New Kid on the Block

They crashed into each other while rounding a corner. Just her luck, like always. It was like it was in slow motion; both of them falling backwards, their books and other things scattering in all directions of the hallway. His friend reached out and caught him before he could fall all the way down, but she, unfortunately, landed on her butt. What a great first day at her new school...
He was already up, laughing with his friends. He walked over to her and reached his hand out to help her up. After getting back to her feet she quickly tried to gather everything so that she could go hide somewhere. She could still feel her cheeks burning when he bent down to help her.
"Sorry bout that! Lemme help with this..." he grabbed most of her stuff for her, leaving her to grab his. When they stood up they exchanged items. He was still trying to be nice, or to show off, reaching a big hand out for hers. "M'names Steve! You must be... new! This is Nancy, my lady, and this here is Jonathan!"
"Y/N..." she mumbled, hastily shaking his hand then trying to get away. She'd already embarrassed herself on the first frickin day by running into two cute guys and an even cuter girl. She just wanted to get to class and keep her head down. And that worked well for the first couple of classes. So she let her guard down and relaxed a little. Then third period came along.
She walked into photography class and there sat the guy named Jonathan. The only seat open was at the table that he was at, so she of course had to take it. He gave her a small smile and a nod before tucking his head away from her. Great. He thought she was weird. Oh well, she only sat next to him in class. That's the only place she would see him.
And she was right. For the most part. Aside from a few glances at lunch and passing by in the hallways, photography class was the only time that she had to see him. The first few weeks of school were eventless for her, and that was a-okay with her. And then projects started to pop up.
"Alright, guys! Settle down!" their photography teacher called over them. He began to pass out papers to them. "I'm about to start something new this semester. Instead of four separate projects per semester, I'm going to only assign one group project. You have the entire semester to complete it, but don't wait until the last week. There are specific things that need to be done for this project, so it will take almost the exact amount of time that I've given you. So read this paper, and put it somewhere safe... I'm looking at you, Mathers. Because this paper has everything that you will need to know about the assignment. I'll start going through the pairings here in a sec..."
Oh, god, she wanted to crawl in a hole and disappear. Group projects were the absolute worst. She was already stressed out from it and she didn't even know who her partner was going to be yet. Gotta love anxiety. She listened as he listed off the paired groups, the pit in her stomach getting bigger until-
"Group 8, Byers and Y/L/N" their teacher boomed, causing her to jump. She looked around, trying to make eye contact with whoever her partner was when the guy next to her turned to her. He gave her a small smile.
"I'm gonna guess you're Y/L/N, because I've gone to school with everyone else here for years." Ah. Yeah. She only knew his first name, not his last name. She gave him a tiny smile but wouldn't look him in the eye for the remainder of class. They exchanged phone numbers and made a time to meet for a bit after school.
And she spent the entire rest of her classes freaking out about it. The pit in her stomach returned as the last bell rang throughout the halls. Ever so slowly she put everything in her backpack, sluggishly walked to her locker, and then put the contents of her backpack into the locker one by one. After figuring that she had wasted enough time, she made her way toward the parking lot. He was supposed to pick her up and take them to the library, where they would spend an hour or so smoothing out the details of the project. Even though she knew it wouldn't be that bad, she couldn't help but let that pit in her stomach consume her on her walk to the parking lot.
She got out and scanned the parking lot, not knowing which of the remaining cars was his. Just as she was about to start going car-to-car he came up behind her, giving her what had to have been her fifth heart attack of the day.
"Ready?" he asked. She just gave him a nod and followed him to the car, tossing her backpack in the back with his before buckling in.
It wasn't as bad as she thought. He wasn't as bad as she had thought. He was actually very kind and soft spoken, and very easy to work with. With the amount of instructions that they were supposed to follow, they decided that it was best to attempt to center their project on seasons.
So every Friday after school she got in his car and went with him to snap some pictures. Or rather, she helped pick out areas and trees to take pictures while Jonathan did all the real photography. Sure, he handed her the camera and let her snap a few. But she really had no idea what she was doing.
One chilly October Friday they decided to spend their time after school in the dark room, Jonathan showing her how to develop the photos. He was really good at it. Every photo looked professional. And then they got to hers... Blurry, blurry, blurry, off center, blurry, too much light, not enough light. If it hadn't been Jonathan's film she would've thrown them right in the trash.
"Y/N?" she jumped. Oops.. She had zoned out looking at her monstrosities of photos. She turned and gave him a smile in response while gathering up the photos to leave. "We've already got most of the photos done for the first part of the project. Want to go ahead and put that together?"
"Uh, sure. I'll need to call my mom and ask if we can use my house, I think she has some friends over." She stuffed the pictures in her back then started counting quarters for the payphone.
"Oh, I figured we would head to my house." He mumbled. His stomach was in flutters, asking a girl to go back to his house with him. Grabbing his bag and turning off the dark room light, he followed her out. "I, uh, already have a lot of the stuff we'll need; minus tape. If that's okay with you?"
"Yeah!" uhh... was that a little too excited? Her cheeks burned as they went pink and she was very grateful that the lights were out. "One thing though."
"What's that?" he laughed. Walking over to the nearest classroom, she opened the door and came back out waving around a tape dispenser.
It was almost dinner time by the time they got to his house; they had taken a bit longer developing pictures than they thought they would. They chatted about possibly ordering a pizza since both of their stomachs were growling while walking up to the door. But as soon as they opened the door they were met by many different voices.
"Hey Jonathan!"
"JONATHANS HOME, MA!"
"Wanna play DnD?"
"What the-"
"Who are you?"
"Jonathan who is she!"
