.
"Get back in your seats! I picked your partners. The first group is Richard and Kori." He says.
"Too bad cutie, you're stuck with grumpy old Grayson." Xavier whispers to me.
I couldn't help, but giggle. Dick shoots Xavier and me a glare. After our teacher finishes assigning partners, I move my desk a little closer to Dick.
"So…what do you want to write about?" I ask him.
He shrugs. "Don't really care."
"Well is there anything you're interested in?" I ask again.
"Nope." He says abruptly.
I scrunch my eyebrows. "You know Dick, I'm trying to make an effort here and we need to work on this project together okay? I don't know what happened to the person I talked to Friday night, but I'd rather have him here."
Dick slowly turns his head to me and looks at me with a blank expression, while I still hold my stern expression.
"I don't know what you're talking about Kori." He says directly.
"Stop acting stupid. You know what I'm talking about." I say firmly.
"Okay tell me more about your beautiful life on your stupid island." He says more harshly.
My mouth is in a gap. "Why are you acting like a jerk?"
"To be honest, I really didn't care about your stupid life story. I was just being polite." He says with a sneer.
I feel my fist clench, but restrain myself from hitting him. Instead I move my desk away from him, closer to Xavier. I let out an over exaggerated sigh and Xavier puts his hand on my back.
"You okay?" He asks.
"No." I say.
"What's wrong babe?" He asks me.
I shake my head. "Nothing, Dick was just being rude to me." I whisper, so Dick can't hear me.
Xavier furrows his eyebrows. "Told you that guy is an ass."
"I don't understand, we were getting along on Friday and now he's acting like none it ever happened. He's being the same jerk he was before." I say frustrated.
Xavier leans his body closer to me. I look into his deep dark eyes.
"Forget him. You're too cute and sweet for some idiot like him." He whispers.
I felt a shiver, but I wasn't sure if it was good or bad.
"Thanks, Xavier." I say.
He smiles. "Anytime cutie."
I smile at him. "I should start working and you should too."
I position my chair so that it's almost isolated. I could feel Dick looking at Xavier and I when we were talking. Right now, he's not doing anything. I really don't care for talking to him, instead I write down some ideas I have for the article.
The school day is over. The building gets pretty empty and I'm still at my locker. I hear footsteps get closer towards and I look to see where's it's coming from. It's Dick. I immediately look away, but he stands right next to me.
"I need to talk to you." He says softly.
"Oh right, who am I talking to? The asshole in journalism or the nice guy from Friday night?" I ask sarcastically.
Dick frowns. "I know I was a douche to you today, but-"
I cut him off. "But what?"
"Babs wants me to stay away from you." He says resentfully.
I scrunch my eyebrows. "Um why?"
"She's jealous." He says bluntly. "She thinks there's something going on between us and even though I told her over and over nothing is. She told to stay away from you and if you talk to me, to act like a jerk."
"Well you know that still doesn't make this any better right?" I say, still feeling upset.
"I know what I did is unacceptable, but I'm really sorry Kori. I didn't mean it. I'm not usually friends with girls. It's usually just a hook up type of thing with girls. I can't really be friends with other girls if I'm dating Babs. But I've known Karen and Rachel for so long, they're like my sisters. "
"She shouldn't stop you from having friends." I say.
"Yeah, I know. And maybe she's right. Maybe something will happen between us." He gives me a playful wink and nudges me.
I scoff at him. "Nothing is going to happen between us Rich, got that? We're just going to be partners for the next two weeks. So you will show me respect and don't worry about this dumb romantic stuff okay?"
Dick smirks at me. "Sure thing, partner."
