I Wasn't Suppposed to Fall for the Wingman

Leeway

Angela’s POV

If I was to say I didn't think about what Heather said that night, Heather herself would be right: I'm a liar. 

Heather's approval of Drew didn't shock me at all. He was her type with less of an edge. While she went for the small, cute brown-eyed boys, I found myself attracted to tall, skinny-ish, blue-eyed guys.

If only I had ever told her that.

She had squealed and squealed on the way to my house about my new image at our high school: the official Mrs. Molotov.

I shuddered, realizing it was a very good thing that we were in the dark.

But  let her talk, my mind pestering me to tell her I didn't like Drew.

No, I had decided. It would just be easier to let her have her cake and enjoy it, too.

***

Algebra class was never my favorite, but it drove my nuts now. My concentration went out the window when I walked in class, and the person in the row behind me, two seats down, gave me a small smile.

It was a shy smile, and had it not caught my eye I probably wouldn't have noticed.

Except for the fact that it was on Jason's face, it wouldn't have bugged me at all.

Oh, and the fact that I knew it was for me.

We were starting a new unit on inequalities, and instead of a test we were to submit an extensive detailed project on how it relates to our everyday lives. 

We would be split into groups of three, but only the final project was to be submitted as a whole. We each had individual assignments to be sure that the workload would be distributed evenly.

I tried to listen to Mr. Shanks explanation intently, but the scenario of me walking into Algebra class was playing over and over in my mind.

Until, of course, when I heard my name.

"Angela Somners with Jason Koller and Nate Meyer."

My eyes flew open.

Jason's POV

My mom always asks me to get the syllabus of all my classes. I don't usually use them much past the first day of school, but my Algebra 2 syllabus had revealed a very good idea to me.

The new unit was based on inequalities, my best area of math. It also said on the syllabus that we were being grouped into three for the final project.

Which explained why I was in Mr. Shanks classroom ten minutes early. Normally I wouldn't be caught dead in a classroom early, but I had a bone to pick with Mr. Shanks. 

I tried not to think about Drew as I made my deal with him: partner me up with Angela, and I would tutor one of your "lesser gifted" students.

He'd been asking me for a while now, but I'd always refuse. I Wasn't one to flaunt my academics, but math was easy for me.

Mr. Shanks looked at me now, his eyebrows raised after my proposal. There was an eerie silence in the room. "Fine. You'll be with Angela, and Nate Meyer."

I let out a breath now, Drew's image in my mind. I wasn't doing this to get with Angela, I had to remind myself. I'll have to help Drew out.

I sighed as I sat in my seat then, waiting for class to start. I thanked Mr. Shanks and sat down studying some English homework - irrevocably my worst class.

Happening to look up, I saw light blue converse. My eyes gazed over dark jeans and a black sweater, and Angela's face, her hair tucked back into a ponytail, parts of her bangs framing her face. She stood there for a bit longer than a split second, throwing me into a fantasy of pushing the hair past her face and kissing her.

Wait, no. I shook myself. Drew kissing her.

She moved to her seat then, her long brunette ponytail swishing over her shoulder. She brushed it past and stole a peek at me.

I grinned to myself, thinking that this project is going to be one of the best in the history of my high school years. 

Angela's POV

My heart did flips when Jason's name was announced. It was scary and kind of weird how I felt, but how I was handling it was even worse. What happened to speaking up for myself?

Tables were pushed together and chairs set up then, the trios of partners claiming tables of their own. I wandered over towards Jason, who sat at a table in the lone corner of the room. A boy I didn't know, whom I assumed was Nate, joined us.

Mr. Shanks handed out our first assignments, one paper for each of the three people on the table. It was the brainstorming exercise. One of us was to take notes on all of our ideas, and the other two to write down the  final idea and our next steps.

I decided to introduce myself to Nate, Jason watching me as I did so. Nate was a red-head with green eyes, good-looking but a messy-I-don't-care-about-anything look. His hair was mussed and looked unwashed, his random black t-shirt and gray sweatpants not providing anything out of the ordinary about him.

"So Angela," Jason said then, my eyes ripping off of Nate. "You any good at this inequality stuff?"

I glanced down at my paper. "Er...not particularly. You?"

The conversation continued for a while, Nate occasionally joining in. But one thing was for sure, and as cliche as I sound for saying this, it's true: as long as Jason's smile and half-laugh wasn't going anywhere, neither were my feelings for him.