Mr. Hollander, our history teacher, announced, "Guess what?" The class groaned, me included.
I stood up and looked at my classmates and exclaimed, "Lucas and Riley are getting married! And you're all invited!"
"Maya!" Riley hissed angrily, as she looked at Lucas, who was already staring back. Riley was currently dating a senior named Kyle, which was unusual, considering she was a sophomore.
"What? We all knew it was gonna happen!" I said innocently.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Mr. Hollander angrily interrupted.
"Oh don't worry, you're invited too!"
"Anyway, I'm assigning you guys a group project! I will be choosing your partners out of a hat." After my little, uh, outburst I don't think he'll choose Riley and me anytime soon.
"Group A will be Maya, Missy, Lucas, and..." I heard her groan, and I rolled my eyes. You're not the only one complaining here. He paused to unwrap the paper. Please be Riley. Please please please ple - "Riley."
"Yes!" I cheered. Mr. Hollander called out more names and started to explain what we were doing.
"You're going to be researching Belgium in 1831, your groups will make a poster and present next Friday."
"Uh, what if you already finished?" Farkle asked as he somehow took a large poster filled with black and white collages as if it were a mosaic piece.
"Well, you get to present first!"
"It would be my honor, sir." Farkle dragged his poster to the front of the room. Riley began taking notes as I dozed off.
×××
"Maya!" I jumped and found Riley looking over me.
"How did I get here?" I remembered sleeping on my desk, not Riley's bed.
"Josh carried you in here. Come on, Lucas and Missy's waiting outside. We have a project to do."
"Josh?!" I ran my hands through my hair and puckered my lips. His name had my heart racing, exhilaration bursting in my chest. "How do I look?"
"Fine, come on!" Riley yanked me before I could pinch my cheeks for a bit of blush. Why? Because mature girls wear makeup. Because Josh likes mature girls. Because I'm not mature. Yet.
I rubbed my eyes again and when I opened eyes I saw Missy twirling her hair while she talked to Josh on the couch with her legs straddling his waist, I suppressed a scream as Riley covered my eyes with her small hands. I pushed them away and walked up to them.
"So Huckleberry..." I said, while swinging my legs onto his lap. I leaned in close to his ear. "What do you know about Belgium?"
"Ahem!" Riley coughed. I stretched and did the corny 'arm-over-shoulder' thing. I accidently hit the back of Josh's head and he whipped around. "Guys, we have a project to do!"
"Yeah," Lucas said, blushing as he felt the weight of my arm.
"Alright! I'm going to grab some croissants at Topanga's, anyone wanna come?" Josh invited. I bit my lip to hide a scream 'yes' as Missy volunteered. "How about you, Maya?" He had a big devilish smirk on.
"I-I, uh - " I couldn't seem to talk in front of him, which frustrated me. The way he said my name had me blushing.
"She's busy doing a project with me," Lucas growled. Riley tapped his shoulder. "I mean us!"
"In that case, let's go Missy!" Josh said coldly. Missy gripped his arm, and before they left, she turned back and had a smug grin.
Joshaya 0, Jossy 1.
Please vote, comment, and share! Thanks for reading!
-Vicky
