Differences (l.h.)

3

S o p h i e

It was two weeks into the school year, and we were already getting a project. I mean, who even does that? I'm still not used to being the oldest kids in the school and I have a huge two month project worth half my grade?! At least it was in one of my best classes, History.

"Okay class," Mr. Walker started off. "As you know, you're going to have a project due in two months. It's going to be worth a lot, so make sure you work hard and put a lot of effort into this." The class simultaneously groaned. "The good news is, you will be working in partners."

Me and Allie immediately looked at each other and smirked. Mr. Walker must have seen the look we shared because he looked directly at us and said, "And those partners have already been assigned. You will be partnered up alphabetically, so please get up and get in a line around the perimeter of the room in alphabetical order, by last name."

He then proceeded to go down the line and telling people who they were paired with. "Mr. Ewin and Mr. Finch, you will be partners. Ms. Grey and Mr. Harvey." He said to the people next to me. "Ms. Henderson and Mr. Hemmings." He glanced at the two of us and continued on.

Are you seriously kidding me right now. Of course, the one project we get is in one of the classes I have with this nerd. I looked over at Allie and moved my eyes in Luke's direction to show her who I was partners with. She gave me a sympathetic glance until she realized Mr. Walker was standing over her.

We were told to sit in a desk next to our partners. "Alright class, you have your partnerships. You will get a little class time today and tomorrow, but other than that you will need to complete this project outside of school."

He proceeded to explain the project, where we had to pick a country and do a report on their history and culture. It sounded simple enough.

"Take a few minutes to discuss with your partner ideas for the project." He said and went back to his desk to grade some papers.

I turned to the boy sitting next to me. He was staring at the rubric, pretending to be reading it, but I knew better. He'd been looking at it for the past ten minutes.

"So um, I don't know if you know me or not but I'm Sophie, I think our lockers are next to each other." I said.

He nodded. "Yep, I think so. I'm Luke."

"Okay, so any ideas so far?" I asked, desperately trying to keep the conversation going.

"Not really right now. Do you have any countries in mind?" He said back, avoiding eye contact.

"Nope, but we can think about it and decide later if you want."

"Y-yeah, okay." He nodded.

"What hour do you have lunch? We can go to the library during and maybe work on it later today." I proposed.

"Uhm, fifth hour. What about you?" He replied shakily. I didn't understand why he was so nervous. I was only 5'3" and here was this 6'2" guy afraid of me.

We made plans to meet in the library and the bell rang, signaling the end of first hour. "See ya later, Luke." I waved as I stood up and left.

• • • • •

It was finally time for lunch and I had just explained my situation to Allie. "To be honest, he doesn't even seem that bad. He's just really shy I think," I told her as we walked to my locker.

"Yeah, I guess that could be true." She mused. "Anyways, I'm going to lunch now. Good luck in the library," she winked as she turned around and walked away. I chuckled and made my way to the library.

When I got there, I found Luke sitting at a table by himself trying to read a book. A few guys were whispering in the corner but other than that, it was pretty empty. "Hey Luke," I said quietly so I didn't make the librarian mad.

"Oh, h-hi." He stuttered, putting his book down. "Did you think of a country?" He asked.

"Not really. Did you?" I said, kind of embarrassed that I forgot about the project.

"No," he confessed.

"That's okay, we'll think of one now." I got my textbook out and flipped to the back, where there was a world map. I set it in the middle of us and he craned his head to see. "What do you think?" I whispered, since we were so close.

"Wanna do F-France? It seems easy enough," he replied. I nodded and turned to look at him before realizing how close we were. I could see what color his eyes were, and for some reason it shocked me that they were a pretty shade of blue. I felt heat rising to my cheeks and Luke looked down then leaned back in his chair as I did the same.

"So France it is." I said, looking over to him for confirmation. He nodded quickly. We were just discussing project ideas when I saw something moving towards us out of the corner of my eye. I had barely enough time to look over before a little wadded up piece of paper hit Luke square in the back of the head.

I glared over at the boys in the corner who just kept laughing. "I, uh, I'm gonna go now. We can meet up later about this another time." Luke said while quickly gathering his things.

Before I could protest, Luke was already out the door.

• • • • •

poor lukey :-(