Forces of Nature

Better Than A Lollipop

I frowned at him. When had he become so expressive? And how had I missed the moment of transition from constantly moody to there being a few rays of sunshine starting to peek through his dark exterior?

Sitting behind her desk, Miss Clarke addressed us while she dug through piles of paperwork. "Well, I must say I'm pleasantly surprised to see how well you two are coexisting these days." The quirk of her lips left no doubt in my mind she knew we were together. Like, together, together.

"I don't know what brought it about, but I'm hoping nothing happens to change that at any point throughout the year."

Holy malediction, Batman! My happiness threatened to combust in on itself at that comment. She better not have jinxed anything, because I really did see myself with Tyson, well... indefinitely. At least until the end of the school year, so if anything happened in the interim I was totally going to blame her.

"Right," she continued, like she hadn't just tried to rain on my parade.

She flicked open a thin folder with our names scrawled along the top of it, pulling free two separate papers. Also pretty thin. I noticed everyone else's folders were just slightly thicker than ours. Except for Serena and Aidan's of course. They'd conceded defeat over a week ago and had actually asked for a failing grade. Now they sat as far as they could get from each other while remaining in the same room.

"While I'm pleased with the progress you've managed in such a short time frame, I do just want to touch base with you both, and make sure you understand that you still have a long way to go. To put it simply, you've barely brushed the surface."

She returned our drafts to us. Tyson and I remained silent, both of us having already figured this out.

"I need more depth. More history. Hell, more information on your family members would be a great start. What they're like, what family values they hold. A couple of family interviews wouldn't go astray. And neither of you have put down any of your own thoughts, regarding what family means to you. I see a lot of research on different cultural expectations of family, but not a lot of personal input."

I kept my expression purposely blank. But my thoughts were reeling. With my parents gone and my brother (who I refused to contact) in another country, that didn't leave many family members to interview. More like none.

And with Tyson's emancipation, he was facing a few dead ends of his own. Unless he broke his silence and used this as a chance to reconnect.

"The next draft deadline is in a fortnight. I need to see more progress, or I'll be forced to intervene in a way neither of you will like." She clapped her hands together cheerily like she hadn't just threatened our GPAs - again. "Right, get out of here kiddies, and I'll see you next week."

Tyson followed me out of the room, scowling down at his incomplete paper. "Family interviews," he muttered, mostly to himself. "Give me a break."

"I wonder if Courtney counts," I mused, tucking mine into my schoolbag.

We stopped at my locker so I could change out some books and take home the ones I needed for homework.

"You think of her as family?" he asked, his shoulder braced on the locker beside mine.

"Of course." That was a no brainer. No amount of shared blood could change the bond we shared.

"Then I don't see why she wouldn't count. It's your interpretation of family, right?"

I shut the locker slowly, processing his words. He was right. This assignment was about who I considered family. As well as interviewing Courtney, I could interview Mel, too. I smiled; things were starting to look up.