The Duet

Chapter 6: November

The next day, not much happened till literature class. As the kids filed in, Mr. Cassius, their teacher, ushered them to sit down.

"Today class," Mr. Cassius began. "We are doing a little project."

The class was excited because Mr. Cassius always lets them do fun assignments.

"So, I borrowed these from Mrs. Stockton," he said.

He held up the cup of popsicle sticks.

"I will pick 4 people per group, then I will explain the assignment."

"The first group is Ethan... Lukas... Brandon... and Michael."

Ethan, Lukas, and Brandon looked at each other and celebrated like they won a trip to Disney World.

"Lucky chaps," Chase thought. "Hopefully I have the same luck."

"The next group is Eliana... Ren... Alicia... and Chase."

The three girls celebrated as well, but then realized Chase was in their group and awkwardly looked at him. Brandon gave Chase a wink.

"Looks like you gotta choose!" Brandon mouthed.

Chase then gave Brandon a gesture that very luckily, none of the girls or Mr. Cassius saw it.

Mr. Cassius picked the rest of the groups and gave the guidelines of the project.

"Your group will make a poster, which will include a drawing and a few paragraphs, of a memory that you guys made this year. Use your creativity and emotion while writing the paragraphs explaining what happened. You may start."

The groups began to think of which memory to do. Chase immediately thought back to deathball, but he decided not to bring it up.

"You guys went to the haunted house right?" Ren said.

"Yeah." Chase then realized Ren wasn't there. "Sorry for not inviting you."

"No worries! I had a blast. I mean, after all, I was the ghost that scattered you guys! It was so funny!" Ren would have continued, but once she saw her group mates' expressions, she logically didn't say anything else about it.

"I know!" Eliana said, changing the subject before Chase and Alicia could tear apart Ren, "We could write that memory from two points of view: ours," she says gesturing towards Chase and Alicia, then points at Ren. "And yours!"

Everyone agreed on the plan. Ren wrote her half of the story, while Chase wrote the other. Alicia drew the graphic and Eliana, having nothing to do, found a book on Mr. Cassius' bookshelf and started to read.

"Well," Chase thought, "Some people never change."

When the group finished, they took a step back and looked at the poster.

"Well, what do you think of the drawing?" Alicia asked.

Chase has never seen such a intricate drawing in his life. It showed the haunted house with every detail and sketches of everyone, including a ghost for Ren. The whole group looked at it in amazement. Even Mr. Cassius was speechless.

"Who drew this?" Mr. Cassius questioned.

"It was me," Alicia said shyly.

"Well, you are a very talented young woman! Would you like to help design a poster for the football game next week?"

"I am sorry, but Chase has to help me with band later."

"Oh, really now?" said Mr. Cassius. "Then perhaps you can help with the poster for the -."