The Party Scene (Alex Gaskarth)

1.

I fixed my glasses and started into the head of the boy sitting in front of me, sighing deeply. Completely tuning out my teacher, I scanned my eyes and stared at all my peers, who were listening to the boring talk about poetry.

"You will be assigned a partner, and the two of you will have until the end of October to complete it, which means you have a month. I will let you meet with your partners until the end of the period, and you will not have class time to complete this."

My head snapped up as the teacher gave rules about the project; how we have to write a poem with our partner and recite it in front of the class.

I locked eyes with my best friend Sky, and she smirked. It was that thing friends do, when they indicate wanting to be partners with each other.

"Now I will be choosing the partners, so everyone come to the front of the room and form two lines of boys and girls," the teacher said, motioning for the class to come up to the front of the room.

Everyone groaned, and I made my way out of my chair, keeping my head down as I forced my Converse-clad feet to move forward.

I stood behind Sky and she sighed.

"Welp. That sucks," she muttered to me. I rolled my eyes and a grin made its way onto my face.

"You only wanted to be partners with me because you know I write in my free time and you know my average in this class is a 98. So much for using a friend," I retorted, grinning.  Sky shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not."

The teacher started pairing people up randomly, and got to me.

"Hmm, Arzalia Rose, I think you would work well with Alexander over there," she said, pointing to a boy at the end of the line.

His chestnut, shaggy hair fell right over his somewhat adorable face. He sported a shark tooth necklace, a black t-shirt and baggy jeans.

"Uh, what?" he grumbled, looking up from the ground. I mentally face palmed, and gave the teacher a pleading look. Even though it was only week 3 of school, we'd already had 2 quizzes and a unit test in this class and she knows how much I dedicate my time to getting good grades. She can't just give me a partner like Alex, could she?

Could she?

She nodded her head over to where he stood, and I slouched my way over to the boy who had a pretty well known record at this school.

He's in a band, All Time Low, I think it's called. A lot of people in our school go and see them at local bars and they're the talk of Dulaney High sometimes. Alex and his friends have a record of partying, and I'm pretty sure he has no intentions to get this project done, or to take it seriously. He doesn't actually care about school, his dream is clearly to be a rockstar and I'm pretty positive he doesn't wanna go to college, let alone he probably doesn't even know any colleges in the area. The question is, why is he in AP English?

I took a seat at a table and he sat next to me.

"You're hot. I-uh, I mean...." he stammered over his words, a blush creeping onto his face. I sent him a disgusted look and he shook his head quickly.

"N-no! I didn't mean for that to slip-- ugh. You probably hate me now," Alex muttered, looking at the paper we got that described the project. I sighed, already pissed.

"Let's finish this as quick as we can, please," I grumbled, putting my head in my hands. He read over the sheet and looked up to me, smiling.

"I wanna see if we can turn the poem into a song."

I scoffed and looked away.

Classic Alex Gaskarth. Everything has to revolve around music.

"I don't know, she said we have to present it in front of the class. I can't really play an instrument or anything," I mumbled, trying to stay as polite as I could. Alex shook his head.

"That can't be true, everyone can do something!"

I rolled my eyes and we went over brief ideas before the bell rang. I stood up and grabbed my backpack, making a mad dash for the door, when someone grabbed my shoulder and pulled me backwards.

"Wait- Arzalia!" Alex called. I tuned to face him, a scowl present on my features.

"We're allowed to make it a song. I just asked the teacher. If you want to, that is. That's really how I write any form of poetry, I guess," he said, scratching his neck awkwardly.

I groaned inwardly and shrugged, looking down and pushing my glasses back up, still trying to be polite even though he disgusted me. I mean, he isn't that disgusting. At least he's trying to be nice, and trying to contribute.

Right?

"Whatever floats your boat," I mumbled. He smiled.

"Great! I was wondering actually...uh... my band is having practice tonight from 6-8, would you maybe wanna stop by and watch? Usually we only play for a little bit, and we can get to know each other better! My band mates are cool, you'll love them. What do you say?" he asked hopefully.

I was about to say yes while I admired his adorable smile, the way his eyes crinkled, the way his teeth shone, his--- Arzalia. Stop.

I thought back to the first thing he's said to me all year, which happened to be 10 minutes ago.

"You're hot."

I shut down the idea, giving him a fake smile.

"Oh, uh, sorry. I'm busy tonight. I-uh, have a ton of homework and my brother has a baseball game."

His face dropped, but he gave me a tiny grin anyways.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow."

He walked away, leaving me to stare at his disappearing figure.

How did I get stuck being partners with him?

A/N: So it's here!! I know if you read my other story, Adopted by All Time Low, you've already read this, but, I'll have chapter 2 out tonight!! Thanks for all the support on my last book, and prepare yourselves for mass cringey high school ATL!