Typewriters {A.I.- AU}

All The Ways You Let Me Down - Edited

Counting the seconds on the clock in the front of her classroom was how Macy lasted through Mr. McClain's unbearably one-sided discussions with himself. No one in the class wanted anything to do with the discussions because they weren't allowed to have an opinion about the readings unless there was a test coming up.

Macy, who was probably the least interested in the class itself, was surprised to hear her name being called. Last time she checked, she had already been in homeroom earlier that morning.

"I know this is a hard decision, but I didn't think it would be this hard." Mr. McClain had that sarcastically patronizing tone to his voice that he always gets when he was about to degrade some poor, unassuming student's confidence.

Macy heard stifled laughs all around her, making her increasingly uncomfortable. It's not like she could play off her inattention to the teacher and make a joke about it. She wasn't ashamed that she hadn't been paying attention. She was ashamed that she got caught. 

"Sure." She said, still not knowing what in the world she was agreeing to.

"Wonderful. I'm sure Mr. Clifford will benefit from this experience as much as you will." He said before returning back to "teaching" ((if that's what you want to call it)). 

Macy returned to counting down the seconds she had left sitting in this building while ignoring the mentions of "Groups with no more than 2" and "Due in 3 weeks" right before the last bell sounded for the weekend.

While everyone in the hallway around her was concerned with meeting up with their friends to make plans for the weekend, Macy was focusing on avoiding confrontation as she weaved through everyone in her way. This consumed so much of her attention that she failed to notice the boy walking next to her.

She failed to notice him up until the point where he leaned against the locker next to hers, which she knew, for a fact, wasn't his because 1. She had never seen him before at that locker and 2. He made no attempt to actually do anything but lean on the locker. It would've been a clean getaway for the weekend if he hadn't been there. 

"So," Michael said, making Macy snap her locker closed accidentally. She opened it again, slowly and awkwardly. "When are we going to start this project?"

"What are you talking about?" Macy was still clueless about what he was mentioning because she didn't pay close enough attention at the end of class to what the assignment due in 3 weeks actually was. She figured that she would just ask the class genius on Monday. She still had time to do whatever it was. 

"The essay. The one we've been paired together to do. The fictional story?" He gave her a look that borderlined judgment on his part. He had no right to be judging her for not listening, though. He seemed just as clueless about the whole thing. 

Macy took out a few folders from her locker and slammed it shut. When she turned to look at him, she realized how tan and rested he looked, contrasting her dark under eye circles and constant feeling of wanting to go to sleep at that exact moment. They weren't even that far into the school year and she already felt too tired to continue.

"Oh. Um... I guess I'll write the story and you can read it before I turn it in. I can put both of our names on the top of the paper." She said, adjusting her backpack on her shoulders. It was far too heavy to actually wear comfortably and typically gave her sharp shoulder pain most of the time but she wasn't one to complain. She would be out of here soon enough.

Michael considered her proposal while she looked down at her shoes. She had a very bad habit of doing this to avoid having to be uncomfortable looking at people.

"Where's the fun in that?" He finally replied, making Macy let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Well, I work better alone. And you wouldn't have to worry about meeting me to work on it. It's a win-win, when you think about it."

"How about I make it easy for you. I'll write down my number and you can just call me when you want to work on it. I can basically meet you anywhere."

Michael dropped his backpack on the ground to look for a piece of paper to match the pen that he pulled from his pocket.

With every passing moment, she watched a few players from the baseball team get closer to her in the hallway until they reached the point of no return. She thought about all the ways she could pretend like she didn't see them, but the only one she could think of was looking at Michael, who already seemed a little bit too eager to be talking to her.

"FOUND IT." Michael said, grabbing a piece of gum from the wrapper. He held the wrapper in the air like it was an awards trophy. He started writing on the wrapper while Macy tried to avoid looking at his hair. She wanted to ask how he colored it without the principal suspending him, but she thought that was a little bit too personal.

Instead, Macy found herself looking at Ashton Irwin, who happened to be looking at her as he walked past. He gave her a small smile and waved in her direction. Instead of waving back, she looked around to see if there were possibly any other girls that he could be waving at, only to realize the only two people in this portion of the hall were her and Michael.

He could've been waving at Michael, but that was unlikely. Possible. But unlikely. She couldn't possibly know if they were friends but Michael was busy so it all came back to her.

"Here. Call me, tweet me, if you want to reach me." Michael smiled at his own clever pun while he handed Macy the piece of gum wrapper. She took the time to look over it while he zipped his backpack.

She saw the message he wrote on the back of the wrapper, trying to figure out how to respond:
Glad to see you and me are partners.

"Your grammar sucks." She said, without thinking about it. She regretted saying yes already and it could only get worse as the project went on.

"That's why we're going to work good together." Michael called over his shoulder while he walked towards the door.

"Well." Macy said, under her breath. "We're going to work well together."

{A.N.}

Edited: 1-22-19

Mikey's getting married and that's so exciting omg.