I'll Always See You

Chapter 9 - Why Do Teachers Hate Us

A couple weeks passed without much happening. My grades were solidly above water, my social life hadn't changed a whole lot, and everything was principally still the same. I walked into class on Tuesday and sat down, setting a book on the desktop. The teacher walked in right as I was flipping open to the page we were supposed to be on for that day. He spoke for a little while and I paid as much attention as I could, trying not to let boredom creep in.

"So based off of what we've just talked about, I'm going to have you and a classmate partner up with each other to draft a conjunctive piece for me, due by Monday of next week. Think of it along the lines of a peer review that you're putting together with them. I'm not interested in how well one of you can do, I'm interested in how well you both can work together on something."

You could almost hear the collective groan that had to have been passing throughout the classroom. A few people seemed fine with it, but they already had their eyes on either a significant other or friend they wouldn't have any problem doing it with. I pursed my lips and stared at the pencil I was silently rolling around by my book. Group projects were in no way fun and I had hoped I'd mainly avoid them this year. To no avail, apparently.

"There's an even number of students so I'll be nice and let you all pick your partner instead of assigning them this time," he interjected. Even worse, I thought. He talked for another minute before lapsing his speech and going through papers. I wanted to bang my head against the desk. The last thing that I wanted to do was pick someone, let alone have to do a project with someone. I finally dared to look up, after what was probably only three seconds because I was terrified that if I waited too long I'd get the person that no one wanted to partner up with, probably for a reason.

I glanced around the room for a second and watched people talking. A few people's eyes were still milling around the room with mine but for whatever reason I met Grayson's gaze. My second and only other class with him, he was sitting a row ahead and to the right of me. Maria Paulson waltzed up to the front row and I watched in fascination as she asked him with a sweet smile if he had a partner yet. Her blonde hair fell in perfect waves and she batted long dark lashes. I figured that he'd accept without hesitation. I let my eyes wander around the room again, keeping an ear on their conversation with an idle, probably morbid, interest. You can't even imagine my surprise when he confidently stated that he had a partner already. Looking back over at him, I found him looking over at me again with an eyebrow raised.

I blinked at him a couple of times, realizing he was still looking at me, probably for confirmation. I gave him a slightly bitchy questioning look, silently asking him if he meant me. A barely perceptible single nod on his part and he turned back around, giving the perfect girl a smile that probably bruised her fickle little heart and sent her back to her seat.

I sat through the rest of class thinking about having to do a group project with Grayson, of all people. Maybe it would be better than a stranger, but on the other hand I didn't have a clue if he would even take it seriously. No way in hell would I be doing the whole thing. That's exactly what I told him when class let out, I found him and we started to walk to lunch together.

"There is no way in hell that I'm doing the whole project, if that's what you were thinking back there," I told him bluntly.

He raised an eyebrow at me, looking at me out of the side of his eye and continuing to move forward. "There's no way in hell I was going to let you," he retorted. "You'd probably need an editor anyway."

I bit my tongue. "So you just happened to pick me."

He didn't even look at me this time and it was infuriating. "I just figured you'd want a partner that wasn't some dickhead you'd be stuck with for four days. That's all."