Bear Heart (Book 2)

Chapter 7

7. New Interactions

It was Friday. My history teacher seemed to drag on and on. Kenai was sitting next to me, almost as bored as I was. My head was on my desk, and I was almost asleep when Kenai kicked me under the desk. I didn’t react. He kicked me again, more eagerly this time. “No, I’m dead.” I mumbled. “Is that so, Ms. Jordan?” A voice bellowed. My head shot up from the desk, only to see Mr. Walker glaring down at me. “Then I’m assuming that you weren’t listening to me as I explained your final project, were you?”

“Yes I was.” I lied, looking him in the eye. “Really? Well then, would you mind summing up what I just said?” I looked around the classroom. Kenai moved his paper so that I could read his notes. I glanced them over quickly from the corner of my eye. “You were talking about . . . how we’re going to have to team up with someone and make a poster board of a modern country,” I said. Mr. Walker narrowed his eyes. “Yes, and what kinds of things are you going to put on the poster board?” I glanced at the paper again. “Their governments, geography, topography, main exports and modern events?” I only read the first three bullets and totally guessed on the last two.

“Not quite, but I suppose you get the gist of it.” Mr. Walker began to walk away. I turned to Kenai, mouthing, “Thanks.” He had a smirk on his faced as he leaned over and whispered, “Sure saved your ass.” I rolled my eyes. “Now,” the teacher announced to the class, “I know that if I let you decide your partners on your own, you’ll only fool around. I don’t care if you are juniors, the majority of you still act like kinder gardeners.” He looked at a few specific people in the room. “So we’ll be drawing partners.” He got up from his desk, holding a paper bag. “Inside this bag, there are the names of the students on this side of the class.” He pointed to the left side of the class, which meant that I would be drawing a name.

He walked down the aisles, each person picking a piece of paper. There were almost no sounds of content from the drawn partners. Mr. Walker came by, and so Kenai and I drew a slip of paper. “Who’d you get?” Kenai asked. I shrugged as I opened the slip of paper. “No!” I groaned, slamming my head onto the desk. “Who is it?” He asked. I groaned again, holding up the slip of paper for him to read. “Who’s he?” I moved my head so that I could see Kenai through my red hair. “The pig that I have a date with this Saturday.”

“If he’s such a pig, why are you going on a date with him?” Kenai sounded annoyed. “Because if not, he won’t leave me alone,” I said, picking my head up. “Dude, that’s harassment. Tell him to fuck off!” He all but yelled. Something didn’t seem right with him. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s nothing I can’t handle,” I told him in a reassuring voice. “Fine, I guess,” he said, dismissing our conversation. “So, who’d you get?” I asked, changing the subject. He opened his slip of paper.

“I got Kate. She’s the pretty British girl we hang out with at lunch, right?” I looked at him, at a bit of a loss. “Uh, yeah,” I told him. Kenai half smiled. “She seems nice.” I nodded. “She is.”

“Get into your teams so I can assign you countries.” Everyone slowly started getting up, but I stayed in my seat. Let Eric figure it out for himself. How was it that almost everyone I knew was in this class with me? At least Darcy wasn’t in it. If I had gotten her, I would have lost it. But I got the next best thing — her brother.

Kenai got up from his seat and walked over to where Kate was. They exchanged their greetings, both of them seemingly happy that they got someone they knew. I was envious. Of course, I would have loved to have been paired up with Kenai, even though it wouldn’t be possible since we sat next to each other, but anyone in this room was better than Eric.

He was so egotistical and narcissistic. He loved himself at an unhealthy amount, and thought that he could have whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. “No” must have been a word unfamiliar to him. He must have been so spoiled as a child. Was he the baby or the first born? Either would have been a reason for him to be so vain and coddled over. I wonder if it’s possible that he and Darcy are twins, since they were in the same grade? They did look a lot alike, but not identical. Maybe fraternal twins.