𝐸𝑀𝑂 𝐵𝑂𝑌 | 𝙍𝙤𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙃𝙚𝙛𝙛𝙡𝙚𝙮 ꨄ

003. Partners?

I was the last person to class. I just had to make sure that my friends made it on time for their class. It was a really selfless act. "Sorry I'm late," I knocked at the door, waiting to be let inside. "Take a seat Miss...?" The lady at the front desk asked, pointing to the empty seat on the front row. "Francisco." I replied, leisurely strolling to my chair, taking my time. "Five minutes late so that's five minutes you will be making up at the end of the day." She flicked the PowerPoint slide on the projector board.

In this class, none of my friends are in my Theatre Theory and Studies class so I didn't really care too much about where I sat, it wasn't like it was going to affect my mood drastically. I like theatre, it's probably my favourite subject, I haven't told anyone, not even Dad, that I want to work in the performing arts and theatre. Okay so more simpler, I want to be an actress when I leave this place. I know it sounds like a massive doss but trust me, I have a plan.

"Hey Juliana!" Sitting across from me, a dweeby boy grinned at the sight of me, tapping my shoulder. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" I waved back unenthusiastically. "Oh, I'm Charlie, from your Spanish Class in 8th Grade," He gulped and that smile became more fake as he felt uncomfortable. I felt somewhat bad for not recalling his name or bothering to match his name to his face but it was years ago and I don't have that much brain capacity.

"Class, Today we will be starting a new project in
which you will work with a partner" Mrs Longford said with little to no emotion, Charlie turned to face me with a big grin, inviting me to work with him. I didn't make eye contact and pretended as if I wasn't paying attention.

"I have already arranged the partners" Mrs Longford went on to say. The class proceeded to groan and mumble profanities to their friends whining and complaining quietly. It didn't affect me as such, so I stayed quiet and picked at the corner of my nail polish. I needed to be put with someone with a brain, someone relatively smart. English Literature and Theatre Studies are my highest grades and my best subjects. I'm actually good at it. I got an A- in my Theory exam last year. This year, I'm striving for something along those lines, and with this project I don't want to stray below a B- because that would ruin everything. So, I needed someone smart.

"Daniel Stone and Poppy Brown" Mrs Longford called out, reading from her roster, as he continued each pair made their way to each other sitting at the same desk and introducing themselves or just simply smiling awkwardly.

"Charlie Smith and-" he looked at me, I crossed my fingers under the table. Please not me. "Alfie Bloom." I let out a sigh of relief, it must've been louder than I intended as the teacher glared at me before returning back to her sheet. She went on to call out what felt like one hundred pairs before getting to my name.

"Juliana Francisco and Daphne Miller." I rolled my eyes before looking around the room for her. Her complexion matched her aura well; her skin was a warm shade of deep tan, caramel and olive like me, her hair tied into two afro space buns and her eyes a rich hazel hue. Her glasses were thick and square, the frame was a dark red. She motioned at me to sit at his desk, I furrowed my brow before looking at the empty seat next to me. I was comfortable in my seat and if she wanted to work with me she was going to be the one to move.

"Hello, I'm Daphne-"

"I know your name, Daphne." I spat as she approached. She slowly sat down into the seat as if
she was worried I would batter her for moving too
fast. "Well, call me Daph, that's my friends call me," She unpacked her stuff on the desk. "We're friends now?" I raised my eyebrow and pursed my lips together. "Well, it would be nice wouldn't it, Juliana," The smile lines next to her mouth were permanently indented into her face. "I prefer Julie, thanks." I corrected her. Her face lit up and she embraced me tightly, crushing my ribcage. "Okay ew, ew, Daphne off of me, don't touch me!" I wrestled out of her grip, and looked around to see if anyone saw. A bunch of girls at the back begun to obnoxiously cackle at her throwing herself me. "Shut up," I wanted to slap the blonde highlight extensions of our their ditzy heads for laughing at me and Daphne. "So we're friends?" She clapped excitedly, "Sure..." I replied with a nod.

"Today we will be researching a famous theatre practitioner of your choice, you have a week to work with your partner to create a minimum of 3 pages, covering the affect they had on modern theatre today." Daphne got out her pencil case full of pens of assorted colours and types. She handed me a pink gel pen and picked out one for herself and began diligently making notes.

"Which person shall we study?" he asked breaking
me from my conversation with my internal monologue. I thought for a moment about which potions I knew best, meaning I'd only have to do
minimal research after school. "How about The Stanislavski Theory, I know quite a lot about it, we could just work separately instead." I replied bluntly.

She just smiled back at me, her deep brown eyes looking into my ones. It felt as if she had either
completely misheard me or not understood my tone. I felt as if she was mocking me. "Ok, Well I'm quite good at the 7 pillars of Stanislavski? we- I could do that" Definitely mocking me. "Are you new?" I butt in, dropping my gel pen onto the paper. "To Plainview or the school?" She laughed off the question awkwardly. "Either?" I raised my eyebrow. "Well kind of, I went to Westbrook before, and then I moved here," She continued to scribble down notes on her paper. "Damn, wrong move, Westbrook is so much nicer than this dump, you should've stayed," Westbrook Academy was the most promising public school in the district, their pass rate was at 79%. I was a bit baffled to why someone would throw away an opportunity like that for a place that can't afford the cleaners to clean to the toilets. "Well, I was hoping for a fresh start at Crossland," She admitted nervously, her smile not leaving her face. "Fresh start, why? You do something outrageously humiliating?" I prodded curiously.

"I hope we are being nice Miss Francisco, I'd hate to have to sanction you on the first day for being antisocial." Mrs Longford harshly questioned, she must've caught onto my attitude towards Daphne from a few minuets earlier. I nodded as she turned away.

I spent the rest of the class doing actual work, normally when I worked with Benny he did it for me allowing me to basically just chat the whole time, probably the reason I never seemed to make any progress in my other subjects at all. I listened to Daphne as she read out some information motioning me to write the key notes about what they were and what they did, down on a tabs of pink, sticky notes she had lent me.

The bell rang and everyone jumped out of their seats, racing to pack up their belongings and leave the room. "Alright, Class dismissed, if you have any questions about the course or the project or the work on the curriculum, please stay after class or email me," Mrs Longford said without even her his eyes up from whatever she was marking at her desk.

I was about to walk out the door to Rodrick, who was peeking his head inside the classroom, waiting for me outside but someone tapped my shoulder. "Yes?" I answered impatiently. "I- erm, I'll see you at the library later?" Daphne had her hand firmly put on my shoulder, 'To make a start?" I looked at her hand and back up at her face, giving her a threatening look telling her to remove her hand. She got the message pretty quickly because she let go suddenly causing her cheeks to go pink and his eyes to meet the ground. "Library? You're funny," I nodded slowly, shaking my head, "Just come to mine after school, I'll give you my number," Her face lit up and she nodded pulling out her mobile phone.