Tinkering Hearts

Chapter Eight

Zaelia

Where is Naureen when I need her the most? She should be pulling him out the door.

I look down at the floor, letting my hair fall over my face. Sicre is busy chatting with a group of girls. Cautiously, I make my way to the corner-most place and sit there. I have to stay like this till class gets—

"Zaelia, I see you have seated yourself in a shady corner today," Mr. Flynn, our english teacher, says in his thick English accent. "Is everything alright?"

I look around, all eyes focused on me—even the dark ones.

Way to ruin my efforts.

I look up and smile. "My head's kinda throbbing today. I should be fine sometime later. Please don't mind me."

"Very well." Then he turns to the rest of the class. "Today I will be assigning you lot a long-term project. I want all of you to form pairs."

The scraping of chairs and tables begin as everyone starts switching places asking each other to become partners. Then they give their names to Mr. Flynn to confirm the pair. As usual, no one comes to me immediately. I always was and always am the leftover.

My gaze unwillingly darts to Sicre and I notice two girls asking him to be one of their partners at the same time. I recognize them as Melinda Salis and Farah Barak. He ignores both of them and walks over to Mr. Flynn.

"Sir, I would like to pair up with Zaelia. Please note our names."

"Alright... Sicre, Zaelia... and done. Please take your seat beside Zaelia."

Am I the only one who didn't get what the hell just happened?
Yeah. 

WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?

The girls stare daggers at me. And I realize what just happened. I just signed myself up for failure by attending class today. I knew I should've just bunked in the sports room for a while. Ugh.

Sicre brings an empty chair and desk next to mine and sits there with a calm look plastered on his face.

"Hey partner," the jerk smirks.

When he doesn't get a reply, he leans toward me as I lean back a bit, intimidated, and whispers in my ear, "There's no escaping now, Zee."

I could feel his smirk. This was the first time he called me Zee and that did a whole lot of damage to my insides. The butterflies were probably running marathons. If he had been a fictional character, I'd be head over heels for him. But life never does you justice, so I'm stuck with this IRL version of jerk-face.

. * ● ¸ .

"Take your seats, everyone!" Mr. Flynn's voice booms through the class. Within two minutes everyone sits with their partners. 

I get up to ask Mr. Flynn to change my pair, but Sicre holds my wrist and I sit back down.
I'll murder him.

It turns out that for the project we have to choose a debatable topic and explore its depths. We have to choose a few places concerning our topics, interact with its people and create a report. One of us has to create the report and presentable props. The other has to do the speaking.
Mr. Flynn announced that at the end of this summer, there would be a program that will be showcasing all of our projects. In the end, the best project will be chosen for a show and talk competition at the national level. 

Plus, there are extra credits for this project! I need to get this done correctly and maybe even win it. But then the reality hits and I remember who my pair is. Can I laugh out loud?