Her

05

PHOENIX

Monday. English class.

"... And you will be working in pairs which I have put together."

Mr Foster starts reading the list with pairs out loud, and I'm pretty sure I know who I will end up having to work with. I cross my fingers and hope that I am wrong.

"Connor and Jamie. Lucas and Antonio. Melanie and..."

Eventually, he comes to the end of his list. There are four girls left, two of them being Aza and me. I don't particularly like the other two students, but still, I'd rather work with one of them than with Aza, mainly because she annoys me, but also because I don't think she wants to work with me. So of course Mr Foster says, "Amara and Lindsey. And Phoenix, you will work with -"

"No way."

Laughter. Aza has just spoken her thoughts out loud and basically told the entire class that she doesn't want to work with me. I feel a small sting inside my chest.

"Aza." Mr Foster smiles at her. "Is there a problem?"

"Yeah, there is. I don't want to work with the prin- with... Phoenix." It's the first time I hear her using my real name. She says it in a way that actually makes me wish she would have said princess instead.

"Let's discuss this after class, all right?"

"Fine. But just so you know, I don't want to work with her."

There it is again: the small sting inside my chest. The person I least want to work with is Aza. Yet I'm all right with it. I would never tell everyone how much I don't want to work with her, like she just did. Why does she have to be like this? Why does she have to humiliate me in front of everyone? And why does it hurt? I'm used to people disliking me. I don't have a real problem with it since I usually don't exactly do and say the right things to make them like me. So why does it bother me that Aza is being mean to me?

The lesson ends, and Aza and I stay behind to talk with Mr Foster.

"I don't want to work with her," Aza says.

I look at her. She doesn't look at me. I wonder what her reasons are for not wanting to work with me.

"Yes, Aza, I know. You made that very clear. But what about you, Phoenix?" He looks at me. I look back at him, saying, "If possible, I'd prefer to work with someone else."

"Great! So we both don't want to work with each other. So we won't, will we, Mr Foster?"

"Hold on, Aza. I don't really see the issue here. Why exactly don't you two want to work together?"

I see Aza opening her mouth. I'm sure she's about to say it's because she hates me or something, and since that would be the least convincing point possible, I say, "I just don't feel very comfortable working with her. She's new at this school, and I'm not sure they had the same expectations regarding group projects at her old school. I don't want to mess up my grade by working with someone who's unfamiliar with our grading system."

"Mess up your grade? Please, if someone messes something up, it surely will be you."

"Aza." Mr Foster shoots her a warning look. "Look, Phoenix. I understand your concern. However, I can assure you that they took grades just as serious at Aza's old school as they do at our school." He sees the look on my face and adds, "And well, if you need to know, you two actually make a perfect match when looking at your grades."