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everything starts somewhere
May. 16th, 2014 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unroyalThis always was the sort of thing that happened when the class started with This semester is going to have a six week project, and you'll have a partner. The class would erupt with all the fifteen and sixteen year olds planning to work with their friends, couples looking at one another from across the room.
Then the hammer would fall. "And I'm going to choose the partners."
The cacophony of groans and Noooo were not quite deafening, but there was no chance that he'd missed it. Their teacher read through his list. "Adams, you're with McCreary. Baldwin, Zimmerman...." He continued through the list, until- "Knowles, you're with...." He paused, and his mouth quirked up a bit. "... Teller."
A murmur went through the class. Jax was the quintessential problem student, and had been since long before his dad died over the summer. The fact that he was paired with Tara Knowles - who was a quiet know-it-all that nobody knew much about except that she was an only child, her mom died when she was nine, and.... her dad was kind of nuts and a drunk was one that made the gossip buzz - at least until the teacher just moved on, talking about the next pairing.
Tara had barely talked to Jax in her life. They'd been in different elementary and middle schools, and now that they were in high school, she thought the only words they'd actually spoken to one another were things like Excuse me and Sorry, you dropped this. She was usually shy; she was always shy, mostly because she didn't know what to say to people.
When Mr. Arteck told them to move and pair up and find their new seats, she moved without thinking, gathering up her things to move and sit at the lab table, glancing over at him once she'd set down her books. "Hi. So, it looks like we're partners?" She bit her lip for a second. "I'm Tara." She didn't realise that he already knew who she was, but probably just because of word of mouth, and Gemma and Clay talked about how Michael Knowles' drinking habit was doing, and just how odd he was now that his wife'd died, although he'd never been right.
Then the hammer would fall. "And I'm going to choose the partners."
The cacophony of groans and Noooo were not quite deafening, but there was no chance that he'd missed it. Their teacher read through his list. "Adams, you're with McCreary. Baldwin, Zimmerman...." He continued through the list, until- "Knowles, you're with...." He paused, and his mouth quirked up a bit. "... Teller."
A murmur went through the class. Jax was the quintessential problem student, and had been since long before his dad died over the summer. The fact that he was paired with Tara Knowles - who was a quiet know-it-all that nobody knew much about except that she was an only child, her mom died when she was nine, and.... her dad was kind of nuts and a drunk was one that made the gossip buzz - at least until the teacher just moved on, talking about the next pairing.
Tara had barely talked to Jax in her life. They'd been in different elementary and middle schools, and now that they were in high school, she thought the only words they'd actually spoken to one another were things like Excuse me and Sorry, you dropped this. She was usually shy; she was always shy, mostly because she didn't know what to say to people.
When Mr. Arteck told them to move and pair up and find their new seats, she moved without thinking, gathering up her things to move and sit at the lab table, glancing over at him once she'd set down her books. "Hi. So, it looks like we're partners?" She bit her lip for a second. "I'm Tara." She didn't realise that he already knew who she was, but probably just because of word of mouth, and Gemma and Clay talked about how Michael Knowles' drinking habit was doing, and just how odd he was now that his wife'd died, although he'd never been right.
