"C'mon Todd. You can do this." I said to myself under an uncertain breath. I adjusted my glasses and headed back into the mob of coupled teens.

Some girl was standing on her own, she had ginger hair like me, except it was long and straight. She wore a black oversized sweater, the sleeve ends covering her hands.

I walked to her, swallowing my fear. "Hey, do you have a partner yet?"

She looked me over like a disgarded piece of meat. "Yeah I do. Sorry." She replied, but it was clear she was alone.

"Oh." Despite the bustling room around us, there was deafening awkward silence. "Okay, uh-"

"But good luck!" She chimed before heading off to find a suitable partner, not wasting anytime.

Discouraged, I went to the sidelines. By the walls I saw another lone figure, arms crossed and pouting.

Travis Phelps.

I could see that his eyes were fixated on the two boys he was sitting with from earlier. They were paired up, snapping Polaroid pictures of each other.

There wasn't much of a choice. I was sure that the girl from earlier had found a partner by now, leaving me with one choice.

"H-Hey Travis, I uh." I scratched the back of my hair- the same way Larry did when he was nervous. "I can't find a partner, and it looks like you cant either."

I waited for a response but I was only met with a glare.

"I know you don't like me but-" I was cut off.

"-Whatever." Travis huffed. He was glaring daggers into my soul, I could feel his embarrassment so personally.

Shocked, I smiled. "Wait, really?"

He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Ugh, dont make me regret this, okay!? Theres literally nobody else. If there were I wouldn't have picked you."

I was the one who picked him. Doing my best to remain patient, I sighed. "Let's go up and get the camera and stuff."

"After you."

We went up to the front together and recieved our notebook and camera. Inside the notebook there were small descriptions of the plant we needed to find and photograph.

The front of the notebook had a spot for me and my partner's names.

With a sharpie, I wrote "Todd Morrison" then handed it to Travis.

He hesitated with the pen, not wanting to see his name in any vicinity of mine. He wrote his name above mine, his handwriting much neater than mine.

"Lets just get this stupid thing over with." He groaned.

We were sent out the doors of the dining hall. I could see the other groups talking with eachother, going over the task at hand.

I saw Larry and Sal drawing in their notebook over by some boulders. Sal looked up, he had felt my eyes on him.

Something about the lack of expression on his face read as shocked.

I sheepishly waved, barely raising my hand.

Sal looked back down at the notebook and continued to scribble what I guessed was nonsenseless doodles.

Travis and I found a spot away from everyone else, and begun to read the list of plants.

It wasn't as awkward as I expected it to be.