The next morning Nathan was early coming to school. Lucas, on the other hand was late, coming into class just as Mr. Crompton was starting to explain the lesson plan for the day. That meant that the boys had no time to exchange quips or insults before class.

"Hello, class," Mr. Crompton said just as Lucas was coming in. "I've been receiving some complaints about all of the reading you had to do, so I thought we'd change gears a bit. We just finished reading 1984, so I think it'd be appropriate to do a project on it. But since it's almost Spring Break there's not enough time for you each to do a project individually. That is why I am going to let you work in pairs…"

The class murmured something appreciatively.

"…that I will assign."

Great, Nathan thought. Knowing my luck, I'll be stuck working with Pucas.

But he wasn't. His partner was Haley James, Lucas' girlfriend. This was better than working with Lucas himself, but only by a little bit. Haley James was the kind of person parents were always comparing you to: very pretty, very smart and nice to practically everyone. Nathan could easily see "flirting with his girlfriend" being added to the already long list of reasons for Lucas to hate his guts.

"I will give you some class time to start planning your report now, but I advise you: the majority of the work is to be done at home," Mr. Crompton said after assigning the last partner. "So you better make good use of the time I give you…"

Nathan smiled awkwardly at Haley who pulled up a chair next to his desk.

"Hey," she said. "So I guess we should get started on this thing, huh?"

"Yeah," Nathan said. "What are your ideas?"

"Well, I think we should do a Power Point… Teachers are always impressed if it's high tech…"

"I guess… I could start on it tonight and email it to you."

"I think we should do it together, at least for the first part. We wouldn't want to have to redo it later because our parts don't match. How about you come over to my house after school today?"

"Um, I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"Why not? Do you have somewhere you have to be? I can't tomorrow, but maybe Thursday…"

"Um, no, that's no what I meant," Nathan wondered if Haley was playing dumb or if she really didn't know. "I meant that, you know, I don't think Lucas would like it if he saw me coming over to your house."

"Oh, right. You and him have that grudge thing going on. About your dad or something like that. Well, we're just doing homework. Besides, it's not like he can tell me who I can and cannot see. Besides, it's not like we have to announce this to him. He has his own project to work on."

"I like the way you think," Nathan said. Haley giggled and Nathan had to smile back. She looked pretty when she laughed.

"So I'll see you tonight?" Haley asked.

"Yeah, I guess you will," Nathan smiled. "Where do you live again?"

As they were sitting there talking, Lucas was sitting at the other side of the classroom, looking at them, shooting angry looks that neither of the two were noticing.

"Uh, Luke?" his partner Steve said. "I said that I'll pretty much do the whole project as long as you put together a summary of the book…"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure… That guy has nerve. First he steals my spot in the line-up, then he throws a punch at me and now he's flirting with my girlfriend!"

"What? No, I said that I'll do the project if you…"

"Whatever! That guy is going to pay! Tonight!