Chapter 3: Project

Peter needed to come up with the perfect excuse to get to Lara Jean. He had to admit just walking up to her and pretending they were still friends was idiotic on his side. Lara Jean had a big wall in front of her and many hoops to jump through.

It kind of felt impossible for Peter to win this bet but he wasn't about to give up. No one was as stubborn and hard headed as Peter Kavinsky.

He lowered head, gently resting his chin in his arms. "How can I do this?" He asked himself, his eyes completely focus on the back of her head.

"Settle down class" Mr. Johnson, their History teacher, yelled out getting everyone attention. "I have decided to make things interesting for our class. I will be paring up and giving each pair a subject of a time in history for 50% of your grade" he began to explain.

"A project?" Peter thought, a smirk showing on his lips.

"I will choose your partner and your subject, of course" Mr. Johnson said, earning a groan from the class. "You will be graded for your research, your teamwork and your presentation" He explained.

Peter's smirk vanished. Maybe he could convince his teacher to switch him to be with Lara Jean.

"You will have a whole month to do research, including class time. At the end of the month you will all have to write an essay on your finding and turn it in to me. After that you will prepare a presentation where you will teach your classmates about the subject"

"So basically we're just doing your job" The girl next to Peter scoffed.

"Basically" Mr. Johnson shrugged. He reach out in his bag and took out a clipboard. He propped himself on his desk, letting his long skinny legs dangling as he read over his own notes. "At the beginning of the course you all took a standardized test and I went ahead and paired you up according to your scores" He explained, his eyes lazily reviewing the list.

Peter's heart dropped. Although he was a good student and had good grades, he wasn't completely sure if his grades were as good as Lara Jean's. Mr. Johnson began shouting out pairs of student together, students groaned in response.

"I guess I will have to convince my partner to double partner up with Lara Jean's team, that way I can have a-" Peter began strategizing when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to find Lara Jean standing in front of him, holding her books tightly against her chest. "Hey Covey" He said, quickly sitting up.

"Um… I guess we're working together" She said.

Peter blinked. "We are?"

Lara Jean raised an eyebrow, confuse. "Yeah…" She turned around and pulled a chair close to him, laying her books and notebook down. "Mr. Johnson just called out our names"

"Cool" He said, a goofy smile playing on his lips.

Lara Jean ignored Peter weird smile and placed the paper with the topic of the subject on top of his books. "We have from 1776 till 1800"

Peter leaned forward, confuse. "That's weird"

Lara Jean raised her eyebrow. "I think you mean easy. At least we didn't get some weird timeframe where nothing happened"

"Except we don't even if something did happen"

Lara Jean blinked. "You're kidding right?" She asked. "This is the start of America itself. Haven't you heard of Hamilton?"

"The President in the 10 dollar bill?"

"First of all Alexander Hamilton was not president and second of all I meant the Musical about him. 1776 till 1800 is the ending of Act 1 and the rest of Act 2" Lara Jean explained. "I think we should take inspiration from the musical itself and work with something there. We can use some songs and even some of the structure to do our presentation" She said, scribbling down her ideas.

"Okay… So we have to watch a musical?" Peter asked, unsure of where the conversation was heading.

Lara Jean chuckled. "Well, we can't exactly watch it but I do recommend listening to the soundtrack. It will give us some idea on what we will be researching and talking about"

Peter smiled. "That could be fun. We can do it together" He said. "You know, for the project"

Lara Jean froze, lifting her eyes just enough to look catch his. "Yeah, I guess" she said, before continuing to scribble down some notes.

"I mean, I only say this because you obviously have heard it before and know all about it and I am not the biggest musical fan" Peter shrugged, leaning back in his seat. "I might not get something that you might help me understand better. Teamwork and all that"

Lara Jean sat up, pondering on the idea on spending a whole evening with Peter Kavinsky listening to Hamilton. "You'll be fine. Lin Manuel Miranda did a really great job on executing the storyline for us. You should be fine"

The bell rang, as Lara Jean quickly scrambled to her feet and raced out of the classroom. "Whoa, whoa, whoa" Peter yelled out after her, quickly grabbing his things and chasing after her. "Why are you avoiding me?"

Lara Jean spun around, glaring at him. "Why are you following me?"

"I wasn't-"

"Yes you were. We haven't spoken almost 5 years and in the last two days you've tried to act like we even know each other" Lara Jean said accusingly, poking his chest. "What are you up to?"

Peter froze, he wasn't expecting her to call him out like that but she was right, what excuse he could give her. He had started this all wrong and now she was suspicious. "I can't tell you here" He said, grabbing her arm and pulling her through the crowd of people.

Not only were all eyes on them but he needed time to come up with the perfect lie. He couldn't tell her it was a bet he had made; she definitely wouldn't speak to him ever again.

"Peter!" Lara Jean whined as he dragged her out of the school's hallway into the back alley, right to the small spot on school property where no one would go. A small bench under a tree, famously known as the make out spot.

"Okay… You want the truth?" He said, dropping her arm as they approached the small sitting area. "I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend" He blurted out.

"Excuse me?"

"Hear me out" He said, his hands up in surrender. He sat down and waited to do the same. "So you might have heard that Gen and I broke up…"

"Everyone heard"

"Right" he sigh. "She won't stop coming after me. Everyone keeps saying that she dumped me and that I'm not over her. So I thought if started hanging out with you everyone would back off but also piss her off a little but because I don't know if you know this but Gen hates you"

Lara Jean sigh, dropping her bag on the floor and placing her books and notebooks on the small table next to the bench before plopping down next to Peter. "What's in it for me?"

Peter panicked. "Reputation?" he said, which Lara Jean responded with a glare. "Right, sorry…" he mumbled.

Silence fell between them, neither knowing what else to say.

"Listen. I don't know what you could benefit from this… I just really need your help" he said, avoiding her gaze. He was afraid that if she would look at him, she would know he was lying.

"Okay" she said.

Peter head snapped up, his eyes wide with surprise. "Really?"

"You're not the only one who has things to hide" She said, lowing her gaze.

Peter raised his eyebrow. "What do you have to hide?"

Lara Jean shook her head before standing up. She started picking up her stuff, her eyes avoiding his. "That's for me to know" she said softly.

Peter nodded. "Fair enough" he said, knowing not to push it. "So, we're doing this?"

"I guess" she said with a sigh. Finally she lifted her eyes, meeting with his. Peter smiled at her, offering his hand to shake. Lara Jean couldn't help but mimic Peter's contagious smile before she shook his hand.

"See you around Peter" She said, heading back inside.

"Count on it, Covey" He yelled out after.

He had finally gotten his in. He would make sure that while pretending, he would throwing a couple of things that would make Lara Jean fall head over heels for him. It was just a matter of time.

Now, if only he could get rid of that guilty tug at the bottom of his stomach.

Sorry it's kind of short. I promise I will write more in the next chapter.

Thank you to everyone who is reading and I hope you continue to enjoy my story.