Heather {RICKY BOWEN}

{one and a half}

"the crush"

Mia has never liked group projects, especially if it involved art, but here she was, sitting in the library trying to figure out a way to complete her group art project. 

She had gotten paired with two sophomores for this project, as she is the only freshman in advanced art, and Mia can't help but feel intimidated. 

"I just think a collage of each art style would work better. We can each take a part and work on it and then come together and figure out how to combine them." Tyler, one of her partners, was finishing a rant about how he doesn't have time for an out of school project. 

"But the whole point of the project is to work together to create one flowing art piece that uses a different aspect of each style. It'll look weird if we try to combine it after the work is done. We need to find time to meet outside of school so we can do this together." EJ Caswell, her other partner, glances at Mia, the girl looking away almost immediately, blushing. "What do you think, Mia?"

She has been quiet the entire lunch period, not wanting to overstep her boundaries or make either of the boys mad at her. 

"Well, I agree with EJ. we need to work together in order to create a singular piece of art if we want to get a good grade on it. Mrs. Josar is really good at picking out when students don't put in enough effort, so she'd definitely pick up on the fact we did each part separately." 

EJ smiles at the girl, his eyes lighting up as she blushes even more in response. 

"So it's settled then. We'll create a group chat and I'll text you both later about details for where and when we can all meet, okay?" 

Tyler groans, collecting his things before stomping out of the library. 

"Well, he didn't take that well, huh?"

EJ Laughs, causing Mia to stutter over her words, not realizing she had said the statement loud enough for him to hear. The sound was perfect in Mia's ears, and she memorizes the crinkles next to his eyes as he smiles. 

"Yea, definitely not." He reaches into his pocket, pulling his phone out. "So can I have your number?" 

Mia stutters out her reply, still reeling over the fact she had made EJ laugh. 

The girl has been crushing on EJ ever since that project, the amount of care he put into each piece of art he created was fascinating to Mia. When EJ dropped out of art in his junior year, Mia was upset, not liking that his talent was going to waste as he focused his time on Water Polo and joined a new group of friends.