"Guys!" Jonathan interrupted. His hands were up in mock surrender. "This is, Y/N. We're about to go finish our photography project; no, we aren't going to play tonight, guys; Will, go ask mom if-"
"You go ask!" the boy who must've been Jon's brother argued. They went back and forth for a second before they both just went to find their mom, leaving her alone with the other boys.
"So why are you here?" a boy with a lisp asked her.
"I'm, uh, finishing a project with Jonathan."
"Ah, what project!"
"A volcano??!" they were super enthusiastic, it made her crack a smile.
"It's a photo project, guys." She laughed. Bending down, she unzipped her bag to show them a few of the photos. Which they did not seem interested in.
"Oh, well volcanoes are cooler." They dismissed it. A few moments of awkward silence followed and then the brothers were back, laughing at each other. Jonathan picked his bag up and motioned for her to follow her down the hall. She smiled and gave the boys a little waved before following him.
"Where are you going?" Will chimed in.
"To my room?" Jonathan asked.
"Uh, with her?"
"Yes?"
"Why can't you start it out here?"
"Everything is in my room, Will, chill." Jonathan brushed him off. Of course, her face was as red as a tomato again. As they headed back toward Jonathan's room the boys started making oohs and kissing noises behind them, along with singing that stupid "k-i-s-s-i-n-g" song. When they got in his room he hastily slammed the door and plopped down on the bed.
"They always this..." she started
"Nosey? Pretty much." He laughed, pulling the supplies out of a desk drawer.
"They act like they've never seen a girl before." She joked, pulling the rest of the pictures out and lining them up on the bed. He just kind of shrugged at her.
"I mean, I never really have anyone over. Especially girls." He didn't look at her. She couldn't contain her grin at how cute he was when he felt awkward. To be honest, the more time she spent with him the less awkward he came off. He was just shy. And smart, kind, funny, cute. Cute? Oh hells bells. Maybe she didn't really care if the boys thought that they were dating. She walked over and took a seat next to him.
"Ah, so any girl they see you with is automatically your girlfriend then." She laughed again, the boys now outside the door making the kissing noises.
"Yeaaaah... Sorry about them.." he threw a pillow at the door, causing them to shriek with laughter before continuing with their teasing. She kept grinning and shrugged her shoulders, scooting a little bit closer to him.
"Sorry? How come?" the boys were now singing here comes the bride, causing her to laugh again. "Do you think I wouldn't want to be your girlfriend or something?" she looked over at him. Instant regret. He glanced at her and glanced away, his face bright red. Then it dawned on her: it was him who didn't want to date her. Ouch. In the 60 seconds she realized she had feelings for him and had them crushed in the same breath. "Ohh.. You don't... feel that way... Riiiight. Hahaa.."
She felt so stupid! She tried to laugh it off but there was no way it worked. They both looked away from each other awkwardly, faces burning. Welp, the only way out was through. She gathered up a few pictures and went to go put them in order for the poster board. He stood up and trailed behind her.
"Y/N..." he started. She shot him a smile without looking at him, trying to work on the pictures and forget that it even happened. "That's not-"
"No, I was just talking, you know? It's no big deal." Nope, even she wasn't convincing to herself. He walked over and took the pictures from her, placing them on the desk.
"I didn't say that I wouldn't... date you." He mumbled, tugging at a stray string on his shirt. "I... I just don't normally answer that question."
"It's fine! Really!" she said a little ruder than before. All she wanted to do now was to finish the project and get out of there.
"No! I just.... I'm not good with words! And I would totally date you! I just didn't want to come out and say that!" They stared at each other in silence while the boys still teased from the other side of the door. She had no idea what to do; on one hand he had said that he would date her, but on the other she still felt so stupid and convinced herself that he was lying.
He came right next to her but she refused to look at him. She tried to make it seem like all her focus was on a picture, but he saw right through it. How the hell was he supposed to tell her that he felt that way? There was no he was going to be able to ask her out... He had been imagining it since the first time they went to take pictures. And now he destroyed any chance of anything between them.
But, she decided to say fuck it. She dropped the picture and turned toward him, mustering up any courage she had left. No matter how it played out, she was at least going to be able to say that she tried. Closing the distance she grabbed his face in her hands, planting a huge kiss on his lips.
At first he didn't kiss her back and she almost backed away. But then he placed his hand over hers, kissing back with full force. Neither of them wanted to separate; it was better than either had imagined! But she reluctantly pulled away. Her eyes shot open to assess him, but he kept his eyes shut for a bit. She couldn't hold back her laughter at it all. A smile spread across his face and he laughed with her. What a crazy few minutes! What was there to even say?
He picked up the photos and they finally went to work on their project. Granted, they were a bit closer and touchier than before. Her heart was going a million miles an hour, and his cheeks were the reddest that they had ever been. It was almost sad to finish everything; they didn't want it to end. After everything was put up and she was ready to leave she just stood there, not knowing what to do.
"So..." she started. His smile returned and he walked slowly up to her. There was no way she was going to be able to hide the excitement that bubbled up in her chest. He leaned in and she puckered for a kiss, but he was really reaching for the door handle...
After telling his mom that he was going to take her home they headed out, telling the boys bye and closing the door behind them. She started toward the car but he reached a hand out to stop her. Before she could react his lips were back on hers, his hands in her hair to keep her close.
It was like time had stopped and she didn't want it to start back up. It was a perfect moment. Well, until cheers started up from the other side of the window. They both jumped and turned toward the window where the four boys were peeking through and cheering, yelling "I KNEW IT! TOTALLY HIS GIRLFRIEND!"
Jonathan smacked his hand on the window, getting some extra screams and giggles from them. He and Y/N ran to the car and could not stop laughing; this was the best group project ever.