Shadow

Chapter 6

"Hello Riley," I replied coolly.

"Excited to work with me," Riley cooed, "Don't expect to get too much work done."

"I know," I huffed, "I guess I'll be doing most of it?"

"Yup," Riley smiled, "What topic?"

"Weaponry that was used during the war," I replied.

"What?" Riley said, "But I don't know anything about that."

"Not surprised," I rolled my eyes, "I know a few things about it, we should be alright."

"Wow, I like you already," Riley chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Thank you," I sighed, "I'll make the PowerPoint and you can work on the brainstorm."

"Sure," Riley said, stealing a blank piece of paper and a pen from the teacher's desk.

I rolled my eyes and prayed that Riley actually was planning on doing work and not leaving me to do all of it. This mission was enough work, I didn't need school work to distract me from what I was here for. Albeit, from what I remember of my minimal school experience, there was always that one person in the group that did everything.

...

By the time I had completed most of my research, there were only a few minutes left until the end of the lesson. There was still a lot to do though, I had to input my information and Riley's information into the PowerPoint, create a poster on a weapon that was used during the war, write an essay about the use of weapons and also make notes on the whole project. We only had two weeks to complete all that.

"So," Mr Conduit smiled, leaning on the wall next to our desk, "What have you both come up with so far?"

"I've finished my half of the research," I said, showing him my page of notes, which was completely full, "And Riley has finished his own."

"Mr James," Mr Conduit smiled, folding his arms, "Would you mind showing me your notes?"

"Yes," Riley he smirked, slamming a blank page on his desk.

My eyes widened at the white page, with nothing but his name written in the top corner.

"Interesting notes you have," Mr Conduit picked up the empty page and flipped it.

"Thank you," Riley smiled.

Mr Conduit sighed, "I'm sorry, but you both will have to work on this after school at the library, I will be there at 5 to check."

With that, Mr Conduit walked away, leaving Riley fiddling with the page. I picked up the page that Riley had stolen from the teacher's desk and held it up to his face.

"Care to explain?" I raised a brow.

"You couldn't have expected me to actually do something," Riley shrugged, "What makes you think that changing partners is suddenly going to drastically change my work ethic."

"I didn't expect you to change completely," I said, "But I didn't think that this would be your work."

"Raven-"

"I'll see you after school," I hastily packed my bag and stormed out of the class. I didn't know why I was so worked up over his work, this gave me more time to work on him after school, with no one to distract me. That didn't mean that I necessarily had to spend more time with him right now, however.

"Raven," Aidan called, "Wait up."

I stopped and waited for Aidan to catch up.

"Sorry about that," I sighed, remembering the persona that I was meant to portray, "Mr Conduit just told me that I have to stay with Riley after school and help him finish his part of the project."