A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry for disappearing. Between work, my channel and every other responsibility that's seemed to have popped up out of the blue, I haven't really had any time to sit down and write. But I love writing and I'm going to make it a point to update every few days. I also want to start another sex education related story, maybe based on prompts from you guys. So if you have any, feel free to comment them or dm them to me. I really really appreciate you sticking with this story and me. Hope you're all safe, sending you all tons of love xx
Growing up, Otis had heard multiple times to never complain too much, because things could always be worse. But owing to his overactive imagination which had a tendency to create problems where none existed, Otis had grown up to be a complainer. Now, in retrospect he wished he'd paid heed to the advice of all those adults whose names he couldn't remember.
Otis had thought that nothing could be worse than Isaac transferring to their school, literally nothing. Obviously the universe had other plans, which included pairing Maeve with not only Isaac but also Jackson. It was like someone was creating a live version of Otis' worst nightmare while also making him present in front of his whole class right along side with his ex-girlfriend and the girl he lost his virginity to. This had to be some kind of cosmic joke, right?
"So you're Ola? We couldn't really meet during Otis' party. I'm Isaac." Isaac said, extending his hand.
Everyone shot Isaac a look because this was literally the worst time to be doing an ice breaking session.
"Hey, nice to meet you." Ola said, shaking his hand. She didn't want to be rude.
"If the two of you are done mingling, can we figure out how to fix this?" Maeve asked, speaking through gritted teeth.
"I don't really see the problem." Ruby said, while staring at her nails.
"Of course you don't, why would you?" Maeve asked, rolling her eyes. She was getting surprisingly worked up about this. It had taken her a while but Maeve was finally becoming okay with Ruby and Otis being friends but the idea of Otis having to expend extra time with both Ruby and Ola was bringing up a lot feelings for Maeve, which had clearly gone unresolved.
"Don't need to get snippy with me, cockbitter. I honestly don't care what weird shit you guys have going on. I honestly have no idea who half of you guys even are." Ruby said.
"Um.. So Jackson and Isaac are Maeve's ex-boyfriends and Ola and I used to date and.." Otis wanted to continue but stopped because of the death stares Maeve and Ruby gave him. Sure Ruby was finally becoming okay with being seen in public with Otis but she would die before she let anyone find out about them hooking up.
"Like I said, I don't know who these people are and I don't care. All I care about is passing this class with a good grade because I need it to up my average. And I don't think there's anyone who knows more about sex than you Otis, you're literally called sex kid. So can we please get to work? I refuse to work on this after school." Ruby said, staring at Otis. She was starting to look a little annoyed.
"I mean it's okay, I can ask Mr. Hendricks to put me in another group." Jackson said. He was willing to do anything to get out of this conversation.
"Yeah, me too. It shouldn't be a problem." Ola said, joining in.
"Thanks guys. Maybe we should all go, it might be easier for him to know who to put where." Otis said.
Ruby just rolled her eyes and took a seat in an empty chair she found and began looking through her phone. She meant it when she said didn't care but if she had a choice, she would want to be in a group with Otis. Things were kind of rough for her at home right now and talking to Otis always seemed to make her feel better. He didn't really seem to care about any of the other stuff that the boys she had dated cared about. He actually listened when she spoke and seemed to hear her even when she didn't.
"Mr. Hendricks, could we speak to you for a minute?" Jackson asked.
"Sure, what's going on?" Mr. Hendricks asked, eyeing all the students who had suddenly collected in front of him.
"We were wondering if you could shuffle our groups." Maeve said.
"Why? What's wrong?" Mr. Hendricks asked.
"Well..um.. some of us have some uncomfortable history between us and we think it might be best for the project if we didn't work together." Otis said. He was quite impressed with himself for putting what was essentially a bunch of high school drama in a way that made it sound like a mature disagreement.
"In that case, I definitely think all of you should work together." Mr. Hendricks said, rocking back and forth on his heels.
