"Hey Ranger Rick... Ranger Rick... Huckleberry!" I finally hit him. He rapidly started to blink which was a sign of him beginning to focus. "Come on, you know there's a problem when I'm more focused on a project than you are."
The great Tilloway decided that a "fun" project to kickstart our geography class was for us to do a project on places we would like to go and why. Thankfully, she let us do it in partners and I obviously chose Lucas. Projects with him were usually interesting but he's been moody ever since he overheard Riley talking about Justin.
"Is this about Riley and Justin?" As soon as I said the latter, he looked away and I knew the answer to my own question. "You and Riley spent the whole summer talking about how everything is going to change in this place but now that we're actually here and things are actually starting to change you're completely shutting down. It doesn't make any sense."
"I know." He sighed.
"Then I just don't understand-" I noticed Ms. Tilloway walking by and quickly changed the topic, "how Niagara Falls could be in both America and Canada? I mean why couldn't Canada just sell it to us or the other way around. A tourist will never get to fully experience the falls without the hardship of the border." Ms. Tilloway gave me a nod of approval and was once again out of ear shot so I was back on topic, "I just don't understand why you're being like this when you knew things were going to change."
"I just didn't expect things to change this fast. I thought... I don't know, I just thought I had more time but I don't. So we can just focus on the project now, okay?"
He tried opening his textbook but I slammed it shut quickly. "No."
"No?" He asked slowly.
"No. I've been trying to work on this project for the past twenty five minutes. I, out of all people, have been trying but you've been too busy sulking. Clearly the only way we're going to get anything done is when you move on."
"Maya, I'm ready to work. Let's just focus on places to research." I slammed his textbook closed as soon as he tried opening it once again.
"We're friends, right? And as your friend I know this isn't you; however I'm only used to Riley being like this, which is typically because of you." The death stare he gave me showed he clearly was not in the mood for jokes. "Look what I'm trying to say here is I don't know what to do. So you need to tell me what I need to do to help you get over this."
Lucas let out a huge sigh of frustration. "Maya, I'm not doing this right now."
"Then when?"
He glared at me once again but this time I returned the look. It turned into a staring match between us but eventually he gave up. "Just come over tonight and we can actually work on our project."
"And we can talk then?" I asked.
He rolled his eyes but said, "Yes, we can talk then."
"So... my house tonight? My mom's making chicken!" Riley smiled. When she saw my confused reaction she quickly stopped and her voice got desperate. "Please don't make me do this alone. I don't think I can survive this alone."
"As much as I would love to get multiple types of food poisoning all at once, I can't. I'm going over to Lucas' tonight."
She arched her brow and her voice got timid, "You're going to Lucas' house?"
"Yeah, we have a geography project. I told you all about it during lunch," I closed my locker and started walking to the door hoping to end this conversation before it even started. Riley, however, knew exactly what I was doing and made an extra effort to walk at the same pace as me.
