We're Getting There

Chapter 6

Jenna scowled at Alex as she shrugged his annoyingly good-looking head off her shoulder.

"We need to get this project on Joseph Stalin done guys," she said. "I've been trying to get in touch but-"

Alex smiled sweetly at Jenna, placing a hand on her arm. "Hey, it's okay. We have till the end of the month."

Yet again, Jenna resisted the urge to let him rest there while simultaneously resisting the urge to slap him. In school, she couldn't afford any distractions. She scooted her chair further away from Alex, cursing herself for even sitting next to him.

"Has anyone done any research?" Jenna asked as she wondered why she couldn't be in a group with any of the more bothered students.

"He was Russian, right?" Liam asked. Jenna was genuinely surprised he had torn his eyes away from Jaxon.

"Rushing where?" Sammy smirked as he cracked his lame joke.

Jenna grimaced. She didn't find it remotely funny that it was the second History lesson of the academic year and she had already been lumped with this pathetic group. Just looking around the table was diminishing any hope she had for them completing the project as a team.

To her right was Sammy, he was sweet enough but sweet wasn't going to get her a good grade. He was constantly talking to Liam, occasionally taking a break to glare at Alex. Not that she cared, after all, Alex wasn't her property and she didn't want him to be. Well, not really. There Alex was, sitting on her left and acting like the perfect angel she knew he wasn't. Every so often, he would lay a soft hand on her and she would have to push him off. It was beginning to get annoying.

Jenna looked at Jaxon, who was sitting across from her. When he noticed her looking, he turned away from Lexi to send her a small smile, he didn't even acknowledge the work they still had to do. No, he and Lexi were just fine having their own little mothers' meeting. Jenna sighed, Lexi was a good friend of hers but she was just so easily distracted. And of course, there was Liam who was always seeking Jaxon's attention then turning red and flustered once he received it. Jenna pushed Alex off herself again, realising she was beginning to sound like her father.

"Okay, I'm sorry about that crappy joke," Sammy said, drawing her out of her thoughts. He pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his bag. "Here, I looked a bit into his early life like you asked. If that helps." He held out the paper with a hopeful smile on his face.

Jenna accepted the paper. "Um. Thanks, I suppose." She skimmed through the information. "Did you copy this from Wikipedia or something?"

Sammy shifted in his seat. "I - I mean, I changed the words?"

Jenna rolled her eyes. "Doesn't matter, I anticipated this would happen and did all the research myself," she said, placing some papers on the desk. She turned to address the rest of the group. "Now we just need to turn it into a presentation."

She didn't notice Sammy deflate in his seat.

Jaxon glanced at the heading on the paper. "Uh, I thought we were doing this on Joseph Stalin, not this guy... I'm not even going to try to say it."

"Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili," Lexi said. "What he was born as."

That caused Jenna to smile. It wasn't such a well-known fact that her friend was so smart. "I guess you did some research too."

Lexi shrugged. "As much as I could without a computer or a decent phone."

Liam, seeing that Jaxon was about to ask of Lexi's lack of electronics, quickly gave a suggestion. "What about a poster or something?"