Adding Kisses

Chapter 3: New Math Partners

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I ask Jake.

"This is my seat," he answers with a smirk. "I just wasn't in class yesterday."

"Yeah, you can go hang out with your stupid friends, but you don't have the audacity to go to class," I mutter under my breath, loud enough so that I know he can hear. "What a chicken."

He wiggles his eyebrows at me. "Blake's not my friend."

I peek over to the boy sitting on my right before turning to Jake. "I thought--"

"Miss Ellis and Mr Dylan, would you like to share your conversation to the class?" our math teacher says, bringing the whole class' attention to us.

I dangle my hair over my steaming cheeks. "No, sir--" I cough as Jake snickers quietly. "I mean, Ma'am--"

"Yes, of course," he butts in. "I wasn't doing the whole lot of the talking." He gestures to me. "Harper here was telling me how much she wanted to kiss me before and of course, I--"

"That's enough," Miss Evans says. "As I was saying, you guys will have a group project worth 25% of your grade. We will be working on it until Halloween, where we will be presenting in class." Kids start scrambling around, sitting with their friends, but Miss Evans holds up a finger. "But the partners will be assigned."

There is a collective groan as everyone grudgingly makes their way back to their assigned seats. Unlike my classmates, I mentally pump my fist in the air. I won't be the only one without a partner.

"You will be divided into groups of three," Miss Evans continues. "I know that most of you won't be familiar with your partners, so I will give you ten minutes to get to know one another." She points to the three kids sitting to the left of Jake. "You're group one."

I look back to where I am sitting and I feel the dread settling in the pit of my stomach. No, no, no. This cannot be happening. I cross my fingers and squeeze my eyes as tightly as I can.

I cannot be partners with Jake and Blake.

"Blake, Harper, and Jake, you're group two," Miss Evans says with a tight smile. "If you guys aren't working, I'll separate all of you," she says in a low voice.

I smile sweetly at her. "Why can't you separate us now?"

She looks between the three of us and a smile slowly spreads across her lips. "Not going to happen, Harper."

"To be honest, I happen to like this arrangement quite a bit," Jake says, swinging his arm to the back of my chair and resting it there.

I immediately push it off. "Get off of me, you jack-ass."

"Little Harpie cursing is not good," he says, shaking his head at me before placing his arm back in the same position.

"Shut up," I mutter, turning to Blake. "Can I switch seats with you?"

He sends a smile and my stomach does a somersault. "Sure."

Jake pouts and I stick out my tongue at him in response. "That's what you get."

Blake turns to me and holds out his hand once he had adjusted himself to his new seat. "So, I'm Blake Ryans."

I shake his hand. "Harper Ellis. Nice to meet you."

"Ditto," he replies with a smile and my stomach churns nervously.

"I'm--" Jake says before Mrs. Evans comes over to our group.

She frowns. "You can't switch seats. The ones I gave you are permanent until the end of this semester."

"But it's just one seat over from my original one," I beg her.