The Girl Who Hates Me

Partner Project

For class that day, Hebe had again sat as far as she could from Arron. But Arron was stronger and managed to pull her chair back to him.

"Hmmph!" Hebe turned to one side so she wouldn't have to look at Arron. Only Arron's friends had been watching this and they snickered loudly.

Ms. Chen walked into the room and announced that they were going to start their first literature project.

Everyone groaned when she wrote down the details on the board, but Arron saw this as another opportunity to mess with Hebe.

"Class, you'll be doing a partner cooperation project," Ms. Chen said, turning around to lock the class in her evil glare. "Bwahahahaha! It's a big project too, and is worth at least a hundred points!"

"Now hold up, Lao Shi," Chun complained, using Mandarin for teacher. "You can't do that to us. It's only the first week of school, so give us a break."

Ms. Chen turned those deadly eyes on Chun.

"I also happen to be in charge of detention, you know," she boasted. "So anyone who complains, well, tell it to me after school in detention."

Jiro and Calvin snickered loudly at Chun, who turned around and waved his fist. "Aww, be quiet," he hissed.

"This is a sort of get-to-know your partner project," Ms. Chen cut in, ignoring the bickering now going on in the back of the classroom. "You will learn about the life of your partners, and put together a two page essay, double spaced, size 12 font, on their life. It can be about memorable events in their lives, or anything as long as it is relevant," she finished, giving Jiro a look.

Jiro had been in her class last year. He flushed, remembering the essay he had written on challenges he overcame. He had been so convinced it was easy, that he hardly gave it any thought and finished it in twelve minutes.

When it was handed back, he was shocked to find it had gotten a low mark. Ms. Chen had came over and said simply,"Struggling to open jars of peanut butter, finding your lost socks, and finish late homework are NOT very challenging."

Jiro shooed the memory out of his mind, and said,"Well, at least I got a smarty girl to help me out this time." He nudged Selina, who sat next to him.

Selina gave him a glare. Obviously, Arron thought with a grin, Jiro had problems with his own dorm partner.

"So, today, get to know each other," said Ms. Chen. "Take notes, and get to know each other well. Carry on."

The class slowly started to talk loudly with each other.

Arron turned to Hebe, and said,"So...what do you want to know about me, partner?" he asked with his killer grin.

It would have made the popular girls who always flirted with him squeal in delight, or faint with happiness, but Hebe just blinked at him with a frowning face.

"Oh, I know all about you, of course," Hebe said, and flipped idly through her notebook. "You're part of the popular group."

Arron stared at her, and said, boasting a little,"Well, I am certainly well known."

"And you popular people don't want anything to do with us non-cool people, am I right?" Hebe said flatly.

"Huh? No, I don't want to do that..." Arron shook his head. "I like to hang out with everybody."

"Oh yeah?" Hebe smiled. "I don't see you hanging out with people like me."

"Well, I'm doing it now," said Arron, and decided to start messing around with Hebe. He grinned and said,"Well, I'm waiting for you to ask me questions..."

"I told you, I know your type. People like you. Stuck up, arrogant, pushing others around..."

"Now, now, my dear, if you put that into your paper, Teacher's not going to like that, is she?" Arron leaned closer toward Hebe, who moved back, her face slightly pink.

"Well...what if I do? You can't stop me from writing that down!" said Hebe, starting to scribble furiously on a piece of line paper.

Arron leaned closer so that he was about an inch or two away from Hebe. "You want to get a good score, so you're not going to do that," he said, seeing the horrified look on her face. "You're like, one of the best students in the class, probably. You wouldn't want to blow this."

He watched the words sink in. Hebe stopped her rapid writing.

Hebe crumpled up the paper with a sigh, then got out a fresh sheet and said, very reluctantly,"Fine. Tell me about yourself."

Arron smiled again and said,"Let's see...I'll just tell you some stuff, not too general like birthdays and favorite colors, but..."

He gave her facts such as what he liked, what he didn't like, what he liked to do during his own time, how he felt about stuff, and some memorable stuff from his life.

When he was talking about his favorite memories, such as the time when he was little and fell out of tree and broke his wrist and then later bragged to everyone about it, as if it were nothing, he noticed that Hebe had gotten quiet and was writing it all down. She took care to write in her neat, pretty handwriting, and was listening with a smile on her face.

This made Arron feel very happy.

Then it was his turn to learn about Hebe.

"So, what are some things about yourself?" he asked, looking at her and getting ready to take notes.

Hebe looked a little nervous and said,"Do I have to? Maybe I'll do your essay for you, how about it?"

Arron frowned slightly. "Well, I can do it myself, it'll be fairer that way. Just tell me about yourself."

Hebe seemed even more quiet at this, but finally she sighed and glared at him. "Ok, tell me what you want to know?"

"How about your family?" he asked.

"Umm..." Hebe seemed uneasy, as if this topic were hard for her to talk about. "I live with my parents...and I have a little puppy..."

"Is that all? Nothing else?"

Hebe twisted her hands together and said,"My parents might be getting...divorced."

Arron stopped writing and stared. "Oh wow, Hebe. I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's ok," she said, but she was giving him her glare again. "Go ahead and make fun of me then. I don't care."

"Why do you keep thinking I'm a bad person?" he asked.

"Well, your crowd definitely isn't on my like list, more of on my hate list."

Arron was a little stunned "I don't know what you're talking about, but I think some of them are really nice," he argued.

Hebe sighed again. "To you, maybe. To me..." she shook her head.

"It's not like they've done anything to you, right?" Arron asked.

At these words, Hebe gave a little shudder, and she looked a little scared, but she said nothing else.

What was that about..? thought Arron, but before he could open his mouth, Hebe interrupted.

"Go back to your dumb interview and let's get it over with," she said, going back to her annoyed expression.

"Ok," said Arron, looking a little confused. Was she keeping a secret from him?