Better Than Dreams

Project

Sebastian

About a month into school and I was still alive. That was a win in my book. I'd actually learnt my dormmate's name, Timothy, or just Tim. Not that I'd ever be close enough to him to use a nickname. That was fine with me. He apparently had a little sister who was starting grade six. He hadn't said anything about his parents, which was slightly odd. Parental issues, I supposed. At least we had that in common.

My grades were, as always, straight As. Timothy was in a few of my classes. We had Science, Math, and Geography together. 

Mostly, we avoided each other. Sometimes, though, I would look up from my book that I was reading under the table to catch him looking at me, his hazel eyes glazed over. As soon as he noticed me looking back skeptically, an eyebrow raised, he'd quickly avert his eyes back to the worksheet at hand.

I got stared at a lot, for many reasons -though, they were all relatively the same. Oh, there that weirdo who gets good grades without doing anything. How come we have to work for what we get? 

We were in Science, and our teacher, Mr. Delaware was explaining our newest project. Group project. 

"You will be allowed to pick your partners for this project. But please pick someone you'll actually work well with." Mr. D said with a sigh.

I didn't work well with anyone, especially none of these idiots. Maybe if I just stood off to the side and didn't say anything I could get away with a solo project? Worth a try.

"Hey." Nevermind.

I turned in the direction the voice came from and say a short blond boy standing in front of me. He looked nervous.

"Hello."

"I- uh, I was wondering..." Wondering what? Spit it out, kid. God, people sometimes. "I guess I just wanted to know if you wanted to work together?"

Well, that wasn't what I was expecting. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Why?" A simple question, but he looked startled. 

"You're really the only person I know." Know wasn't the word I'd use. "You also seem smart." And there's the truth. People only ever want to be my partner so that thy can sit to the side and let me do all the work. Easy A.

"Seem smart?"

He laughed. Nobody ever laughed at my jokes. Odd.

"Also, you're my roommate. I thought maybe I should at least know something about you." He made it sound like a joke, but I didn't think it really was one.

No way was I going to partner with Blondie. "Fine." What? What had I just said? Oh, god.

My partner's face lit up and he smiled. The smile looked... sincere? It almost made me smile too.

"Really? Uh, great!" Timothy was grinning now, but he was still stammering.

I'd almost never worked with anyone on anything before, so the next hour was quite awkward, but not unbearable. Timothy was reasonably intelligent and had some unique project ideas.

"It's a science fair, so we should do something interesting. Something that the teachers won't expect. What kinds of stuff do you like?" Timothy asked, surprising me. People usually didn't care enough to ask. "Like, what 'fields of science,' as Mr. D says."

"Biochemistry and Necrobiology." Keep your answers short. 

"Cool! Uh, what's Necrobiology? Necro means-"

"Death, yes." And there goes any attempt at any sort of relationship. Timothy's face whitened slightly and his smile began to look slightly strained.

"Ah." Nice going, Sebastian. Great answer. Hey, want to be friends? I'm fifteen too, we go to the same school, and, oh yeah, I want to study death when I grow up!  "That's... interesting. I want to be a doctor when I grow up. My mom is a doctor." He was trying to make small talk, get me to say something about my family. I highly doubted that telling him my parents were dead would contribute well to his opinion of me. He'd probably think I murdered them, with the whole Necrobiology thing. Since when did I care about people's opinions of me? 

"Good for her." Dear god, that was not the right thing to say.

"...Right." Timothy pressed his lips together and finally gave up on conversation. Why did I feel disappointed?

By the end of the class we had a draft for an actually interesting project. (Not about death.) It was some sort of study on the immune system and how viruses of different intensities affect it. I was only half paying attention. Timothy seemed absorbed and looked like he was enjoying the work. It was his field. I was content to, for once, not be the one doing all the work. This might actually work out. 

Timothy was jogging along next to me, trying to keep up, and chattering in my ear all at the same time. I hadn't heard a word he'd said, just nodded and kept my eyes forward.

"-work on it in our dorm, too. We live together, so we can really work on it whenever we want."

"Sure."

I could hear Timothy's smile in his voice as he asked shyly, "Want to go hang out at the library?"

I stopped walking and turned to look at him, unsure. Nobody had ever willingly spent time with me before. Well, that wasn't strictly true, but I hated thinking about him. 

"Alright."

I wasn't sure what this made us. Friends? Not yet. Whatever it was, as nice as it seemed, I would have to be careful about it.

Timothy smiled and began walking down the corridor to the stairs, heading to the library. I hesitated a moment, then followed.