tomorrow - j.k.

thirteen

Lennie's POV

It had been a little over a week since school started, I was getting used to it. I had made a couple acquaintances, nothing too solid yet.

I entered my fifth period to find something dreadful on the board.

'We are starting projects! A famous poet of your choice. Partners will be required, I choose them!'

"This is great." Jay said as he sat down beside me.

"Maybe it won't be so bad, I mean, it'll be poetry." I suggested. He gave me a look, I assumed he wasn't a fan of poetry.

"Okay, I know you guys aren't very happy with me." Mrs. Sulton said as she stood in front of the class. "But you will be fine. This will be fairly easy. And now, for partners."

She began to read off a list of names, matching them with their partners.

"Lennie Meeks." She said. "Jay Dalton."

We looked at each other, he gave a small shrug. This wasn't the worse situation. The teacher soon finished listing names.

"Do you think Sylvia Plath is considered a poet?" I asked.

"Who?" Jay asked, I gave up on that quick.

"Okay, let's see." I thought of all the poets I could think of.

"What about that Tennyson guy?" Jay suggested. "I've heard of him."

"Alfred Tennyson, he's decent." I said. "You wanna do him?"

Jay shrugged, signifying he was okay with it. I went to tell the teacher Mrs. Sulton our pick.

"You wanna come over to my house to work on it?" I asked.

"I'm down for whatever."

I had told Ronnie about the situation, she thought it would be fine. I didn't know what Josh would think. I didn't want him to jump to conclusions, I didn't like Jay at all.

He was behind me in his car, following me to my house. We pulled in the driveway, Jay took his sweet time getting out of his car.

I entered the house to see my mom on the couch, struggling to read something on her phone.

"He's good to come in, right?" I asked.

"Of course." My mom nodded. Jay made his way in, looking around.

"Hi, I'm Len's mom." She greeted.

"Jay." He nodded. I was thrown off by his response, Josh never answered her like that. He wasn't disrespectful, but that wasn't the most polite ever.

"Let's go to the table." I said. I got us drinks out, and we talked for a moment before getting started.

We spent the next hour or so working on it. I was doing the majority of the work, but he chipped in. I could've done it by myself fine, so it didn't really bother me.

"Oh, what was the date he was born?" I asked. Jay typed on the computer for a minute, and read off the date.

"So, I was thinking." He said. "How about tomorrow, we go to my house to finish this up, then we hangout after."

"Hangout?" I asked.

"Like go grab something to eat, enjoy ourselves." He said. I thought for a moment, trying to decide if this was innocent. I mean, what would it hurt?

"Sure." I said. He smiled and went back to looking up info.

"Hey." I greeted Ronnie.

"Hi." She smiled. "Hey, Mrs. Meeks."