Aurora (#1)

s e v e n

I had my morning coffee and granola bar at Rosa's before making my way to school. Having taken fewer painkillers this morning I was sure I wasn't going to sleep on the ground again.

My uniform was wrinkled and it had taken me the best part of an hour trying to straighten out the kinks without an iron. I tightened my tie and pulled at my skirt. My cheap pantyhose was thin and was a dark gray rather than black. My mop of curly hair was untameable this morning so I had to throw it into a untidy bun. All in all my morning wasn't turning out the way I wanted it to.

I stumbled to my locker and pulled out my books, dumped last night's homework on to a shelf and replacing them with the morning lesson's books. I dragged my feet to my homeroom just as the first bell sounded. Form time passed quickly and I trudged to US history. I slumped in my chair and leaned my head on the table.

"You look like shit." Christian commented.

"Thanks. As do you." I replied, not bothering to even look up. When I did, however, he looked the opposite of shit but I wasn't going to stroke his ego more.

"Rough night?" he asked, smirking.

"You have no idea." I sighed resting my head on my hands. I think he must have heard the tiredness in my voice that he frowned at me.

"Things got a bit frisky last night?" he asked, smirking.

"I don't have a boyfriend."

"Who says you need to have a boyfriend to get frisky in bed?"

"Shut up." I snapped before looking up.

"Today is the first day of your project. This project is going to last you a month and at the end you'll have to present your ideas. Now I know all of you want to choose your partners so I'll let you do that. However you can only chose the people sitting around you." Almost half the class groaned because their friends were sitting across the room. Others were grinning as they chose their partners.

"Hey partner." Christian smirked.

"I'm not your partner." I shot.

"Yes you are. I already chose." He said.

"And you don't think I want a say in this matter?" I asked glaring at him. Can he be even more of a douche?

"Nope. I've decided that you're going to be my partner and that's final." He smirked.

"I want to be with Jess." I shot back.

"Well it looks like she's already got a partner." He smirked, nodding his head in her direction. I turned my head, and sure enough she was blushing beside one of Christian's friends, Lucas. She was twisting her hair in her finger, a habit she picked up when she was nervous, and was smiling. Jess always smiles, but I've never seen her smile like that before.

"You're insufferable." I groaned under my breath. Why can't he just leave me alone?

"What did you say?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing. Let's just get this over and done with. I'll do everything and then put your name on it. That was we have minimum communication and we'll both get good grades." I told him as I packed the materials on my desk. He looked a like he didn't give two shits about the work and I'd rather do it all than to risk a grade lower than an A.

"That's not going to happen." He said.

"And why not." I shot back.

"Because we're instructed to work on this together. Hence we'll split the load. Plus you don't look like you liked your suggestion very much." He was right. Even though I suggested I could do the entire thing I wasn't particularly happy with it.