Harry turns around and smiles at me as our Mr. Al makes our way over to us to give us our assignment.
“Addie, since you and Harry have already met, I figured it would make him more comfortable to be paired with you,” he comments, “your assignment is to take different traits and make a possible ‘family’. It can be completely made up, as long as its logical. There’s more information on the paper. Good luck,” he says as he hands us the papers.
Well, okay.
“So,” I begin.
“Look, I’m sorry that I took your seat and that you’re stuck with ‘the new kid’ for this project,” he sighs.
My heart cracks at his words and I can tell he’s not too happy about moving.
“Don’t worry about it,” I try to cheer him up, “and relax, you’ll be fine, here. It’s not as bad as it seems.”
“Not with you,” and with that, the bell rings, “meet me outside after school, and we can work, yeah?”
“Sure.” What a fast class.
. . .
“Have you seen him?” Lea squeals, running towards me and my locker as I put my things away, before I leave.
“Who?” I laugh at her.
“The new British kid. He. Is. Gorgeous.”
“You mean Harry?” I ask.
“You know him? How do you know him? Addie, how do you know him?” she shrieks.
“Calm down. He’s my partner for the science project. I’m actually going to meet him right now,” I say.
“Introduce me?” she begs.
“Why not?” I joke, and we begin walking outside. As soon as we’re a few feet out of the building, I spot Harry talking to some people. I start walking over to him and he dismisses them.
He smiles at me and Lea, “Hey, Addie. Who’s this?” he gestures to Lea.
“Harry, this is my best friend, Lea. Lea, this is Harry,” You're welcome Lea, I know I rock.
“Hello,” Harry greets her.
“Hi,” she says shyly, “well, I gotta go, because I have a ton of work to do, but I’ll see you both later,” she waves and skips off.
We both watch her leave but when I turn back to Harry, he is already staring at me. When he notices that I look up, he snaps out of his trance.
“Shall we?” he asks.
“Umm... where do you want to go?”
“We can go to my place? I mean, if that’s cool with you,” he stutters.
“Okay, I’ll just follow you,” I agree.
. . .
Fifteen minutes later, I arrive at Harry’s house only to realize that he lives a few blocks away from me. His house is really pretty with it painted black and white on the outside, and it is huge.
“He we are,” he gestures, “Let’s go out back.”
“Okay,” I say and follow him.
When we reach his backyard, there is a hammock set up and we both sit and face each other, I open up my bag and my notebook slips out. Shit.
“What’s this?” he asks as he curiously picks it up.
I snatch it away from him, “Just a notebook,” I murmur.