𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

9│THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CORY ( AND JACK )

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At lunch, Jack approached their usual table to find Juliet already sitting down. He set his tray carefully next to her and took the unoccupied seat. "Hey."

"Hi," she answered. Her gaze stayed focused on her lunch.

"Um, about Saturday—"

"Feeny's project?" she guessed.

Jack stared at her in surprise. "How'd you know?"

The redhead finally turned to look at him and rolled her eyes. "I have him as a teacher too, y'know."

"Right. Well, I'm going to work on it Saturday with my partner—"

"But I thought we had plans?" the girl said, frowning slightly (not that she would mind the cancellation.)

The boy sighed exasperatedly. "That's why I'm telling you, so you know they're cancelled."

"Oh," she tried to feel some sort of disappointment but came up empty. "Well, I guess I could just ask Shawn to come over so we can get started working on it."

"Hunter's your partner?" the blond asked with a disbelieving snort.

"Yeah, so? Is there something you'd like to say?"

"He's not going to be of much help, is he?"

She ignored the dryness of his tone. "It'll work out. Besides, I'm used to doing most of the project."

The boy eyed her suspiciously. "This isn't you trying to make me jealous is it?"

Juliet stopped chewing to give him a blank look. "Uh, no?"

"Libby Harper's my partner," he informed her. She tried to feel bothered by it (really, she did) but she just shrugged.

"Good for you." She swallowed back the retort she would've liked to say: two blonds on a project? Good luck getting an A— but she knew Jack was smarter than most 'dumb blonde' quips showed.

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Jack stopped and stared as Cory met him on the front step of Missy's house. "Matthews?"

"Jack?"

"What are you doing here?" the two boys asked at the same time. They gave each other awkward smiles.

"I'm here for the party," Cory said.

"I'm here to work on a project," Jack explained.

They both shrugged and entered the house and headed down to the basement where Libby greeted them. "Hi guys."

Jack frowned. "Are we dividing and conquering on this project or something?"

"No, it's for a different project," Missy answered.

"Is this for the health class project then?" Cory asked.

"In a way," Libby said.

The curly-haired boy laughed nervously. "Come on. What's going on? Why's Jack here?"

"Jack's my partner," Libby explained as she smiled charmingly at him. "Hopefully in more ways than one."

"That's right. I'm hoping you'll be my partner too, Cory," Missy said to the other boy.

Libby was pretty and she did have nice blue eyes, Jack thought. The words that came out of his mouth were: "you take Missy, I'll take Libby."

"No, no, I have a girlfriend. You have girlfriend. She's my best friend. Juliet Capelwood, remember?"