Morgan

I couldn’t believe that I was the one that had Ethan Lowry as a lab partner, and this wasn’t in good way that most girls would be getting their panties all wet over. Ever since I saw all the shit that the Hawks and Hawkettes liked to do that made everyone else’s life miserable, through my sister’s association and leadership role, I stayed far away as possible from this group. Not that it was friendly invites, but ones that my sister probably had ordered, but I’d been invited to several of their parties over the years and had gracefully declined with a ‘hell no.’

Our science teacher went on to discuss what we’d be learning over the course of the next nine months. As I assumed, the seats that we’d picked today would remain our permanent seats along with the person seated next to them as our yearlong partner.

Everyone high-fived each other because they would be partnered with the one that they wanted, except for me. I sat there looking stone-faced at the teacher like she just committed one of the seven deadly sins. Although I didn’t look over, I was quite sure Ethan had the same outlook as me on the whole situation…the ‘what the fuck’ attitude.

The bell rang signaling to us that this first period of hell was finally finished. I scrambled about stuffing all the handouts into my backpack and getting away from our lab station as quickly as possible. I never said a word, or even a friendly hello, to my new yearlong lab partner. He was still seated at the desk when I pushed my way past all the other students. I was bumping into everyone as I made my way down the crowded hallway to my next class. I wasn’t sure if I was in a hurry to get to my second period or in a hurry to get away from Ethan.

                                                           ***

I couldn’t concentrate on the next three classes. I took the beginning of the year handouts that explained what the requirements were to pass the course, but other than that I couldn’t tell you one word that my teachers said. I was fired up about Ethan being partnered with me in Human Anatomy and Physiology. I really didn’t know him, as in on a personal basis, but I’d heard enough stories about him and saw the way that he acted to know it was going to suck in that class the rest of the year.

I could always ask for a transfer, or maybe we could do the labs on our own, but most of the time the secretaries and teachers didn’t like to change things around unless it was a life or death matter.

It wasn’t that Ethan was ugly, far from that, and it wasn’t like he’d been the one that was rude, it was his friends most of the time, but I just didn’t understand why I got nervous around him. I was always able to stand up for myself in most situations and talking with other people had never been much of an issue since I was captain of the debate club, but there was something about Ethan that made me clam up. I knew if I’d try to say anything it would probably come out as a garbled mess.

There would come a time that I would have to talk to him, but hopefully, that was a long way down the road.

                                                                 ***

Last class of the day. The final forty-five minutes of listening to a teacher go over the same shit that the past six had done, and then I would be free to go. There wasn’t any debate club meeting today, so I was able to leave at the regular time.

As we got further into the semester, the late days at school would become all too numerous as preparation time came around for the team to hone in on our skills. We had two debates a month with other schools around the area, and I refused to allow us to come in second place. I’d worked too hard to make the team what it was, and last year we had won every debate; thus we were recognized as the district champs.

Not that it really mattered to anyone else except the five of us.

The school usually made an announcement after each competition about us winning, but it was always a soft-spoken gesture.

The soccer team, however, got a screaming announcement and pep rallies held in their honor.

‘What the fuck, right!’