Different but Mostly the Same

Chapter Three

Mr Elms takes a seat at his desk and starts up his laptop. "Now let's see," I look around the classroom trying to guess who I will be working with, "The pairs are; Liam and Jonah, Emma and Harrison, Mia and Alison, Roxanne and Noah, and, Kirsha and Thomas. If you would please move next to your partner." Everybody awkwardly looks around the classroom, "C'mon guys move!"

I am the first to stand, pick up my things and move two rows behind me to sit next to Roxanne. She gives me a quick look before looking straight in front of her to Mr Elms who begins talking again.

"Okay guys, say hello to your new business partner," Roxanne and I look at each other. "Introduce yourselves if you aren't familiar."

"I'm Noah," I say with a slight smile, she stays quiet for a few seconds so like an idiot I add, "and you're Roxanne." I laugh awkwardly, "you already knew that though."

"It's Roxy. Only my mother calls me Roxanne, and I hate her for it," I laugh slightly hoping that her last sentence was supposed to be a little bit humorous. She is dead serious, there was nothing funny about what she just said.

"Right, sorry."

   "Moving on!" Mr Elms yells breaking the tension between Roxy and myself. "For the remainder of the year you and your partner will be planning and hosting fundraising events that will go to a charity of your choice. You will be graded on your ability to pitch each idea to the class and carry out each event. You will need to do a minimum of three events. Now, I must emphasise the word minimum because you can of course do as many as you can manage. In fact, it is a good idea to do more than three, get those brownie points if you know what I'm saying," the teacher gives a cheeky laugh. "It doesn't matter how much money you raise at the end of the school year, you are only being graded on your ability to pitch the ideas and then properly plan and carry out each event."

   I look over at Roxy who seems to have completely tuned out everything the teacher is saying. She has one earphone in and is just sitting there picking at her nails. I'm kind of apprehensive about working with her, she seems a bit intimidating. Maybe if I ask the teacher nicely he will consider putting me with somebody else. She looks like a kid that doesn't like school and won't help out much. The last thing I want is to be working on this assignment all by myself.

"I will go through the details of the task as we move further along but for the last 30 minutes of the lesson how about you and your partner start brainstorming some ideas," Mr Elms takes his attention off the class and shifts it to his laptop.

Surprisingly Roxy turns to me and asks, "what do you want to do?"

"I don't have any ideas at the moment. What do you think?" I ask.

"Um..." just like I thought, she doesn't seem very enthusiastic about this assignment, "we could do a bake sale."

"We should do something original, you know? So when we pitch it to the class they will be blown away," I suggest.

She takes a deep breath, "okay we won't do a bake sale then."

Oh god, that probably sounded really rude, as if I think I have better ideas than her, "no, no, no, I think a bake sale is a solid place to start," I add in the hope that she doesn't take that much offence.

   "Whatever man, just do whatever you think is best. I don't really care anyway," she says blankly. I don't think we'll be friends anytime soon. Why do I always have to say things as if I know what's best. I'm just as clueless as anybody else.

After another 25 minutes of painful silence with Roxy the bell finally rings. I get up and retreat out of the room as quickly as possible. I walk outside of the school building into the courtyard. The weather is nice, comfortably warm but not hot enough to make me sweat at all. I have to admit, it is really nice here. The school yard is a flood of different shade of green. I breathe in the fresh air just as a small breeze swirls around me, the trees rustle.

I don't really want to go home tonight, I'm still annoyed with Liz and what she said about being a happy family. I don't understand how she can be so naïve.

I take a seat in the freshly mowed lawn but just as I'm lowering myself down I here the chattering of about a hundred school kids spilling out of the main school building. My silence is ruined. I don't think I really want to sit out here anymore, not with all the movement around me. Maybe I'll go and grab my phone from my locker to listen to some music.

Just as I grab my phone from inside something or, more likely, somebody taps me on the shoulder. I quickly turn around and am surprised to see Roxy standing there, bag on one shoulder and with a slightly less aggressive look on here face.

"Hey, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I was a bit out of it in class just then," she says. I am confused by her apology.

"No, there's no need to be sorry at all," I say casually, "this whole assignment is a bit overwhelming."

She smiles, "yeah well, if you want to hang out after school we could think of some ideas. Seeing as we wasted the first lesson."

I'm more confused by her offer to hang out than I was by her apology, "sure, sounds good."

"Okay well I'll meet you back here after school then?" She asks.

I nod in response. Roxy then turns on her heels and walks off into the crowd.

I was not expecting that.