He Was A Ten

Class Projects and Crime Lords

I didn't talk to Marcus as we walked to my next class. There wasn't anything to say, and I was never really good at starting a conversation.

"Well, this is me," I said, giving Marcus a quick wave before heading inside.

"See ya later Precious," Marcus teased, waving at me as he left.

I shook my head. All I asked was for him to stop calling me Precious and to stop touching me. Why was that so hard? But I was giving him a chance, right? So I guess this was me giving him a chance. Lame jokes and annoying nicknames. Yay.

"Alright class, today you will be getting into pairs for a group project. You can pick your partners, but keep in mind that I expect your work done by the deadline two weeks from now," our teacher, Mrs. Szymonik told us, handing out a paper with more information on the project. "And keep in mind, if I see your group messing around or participating in off task behavior, than I will consider changing up some of the groups. Understood?"

There was a chorus of, "Yes ma'am," and the sound of shuffling as friends met gazes giving each other a look.

"Alright then, go ahead you hooligans," Mrs. Szymonik chuckled. "I'm sure you guys will need a long time to figure who you're going to pair up with, so I'll give you guys the rest of the class period to get into groups and look over the assignment. Just make sure to tell me your group members and what topic you'd like to do by the end of class today."

Everyone's chair scrapped against the ground as they rushed to get to their friends. I remained calmly at my seat in an effort to stay alive for the next 45 minutes. Eventually, when everyone had stopped running around like hooligans, I stood up and looked around to see if I could spot someone I knew.

"Paige! Over here!" I heard. I looked over my shoulder and saw a girl named Cindy waving me over.

I smiled and walked over. I had met Cindy awhile ago at one of Alice's sleepovers. She was really friendly and we had talked a bit, but we weren't really friends or anything. "Hey girl. What's up?"

"Not much, just this really annoying group project I have to do in World Studies," Cindy replied.

We both laughed. "Well, if you like, I could help you out with that."

"Sounds great."

"So what exactly are we working on?" I asked as I took a seat next to Cindy.

"We have to do a presentation, as well as an essay, on one of these groups of outlaws," Cindy said. "Some of these options actually seem to be things from pretty recent history."

I nodded. Mrs. Szymonik liked to address current topics in addition to our normal lessons because she wanted us to be aware of the world around us. It made sense that she'd give us the option to do a project on more recent history. "Well, you have the paper. What are the options?"

Cindy started reading over the paper Mrs. Szymonik had handed out. "It looks like the options are either pirates, outlaws from the Old West, or any vigilantes or crime lords from the nineteen hundreds."

"Cool," I commented. "So which one do you want to do?"

"Personally, I think we should try and go for the option that no one else is going to go for. That way our presentation will stand out more," Cindy explained. "So we should do our project on a crime lord or vigilante."

"Alright," I agreed. "But then you have to do all the talking during the presentation. I'll write the essay, but I'm not talking."

"Sure. We'll both work on the presentation, you write the essay, and I'll present," Cindy decided.

"Sounds great. I'll go tell Mrs. Szymonik what we're doing," I told Cindy as I stood up.

"Okay. I'll start looking for a specific person to do our project on."

I walked over to Mrs. Szymonik's desk and waited in the line of students trying to talk Mrs. Szymonik. When I finally got to the front of the line, I said, "Hey, Cindy and I are in a group and we're going to do our project on a crime lord or vigilante from the nineteen hundreds."

"Okay," Mrs. Szymonik replied. "Just make sure you know who you're doing by tomorrow. You have the rest of the class period today and all of class tomorrow to decide."

"Okay, thank you Mrs. Szymonik!"

"So, are we all good to go girl?" Cindy asked me when I sat down.

"Yep," I nodded. "Mrs. Szymonik just wants us to make sure that we know who we're doing by tomorrow at the end of class."

"Well then, I got us covered there," Cindy said with a smile, showing me what was on her Chromebook screen.

I looked at the picture and read the caption out loud. "Johnny Bones was the biggest crime lord of the 1990s. He was recorded as having committed the most crimes on record. Unfortunately, he was never caught, nor was his true identity revealed. All that is really known about him, other than the names of a couple of his followers that were caught, is that he and his partner, Lady Stitches, were in a relationship. They disappeared during the early 2000s and haven't been heard from since."

"Cool, right?" Cindy said. "I think that we could write a cool presentation on some of the crimes he's done and then write an essay trying to figure out what might've happened to him that caused him to disappear when he was at the top of his game."

"Alright, but if we do it that way, I'm going to need a little help with the essay."

"Deal."