Project Popularity

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Luke Archer

“Okay. I’m going to give you ten minutes to let you get to know your partners a bit. The project is due in two weeks so you better get to work quickly.”

I clenched my teeth together when Mr. Borelli cheerfully told us to get to discussing. It was one thing to sit at the same lunch table as Summer but a wholly other thing to be working on the same project with her. I knew there was a reason why I had always disliked this class: the teacher was a complete idiot. I mean, assigning Summer as my partner?  Was he trying to start World War III?

“Luke?” Jamie whispered, a frown creasing her forehead. “What are you going to do?”

I didn’t know how to answer her. There was nothing that I wanted more than to march up to the teacher and demand him to let me switch partners but I also didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and become the laughing stock of the entire school. Summer would enjoy it too much. Besides, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just me getting paired up with my cheating ex-girlfriend for a project that accounted for sixty percent of our semester grade. No big deal at all.

Yeah, right.

“I guess we’re partners, Luke.”

Scowling, I looked up to find Summer standing beside my desk with a fake, too-sweet smile plastered on her face, the annoying click-clacking sound of her high heel stilettos finally coming to an end. Who the hell wears heels that were at least five inches tall to school?

“You’re kidding, right?” I inquired with a dry chuckle.

I guess she wasn’t since the next thing she did was to take the seat in front of mine, crossing her legs and twisting her body around to face me. Ignoring the death signal that I was sending her with my eyes, she put her elbows on my desk. “Trust me, I’m not exactly happy about this arrangement, but I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

She sounded so pleased and unfazed that I wanted to strangle her.

“Whatever,” I huffed, wishing she would just shut up. Leaning farther back on my chair, I looked away from the obnoxious creature in front of me and searched for Jamie, finding her sitting in the front of the classroom with Paul. It seemed to me that they were actually discussing the project unlike the rest of us, as Jamie had her notebook out with a pencil in her hand and Paul was nodding at everything she was saying. Quite a weird combination. I don’t think I’d ever seen the two of them speaking to each other before.

“Don’t you think this project is a waste of our time?”

I peeled my eyes off Paul and Jamie when Summer spoke in that mellifluous yet repugnant voice of hers.

“You can always drop out of the class,” I suggested hopefully.

She sighed with resignation and rubbed her hands together, her blue eyes boring straight into mine. “Luke, I’m trying here. I want us to be friends.”

She had to be kidding me. After cheating on me with my best friend, she wanted us to be friends? Was she freaking mental? The worst part was she actually sounded genuine, though you could never know with Summer since she was an exceptional actress.