I didn't make this story.
Im just sharing it with you cause i think its wonderful.
Its written by xladolcevita72
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I stifled a yawn, trying but failing to appear even remotely interested in what my English teacher was currently droning on about. It was only the third week of school, and I was already counting down the days until summer.
A light cough sounded at the desk next to mine.
Glancing over, I saw my best friend Natasha sitting upright in her seat. She brushed some of her waist-length blonde ringlets out of her eyes casually, before subtly pushing a neatly folded square of paper across the floor with her knee-high-boot-clad toe.
I kept my eyes on my teacher, watching to make sure he didn’t look over at me, as I slowly reached my foot out to the center of the aisle. I felt the note slide under my toe, and I gently pulled it over to me. Pretending that I dropped my pencil, I bent down and retrieved the paper from the floor. I glanced over at Natasha and grinned.
She grinned back.
I slowly unfolded the note, and began reading the neat letters that were printed in soft pencil on it:
Get prepared to puke. Last row, furthest to the right.
Scratching my nose, I let my eyes travel all the way across the classroom to the very back.
Aubrey Woods, your stereotypical head cheerleader (and most popular girl in the school), was sitting there in a blue jean miniskirt and a pink cami. She was giggling obnoxiously, and her hand was resting on her boyfriend’s arm.
He slyly wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned in towards her, whispering something in her ear.
I rolled my eyes, before bending down and scribbling out a response to Natasha’s note:
Gross. Still can’t believe that arrogant asshole is here for the year. Whatever happened to homeschooling? The kid’s rich enough for it.
Natasha grinned as she read what I had written. She quickly replied:
Got that right. Remind me why your cousin is best friends with him again?
That was something I found myself constantly wondering. Why Ryan Butler, my dear cousin, chose to be best friends with douchebags like Justin Bieber and Chaz Somers was beyond me. I’d only met Justin a few times before he went off and got his big break in the music industry over in the United States, and, though I never exactly got to know him, he had never seemed that special to me, regardless of what the world seems to think now. Now that he was famous, though, his ego had inflated tenfold, and his attitude had gotten increasingly worse.
It seemed fitting that he and Chaz would be friends. Chaz, after all, was a huge player - he was full of himself, and made it his priority to sleep with as many girls as possible.
Justin, similarly, walked around like he was king of the universe, and he shared the obsession with girls.
It was perhaps this player-like attitude and ridiculously enormous ego that had attracted Aubrey Woods to him. As the most popular girl in school, Aubrey was, to say the least, very conceited, and rumor had it she had a number of notches on her bedpost so high, one’s grandma would faint just hearing about it. In other words, she was not only the most popular girl in school, she was the school slut.
And so, it came as no surprise to anybody that not even a week into the school year, Justin Bieber, the superstar who had returned to Stratford Secondary School to complete Grade 12 as a normal student, had almost instantly hooked up with Aubrey Woods - and soon after, the two were officially the newest “it” couple.
Let’s just say that Ryan and Chaz, as star hockey players on Stratford Secondary’s team, are two of the most popular guys at school. As their best friend (and world’s most popular teenager), Justin immediately joined the popular crowd the instant he returned to school three weeks ago. Aubrey and her two cheerleader best friends, Elise Iman and Christina Palamara, reign alongside Ryan, Chaz, and Justin, as the most popular girls.
Natasha and me, though related to the popular crowd due to my connection as Ryan’s cousin, have never been popular. It’s not that we’re weird or unpopular, exactly, we’ve just never been popular. With the exception of Ryan, that crowd has never liked us.
Not that we’ve minded.
Natasha despises the notion of popularity with a passion. She feels that the guys in the group are nothing but Neanderthal jocks, and the girls are plastic, superficial sluts.
It wouldn’t be completely irrational to agree with her. Her observations are, for the most part, veritable. The popular crowd at Stratford Secondary are generally a large group of bigheaded athletes who feel they’re superior to everyone else at the school.
n: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica;"> And while going out and getting wasted every weekend and dealing with some form of new drama weekly is their idea of fun, Natasha and I choose to spend our time doing things we’ll actually remember the next day - and hey, we don’t mind living drama-free lives.
I shot Justin and Aubrey another glare, inwardly scowling. I was slightly frustrated that the teacher wasn’t saying anything to them, because their whispering and laughing was getting continuously louder.
God, I hated them.
If it weren’t for the fact that Aubrey was always a total bitch to me, and that Justin was just an ass in general, maybe I’d be impartial towards them.
Maybe.
