Moments of Collapse

Chapter 3 - A project

"Marina," I whispered to myself.

Her head lifted slowly. Her hands brushed the hair from her face as she turned to face me, a smile spread across her lips.

"Hello, Elizabeth." Although her eyes were sweet and sleepy, I still had trouble finding my words. "Hi Marina. How was your nap?" I managed to say. She dropped her eyes, "Oh, I wasn't asleep."
"You okay?"
"Yeah," her soft voice dropped to a whisper.

I don't really believe her but I wouldn't want to intrude on her business so I change the subject. "We're partners," I held up the strip of paper, smiling and hoping to receive one back. "Partners?" Her face twists in surprise.
"Um, yeah. I don't know the details yet but we're working together on this project."
"Oh. Right." She falls into a relaxing position and giggles. I can't help but giggle also.

"On your way out, you'll take one of these guideline worksheets for you and your partner." I turned my attention to Mrs. Benson, but Marina didn't turn around. "This project is unlike others, there are two sides. The first side is due in two weeks." Two weeks? Two sides? It must be a huge project. I hope it's not too hard, I don't want to stress over it.

"Class dismissed."

I grabbed my things and walked with Marina out of the classroom. She grabbed the paper from Mrs. Benson and handed it to me. We walked in silence to the library for our lunch period.

"I really hope you're not a slacker like I am." She said before taking a bite of her apple. I looked over side one of the paper,

Part 1

1. Share your writing with partner.
2. Write what you think your partner's writing means. (If meaning is clearly stated, write what it means to you.)
3. Discuss with your partner what it really means and write it down.

Part 2

1. Choose which poem you want to create a visual of.
2. Come up with visual ideas for videos/pictures to take and put together as a sort of montage or maybe music video.
3. Read poem aloud and set it as the background sound of the video.
4. Get to know your partner!!

"Wow, that's really not a lot." I said as I showed her the paper. "Ugh, yes it is. Part two is going to take forever." She whined. Usually I'd hush someone whining but when she did it, it was kind of cute. "Oh, come on it's not that bad." I teased her. She didn't find it funny.

"I guess because there's more than one step, or part, whatever, I just get stressed out." She hides her face in her hands. "I just want to die."

It doesn't take a lot to stress her out, she's definitely a slacker. "Hey, it's alright." I moved a hand from her face, "I'll help you." Her brown eyes opened and held mine as if in an embrace. She shut her eyes tight, furrowing her eyebrows, and relaxed as if this... moment hadn't happened.

"I don't have any writing here, at school." She stared at the table, blankly. "It's okay, you can bring something tomorrow and we'll exchange writing then." I stood and grabbed my things.
"No,"
"No?"
"Let's skip the rest of the day." Her eyes left the table and looked up at me.
"What?"
"Yeah, come on. It'll be fun. Let's just skip the rest of the school day and we can go somewhere and write."

It sounds exciting. Skipping school with Marina to go and write. To read her writing. This is something I cannot turn down.

"Come onnnn. What's the point in living life if you're not living it?" She begged like a child. "Please, Elizabeth. Please." She grabbed my hand and somehow made her eyes seem to beg like her voice. "Alright, alright. But if we get caught, I'm blaming you." I shook my finger in her face playfully. Her laugh echoed in the empty library.

She looped her arm through mine and giggled her famous little giggle as we walked out of the library.

"Totally worth it."