Antonia and Nicole walked into their class talking about one of their classmates. The two girls were gossiping about whoever and whatever filled their little heads. When a rumor began, Antonia was the first to fill her group. It was the day after Halloween, meaning attendance in the school was pretty low. The second bell still had not rang yet they noticed something on the board. For their forensic science class, they had a warmup with specific instructions to complete. On the slide was presented an interesting question.
DO YOU THINK MALES OR FEMALES GET AWAY MORE WITH MURDER? Give at least three sentences responding to the prompt.
Intrigued, Antonia grabbed an index card and immediately wrote down an answer. More students slowly started pouring in and were talking about their night. Antonia was thinking about how much fun she had with her friends last night in the neighborhood. They all dressed up are cartoon characters from the 90's and ate pizza until they couldn't. That is one of the best ways to spend a fun Holiday with your friends. There was a quiet moment in the classroom but that was interrupted by clanking boots coming toward Antonia's direction. She looked from the corner of her and got stiff. Samuel was leaning against the desk next to her, having his arms crossed. His face looked slightly flushed and it was almost as if he was trying to hide a smile. Donna looked at him with a serious expression as Nicole and her were in the middle of a serious conversation. She didn't know nor wanted to know what the teen was going to say next. Jiya walked past him cautiously, and Nicole was curious why she had walked over here. "I've got a question to ask of you if you don't mind." Antonia stopped her writing to carefully listen to him. For a moment, she was worried that he was going to ask her out but her began with, "You know that project we've got in world history?" Antonia's body relaxed and she was open to having a conversation with the boy. "Mmmhmm... The research project for Mr. Olson?" "Yeah, that one. 'ave you gotten the chance to work on it yet? Like with a partner or do you not have one yet?" Nicole has stopped listening to Donna trying to carry the conversation, cocking her head to the side, trying to hide her smile as she listened to the punk knowing what he wanted to say. "No. I honestly haven't started it yet. I'm still trying to figure out what topic I want to do so it's a process." She put her hands in her lap fully, turning her body towards him. Donna interjected saying, "Oh, she's working with Nicole, right?" "No, we aren't. I mean we can't since we had to pick someone new from class or be by ourselves." Donna's jaw tightened in anxiety worried about Antonia. She was thinking that Samuel was going to have her do all the work herself then just pin his name to get some credit. "I'm not working with anyone to answer your question. Nobody asked me yet either and I didn't want to make the effort to find a partner, so I decided to do it myself." The boy was gently rubbing his face, his expression softened as he dropped his arms. "Well, I'm in a bit of a situation. Since my friends are a bunch of morons and this class determines if I graduate or not, I wanted to work with someone who seemed like they had their shit together... And you also seem pretty cool so it would be nice to kinda be friends." Antonia locked eyes with him and smiled. He grabbed into his pocket pulling out his phone when they were interrupted again by Donna. "Well, I know Antonia wanted to work alone because she came into the library this morning looking for books... So, you might have to find someone else to work with." Samuel curled his upper lip as Donna went on about how much she thought Antonia wanted to work alone. The goth on the other hand ignored her friends and took Samuel's phone. She typed in her phone number into the keypad and smiled, handing it back. The bell rang and everyone began to take their seats. She felt her face get warm avoiding eye contact with her friends, with that, Samuel gave Donna a smile that read "in your face" making him very proud. "Thank you, love." He quietly walked back to his friends, William was laughing in shock that he successfully pulled it off. Seymour had his mouth open, while the others didn't care. Jade and Selinda on the other hand thought it was a stupid choice to trust a girl like her. Donna looked at Antonia in disbelief, her brows connected yet the girl continued responding to the warmup. Jiya looked at the group giggling, leaving them confused or like Nicole, with a mouth slightly parted and wide eyes. Class continued as normal, yet Donna was heated that Antonia let a guy like Samuel have her phone number. His intention after all was to pass the class and move on but that didn't stop the busy mind Donna had. Before leaving class Antonia took a quick glance at Samuel and his friends. Angelita and Dominic were first however to make eye contact with her.