Arranged with Prince Charming

Arranged with Prince Charming [8]

Claire took this as a sign to bug me more and started to poke my cheek. She knew that is bugged me, but did she stop? No, she kept going. And she called over her accomplice.

“Leonard, let’s poke her,” she sang in a sing song voice, motioning to Leonard who was talking to a bunch of guys on the football team. He grinned and waltzed over, sitting down next to me and started to poke the other cheek. I swatted both their hands away, a groan emitting.

“Okay class, we have a new assignment!” my teacher grinned, motioning for us to groan. We all loved Mr. Smith; fun loving, hilarious, and great with kids and an amazing teacher. He wasn’t that old either, possibly in his early forties; salty grey-black hair and stunning blue eyes, he was a school favourite, but a little intimidating.

“So, our assignment is going to be Famous Couples Through the ages, and I don’t mind which ones you do. Whether it is Batman and Catwoman or Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, you must create a poster presentation, a three page fact sheet and you must partner up with someone that isn’t in this class and must spend a day in that character. It can be your boyfriend/girlfriend or a friend from another school, its fine with Mr. Brown.” He passed around the criteria and I groaned.

I realised I had no experience with boyfriends in my eighteen years of life. It was like a curse, that when they see my face, they just walk away without a second glance. Did I look ugly? I honestly didn’t think so, with my long blonde hair that reached just past my back and lively hazel eyes, a swimmers body, straight nose, rosy pink lips and high cheek bones. I didn’t think highly of myself, but I didn’t think lowly of myself either.

My friend wouldn’t help me, no; they’d rather get hit by a watermelon then make a fool of themselves. Leonard would have, but he was in my class, so he’d most likely ask some random girl or Dan to help him, and Claire would drag Chet into this by his ears.

I heard someone mutter my name and I looked up, breaking out of my trance. “Emma,” Claire said smiling, “maybe you could ask Calix to help you.” She winked, nudging my side. It wasn’t a bad idea, I thought. Our Principal, Mr. Brown, said it was fine. I nodded at Claire and looked back up at Mr. Smith.

“Now, you will have five weeks to complete this task, fail to do so, and I must remind you all, this is worth 25% of your final grade, so don’t stuff it up and be lazy with it. Effort equals success.” All eyes widened. This is our major History assignment for the year, our last year, and Mr. Smith was going all out. He liked us having fun, and he always said a good assignment is done while having fun, just not too much.

I peeked over at Claire, who was shamelessly texting away while Sir had his back faced to us. She looked up and smirked, her eyes sparkling with amusement. I felt my phone buzz, signalling that I had a new text. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and looked down at the new message from Calix: Good Morning Elizabeth. I stared at the message confused, why was he calling me Elizabeth?

I shook my head and quickly put my phone away, just as the bell rang and everybody sprung to their feet and rushed to the door. I followed suit, shoving Claire on my way out with an annoyed glance as she laughed. As soon as I left the classroom, my body was being squashed between Chet and Destin, who were laughing at my now small form against them.

“Where are we going?” I asked, looking up at the two boys who were squeezing the life out of me. They looked down and smirked, steering us towards the hall. Our drama teacher, Mrs. Walsh, was waiting outside the doors, handing out pieces of paper, giving us rules. We had to be quiet and answer the questions on the sheet.

Once I was seated between Destin and Chet, I felt my phone buzz for the third time since I had walked into the hall. I groaned. It wouldn’t be a surprise that Calix texted me, so I pulled it out of my pocket and read through the messages: