PTX Oneshots

Perfect Pair (Scomark)

Just about very high school has certain kinds of students. There's the popular kids everyone knows, and the unpopular kid everyone knows but no one likes. There's also everything in between. The weird kid whose friend is concerned that he ate the candy wrapper again. The geeky girl who's overly obsessed with Marvel and Doctor Who. And, of course, the kid who's in a perfect place socially to get ignored by everyone except their one or two friends.

Safe to say, these various social levels don't tend to interact with people who are very different from them. Still, it happens occasionally. And when it does, the interactions can provide some surprising results.

Scott and Mark had one of these interactions. It would be hard for them to be any more different. Scott was well-liked. He was an alright student, but it was his looks and personality that made people drawn to him. He was approachable, and protective of the people who were bullied. He didn't solely interact with other popular students, but he mostly interacted with them.

He was the polar opposite of Mark, who was ignored by his peers unless they had a group project. He was fine with this. Showing off knowledge made him happy. Talking to people did not. He didn't want to be popular. He just didn't want to be unpopular, and this was where he was. So life was good.

There was normally no reason for the two of them to speak to each other. Until one day when his English teacher announced a project. The students had to make a presentation, to be delivered for the class, about the topic they were discussing.

Scott frowned at this news. He didn't understand anything about this topic. He couldn't make that presentation.

Then the teacher announced that they could pick their partners for it. He relaxed at that. He needed to pick well.

He paused as everyone went to their friends, and saw one person sitting alone, looking around with an alarmed expression. Scott smiled and approached him.

"Do you have a partner?" he asked.

"No," Mark replied. "Do you want to work together?"

"Sure," Scott said.

The teacher approved of all the groups, and they started working.

Scott leaned in close to his partner. "So, if we work together, here's the deal. You're really smart. Everyone knows this. So, you're going to make the entire presentation. I can provide input. But I don't know that much about this."

Mark tilted his head to one side. "What's in it for me?"

"I'll deliver the presentation," Scott said.

Mark didn't hesitate. "Okay."

Scott laughed. "You're very shy."

"I know that," Mark said. "Anyway, let's start on this. I actually love making presentations. And this should be pretty easy."

Scott nodded. "Okay," he said. "So, we only have a couple of days to get this done," he said. "Should we get started?"

They began working on their presentation. Scott payed attention, giving input on how to make the presentation easier to understand.

"I hope you don't mind simplifying it," he said. "I feel like it makes people think we don't know about it."

"No, being able to explain things simply is a sign of understanding it," Mark said. "I have a friend who says that's how you know Sherlock Holmes is a genius. He does these incredibly complicated things, but explains it so simply that it sounds easy. There's certain real-world places where that becomes really apparent. If you want to read something that explains super complex concepts in easy-to-follow ways, I would suggest Michio Kaku's books. He's a theoretical physicist who explains things really well. Physics of the Impossible is amazing, if you're interested."

"I don't think so," Scott said. "That's not my style. I don't like reading."

Mark shrugged. "Anyway, back to this. Let's see. What's a better word than this?"

"Thesaurus," Scott said immediately.

Mark shrugged. "Alright," he said. "Thesaurus works."

He found the Online Thesaurus, and started looking through lists of words.

Three days later, the presentations had to be given to the class.

Scott was excited. This was his strong suit. Public speaking. Almost everyone else was either really good or really bad at public speaking. He was really good at it.

They were the third group to give the presentation. The teacher seemed pleased with it. They went back to sit down and wait for the others to finish.

After that class, the last period of the day, the pair met up in the hallway.

"I'm surprised the teacher didn't say anything about me doing almost all the speaking," Scott said.

Mark laughed. "She probably knows I mostly made it," he said.

"Probably," Scott said. "That's true. So, would you like to work together again if we get a chance?"

Mark shrugged. "Alright. I mean, our abilities are complementary." He smiled, looking up at Scott. "We're basically a perfect pair."

***

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