Double Take [Sequel to Bound]

5. Do You Wanna Date Him... Or Nah?

Leah’s POV:

          “Here,” I said, handing Dylan the copy of Pride and Prejudice as he walked over to his locker which was next to mine.

          He raised his eyebrows, slowly approaching me as he took the book. “You’re already done with it?” Dylan questioned warily.

          I nodded, hoisting the strap of my bag higher on my shoulder. “Yeah,” I said as Dylan spun the combination of his locker before opening it. “Do you still want me to, uh, tell you the key details?”

          Dylan looked at me, a slight shocked expression crossing his face. “You’re actually going to do that?” he asked.

          I frowned. “Yeah, why?”

          He shrugged, pulling out his physics text book. “I didn’t think you actually would,” Dylan said.

          “I always keep my promises,” I told him, “We made a deal and I intend on keeping my part.”

          A slight smile tugged on his lips before it disappeared the second it came. Instead, Dylan gave a curt nod before shutting his locker. “Okay,” he said.

          “Okay,” I repeated, balancing myself on the heels of my feet. “So, uh, when do you want me to tell you?”

          “I’ll let you know,” Dylan said before turning around and walking to the direction of our English class.

          Sighing, I followed him down the hallway and into the classroom before sitting down at my desk. Dylan sat all the way in the back, so it was no wonder that I hadn’t seen him here before.

          Class started off slow, as usual, until the last ten minutes of class where Mrs. Bart called for everyone’s attention. “All right,” she started. “Now, I know you all have a book report to do, concerning Jane Austen’s literary works. What I forgot to mention to you – and forgive me – was that along with this book report comes a PowerPoint presentation.”

          Immediately, groans sounded in the room after Mrs. Bart’s words, and I joined in on it. As if a book report wasn’t bad enough, now I have to do a project? “Oh, hush, it’s not that bad,” Mrs. Bart said. “Basically what you’ve got to do is pick the characters from the book you’re reading and think as if a movie was going to be made based on the book. So, you’re going to pick actors and actresses who would play the role of a certain character. You need to include pictures in your presentation and reasons as to why you picked this certain actor. It’s not so bad.”

          “Oh, yeah, not bad at all,” a sadistically sarcastic voice spoke, and all heads turned to the back to see the owner of the voice – Dylan. He sat in his seat, leaned back and slouched with his arms crossed over his chest. The bored expression on his face matched his tone, which Mrs. Bart didn’t find amusing.

          “It won’t be, Mr. Tanner, because you all will be assigned partners,” she said, picking up a piece of paper. Mrs. Bart then started reading off names of students and their partners, and when she got to my name, I almost choked on my own spit. (Gross, I know.)

          You know how in those cheesy stories where the girl gets partnered up with the one person she didn’t want?

          That’s exactly what happened to me. How cliché.

          “Leah Styles, your partner is Dylan Tanner.”

          See what I freaking mean?