Be My Addiction

6 • Partners

Ethan

Partners? Really? This was just my luck. I slid my attention towards the jock beside me. His name was Eugene Kit Micheals. The quarterback for the football team.

Ugh. 

I took the opportunity to get a good look at him. He had blonde hair that had almost a copper tint to it in this lighting and chocolate brown eyes that reminded me of cocoa powder. He was the type of guy you'd see girls line up to talk to him. He had a nice build and was definitely tall. 

Geeze. He was the quarterback and he was gorgeous?

Wait- What? I didn't just think that. Could guys even be gorgeous? Wasn't that a 'girls only' sort of thing? I must have taken too many pills today because there is no way I would think that if I was in my right mind.

Ignoring my lapse of judgment, I met Eugene's gaze.

He cleared his throat lightly and adjusted in his seat. I probably made him uncomfortable. "So.. partners.." This dude needs an IQ check. He couldn't even form a sentence. 

Rolling my eyes, I pulled out my computer and logged on, pulling up the rubric "apparently so. Do you have any ideas?"

Eugene seemed to have recovered from his moment of shyness, which, to be honest, I'm pretty sure jocks aren't even able to be shy. He cleared his throat "oh yeah... I was thinking maybe we should use a law or theory. Everyone will probably do something that's easily explainable so they would probably use a scientific tool. We would have something different, that way we get creativity points."

I'll admit, the guy's logic wasn't bad. Absentmindedly, I tapped my thumb lightly on the space bar - not enough to push the key down "maybe we should do something involving how kinetic energy is affected by gravity" I commented, glancing his way "or the laws of gravity..?"

Eugene gave a light grin, flashing his perfectly straight and white teeth. "Sounds like a plan"

With that settled, we went to work. Eugene and I formed a basic plan on what we'd do. Our form of presenting would be through a game with balloons and darts. We still had to figure out the technicalities of the game but we focused on gathering basic facts to throw at the people playing as well as the people watching.

We were about half done with class when Eugene started throwing little wads of paper into the hood of my hoodie. I gave him a confused expression "stop." Reaching into my hood, I pulled out the little pieces of paper and set them down. Soon, I went back to writing down facts. 

A wad of paper hit my cheek.

I sent Eugene a sharp look. He was sprawled out in his chair, his posture horrible. He seemed to be tempted to throw another. "Don't you dare."

By now, Mr. Grenell was aware of the two of us. Everyone was writing silently so it was pretty obvious when we were the only ones talking "boys... work." He didn't seem to be the type of teacher to hand out detentions but I didn't want to test him. 

I went back to writing only to get more paper balls thrown at me. For a while, I tried to ignore him.

Eventually my eye started to twitch. This time, the ball of paper landed in my ear, unpleasantly tickling my inner ear. I quickly pulled the paper out of my ear before I slammed my hand down on the table and looked to the jock "what is your problem?" I snapped. 

Eugene seemed shocked by my outburst but quickly rose his voice to defend himself "I was practicing!"

My expression was incredulous "practicing? For what? It's not like we're doing anything involving paper getting jammed up my ear!"

By now, we were disrupting the class. We continue to bicker until Mr. Grenell walked over "BOYS!" His voice boomed. We both looked his way "Unfortunately, because I am unable to currently separate you two, I have no choice but to give you both detention" he said sternly but his voice wasn't harsh. 

The two of us stood there for a moment, shocked. I've never had detention before. I moved to defend myself but Mr. Grenell shook his head "you both will meet me after school, in here when the dismissal bell rings"
Eugene moved to object "Sir, I have football practice"

Mr. Grenell shook his head "I'll just send the coach an email. You both will meet me after school." His voice was firm with finality and he wrote us both detention slips.

I sat down begrudgingly and went back to work, Eugene soon to follow. Glancing around, I saw kids quickly avoiding my gaze. They must have been watching. More unwanted attention. I knew hanging around popular kids would get me in trouble.

Silently, we worked to the bell.