Mom seemed extremely furious when she stepped out of the principle office. She walked silently to her car as I followed. She slid the key into the keyhole and ignited the red old Chevrolet. After a mile driving in complete silence, she eventually raised her voice. "Why do you always do that, Sam?" - She said her words in an emotionless tone. How I wished her to scowl at me now. At least it was way better than having to guess how she felt through this pretentious calm voice.

"I am sorry, Mom" - I acknowledged what she meant by doing that again. What that could rather be after what I did today? "I am tired of you being sorry, Sam. You just say it sincerely like you mean it but then you go make the same mistakes over and over again. I have no idea when you would grow up and be serious with yourself." - She shook her head in disappointment.

I watched her through the rearview. She was not angry anymore, she was disappointed and I could see that in her near-teary eyes. A part of me wanted to talk back and defend for myself, but the other half told me to keep silence so I wouldn't hurt her anymore. I was glad that other part won as I completely shut my mouth all the way home.

The second day at school also began with English. I don't think you could find any worse way to start a whole new day. I was at my locker room to get my textbooks when a girl came and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to take in a not very familiar face.

'Hey, is that you?' - The girl cooed. This is getting funny. Since when have I had an acquaintance here?

'Huh?' - I blurted out, not thinking much. She let out a fanatical laugh then went on: 'I mean are you the girl who beat Jason out yesterday?'

Ah! Now I understood why she recognized me. Eventually, I was enjoying the spotlight for once in a lifetime. Somebody please tell me you noted the sarcasm here or I'll go bang my head on the fridge door.

'Yeah' - I answered dryly, not showing much emotion. What if she was another Jason bias who intended to stand up against me? That boy sure had a lot of secret admirers since he was hot and obnoxious and well, girls were likely to fall for that type of guy.

"You rock, girl. Like seriously. No one ever dared to stand up against him like you did. He's always like the God of this school. And you are Sam, aren't you?" - She beamed at me. Amusement evidently lighted up her eyes.

"Err. Thanks. And yeah, I'm Sam. But how do you my name?' - I asked skeptically. Didn't someone just broadcast what happened yesterday and my name also? Well, you never know how dangerously gossipy high school kids could be.

'We go to the same English class. You introduced yourself yesterday. That's how I know your name. I am not a stalker or anything' - She chuckled.

'Oh, cool. What's your name, by the way?' - I asked politely as I could see a chance of me being friend with this girl. After all, she was so nice to me, at least the nicest person I'd met in this school.

'I'm Emily Johnson. Nice meeting you' - She cracked a friendly smile at the corner of her lips. 'Very nice to meet you too' - I smiled lightly.

'Hey, If you don't hurry up. you'll be late for English. One simple rule to live by: Don't ever be late in English because Ms. Green overrates punctuality.' - Emily winked and hushed as if I was already late.

'Alrighty. I never want to be her favorite pet, anyway.' - I uttered and Emily cracked up. She laughed aloud between each word: 'You're too funny'. 

I slammed my locker door shut and we trolled off into our English class. Yes, English. At C building, Story 6th, Room 302 again. Poops.

No, you don't need to guess if I would meet that annoying boy who initiated the whole situation yesterday (don't have me say his name, friend or I'd barf) because yes, I would unless he was hit by a random car and broke his legs and rest at home. I walked in the class, looking around to find the seat I sat on yesterday was already taken. Fuck. How could they fill such giant class? I cursed silently while dragging my eyes further to find an empty seat. There, that vacant table on the third row, next to... Fuck? Should I believe my eyes? Jason was sitting there next to that vacant table. By next to, I hope you get the point of how close those two tables were. Wasn't there any empty seat in this class? There, there, here, all were already taken. Now I had two choices. First, take that fucking seat and ignore that bullhead. Second, Sneak out of the classroom and dig this lecture. My mind was about to tick on the second option when Mrs. Green stepped in. Dang it. Now Option 2 was screwed. 

Emily nudged me to dictate me to take a seat. I stepped downward to the third row and slide into the empty seat as Emily snuggled right next to me. Jason took his eyes off the laptop screen, on which I was pretty sure was showing porn. As his eyes met mine, he sneered: 'Oh hi, best friend'. I know, that balloon-head had nothing to say but terrible acrimony. I ignored him and turn my focus to Mrs. Green who already started talking. Well, that woman did talk much.

"Hello, sweeties. How are ya'll today?" - She said in a sugar-coated voice. Needless to hear our responses, she continued: "I am very excited to inform I have an incredibly interesting project for all of you."

The room was filled with noises. Most of students put their thumbs down as they knew how 'interesting' a teacher's project would be.

Mrs. Green ignored the sounds as if she had known her students so well. "The project is compulsory and its final judgment will be counted as half of your total grade. So sincerely, I do hope you give it sufficient concentration. Two students will be paired up as a couple to participate in this project. I already printed out a list of couples we have. Now let's start with Emily Johnson and Leon Matthews. You two are a couple. Quick brainstorming and give me a name for your couple please' - She read out and I turned around to see Emily's face lit up. I could state now she had a huge crush on Leon, so I gave a wink her way and she smiled back. Leon didn't show much expression, just nodded at the overwhelming Emily sitting two tables away.

The class'd gone wild as more couples were announced. I had no idea how could they get that excited over just a normal paring session. I honestly didn't care who I would end up being partner with. That was just an ordinary project. Long or short, it would end subsequently.

"And finally Samantha James and Jason Howard" - Mrs. Green smiled an inexplicable smile. What the fhaskajeiiea? Should I believe my ears? Did Mrs. Green just say Samantha and Jason altogether? No way. It couldn't happen. I must have been somewhere in one of the worst nightmares in my life.

