Divided

- Chapter Nine -

It had been a week since the incident with Jordie. Thanks to Hannah, Jordie made sure to leave Tia alone for the most part. Every now and then; Tobias and Tia would exchange a quick wave or smile as they walked past one another on the way to classes. On an even rarer occasion, Tobias would make a silly face at her and Tia would let out a slight chuckle at his terrible attempt of being funny.

Hannah and Tia were getting along well again, and were still enjoying their daily gossip during break times. 

It was a Thursday, and Tia was sitting with Hannah during lunch. Their last class was Uniready, along with Tobias and James. 

Eventually the siren sounded, and the girls made their way to class. 

"Ugh, I hate this class" Tia complained.

"At least there aren't many problematic people in the class" Hannah said, attempting to comfort Tia, Tia knew Hannah was right, for the most part. 

"Aren't many, but Jamie is still in this class!" Tia sighed in worry. 

The teacher opened the door and the class walked in and to their designated seats. Hannah and Tia sat together in the back left corner of the room. Tobias and James were only a couple rows ahead of them.

Mrs. Lackfem got up in front of the class to talk about the next assignment the class would have. 

"For the next unit in Uniready we will be focusing on communication to colleagues. So your next assessment will be individual presentations." 

Hannah and Tia turned to each other, confused about what Mrs. Lackfem meant. 

"The presentation will be on a topic of your choice, and needs to go for 7-12 minutes."

Tia was both excited and worried about this. She was delighted about the fact that she got to let out her creativity and make a presentation on something she enjoyed, though at the same time... She was worried about the classes judgement when she presented. 

Though she had a couple of decent classmates such as Hannah, there were also people such as Jamie. Tia did not want to deal with the stress of being bullied for an assignment. 

"I will give you all the rest of class to brainstorm ideas for your presentations. We will present next Thursday." Mrs. Lackfem stated before sitting back at her desk and leaving the class to talk. 

Tia and Hannah began discussing potential ideas that they could each use in their presentations. Hannah was not entirely sure but Tia had an idea in the back of her mind that she thought could add some comic relief to the class.

"Wanna come to my house after school, we could work on our presentations together?" Hannah suggested to Tia.

Tia accepted her offer, "Sounds like a good idea to me."

Not long after, James and Tobias approached the girls and sat down at their desk with them. 

James was sitting opposite to Hannah, causing Tobias to be left opposing to Tia.

"Any ideas for your presentation, Hannah?" James asked. As usual, totally ignoring Tia. Though it upset Hannah, she wasn't a fan of drama and could not bring herself to defend her acknowledgement. 

"None at all, James! None at all.." Hannah dramatized. 

"If you want, I could come over and help you come up with ideas" James offered.

"I love that idea! Everyone to my house after school."

Tobias shot his gaze over to Hannah, confused what she meant by everyone. 

"Why am I getting dragged into this."

Hannah retorted with, "Well, one) I am sure you do not have any ideas for your presentation and two) if there's only three of us, someone might get third wheeled and that's not okay!"

James was obviously a bit bummed that everyone was going, as he expected it to only be him and Hannah. Although, the plans with Tia had been arranged first. 

For the remainder of class, the group just talked about their presentations, joking around and just enjoying the class. Eventually, the siren went and the group departed the classroom. 

They all stuck close and walked as a group out of the school, since they were walking to Hannah's house together.

Luckily, Hannah lived quite close to everyone, so it wasn't an issue for them to come over for a couple hours. 

On the walk, Tia mostly spoke to Hannah and the boys walked slightly behind them; talking amongst themselves. 

The group made their way up Hannah's drive way and stood back while she unlocked her door. They all walked through the house, greeting Ms. Holland, Hannah's mum. 

Ms. Holland greeted everyone and offered them some snacks, "Not now, mum! We have a project to do but thank you" Hannah said declining the offer, causing the rest of group to starve for the next couple of hours. 

The four got into Hannah's room and all sat on the bed to discuss potential idea's for their presentations.