I still don’t understand why Justin had to come back. He’s this hotshot superstar, known all over the world for his raspy voice, iconic flirting, attraction to cougars, and perfect hair. He made millions, had everything he wanted, and maintained an extremely successful musical career. Sure, the kid was seventeen, and thus hadn’t graduated secondary school yet. But he’d been homeschooled for the past three years. Why would he suddenly decide he wanted to come back to school in Stratford?
‘He just wants to graduate with his friends, and go to school like a normal kid.’
That’s what people were saying.
But it was still annoying.
I’d never actually gone to school with him. I’d never gone to the same school as Ryan (and, subsequently, Justin) until we got to secondary school, and by that time, Justin had gone off to Atlanta in pursuit of his dreams.
I had hoped he would go and never look back.
Well, so much for that.
I don’t really know why, I’ve just never really liked the kid. Every time I’d met him when he was with Ryan, he came across as a douchey, uninterested jerk.
And dealing with him on a daily basis for the past three weeks had only further confirmed that.
The only reassuring fact about the entire situation was that he felt the same way towards me that I felt towards him; we both strongly disliked each other.
It was probably the fact that Natasha and I so openly resented him and the rest of the people in his group of friends (besides Ryan) that made him dislike me. But regardless, I didn’t really care.
A loud clapping noise came from the front of the room, and I jumped, coming slightly out of my reverie.
My teacher, Mr. Reymer, had just clapped his hands together, and his eyes were sweeping the room.
“Guys. Seriously? Wake up.” He called.
I glanced around. The entire class seemed to have been caught in a trance, just like I had.
“You’re all gonna wanna pay attention to this.” Mr. Reymer said sternly. “I’m gonna take this time to present your first major project of the term.”
A resounding groan sounded throughout the room.
Everyone was now wide awake due to this unfortunate bit of news.
Mr. Reymer smiled grimly at us. “Sorry, guys. I know you’re all the big shots at school now, being Grade 12s, and I know this is your last year, and you were hoping for a break, but you still gotta work hard and prepare yourselves for university next year. This is an advanced class, so you guys are going to have to still apply yourselves.
“Now, the project I am about to assign you will be the biggest project you’ll have all term. In fact, it will account for fifteen percent of your final grade.”
Everyone groaned again.
“That’s right.” Mr. Reymer said, smiling in a seemingly pleased fashion. “This is a big deal. It will be an intensive research project on specific pieces of literature and their roles in Canadian, American, and international cultures and societies. The project itself will be a PowerPoint presentation involving additional visual aids that will be due at the very end of the semester.
“I will be assigning you partners. We will be working on the project in class at certain times throughout the term, but it is expected and required for you and your partner to meet outside of school to work on it as well. Specific evaluations will be sent out to ensure that both partners are doing equal amounts of work.
“At the end of the term, you and your partner will give a ten-minute presentation to the class about your assigned topic, and I will grade accordingly.”
I exchanged thoroughly irritated glances with Natasha. Was this guy serious? This project sounded huge, and not in the least bit interesting.
I guess all I could hope for was that I got paired up with Natasha. As the only friend of mine in the class, she was the only person I could guarantee would work well with me.
And since I had hopes to get into McGill University, one of the most prestigious universities in Canada, I needed to ensure I got the best marks possible on this project.
“Today, I will be assigning you partners, as well as distributing rubrics for the project.” Mr. Reymer was saying.
Exhaling, I straightened up in my seat, holding my pencil in front of me with one hand, and nervously crossing my fingers with the other.
“I know it’s been three weeks, but I still don’t really know all of you too well yet. Therefore, I wasn’t able to partner you with people who I knew you’d work well with. Thus, all of the partner assignments are random.
“However, though they are random, they are also permanent. There is absolutely no way to change your partner, regardless of whether or not they’re your mortal enemy. In life, you’re not always gonna get to choose who you work with, and many times, you’ll be faced with situations where you’re forced to learn how to deal with people you don’t necessarily get along with. So this could very well serve as a good life lesson to you all. However, bottom line is: the person I say is your partner is your partner. No exceptions.”
Mr. Reymer cleared his throat, retrieving a paper off of his desk, while Natasha and I exchanged nervous glances.
He straightened the paper in front of him, and peered closely at it, before he began speaking again:
“Alright, here’s who you will be partnered with for this project. Remember that working on the project outside of class is required, and you’ll need to work out independently when you and your partner will get together. Like I said before, I will be checking to make sure you’re working together, and that each person is doing the same amount of work.”
He cleared his throat again.
“Okay, first group: Michaela Andrews with Nolan Ryan.”
There was a pause while Michaela and Nolan glanced at each other, giving each other the thumbs up. They were good friends.
