lover of mine || l.h.

3

"Do you think he's going to let us pick partners?" Gaby asked and obnoxiously chewed her gum as we walked to anatomy class.

"I don't know. I didn't even know we were doing partners for this." I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"Well if we can you should totally be my partner. Then we can hang out more." She said with a fake smile.

"Last time we were partners for something I did all the work." I stated and walked through our classroom door.

"You didn't even put my name on it anyway so I didn't even get credit for it." She said and rolled her eyes.

"If you think I'm going to let you get credit for a project you didn't do then you're sadly mistaken." I said and sat down at our table in the middle of the room.

"Whatever." She said and let out a dramatic and annoyed sigh, but honestly I didn't really care. She only wanted to hang out with me or be partners with me-or any of us really-if she knew it would benefit her. We were very stand-offish when it came to her because we've pretty much figured her out by now.

  I saw that boy walk in again, like I did every day. Today he had a beanie covering his blonde hair, and I noticed him playing with his lip ring as he walked in looking at the ground. I really wish people didn't pick on him, he looks so sweet and he definitely doesn't deserve it, no one does.

"Alright class, today you're starting your projects. I'll hand out the rubric in a second, while I do that I want you guys to think about what system you want to do. Once I explain the directions I'll pair you up and you can start working with whatever time we have left of class." Mr. B said and picked up a stack of papers and started handing them out to everyone.

  When Mr. B made his way towards the right side of the room where Luke was, I used that as my excuse to sneak a peak at him. For some reason I just couldn't stop looking at him. Even yesterday in my other two classes with him I found it hard to pay attention. It's been like this for a while, but it definitely wasn't this bad until yesterday.

"Elle are you even listening?" Gaby asked and waved her hand in front of my face.

"Yeah." I said and quickly looked towards her.

"Okay-" She started but then I completely zoned out and started thinking about him again. I didn't even know him. I've had one interaction with him but for some reason my mind was always intrigued by him. It has been since he moved here and I first noticed him, and that was about two years ago.

  When Mr. B started explaining the project to us I decided that I needed to pay attention. He dragged it out and explained it in like five different ways, so it took him like half an hour. Plus some kids had questions which would get him going again. At least I'd know what we were doing.

  Basically we'd pick a system, one for each pair since there were sixteen of us and there were eight systems that we've learned so far. Then we would pick between an essay, slideshow, or poster and put the information we needed into it however we want. It seemed easy enough, at least to me.

  When he started reading off the list of pairs I just sat there waiting for my name to be called. Gaby didn't like her partner, but that didn't surprise me really. She got paired with a girl named Caitlin, who she thought was a loser. So
automatically she wasn't having it.

"And lastly, Luke and Eleanor." Mr. B said and sat down at his desk. When I heard my name my head shot up and I looked around the room to see who my partner was. When I saw the boy I had noticed every day look at me with a nervous look on his face I immediately knew it was him. Luke, I wish I knew his name before now if I'm being honest. I liked his name, it fit well with him.

"Hey I'm Eleanor, but you can call me Elle or Ellie it doesn't matter." I said nicely and sat down in the empty chair next to him.

"I'm Luke." He said shyly and shifted a bit in his seat. He was super nervous, it was clear that he wasn't much of a people person. Not that I was either, that's mostly why I've never talked to him before.

"We don't really have much time left of class so if you want we can swap numbers and hang out later today to work on it, or even tomorrow whatever you want. I just have practice for two hours after school so it won't be until fiveish." I said and tried to gain eye contact with him. I don't know why he wasn't making eye contact with me, maybe it was making him more nervous? I don't know.

"Whatever you want." He said softly and looked down at his notebook that had stickers all over it.

"Do you want to come over at like five later today and work on it? We can just start planning and get to know each other a bit so it's more comfortable." I said casually. Now I finally had an excuse to get to know him. That was another reason why I have never talked to him. I didn't want him to think I was weird for just coming up to him and being like 'hey wanna be friends?' So I never did.

"Um sure." He said a bit unsurely. He was probably just nervous because he's used to everyone that talks to him picking on him. I really wish he wasn't so nervous to talk to me though.

"Here, put your number in my phone and I'll text you later." I said and gave him my phone while he pulled his out and gave it to me.