"Why?" Maeve asked, her voice louder than she intended.
"Because you can work through this, I'm sure when you actually get to working together, you'll realise your problems aren't as big as you think. And besides, I refuse to go through this grouping process again. It's time consuming and boring as all hell." Mr. Hendricks said.
"What if we do the shuffling process for you?" Otis asked.
"It's not just that, you have to complete this assignment this week because you have other assignments to do before the term ends. I'm sorry but there's nothing that can be done, you just have to make this work." Mr. Hendricks said.
Ola, Jackson, Maeve and Otis released a collective sigh and went back to Ruby and Isaac who had refused to join them.
"Let's just do this and get it over with." Jackson said.
"And who knows it might be fun." Isaac said, looking at Maeve.
Maeve looked over at Otis who was already starting to get pissed off. Isaac was doing all of this to push Otis' buttons and Otis no matter what he thought was horrible at hiding his anger.
"Come on, Otis." Ruby said, starting to pull Otis by the arm.
Maeve was a minute away from punching Ruby but stopped herself because Jackson tapped her on her shoulder. He could sense what was about to happen and decided to defuse the situation.
The period felt like it lasted for hours and that was probably because Maeve and Otis spent the entire time trying to steal glances at each other. Whenever one looked over, the other was already looking. And even though some of that stemmed from jealousy, it was mostly because they wished they could've been paired together so they could spend more time together. They were still in that stage in their relationship where they couldn't really keep their eyes off each other and wanted to spend every minute together.
As soon as the period got over, everyone seemed to rush out. Maeve got out first and waited for Otis by the door.
"So that was unexpected." Otis said, once he was with Maeve.
"It took everything I had to not scream at Hendricks." Maeve said.
"I know but maybe this is going to be okay." Otis said, looking over at Maeve and holding her hand as they walked down the hall.
"What has brought on the sudden optimism?" Maeve asked.
"I mean I hate this, I do. But this is just what things are and besides this time next week, it will be over. And if I can survive you and Isaac being in the same group for a week, I think everything else will suddenly feel a lot more bearable." Otis said.
"Is that right?" Maeve asked. They had now stopped by her locker and she was smiling her Otis smile.
"I mean, yeah. I don't want this to be a problem for us anymore and it kind of feels like the universe is going to keep throwing this in our face till we work it out anyway." Otis said.
Maeve just smiled and pulled Otis in for a kiss. It didn't end up lasting too long because both of them couldn't stop smiling. She loved Otis for his awkwardness but seeing his maturity always did things to Maeve. He was so different from all the men she had known in her life; he was responsible and present. He was what she had always needed, even in the moments when she didn't know it herself.
"Are you okay with this?" Otis asked, once they had pulled away.
Before Maeve could answer, they were interrupted by the buzzing of Otis' phone.
"Sorry." Otis said, pulling the phone out of his pocket.
"Who is it from?" Maeve asked.
"Ruby. She wants to work on the presentation after school." Otis said.
"I thought she said that was the one thing she refused to do." Maeve said, rolling her eyes.
"I guess she's changed her mind." Otis said, looking up from his phone.
"So is it going to be just the two of you?" Maeve asked. She hated the way her jealousy laced the question.
"Well no, Ola will be there too. "Otis said.
"Yeah. Makes sense." Maeve said.
"I know this isn't what you want." Otis said.
"You can say that again." Maeve said.
"But it's just a week." Otis said, searching Maeve's eyes for some sort of agreement.
"Yeah." Maeve said.
Otis smiled and pulled Maeve in for a hug. She so desperately wanted to be okay with this, completely nonchalant, the way she would've been in any other relationship. This was exactly why she didn't want to open up because this is what it always leads to, a lot of jealousy and insecurity. And Maeve had enough of that all on her own. But then she pulled away from Otis and looked into his eyes, which were filled with concern; she decided to at least pretend to be okay. The boy she loved, loved her back and that was enough for her to take on whatever cosmic joke the universe decided to throw at them.
