Chapter Text
"The next thing we're going to do in this class is a project, yes, with partners," The teacher answered our questions before we even got to ask them. I was one of the few kids in the class who preferred to work by myself. I had few friends to begin with, and none of them were in this class, so I was always partnered with whoever was left over, which was almost never good. One time I got partnered with this kid who really had no interest in school whatsoever, and halfway through our project he just stopped showing up. So I was definitely not excited for this.
Everyone was already catching their friend's eyes, mouthing, 'Want to work together?'
The teacher stopped this by saying, "But I'm not going to let you pick your partners, that'd be too easy, I need to see how you work with people who aren't your best friends."
I could practically feel the disappointment surround me in the room, but for me, personally, I felt a lot better. Maybe I'd luck out and not get a completely crappy partner. It also occurred to me that I could get Pete Wentz, or one of his friends, and I suddenly didn't feel quite so confident.
Pete wasn't a bully, he was just more of a jerk. I don't think he seriously meant bad, he probably didn't realize what he was doing, he probably thought it was totally acceptable. Maybe he had even been raised that way, I didn't know enough about him to judge, I just know that If we had to work together, this project would suck. His friends aren't much better, either.
"For the next month or so, you will work with your partner that I'll assign today on a subject I'll assign today. Since it's English class, the project is to write about your topic, however you choose, whether it be an essay or a short story, that is completely up to you. The only important parts are that it's about your topic, your partner helps on it, and it has enough work behind it to seem like you spent a lot of time on it. That means no goofing off during the class and doing your project the night before. I'll assign your partners and topics now, and then you can have the rest of the class to start planning things," the teacher said as she got a piece of paper off her desk.
I waited nervously for her to call my name. Hopefully I would get the quiet, sweet girl, who I didn't really know much about. It would be nice to get to know her, maybe we could even be friends.
"Brendon Urie," I listened closely, praying a good name came after mine. "And Ryan Ross."
Oh no, not him. He was one of Pete's friends, he was right in their clique, and they all loved him. He was a skinny kid, whose hair feel into his eyes, always straightened. I wouldn't even be allowed to own a straightener, not in my strictly Mormon house. That wasn't why I was disappointed to have him as a partner, though. I can deal with people being different, that's no problem to me, I look past it. They problem is that Ryan Ross hates me. I'm not sure what I ever did to him, but he's had it out for me for so long. He'd never full on bully me, he was too smart and too small to do that, his approach was mind games.
He just loved messing with my head every chance he got, and it really made me feel bad sometimes. My mom always said I was a sweetheart, and I can't stand being messed with.
I'm actually not good at conflict of any kind, seeing I'm also just as small as Ryan. I also freaked out when people screamed. I was definitely a bit of a wimp.
The teacher finished calling out names and said, "Get with or around your partner, and I'll come around for you to pick your topic."
I looked over to where Ryan was sitting, and he made no move to get up. Guess I'd have to go over there then. The best approach to handling him would most likely be keeping him happy and being nice, maybe then he wouldn't feel the need to torment me. I could have hopes, okay?
"Hi," I said with as much pep as I could muster as I sat in the desk beside Ryan's.
Instead of replying, Ryan looked at me with an unimpressed rescission on his face. Clearly he was telling me he could care less. Fantastic!
I remained silent until our teacher got to us. She had a bowl in her hand, with little slips of paper inside which I was guessing were the topics. I sat back to let Ryan choose, because pulling things out of a hat type activities were always fun, so I thought he'd enjoy it. After a long moment of nothing, I realized he had no intentions of picking out a topic.
I grab the first one my hand touches, and the teacher finally moves on. I open the paper and on it I find one word; Music.
I was actually excited at seeing that, music was one of my favorite topics ever, so I figured this project would be a piece of cake. Ryan obviously didn't have the same ideas.
He took the paper from me, and when he saw what it said he scoffed. "Why are you so excited about this anyways, Urie? You probably have the worst taste in music ever."
I frown, not expecting that kind of response from him. Clearly when it comes to Ryan Ross, I should lower my expectations.
This month was going to be awfully long.