Jake

2. Project

As they walked out of the school at the end of the day, Jake said, "I can't believe we got paired up for that art project. Isn't that crazy? Our lockers are next to each other and we get paired up on a project on your first day. I think that means something, I just don't know what yet."

She shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess it is kind of weird. Speaking of that project, when did he say it was due? I don't remember."

"Two days from now."

Her eyes widened behind her glasses.  "Two days! We'd better get on it, then. When are you free?"

"Right now. You?"

"Same."

"My house?"

She nodded.

He smiled, "Alright, let's go."

They walked past her house as she said, "So, it supposed to be a collage of stuff we like? Just that?"

"Yup."

"Well, that shouldn't be hard."

They walked towards a big house and Jake pulled a few keys out of his right pocket. As he unlocked the front door, she looked around. There were a few bushes around the house, but not many. The house was made out of brown bricks and had a mail slot in the door. He got the door open and he motioned for her to go in before him. She walked in and stood out of the way of the door. As he closed the door, she stood there, admiring the inside of the house. It was a pretty normal looking house. Living room, staircase, kitchen, the works.

He said, "Welcome to the Short residence."

"Jake Short, huh?"

He nodded. "It fits, right?" he said referring to his height. He was just barely taller than her. He had to be about 5'4. "My dad says that I should be having an insane growth spurt soon. And that 'we Shorts are very late bloomers'. I feel like it's weird that I don't really believe him."

He started going up the stairs as he said, "Anyway, follow me." She walked up the stairs behind him and made their way to a yellowish room all the way at the end of the hall and to the right. There was a full size bed in a brown frame with neutral colored sheets and on the other side of the room was a desk and laptop with a rolling chair in front of it. There were lots of things in all the shelves including a couple stuffed animals, a flowerpot and a couple textbooks. He went over to a window on the right side of the desk and grabbed a chair.

He placed it next to his desk chair and said, "You can sit here." As she walked to the chair, he went to one of the shelves and rummaged through some books before grabbing out a blue notebook. She sat down and put her backpack on her lap, pulling out a pen, a pencil, and her purple notebook.

He sat down as she put her backpack on the floor next to her. She turned around, about to say something, but when she turned, she saw Jake with a small smile on his face, looking back at her. Her heart started beating a little harder.

She ignored it and started opening her notebook as she said, "Um, I think we should each make a list of things we like, then we can just work from there. What do you think?"

"Sounds good. Can you hand me that pen?" She grabbed the pen from next to her arm and tried to give it to him, but she ended up dropping it. She bent down to pick it up, but he did too and their heads collided.

They both said, "Ow!"

Sophia said, "Sorry."

They both had their hands on their heads as Jake said, "Come on. I'll go get some ice."

She followed him down the stairs and into the kitchen. He grabbed out a big bag of ice and a few towels.

Footsteps were heard coming down the stairs towards them as someone yelled, "Jake, are you okay? What happened?" A woman came down to where they were and said, "Um, Jake, who's this?"

He looked at Sophia, then the woman, and said, "Mom, this is Sophia. We're doing a project together." She smiled.

"Oh. Hi, Sophia. It's nice to meet you."

She smiled back.  "It's nice to meet you too."

Jake's mother looked back at him and said, "You know the rules."

"Mom!"

She lifted her hands up and said, "Just making sure," before she left.

"What was that all about?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. My mom just has rules about how to act and stuff when 'females' are here." He made finger quotes.

She nodded.  "Oh. I see. My mom has the same thing for when 'males' are over. Even though no one ever comes over."

He said, "I guess it's like parents' code or something."

She laughed a little and said, "I guess so."

"Oh. Here's your ice." He handed her a small towel filled with about 5 large ice cubes.

She said, "Thanks," and held it on her head.

He got himself an ice towel and sat on the counter.

She sat next to him and he said, "We have to stop hurting each other like that."

She said, "I know. We're like, accident-prone together or something."

He laughed, then said, "Well, we'd better get back to that project. We only have two days."

She nodded. "Yeah, alright."

He got a bowl and said, "For when our ice starts to melt."

She nodded and they made their way back into his room.