'Excuse me, Mrs. Green? May I ask you again the name of my partner? It was pretty noisy here so I couldn't hear clearly what you just said' - Jason raised his index finger.

Mrs. Green beamed at him. 'Of course, Jason. You are with Sam. You guys are a couple'

'Thank you very much' - He grinned.

'You are welcome' - Mrs. Green seemed pleased with his attitude.

When did this Jason become Mr. Polite? Just yesterday he was still a pain in the ass. Now he was sweet and courteous like a well brought up little boy. He turned to the blank look on my face and mouthed: 'Hi, mate' and winked... at me.

No, you please don't trust him. He was just trying to annoy me by pretending to be nice. I didn't care what he was doing and mouthed a 'Fuck you' back. He laughed interestedly and turned away.

Having to stick with one of my utmost enemy as a team, no, a couple, yes A COUPLE, what do you think my life coming to? The end! THE FREAKING END! Somebody just shoot me already. If you don't, I believe Jason Howard will, someday.

“Ok so you all knew who your partner is by now. Move to sit next to him/her please. Come on, stand up, sweeties. We’ve still got a lot of things to do’ – Mrs. Green voiced loudly.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Emily jumped out of her seat as fast as she could and stepped to Leon’s table, not forgetting to turn back and give me a sympathy look. Well, at least that girl was not totally carried away by the fact she finally had a chance to get close to her crush. Every body started to stand up and whirl around to their partner’s seats but I was still glued to my seat. If either of us (Me or Howard) has to move out of the seat, it is Howard for sure.

“James and Howard, what’s wrong with you two?’ – Mrs. Green eventually realized none of us was making a move. Her eyebrow twitched into a slight frown.

“Mrs. Green. Can you just pair me with other person? Anybody would work. Just not this boy.” – I said, not bothering to take a look at his reaction. Why do I have to care if my words hurt him or not. Bluntly, he was the one who chose to pick on my bad side firsthandedly. I tried my best to sound as sincerely desperate as I could. I knew things would just get worse than the worst if I had to work with this hateful Howard.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. This is all random. I didn’t intend to pair you two. And the essence of this whole partner thing is to train you to get along with strangers, the ones you don’t know or even people you don’t really like. In real life, you may encounter a lot of situations like this. You better practice to adopt to it now” – Mrs. Green offered me her intense glare. Well, it is not cool when this woman gets angry.

“Ok. I know” – I said, giving up the idea of trying to get out of this being-partner-with-Howard thing.

“It’s good to know you acknowledge it. Now get together, please” – Her eyes bored into mine as to remind me once again there was no way I could extricate myself from the project.

I turned to Howard. His facial expression was unreadable. He didn’t seem angry at all, or at least I think he didn’t. Jeez. Why it is so hard to read what is flowing inside this crazy jerk’s head. Maybe he was still holding a grudge but acting like he forgot every detail of what happened to indirectly convince me things had cooled off so I would let my guard down. And when the self-protection wall around me tumbled, he would take the chance and come back to bite me in the ass.

“Do you really adore my look that much?’ – His voice snapped me out of my running thoughts. Was I really staring at him the whole time?

“No, I am just staring at the spider crawling on top of your head. “ – I sneered.

“Ha. It’s funny’ – He pretended to laugh and clutched to his stomach. That’s the utmost effective form of sarcasm, just to tell somebody they are wasting their time being a total losing clown.

I threw him my best whatever look and questioned: “Are you moving here or not?”

“Ah. So you are craving for my company’ – The corner of his mouth curled up. His whole face exploded into a disgusting look.

“Not even in your wildest dream. Just answer yes or no. Are you coming here or not?” – I could tell anger was carved on every figure of my face. How could I stand this douchebag all this time until the project is done?

“What if I’m not?’ – He replied dryly. It was time to use my calming mantra or I’d kick this badass in the groin and slap him hard on his face until he passed out.

“Then sit there. Itch there. Freeze there. Do whatever you want. I’m not moving an inch either. What happened to your gentlement-ness? Well I guess it doesn’t even exist in the first place.” – No anger management technique would work in this case. In fact, no freaking anything would work if what you have to deal with is such a nauseous jock.

“James and Howard. Is everything OK between you two?’ – Mrs. Green shifted her eyes awkwardly from me to him then back to me.

Urgh! What kind of unknown brain disease is this woman enduring? It just happened yesterday. Yes, the fight. Now she asked if anything was wrong? Did she really dump everything occurring 24 hours ago out of her freaking head?

“It’s actually never OK in the first place” – I murmured.

”Listen up. This is not 5th grade, OK? Whatever’s happening between you two. Sort it out right now. Are we clear?’ – Mrs. Green spoke aloud. I nodded uncomfortably under her scrutinizing look. “And James, please be a gentleman and go sit next to Ms. James please. Come on, we don’t have a lot of time”

Howard unwillingly got out of his seat. As he stepped closer to the table I’m at, his scent attacked my nose. It was a smooth blend of a fresh cucumber-like smell with some honey tint dripping inside. He smelled delicious, like summer, like deep blueish ocean. Ok, just slap me right in the middle of the face. Shall we go on?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: So chapter 3 is out like finally. It's not a very long one (not to say it's very short). I apologize. I've been having a pretty hectic time in college and some family issues to sort out so this is all I could do. I'm sorry again. I didn't even have time to beta read this or ask my sister to do this session for me (she's been pretty busy now as she's on internship) so there probably are 3,000 grammatical mistakes and typos. If you see any, please feel free to point them out so I could correct them.

P/sI disclaim any brand you could spot in this chapter.