Chapter Two.

English had always been her favorite subject. But she was nervous about the project, what would it be about? Who would be her partner? What’s going to happen?

She had a lot of questions about it in her mind. She kept looking around the class nervously, trying to figure out who’d be the best partner for her. One thing she knew for sure, that Mr. Winters would never pair her up with Faith because he knew that they were best friends and he had this thing about teamwork and working with new people stuff.

“Okay people, I know you all are excited to find out what this year’s project is going to be about and who will you get paired up with. But this year, there is going to be something different.” She sat up straight, listening to what her teacher was saying.

“This year’s project is...,” He left his sentence hanging for extra effect and looked around.

“You all will write a play each, on which you will be graded depending on your performance but,” He smiled.

“The best play will be handed to the drama club where it will be used as a script for the annual play.”

She heard Faith groan. Faith never was a good writer to start with. But she was confident. She loved to write. She was always writing before...

Before that night.

She took a deep breath and shook her head.

“I hear groans from the back of the class, I’ll be checking your scripts first.” Mr. Winters threatened, but he was joking so everyone just laughed it off.

“I’ll be expecting your completed scripts on my desk three weeks from now. Now for the partners.”

Lillian closed her eyes. She didn’t need a partner. She didn’t want a partner. She liked to work alone.

“You get to choose your partners, but as you all know there’s a new student in our class. I’ll be the one pairing him with anyone of you.”

“Ms. Wilson if you may.” Lillian’s eyes traveled from the wall on which her eyes were glued to Mr. Winters.

“Yes?” She asked.

“I’m going to pair you up with Mr. Miller here. I trust you to help him out with the project and I hope you two will come up with a great play.” He gestured towards a guy who was sitting at the front, his back towards her.

She groaned internally and nodded.

“Okay, Mr. Winters.” She stood up and made her way towards the guy, she saw him pick up his backpack from the chair beside him. She dumped her backpack on the chair and sat down. Upon sitting down, she turned her head towards him to see who was she paired up with.

His eyes were still invisible.

He turned his head towards her and nodded at her.

“Hi.” He spoke. 

“Hey.” 

She was nervous and quite annoyed. She wanted to work alone but that wasn’t an option anymore.

“I’m sorry. But he didn’t ask me before pairing me up with you, I won’t be a nuisance.” He assured her, she looked up at him, subconsciously trying to find his eyes, it was irritating her, she knew he could see because his eyes were quite visible but not enough.

“Oh, it’s completely okay. We can work together. I hope we do come up with a good play.” She tried to be friendly, she wasn’t used to be friendly now, it had been months since she had initiated a conversation with a stranger just to make them feel comfortable, but now she was doing this.

He nodded and she wished that he would brush his hair out of his eyes, she felt bad for his eyes who were suffering under all that hair.

After the class, she stood up to leave when he stopped her.

“How are we going to work?” He asked. 

She looked confused.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I mean, we can’t just work together in school it would take more than three weeks then, we’ll need a spot where we could work, right?” He asked.

He did have a point.

“Oh, that. I’ll let you know that then we can start working tomorrow.” She had no idea what she was going to do about that.

“Okay. And,” She looked up at him, yes looked up because he was tall. Like, really tall. She felt tiny in front of him.

“I’m Camden.” He offered her his hand and she rather hesitatingly took it.

“I’m Lillian.” 

“Nice to meet you, Lillian.” He nodded and she nodded back. Because what else was she to do?

“Same here. Okay then, see you, Camden.”

She left the class, ignoring the fact that nearly every girl who had witnessed the exchange between them, was glaring at her.

“So, you met him.” She heard Faith in the background.

“What’s the big deal?” Lillian asked.

“Everyone is glaring at you; I mean I don’t understand the hype. My boyfriend seems better.” 

Lillian smiled. Faith loved to talk about her boyfriend, he was a decent guy so that was okay.

“Have you ever seen his eyes?” Lillian popped the question out of nowhere. She couldn’t understand why was she so curious about his eyes.

Faith shook her head.

“Nope. He keeps his hair that way.” Lillian nodded; she didn’t care she was just irritated by all those hairs poking into his eyes.

The day passed swiftly and it was time for her to walk back home and worry about the project.

It had been a year since she last drove a car, she rarely sat inside one now. She was used to walking now. She loved to walk, it was peaceful and allowed her to think.

She reached home and spotted her mother in the kitchen. She decided to go and spend some time with her.

“Hey Mom, I’m home.” She entered the kitchen and kissed her cheek.

Her mother turned to look at her and smiled.

“How was your day?” She asked. Lillian shrugged.

“It was okay, I guess. Mom, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes?”

“I have an annual project to work on, we all have to write a play and the best play will be the script for the annual play, we all are working in pairs. There’s this new guy, he's my partner and we need somewhere to work. Do you think it’s okay if we work here?” She asked.

“Work anywhere you feel comfortable, Lillian. I’ll be glad to meet your new friend.” She kissed her forehead. Her mother seemed happy that she was making progress.

“He’s not my friend.” Lillian reminded her mother.

“Yes, your friend, or partner same thing. Are you hungry?”

She nodded. Yes, she was hungry. Socializing made her exhausted. And hungry.