“Trey Bennett and Kendra Chrysler.”
I let my eyes flicker around the room. Natasha was perched on the edge of her seat, chewing her nails in a nervous frenzy.
Aubrey was clutching Justin’s hand in the back of the room, whispering fervently into his ear.
He whispered something back that was evidently suggestive, for a sly grin spread on her face, and she playfully smacked him on the arm.
A huge smirk formed on his face.
I rolled my eyes again. Gag me with a spoon.
“Natasha Litzy with Greg Loyle.”
Natasha scrunched her nose up in slight disappointment. Greg was a new kid at school, and so nobody knew much about him yet. Natasha wasn’t exactly disappointed that she was paired up with him in particular, just that she wasn’t partnered with me. That much was evident by the way she glanced at me; she was biting her lip, and her shoulders were slumped.
I felt a wave of disappointment wash over myself when the realization that I wouldn’t be working on the project with my best friend (and only friend in the class) came over me.
I shot Natasha a sympathetic look as butterflies swarmed inside my stomach.
I was extremely nervous now.
“Kate Nabby with Reece Redmond.” Mr. Reymer continued, droning on as his eyes slid down the light blue piece of paper that was stretched between his hands.
He continued down the list, naming off pairs of my classmates as I sat anxiously in my seat, trying not to let the nervous freakout that was occurring inside of my stomach show on my face.
I glanced around the room, trying to pick out and determine which people were still left that might be my partner.
There were still two people in particular who hadn’t been called out yet that I most definitely didn’t want.
Finally, I heard Mr. Reymer announce my name.
“Mandy Nash-”
My eyes immediately snapped up to look at him; my hands were entwined in my lap, and I could feel my heart beating quicker than it should.
I was trying to calm down; it honestly shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
But call me a nerd all you want, good marks were important to me. I needed them if I wanted to maintain hope at getting into McGill. So it was essential that I did well on this project.
And unfortunately, who I got as my partner could make or break how the project turned out.
In other words, they were extremely important.
Mr. Reymer furrowed his eyebrows at the page in front of him, pausing for a moment. He seemed as if he had lost his place on the page.
After a few moments of tense silence, he appeared to find the spot, and he cleared his throat, before announcing, “-and Justin Bieber.”
I felt myself instantly freeze in shock.
...What?
I closed my eyes slowly, willing beyond belief for this all to be a nothing more than a very, very bad dream.
After a few moments of silence, I opened my eyes, slowly turning to look back at the far right corner of the room.
Aubrey was shooting daggers at me. Justin was sitting there staring at Mr. Reymer with a set jaw, clearly pissed.
His eyes met mine, and we both groaned.
Appearing not to have noticed this, Mr. Reymer went on with the list, announcing the next set of partners.
I gave Natasha a pointed look, as if to say, ‘Good baby Jesus, kill me now.’
Of all the people in the room, Justin and Aubrey were probably the two I least wanted to be partnered with. And, just like I should have suspected, my wonderful wealth of luck allowed me to be paired with one of them.
Note my sarcasm.
Mr. Reymer cleared his throat. He had evidently finished calling out all of the pairs of partners.
“Alright, now that partners have been announced, I would like everyone to come up here and collect your paper that describes the project itself, and which lists what topic you have been assigned.”
Natasha and I shot meaningful looks at each other, before we grudgingly stood up with the rest of the people in our class.
Everyone slowly began meandering towards the front of the classroom, stopping in front of Mr. Reymer and waiting for him to distribute their specific project rubric.
Aubrey was groveling, muttering angrily to Justin, who still looked extremely pissed, as the two walked up the aisle to the front of the room.
Justin and I looked at each other at the same time, shooting each other looks of pure loathing, before we quickly looked away.
When Mr. Reymer had finally retrieved my particular sheet of paper, I hurried back to my seat as quickly as possible, falling into it the instant I got to it.
I let my eyes drift over the blue sheet of paper, reading over some of the project guidelines and boring details, before I came to the very bottom of the page. A single book title was hastily written in red ink under the heading, “Your Topic Is...” The title had been circled to further emphasize it.
Romeo and Juliet
I let out a groan, slumping back in my seat.
I honestly couldn’t remember having worse luck.
Spending an entire term working on a Romeo and Juliet project worth 15% of my overall grade with Justin Bieber, one of the most popular guys in the school, not to mention a world-famous pop singer who I strongly despised and who strongly despised me?
Yeah. This was sure to be a great semester.
Not.
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This story is no way mine. I got permission from the author, xladolcevita72, to put it up on here. This is the original link--->