Ch. 1: The Project

  "Shirley Lucas and Lance Lee!"

  I looked at my new partner nervously. "Oooh...good luck Shirley," my best friend, Kylie, whispered, giving me a sympathetic look. I sighed and looked back at Kylie. "I'm definitely going to fail language arts this year," I thought gloomily, rubbing my arms like I always did when I was nervous. But I didn't want to act immature in front of the teacher on the first week of school. I mean seriously, we were in high school now! Besides, I couldn't let Kylie be right. So, I shrugged nonchalantly and replied cheerfully, "It's okay! I'm sure we'll get along well." That was a complete lie. Lance didn't get along with anybody and he probably never will. Everybody in the school knew that. Kylie scoffed and patted my shoulders. "If you say so Shirley," she said in a doubtful tone, her eyes bright with amusement. I couldn't help but scrowl at her. It was easy for her to talk. She wasn't paired off with an anti-social dude. In fact, she was paired up with the president of the school, who happened to be the nicest girl ever. I sighed again and lugged my stuff towards my assigned seat.  He gave me one cold look and then looked away, like I was not worth looking at. My teeth grounded together in annoyance. "At least he can try to be nice," I thought, "We'll never get an A if we don't get along."

  I looked back at Kylie again and she shot me a thumbs-up. My heart longed to be partnered with her instead. I wanted to go up and scream, "You stupid teacher! Out of everyone, you paired me up with HIM?! What happened to picking our own partners?!" Luckily for the teacher, I managed to vent my anger in making a tight fist and when I unclenched them, 4 deep gaps were carved into my palm. I sighed at my unluckiness, wondering if there would a miracle day where my teacher would change her mind on this stupid project. At that exact moment, she announced, "You'll be assigned to your current seat for the entire year and I'll not be changing seats unless you have a good reason to. And believe me, I'm not easy to persuade." She shot us a cold look and added, "Also this project is year-round, meaning that this project will not end till the last day of school." I heard Lance click his tongue in annoyance and make a rather loud sigh. Nevertheless, she continued, "You will need to write weekly reports to each other, describing your journeys through your first year of high school." I frowned. "She making us sound like babies," I realized, "Just because we're freshmen, doesn't mean we're dumb." Besides, I had my big sister, Shelly, who was in college at the current moment. "Relax," she had told me, "It's like middle school except bigger and longer."

  Suddenly, I felt somebody staring at me. Someone near. I looked to my left and saw that I was right. Lance had been staring at me for who-knows-how long with a perplexed expression on his face, like he was trying to solve a hard math problem. But I was not a problem, I was his partner. Whether he liked it or not. "Look," I said, "We cannot fail this class. So we're going to have to work together, whether you want to or not."

  Lance's perplexed look got replaced by a look of annoyance. He turned away and stared straight ahead, using his hand to block his face. To make things even worse, he scooted even farther away from me, which pretty destroyed any hope of getting along with him. I could literally hear Kylie trying her best to not laugh at my weak attempt at developing friendship. "That's it. I have to prove Kylie wrong," I decided, "We're going to make the greatest team of the year." Unfortunately, I didn't sound as confident as I hoped.

*******************************************************************

  Kylie and I were sitting at our usual eating place, which was at the staircase with our other friends. Apparently, my misfortune of being paired up with Lance had spread around the whole school like wildfire. "Wow, is Lance really that hated?" I thought in disbelief. I mean, I know that he's annoying and all but you couldn't really blame him. He had no friends. Suddenly, I felt a pang of guilt stab at my heart. "Maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on him earlier," I thought, "I bet I just added more to his troubles."  I kept being like that in my little pity world until I heard Kylie say something that made me snap back into reality. "You got to admit though, he's kind of cute."

  My friends giggled and playfully punched Kylie on the arm. "I didn't know you liked the strong silent type," Lana (a friend) said teasingly.

  "What?! No, of course not!" Kylie insisted, her face turning red with embarrassment. She looked at me desperately and stammered, "Besides, I'm way out of his league!" A wave of annoyance washed over me. That was pretty mean, even if it was directed towards the meanest guy at school. But I didn't like him enough to defend him so instead of joining them, I took out my notebook and decided to write my weekly report. "Maybe I could write something cheerful so he won't feel so gloomy," I thought, tapping my pencil against the paper. After a moment of thinking, I noticed my friends hadn't bothered me at all. I looked up to see them still talking, though a few of them flashed a smile at me. They knew me long enough to know I hated being distracted from my work. I continued tapping my pencil, thinking about anything interesting that happened. Nope, my mind was blank. Finally after 5 minutes I had an idea. I stopped tapping my pencil and began to write furiously,

Dear Lance,
   High school wasn't as bad as I thought. I expected the first day of high school to be a disaster but  I realized I was wrong. How? It's because I learned that I have all my classes with my friends, which was really awesome. For example, Kylie and I are  badminton partners in P.E right now and it's really fun. Unfortunately, I suck at aiming and she always gets the birdie stuck onto the net so we're probably going to end up at the last court. But having fun is better than winning, right? Anyways, my goal of the year is to get a 4.0+  G.P.A and to be valedictorian. What is your goal?

Sincerely,
Shirley Lucas

  I smiled at my work. Now I just needed to send it to him.
 

Reviews

[Laura]

I think your chapter is really well written. The narrator expresses her doubts and feelings well about her first day as a freshman and the uncertainty of partering up with a strange silent boy in a way that the reader can "feel" her angst yet wants to know what will happen if and when she sends the letter. The boy seems mysterious and we don't know much about him yet, except that he may be mean, OR is he just awkward and shy the way like most people are on their first day of highschool? Nice writing, good job!

[Wonderland]

Thank you so much for reading this! I appreciate it and I'm glad that you liked it :).