Elle and the Exchange Student

Chapter 8

Elle's Point of View:

The memories of the party on Saturday, made it hard for me to pay attention to Mr. Walker's lecture on "Twentieth Century Revolutions and Transformations", or at least that's what is been written on the chalkboard. My embarrassing behaviour, Dae-Jung's mood swings and Tilda's newly discovered nature are preoccupying my mind.

It was Tuesday morning, and due to my lack of sleep for the last couple of nights, I'm struggling to stay awake. The only thing on my mind is the freaking party, and it's making me even more exhausted.

Yesterday Tilda showed up to school with Jonah, and it was quite the spectacle. She didn't even join us for lunch, but sat with the jocks and cheerleaders instead. She's like a totally different person now, I'm still figuring out if I like it or not. As if after one night's events, the timid girl transformed into a bubbly extrovert. Leaving me as the only shy person. I guess, I just liked having someone like me around.

Even though, Fannie and Delilah never made me feel like I was different or that I didn't belong, sometimes my own insecurities got the best of me.

I jumped out of my thoughts when the bell rang. Heading straight to my locker, I take out to books I need for my next class.

French with Dae-Jung. Perfect.

Note the sarcasm.

I didn't see him yesterday, so I'm praying he skips today's classes as well.

Class starts and Dae-Jung is nowhere to be seen, I send a quick thank you to the guy upstairs.

But my happiness doesn't last long. After hearing Miss Stephanie's "Project with assigned pairs", I instantly start to hyperventilate. One of the few things I hate about school, is teamwork. Especially, when you're assigned pairs or groups. I often end up doing all the work myself, just to avoid the awkwardness of working with random people.

She started listing the names and the further she gets, the more I panicked.

"Michelle and Lola, Elle and Dae-Jung, William..."

Of course. Of fucking course, It had to be the two of us together. I'm doing my best at avoiding that bastard, but the universe just keeps pushing him into my life. I decide right away that I'm going to do this entire thing on my own, and that helps me to calm my nerves.

"You can start working right away, you can either stay here or go to the library. Rest of this weeks classes are dedicated to this, you can work anywhere you want at those times. We continue working normally next Tuesday, and that is also when this project is due. Bon courage à tous !"

Defeated, I gather my stuff, planning on working at the library.

"Elle, as your partner was absent today, could you please inform them about this project work, or would you like me to do it?"

Against all my wants, the people pleaser in me replied "I can do it", and I hate myself for it. I'm debating whether or not tell Dae-Jung at all. It would make working alone much easier, if he didn't know about the whole project to begin with. But on the other hand, I don't want to get in trouble or, possibly, get Dae-Jung in trouble for not participating in the work. Even though I hate the guy, I want to be a decent human being.

For the next hour, I make good progress on the project. If I were to do this alone, it's going to take a huge amount of time and effort.

Deciding to make Dae-Jung know about our assignment, having fifteen minutes before my lunch break begins, I try to go and find him. If he even came to school today, maybe some of our friends knew about his whereabouts.