I sat on the floor in front of the bookshelf in my bedroom. The books on my shelf were color-coded, and I had a few figurines scattered across the shelves. I was sitting on a floor pillow Trinity’s mom had gotten me years ago. Pages were scattered in front of me where I had scribbled the contents of my English paper.

I was working on my second draft when the art project crossed my mind. It wasn’t likely at all that I would end up with a guy as my partner, but just in case I had to tell my mom. I began to type out a long explanation of what happened and how the project might work before deleting every word. I sighed and looked at the small lantern lights on the wall across from me.

I clicked the text box on my phone again. Words popped into my head, and I rearranged them in a way that would hopefully prevent my mom from screaming at my teacher or me about my potential partner.

SERENA: Hey mom. I got a partner project for art class. We can’t work on it in class, and I don’t know who my partner is yet. So they might be a boy.

MOM: How do you not know who your partner is? Why would you want to have a boy as your partner?

SERENA: It’s random mom. So it’s not really my choice. I have this class in the morning if you want to go to talk to him.

MOM: No. I’m fine. You need to be careful and do your project where I can see you. Living room and dining room only. I better not see a boy in your room again.

SERENA: Yes ma’am.

MOM: You could’ve waited for me to get home to tell me this. I don’t like it when you text me things.

SERENA: Okay.

I hoped my mom wouldn’t send me any more messages. I wanted to be alone with my paper and my thoughts. I felt a bit relieved that she didn’t ask for my teacher's name. One time I had a group project with two boys. We did all of our work on campus, but my mom still freaked out. She showed up during her lunch break, and my teacher and I got called to the principal's office. She made up some nonsense about how the guys bullied me and made me uncomfortable just so I could switch groups. The principal wasn’t buying it, but he went along anyway, probably to get my crazy mother out of his office. I was sure she would do that again.

I didn’t put Trinity on the list as a possible partner. We would finish early, but it wasn’t like I would be learning anything new about her. It was like putting down a sibling, and that would be cheating.

I put Keirsten as number one since I had only known her for two years. I put another cheerleader on the list that I didn’t know very well and Brandon too. I knew he would work well and I didn’t feel like slacking off. Having him as a partner would be more fair than having Trin. Working with him could be awkward, but at least we’d get the work done.

I hoped to get one of my girls tomorrow. I was sure Trin and Kay had put me on their list. The chances of one of us working together would be higher. I didn’t want to work with Alana. She hated me, and she sucked as a partner. She expected people to do the work for her. As if somebody owed her something for being born.

I finished the second draft of my paper and put all the pages together before clipping them into my binder. I opened the last book I was reading until my mom came home.

* * *

Mr. Brunswick silenced the class. “Everyone, quiet. Brushes down.”

He had us working on watercolor pieces and limited us to three colors. It didn’t matter what it looked like as long as we followed the techniques. Mr. Brunswick waited for everyone to finish putting down their brushes before he spoke again. “Okay students, it’s time to reveal your partners!”

My classmates began to whisper to each other causing a nervous hum in the room. Some girls had their fingers crossed, and some dudes were shaking each other’s shoulders.

Mr. Brunswick unfolded a sheet of paper. “I noticed that Serena was quite popular.”

Laughter is scattered across the room, and Serena’s cheeks turned as red as the Wendy’s sign. She tucked her hands into her sleeves, balling them into fists, and covered her face. Keirsten patted her on the back. The teacher explained that he sorted this with some weird matching mechanism. If the person I chose picked me than I’d most likely be placed with them. If all three of them picked me, then it would be based on who picked me as number one. He finally began to name off partners.

Keirsten and Trinity got placed together. Alana got placed with some guy sitting at a table in the front of the room, and Keith got placed with one of the other cheerleaders.

“Serena. You’ve got the new guy, Brandon.”

Serena nodded. She didn’t seem surprised. “You were my third pick.” She said as if it were a no-brainer and tugged at her sleeves. Keirsten was above me, Trinity wasn’t there at all, and they picked each other as number one.

“I picked you as my first.” The surprise showed on her face this time. She didn’t seem upset, but she did seem worried. “I’m not a bad partner to have.”

“It’s not that.”

Mr. Brunswick ordered us to go back to our watercolor pieces before I could ask her what she was thinking.

“I expect you to figure out how you all will meet after class. I will hand you your assignment sheets when the bell rings. Now, let’s get to work.”

* * *

“So how are we going to do this project stuff?” Keirsten asked as we met each other during lunch.

“I call dibs on my place,” Trinity said, and Brandon groaned. She stuck her tongue out at him, and he poked her shoulder.

“We can work at my place. My mom already said we had to.”

“We have to?” Brandon seemed like he wanted to fight his sister over using their place as a project spot. Nobody had ever been to Keirsten’s place. She seemed pretty satisfied with the idea of working at Trinity and Brandon’s place. She gushed about her awesome mom often, but like me, she didn’t like to talk about her home.

“Yeah.” It was better than not being able to work on the project at all. It was either working at my place or not working at all. I wanted that scholarship. I wasn’t going to piss my mom off and lose my chances.

“Does your mom have to be home?”

“No. But we have to be where she can see us.”

“Ugh. That woman is asking for way too fucking much.” Trinity’s mouth was full of cornbread as she shook her head. “Would she feel better if all four of us worked at your place?”

“Probably.”

“But the assignment sheet says we can’t talk to any outside sources until week three.” Keirsten had the packet flipped open to the page with the criteria for it. “Wouldn’t it be breaking the rules to spend the whole project together?”

All of us nodded together. Trinity rolled her eyes. She didn’t care about breaking rules. “Well if your mom starts being an ass we’ll come over anyway.”

“We’ll be fine.” I doubted we would be, but Keirsten looked terrified of going against the project rules. I didn’t feel like giving her a panic attack over it.

“We’ve gotta do this on our own, anyway, Trin,” Brandon said, and she turned down her lips, but her eyes accepted the decision to not let her barge in. “So, when do you want to start, Serena?”

“We can start today.” We had been given a list of starter questions, and I didn’t mind getting thoseover with. The questions seemed easy enough, and I already knew most of them. They were questions like, ‘Where were you born?’, ‘When’s your birthday?’, ‘Do you like TV?’.s Stupid easy stuff. We didn’t have to make our own list unless we wanted to. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make my own list. It would be nice to get to know him again, but I was afraid of doing that. I was more afraid of him knowing things about me. He’d probably be afraid of me or find me weird. Maybe look at me like I had some boil or something.

“I can’t wait to see how this goes though.” Keirsten clapped her hands together. Her eyes beaming with excitement. “I already have so many ideas. It’s going to be fantastic!”

“You don’t even know me yet to have so many ideas.” Trinity seemed amused by her enthusiasm. Keirsten shook Trin’s shoulder.

“Don’t judge my greatness. I’m already planning to bring some food.”

Trinity looked at her food and then at Keirsten. “Only a little. I don’t want my mom complaining about me getting fat.”

“I got you.” Keirsten winked. This was probably going to be more interesting than exciting. Who knows where this project would take us.