Arranged Hearts

OO

Walking down the halls of Cordell High, Jaelen felt as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"New year, new me." Jaelen thought out loud, laughing to herself at the overused term. It was something she actually meant though. She felt as though she wasn’t the same person as she was the year before. Her hair was longer, her makeup was better, and she even lost a few pounds over the summer. It felt as though there was a new glow about her.

"Hey twin!" Her closest friend Adrianne yelled to her as they met up in front of their lockers. This was something they’ve did consistently since freshman year.

"Hey Adrianne." Jaelen said while checking through her locker for some notes. She wanted to use them last night, but when she went to look for them, they wasn’t there. She just figured they fell into her locker.

"Excuse me, is your name Jaelen?" A tall, brown, masculine god stood before Jaelen as she waved him off like he didn’t matter.

"Yeah, why?" She asked still looking into her locker. She couldn’t see it, but Adrianne’s eyes were so big you would think they were about to pop. She thought her best friend was crazy for treating this young man so rude.

"Well I…" The young man was cut off by the sound of the bell. Jaelen closed her locker and sped off to class. She wasn’t about to be late listening to him make small talk.

Adrianne gave the man a look of sympathy while she walked off to class too.

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"Welcome back class." Jaelen’s Child Development teacher, Mr. Combs, stated as she made he way to her seat.

"Today, as you may know, we will be having a new student." Jaelen looked up to see everyone in the class with big smiles. What in the world was so special about having a new student?

"Ahhh here he is. Mr. Brandon Smith." Her teacher continued. Jaelen didn’t even bother to look up. She was just going through her backpack roughly looking for the notes she knew she would need.

"Just find a seat anywhere Mr. Smith." The man said as Brandon nodded.

He walked over to where the girl from earlier was digging through her backpack and sat right next to her.

"Hey" He spoke as she just continued to look through her stuff. Brandon thought maybe she was looking for her notes, which he was trying to give to her earlier.

"Hey" He called out to her again. This time she looked up but with an annoyed look on her face.

"If this nigga don’t leave me alone" Jaelen thought to herself as she continued to search through her backpack.

"I believe I know what you’re looking for." Brandon told Jaelen as he put his hand on top of hers to stop her from searching through her backpack anymore.

"And how would you know that?" Jaelen asked as she snatched her hand away. She wasn’t trying to be rude, but she didn’t know this dude and he had been bothering her all morning.

Brandon winked at her and simply passed her notes to her. Jaelen opened the paper and began to blush. She felt so embarrassed for being mean when all he was doing was giving her something she had been looking for.

"So you seen me looking for them this whole time and you just decided to say something." Jaelen questioned.

"Actually, I tried to tell you in the hallway and I’ve been calling you and tapping you like my life depended on it. You ignored me." Brandon said defending himself.

"Jaelen and Mr. Smith. Since you two have seemed to have gotten to know one another, I believe you two will be perfect for the project." Mr. Combs said.

"What project?" Jaelen spoke up as Brandon stayed quiet. Brandon didn’t want to get in trouble on his first day at the school. What would his manager think?

"The project where you two will be husband and wife for 3 weeks. You will pick out either a boy or a girl and will have to work together to take care of the child. One of you will not do all of the work. Trust me, I will know if you try. Now the rest of you, pick a partner and a baby. I’ll be checking on you each week." Mr. Combs said as the bell rang.

"Just great…" Jaelen said as she walked over to the babies. She began to scan over them to see which one she wanted.

"Are you going to ask me if I see one I like?" Brandon said following behind. Jaelen ignored him.

She picked out a boy with a complexion that matched hers as well as Brandon’s.

"He said we had to work together." Brandon said pressing the issue.

"Maybe I don’t like working with others." Jaelen said getting all of the baby’s stuff together.

"Well you need to learn to like it. You can come talk to me when you stop being selfish and act right." Brandon said taking the baby and its belongings, leaving Jaelen standing there, stunned, with her thoughts.