✿ The Splintering ✿

✿ chapter ten ✿

Despite my eyes being wide open I stared blankly at the shiny desk I sat behind. My mind was wandering, as it had for the entirety of the day. If it weren't for the unfortunate bang caused by a small black bird crashing into the window beside my desk, I might've missed the announcement that we would be graded on a group project in Spanish class. Immediately the room erupted into the symphony of chatter about who would be with who. The husky voice of the teacher, Mr. Perez broke through the noise.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you all, but the pairs have been selected already," He mischievously pulled out a messily folded piece of paper. He began reading the names off of the list, and suddenly the chorus of the room turned from excitement to a sense of dread. However once he announced I would be with Turbo, a sense of relief came over me. Mr. Perez passed out a two-sided piece of paper with color coated instructions to assure our success with the given project. The scuffling of feet against the sleek floor echoed through my ears as Turbo came up to the empty seat next to me and sat down.

"It could be worse," He shrugged as he eyed the piece of paper.

"Lucky for you, my mother grew up in Spain so I'm sort of an expert when it comes to traditional cooking," I mumbled back to him. The instruction were simple, film the making of a traditional Spanish meal with your partner, and do all of the explaining in Spanish. Easy, I thought.

"So we should do it at your place?" Turbo crumpled up the paper and tossed it into his unorganized backpack. I watched as he zipped the compartment up, and the small white corners of paper got trapped on the track. It looked as if they too were trying to escape.

"Oh," I nodded slowly. "I guess that would be easy. We probably have most of the ingredients at home,"

"Awesome! How does this weekend work for you?" Turbo pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I have a game on Saturday night but can come in the morning if you want,"

"Yeah whatever works for you," I looked around the room at the other pairs, hit with the sense of security knowing I got placed with the one person I knew. "What do you want to cook?"

"Well, you're the expert aren't you," Turbo chuckled.

"And by expert you're politely saying I'll end up doing all of the work?" I leaned back in my chair and narrowed my eyes at him, He raised his hands in a sort of surrender. A surrender to my stare. A surrender to me.

"I'll have you know that I'm a really good cook and will nail the hell out of this project," He leaned his elbows against the desk and cupped his face. His expression became softer as he pouted out his bottom lip. What was he trying to do? What was he trying to make me feel? Those brown eyes, the color of the world after torrential rain, were dangerous. I couldn't undercover what they hid, and that scared me.

"A teenage boy who knows how to cook?" I scoffed. "When pigs fly."

"You have to have more faith in me, Huck, I'll prove it to you on Saturday," Turbo grinned. Despite my stomach tying itself into knots with the bright glow of his otherworldly smile, I found myself rolling my eyes. Maybe I should've kept the unfortunate nature of my name private? If anyone were to use it against me, it would certainly be the freakishly charming football player I got partnered with. Middle school me would be dying with the cliches, but I just wanted to get it over with. His confident aura and charming speech reminded me too much of my brother and his athletic friends. I didn't want to blame him or use this fact against Turbo. He couldn't help it if he reminded me of my dead brother. But something inside of me felt angry. The deafening blare of the period alarm rang throughout the halls and I fumbled out of my chair and tossed my bag over my shoulder.

"I'll see you Saturday," I quickly spun around and headed for the door.

"Woah woah woah. I need your number, Juniper. What's the hurry?" He slowly glided across the floor towards me and handed me his phone. It was already open to creating a new contact. I typed it in quickly and handed it back to him.