Now & Then (A Newland High School story)

2. Six Months Ago

"Since you all are being louder than usual, you must be excited to get your assignments for Winter Break."

The rest of my Intro to Lit class and I groan in unison. We all knew there was going to be a big project due when we return to school in January—Mr. Rose had been talking about it since September. Not to mention the seniors from last year filling us in on all the details.

"Now you probably know that this is group project..." I try to hide my smirk, looking to my best friend Lexi. Her eyes are already on mine. We'd both read the entire syllabus, not to mention already decided which book would make the best presentation. We were going to kill this project. "...and I will be picking the partners."

"What?!" Lexi blurts out. Mr. Rose looks at her completely unsurprised. She had been known to voice her opinions without permission for the last four years, after all. "That's not fair!"

"Ms. Cooke, when you are no longer in high school, you will not always be able to partner with your friends. This will be a good practice for that."

She huffed, folding her arms across her chest, but stopped complaining. I gave her a reassuring smile.

Mr. Rose picked up a bag from his desk. "All of your names are in here. I will pull them out and whichever names get called together are partners."

He began pulling out tiny pieces of paper and announcing them one by one. I still had hope for Lexi and I until her name was called, partnered with Abbi Lucas.

"Lilly Thompson." My ears perked up, mentally crossing my fingers to avoid the group of delinquents sitting in the back row. I'd end up doing the entire project myself, especially if it was—

"Aric Richards."

This had to be a joke. I glanced back at him, sitting in the center of all the druggies. Practically their leader. I could kiss actually getting any help on this project goodbye.

After all the names were called, Mr. Rose passed out a grading sheet. We would have to give a presentation, complete with visuals, about one of the books we discussed in class this year—including at least one debate topic.

"There will be no slacking off." Mr. Rose's eyes were aimed at my partner, then turned to me. "And I want complete honesty. I'm sure I can count on that from you, Lilly."

I could hear snickering coming from behind and felt my cheeks redden. Could Mr. Rose have called me a goody-two-shoes maybe after class was over?

And it wasn't even true, necessarily. I'd been to my fair share of parties, I'd snuck out after curfew, I'd even been drunk before—not often, but not never either.

But I'd been pretty successful in keeping all of that information from the adults in my life. So in their eyes, I was the model teenager.

Walking to the student parking lot after school, Lexi is telling me about her family's trip to Europe over break. I reach into my backpack to turn my off of silent and see that I have a text.

Unknown: This is Aric. Got your number from some cheerleader chick. I'll be home after school. I want to get this over with

There's another text with an address.

I show my phone to Lexi. "Wow, isn't he pleasant? I'm sorry, Lilly, but I do not envy you."

"I know. It's going to be awful, but I do agree with him on one thing. I want to get this over with."

Once I'm in my car, I call my mom to tell her I won't be home until dinner and put Aric's address into my GPS. He lives on the other side of town from the school, which to be honest is only a ten minute drive.  When the robotic voice tells me I've arrived, I park on the street in front of a small brown house. It's definitely older, but seems to be maintained.