A/N: Back by popular demand! (AT10: you wish! Me: SHADDAP!) Sorry to leave you guys on that cliffy. There's some cussing in this chapter, but hey!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my own OC's.
A Fine Line Between Love and Hate
KiahWMConnie
Chapter Six: Stupid School Project!
'Mr. Hashiba and Miss Maxwell,' the sentence rang through her head. Did she hear right? She was paired up with, of all people, HIM! The jerk? Rowen Hashiba, himself?
Most of the class was silent, but a few snorts and giggles were heard.
Rowen was confused and slighty embarrassed and angry. What the hell was Kantu thinking? Anyone could see they didn't get along well.
Mr. Kantu continued along as if everything were natural, "This will begin tomorrow morning. Now, will you all please leave your desks and sit by your selected partner?"
Everyone did as they told. Rowen hesitated, but he got up and took his belongings over to the seat next to Rhonda's. She didn't even glance at him, much less talk to him.
Mr. Kantu went on with instructions about how the reports were to be done and how they would all recieve special notebooks for the reports. After he was done, the class chatted with each other about how exciting this would be. Rhonda, Rowen noticed, still didn't recognize his existance. He decided to break the silence.
He teased in a mock tone, "What's wrong? Are you not okay with this?"
Rhonda immediatly snapped back, "That's the understatement of the century! I can't believe I wound up with you."
"Hey," Rowen put up his hands defensively, "It's not like I wanted this either! But we can't do anything about it."
"We'll see about that," Rhonda hissed, "Mr. Kantu-"
"No," he cut her off, never taking his eyes off his work, "You can not change partners."
Rhonda gawked for a moment then turned away. She whipped around at hissed at Rowen, "You are so going to hate this, I'll make sure of it."
The anger in Rowen swelled. How dare she speak like that to him? What the hell did he do to her? He probably would've snapped at her if Mr. Kantu hadn't spoken.
"By the way," he directed to the class, "You must work together on this. If your partner fails," He looked directly at Rowen and Rhonda, "You fail."
"ROWEN!" a familiar voice screamed out at him after school. He turned around. Maria was running towards him with lightning speed, dragging Cye along with her.
"Hey, Maria," he sighed, not really in the mood to talk.
"Guess what? Cye and I are partners for the big project!" she put her arm around Cye's torso in a friendly hug. Cye turned red immediatly.
"That's great," Rowen chuckled at Cye's expression.
"So, who'd you get?" she asked, eager to know.
"No," he replied.
"Come again?"
"You'd just laugh."
"Oh come on," she pleaded, "I promise I won't laugh. On my honor!"
"NO!"
"Come on!" Cye and Maria pleaded.
Rowen sighed, "Fine. It's...Rhonda Maxwell," he said with much dread and a hint of anger.
Maria replied, "...Well...t-that's snort umm...that's too hmph bad." she was obviously struggling to hold back her laughter.
Cye held his hand over his mouth to conceal his smile. He had barely-surpressed laughter. Rowen noticed all of this.
He sighed again, "See you tomorrow," and walked off.
After he was out of earshot, Cye and Maria chuckled together.
"I don't believe it!" Maria wiped away a tear, "This is gonna be good!"
"You said it!" Cye laughed, "I'll be shocked if they both survive!"
Rhonda wearily picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello?" Maria's voice came on the other end.
"Maria? I'ts me."
"Hey, Rhon!"
"Listen, can I come over for a few minutes?"
"Of course! My place is your place."
Rhonda collapsed lazily in the bean-bag chair. Maria and she discussed the lastest events happining in school.
"So," Maria began, "I heard you were paired with Rowen in the big project."
"UUGH!" she dropped her head back as she grunted. Maria giggled.
"Y'know, Ro's not such a bad guy. You should take the time to really meet him."
"Yeah right," Rhonda huffed, "I don't want to spend any more time with him than I have to."
"I do believe that the project required for you to spend at least five hours a day together," Maria mocked.
Rhonda put her hands in her face and whimpered. Maria just laughed.
"How am I gonna survive this!" Rhonda groaned.
"Hit 'em," Maria suggested.
"What!"
"Hit 'em. To really get something into head, you gotta knock it in sometimes."
Rhonda stared for a moment, then just shook her head.
"I'm not gonna survive," she confirmed.
"Tch. I think I feel sorrier for Ro than you," Maria muttered as she took a gulp of root beer.
"Oh, shut up."
They were quiet for a moment as Maria finished her root beer.
"Hey...who'd you get for the project?"
Maria answered with a grand-prize bealch, "BUUUURRP!"
"Maria! You are NUTS!"
"BUAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Rhonda waved the air away from her, "Seriously, who'd you get?"
"Cye," Maria beamed between laughs.
Rhonda thought for a moment, "The British boy who's Rowen's friend?"
"The one and only," Maria paused, "You should meet them sometime."
"Tch," Rhonda replied.
Rhonda sulked in her chair. She did not want to be in this class.
Rowen did the same. He could think of a million more places he'd rather be. But, noooo! He had to sit next to Miss Pain-in-the-Ass.
"Class," Mr. Kantu began, "There will be a few certain requirement for the project this week. You will receive one today. Tomorrow you will probably have another. Sometime this week, you are required to go with your partner to the grocery store and spend at least 30 minutes there. Whether or not you actually buy something is up to you."
'Great,' Rhonda and Rowen thought at the same time.
Rowen was talking casually to Ryo and Sage.
"Ryo! Hurry up!" a distant voice called.
"Coming, Sakura!" he called back, "See you guys later."
"So," Rowen said to Sage as Ryo left, "You wanna do somethin' tonight?"
Sage looked at his watch, "Shoot. I can't. I'm supposed to meet my partner at the store. Maybe tomorrow!" he ran off.
Rowen sighed. It would seem that he was alone again. Then he spotted Rhonda...
'Sigh, might as well get this over with.'
He walked over to her seemingly confident, but inside was a nervous wreck. He tapped her shoulder.
"Do you want to get it over with tonight?"
Rhonda whipped around, startled. She yelled at him, "Didn't your mother teach you not to sneak up on people!"
He inwardly cringed at the mention of his mom.
'Don't get mad at her,' he told himself, 'She doesn't know any better.'
"And to answer your question," she continued, "I can't. I have to help my sister tonight."
She stomped off, leaving behind a dumbfounded and rather irritated Rowen. Steam came from his ears.
He shouted to the air, "Someone, please tell me why she is always so pissed at me! What did I ever do! I was never hateful towards her until she was to me!"
As Rowen continued to shout at nobody, he was getting quite a few stares. Three of the stares belonged to his friends in the distance.
"What in the heck...?" Kento spoke.
"Let him rant it out," Cye told them, "He'll be better tomorrow."
Maria just laughed. Kento and Cye wondered why she was laughing.
A/N:Wow...I can't believe it's already chapter six. I honestly expected to give up on this around four. Shows you just how hard-working I am. Ha-ha!
Kasan(Rowen's mom) probably won't show up until much later chapters. The next chapter is gonna be fun! Until next time!
P.S.If you want to talk about the characters, feel free to email me or put it in a review! I love talking about characters!
