My Bad Boy

Chapter six

We’re smiling like idiots when I feel something suddenly hit the back of my head lightly. I start and almost fall off the stool but thankfully Nick catches my arm before I do. Confused, I rub my head  look down to see what hit me.

On the black table top  a crumpled paper ball starts rolling and almost falls of the edge. Even from here I know it’s what hit me in the head.

I continue to stare at the crumbled lined paper for a moment before my eyes flick to the one person I know who would have enough balls to throw anything at me. Let alone in class. Let alone talking to another person.

Julio is oh so casually whistling a tune under his breath while his hands are folded neatly on top of his own desk.  He looks innocent, but his little act doesn’t fool me. I can tell by the way he’s avoiding looking at me that he threw the paper ball.

I also know he knows I’m looking at him by the way his lips tip up at the corner, almost in a cocky boyish smirk. His eyes are still on the desk when I grab the paper ball and smile a little. Maybe it was childish, but Julio was not going to one up me.

So he thought he could just throw balls around?

Okay, that just sounded wrong, but you get my point.

Nick is now forgotten for the moment as I pick the paper up and unfold it's crinkled layers . Bringing it to the edge, I try to smooth it out as best as I can.

I grab my pencil and  start to sketch a picture messily within the lines . I don’t have to look up to know that Julio is watching my every move. At first I was going to draw a picture of him with the words DICK in dark block letters but I can be more creative than that.

I top my taco drawing with little pencil slashes for lettuce and  make a big show of crumbling it up nice and slow. Unlike him I want to make sure he sees me throw it right at his perfect stupid head.

I tighten my grip on the paper ball and I cock my arm back, steady and even, and Julio looks up in time too see me rocket the paper straight toward his head.

But with my luck, it never makes it.

Did I also mention that I have really bad aim?

Instead of hitting Julio like I planned, it bounces off some other poor kids head that was leaning over the table and hits Mr. Clark straight in the nose as he was in his usual mid lecture. Mr. Clark stops and looks down to where the paper ball is now rolling slowly under a row of cabinets.

I bring my hand to my mouth in shock and a little to keep the laugh from escaping. If I make one sound will totally know it came from my area. I’m still trying to hold in my laugh when I suddenly hear Julio bust out laughing, not even caring about hiding it.

Apparently he didn’t have the same lame hangups as I did.

I glare at him, clearly trying to tell him to shut the hell up when he flashes me that devious little bad boy smile he pulled off so damn well. Mr. Clark glances between Julio and me, examining us under his nose, and then  points a finger at each of us slowly.

Oh great.

He was freaking pointing.

“Since you two seem to be so acquainted with each other, you two will now be partners for the remainder of this project. You have lost the privilege of choosing. So Kim, trade places with Kelsey.”

No one moves for a span of five heart beats and he drops his voice so he can make his point even clearer. “Now.”

“Are you serious?!” I shout maybe a tiny bit too loud and the charming Mr. Clark turns his hard, beady eyes on me.i totally should have kept my mouth shut and just traded places with Kim. I mean It wasn’t like working with Julio would be bad …okay it would.