Second Time's A Charm

One ♡ | "Hey Partner"

"New seats!"

Everyone groaned.

Ms. Taylor liked to switch the seats every once and a while, claiming it kept things new and fresh.

You'd think in the last year of high school we'd have the ability to choose where we sit but to no avail.

Unlike some, I didn't really mind though seeing as I knew quite a few people.

I guess it had its perks.

The tables in class were arranged to be in groups of four. So one person next to you and two in front.

At each table there's a group leader who made sure they're table was on task. I don't think anyone ever actually seriously enforced that though.

"Alycia."

I looked over to Ms. Taylor at the sound of my name.

"This will be your table, you sit right here," she gestured to the seat, "Next to Alycia is Carter. Across from Carter is Lena and next to Lena is Andrew."

I moved from against the wall and walked over to my new seat.

"Hey partner, long time no talk." Carter said with a small smile. He was already sitting.

"Hey Carter," I forced a smile and sat down.

"It's been a while."

"Yeah, I guess it has." I looked away and pretended to be busy with my notebook.

I could see from my peripheral vision he was still looking at me.

I wish he'd stop.

Carter and I were way closer in the previous years of high school. I had actually started to believe that something more was there, but we began to drift apart. It was sudden and unexplained, but neither of us questioned it.

Things since have been sort of awkward. I guess whatever I thought was there, wasn't there to begin with or just wasn't meant to be.

His gaze was interrupted by Lena and Andrew as they made their way to the table.

"Hey hey hey!" Lena exclaimed as she approached her seat.

"What's up my people!" Andrew said.

Andrew and Carter proceeded to do their weird bro handshake thing.

After that was done Andrew hugged Lena, squeezing her tight. "Lena!!"

He came over to me and squeezed me too. "Alycia!!"

I laughed. "Hey to you too!"

Lena glanced between Carter and I, giving me a knowing look. I shook my head at her.

"This is going to be interesting," Lena said aloud.

I glared in her direction and she laughed. I was thrilled that my discomfort amused her.

After everyone was seated, Ms. Taylor started to explain our assignment.

"What better way to start off the second semester than with a project!" She said enthusiastically.

A couple of sarcastic cheers were heard throughout the room.

Oblivious to their true meaning she continued, "That's the spirit!! Alright so I've decided to give you all something a bit fun! You'll be building a roller coaster to analyze gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. You can be creative with the materials and a marble will be used as the cart. In order to get full credit, the roller coaster will have to be at least six seconds long and the marble has to go throughout the entire coaster smoothly. You will be working in pairs so choose wisely."

Everyone started signaling to their friends, giving them the "you're my partner look".

I didn't bother looking at Lena because I already knew she'd work with her boyfriend Jared, who was sitting a couple of tables from us.

I heard my name being called from across the room. It was Callie, a fellow cheerleader and friend of mine.

We exchanged looks and it was decided.

Suddenly it seemed like a lightbulb went off in Ms. Taylor's head. "Oh I know!! Your partners will be the person sitting next to you. Yes that's it!!"

I silently groaned and turned to Carter as he spoke.

"Well, it looks like we got some work to do."

A/N: Hey! Thank you for reading! This is my first book on Wattpad so it may not be the best but bare with me. This is going to be a short story, meaning there will only be twenty chapters with a range of about 4-7 pages each. Hope you enjoy!