Opposites

Chapter 8

  Right now, Max and I were eating together. We were on our casual date. We decided to eat at Razzoo's, which was a Cajun restaurant.

   "Ugh I'm so glad we are here because my day at school was terrible," I said looking at the menu.

  "Oh really? What happened?" Max looked at me.

   "Some girl named Devan invited me to sit with her friends. Which includes Jake Brooks, some guy named Derek, this other guy named Mike, and this girl with a temper named Jen. It was so awful. Devan and Jen got into a fight and then Jake was super rude to me," I explained.

"Oh yeah, I heard there was a fight at lunch. Too bad we have different lunch periods. I would invite you to sit with me and my friends. And trust me, we do not throw punches at each other," Max started to laugh.

"Haha, I usually sit with Layla but she has been doing a project in the library lately," I said.

Then the waiter came to take our order. After we ordered, Max got out a pen and drew a Tic-Tak-Toe board on a napkin.

"Want to play?" He asked.

"Of course," I answered.

Max was winning most of our games. While we were still playing, I saw Jake enter the restaurant with this popular girl named Rosie. Out of all restaurants they had to appeared at the one I was at. Jake and I made eye contact and I quickly turned my head to face Max again.

"What's wrong?" Max was concerned.

"Nothing. Jake Brooks is here," I said.

"Oh..." Max said looking at Jake.

Jake and Rosie walked right passed our table. I was looking down at the table so I would not make awkward eye contact with Jake again. Soon after that, the waiter brought us our food. It was delicious. I had grilled shrimp with fries. Max and I continued to talk about books we had read and our favorite movies. I felt like I could be myself around him.

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  It was the next day at school and I was sitting in my English class. I really wanted to ask Jake when we would work on our English project, however, things felt awkward between us. Maybe I should just ask Ms. Dove if I can do the project by myself. The whole class was pretty noisy, so I figured I could quietly walk over to Ms. Dove's desk to ask her.

    I got up from my desk and walked to her desk.

   "Ms. Dove," I said softly to get her attention because she was looking at her computer.

"Ava," she said looking at me. "How may I help you?"

"Umm... I was wondering if I could work on the research project on my own," I said.

"Why? Who is your partner?" She asked.

"Jake. He refuses to work with me. I'm certain that he does not like me," I said.

"Well Ava, in the real world you are going to have to find a way to get along with people whether they like you or not. So how about you give Jake another chance and if he still refuses then you can do it alone," Ms. Dove said.

I did not like her answer. I did not want to try again.

"Fine," I said.

"Thank you Ava. Some people you just have to be patient with."

I then faked a tiny grin and went back to my desk.

"Jake Brooks," Ms. Dove called out. "Can I speak to you."