Homeless

1.

Maybe it was the way he dressed, in all black or a simple white t-shirt with such dirty-looking jeans. Maybe it was the way he was, never ever talking to anyone, even if he had to. Maybe he simply wasn't liked.

Whatever it was, Jade spent the entire class trying to figure it out. She was a pretty normal student, not the highest in the ranks but not near the bottom either. She had a handful of good friends, even a lover here and there.

But Coden, he was a complete oddball. Even the nerds had a few pals to talk amongst themselves. Even the most bullied and hated on had a teacher or two they were close with. Not Coden.

So when the teacher paired them together for a whole semester project, her stomach sank. Cherry and Barb got to be partners, it was always like her to be the third friend.

She had desperately made eye contact with the teacher, silently begging for her to change her mind. But she only shrugged and went on with naming names. 

Coden had on a black unzipped jacket that showed his usual plain white shirt for the day. The look on his face was boring, she could tell he wasn't paying attention.

After a few attempts to talk to him, she gave up and sat back in her seat, watching as he stared off at literally nothing. His dark hair fell forward against his forehead while Jade yanked at her own light brown hair in annoyance. 

When class ended she immediately marched to the teacher's desk, only to be met with, "I'm not moving you, Jade."

"But, Mrs. Smith,"

"No buts, you work well with everyone. I admit Coden isn't the greatest partner, but you have to try." she stood, flashing an annoying smile. "I'm sure you'll do great." and she walked away like nothing.

So the whole day she was angry about it. Everyone had already begun working on their semester-long project, while she didn't know what she was even going to do, probably on her own nonetheless.

The next day was the same. Coden wore a weird tan coat, despite it being hot in the building, and spent the entire class reading a stupid book instead of talking to her.

This went on for about a whole week, each day he did the same. One day she decided to talk to him again, "Is your book good?" she mocked, bitter about having to work alone.

He flipped a page, "No." he said, his voice smoother than she thought. Then he kept reading.

Eventually, a month had gone by when she was finally used to her routine. She'd get to class, do the warm-up with everyone else, and eventually make her way to the back of the class with Coden.

He didn't even acknowledge her as she would, but she sat down opposite of him anyway and began working by herself, humming sometimes.

The project was supposed to be on unnoticed problems of the world, and an unheard-of way to fix them. Struggling with the topic in the first place, Jade eventually ended up doing it about farm animals and radioactivity. It wasn't good, but she was happy with it.

Only, she wasn't happy with doing all the work.

One day, when the day hadn't gone her way: she was late to school, didn't sleep much, and missed an assignment, she decided enough was enough.

So before anything, the first thing she did when she got to their period was march into the class, and slam his new book of the week onto his desk, keeping her hand over the pages to prevent him from reading. His fingers touched hers as she held his book down. 

He looked up at her and blinked. "Do you mind?" he said, for once. It was the first time she heard his voice say a real sentence. But now was not the time.