I sat down, hearing jeers from a couple of the kids, but then, the teacher came in.
“Alright class, today, we’re setting up groups and discussing he group project. I want all of you to put together a model of the ideal government that you’d like to see. You have till the end of the month. I’ll be assigning groups for this, and I won’t make any exceptions,” she said.
Jesus fuck this teacher was a bitch. But I could tell some of the other kids in the classroom felt the same way. The names were rattled off, and finally, when they got to my name, I tensed up.
“Jules, you’ll be working with Phoenix and Luca on this project,” she said.
Are. You. Kidding. Me. I looked over, and I could see Phoenix looking away and Luca sneering. I started to feel the regret in this moment. I didn’t want to work with any of these guys, and I would prefer to just do the work alone and carry the project. The teacher then made us all split up into groups.
“I don’t want to work with you, and you don’t want to work with me, so let’s just get this over with,” I said as I sat down.
“Who says we don’t want to work with you?” Phoenix said.
I looked at him, seeing the serious look in his eyes.
“Don’t bullshit me. You dislike this as much as I do,” I said.
“Well, the formal is coming up, so we can focus on that instead,” Phoenix said.
“You probably don’t even have a date for it yet Jules. I have like three girls who are asking for me to escort them. Maybe I should take all three,” Luca said.
I could tell what he was trying to do. I smiled at him, a haughty glance.
“I actually have a date for the formal,” I sad.
“What?” Phoenix said.
“Your fingers don’t count as a date, Jules,” Luca said with a scoff.
“It’s not my fingers. It’s an actual human being. I got asked early and I said yes,” I explained.
For a moment, neither of them knew what to do. It was funny, seeing them squirm like this.
“So who is it?” Phoenix said. I could tell there was jealousy in his voice.
“Yeah, bet it isn’t Dane,” Luca said.
“It actually is,” I told them.
They looked at me with widened eyes.
“I’m surprised,” Phoenix said.
“Yeah, I thought he would be done with you after the tire incident. I mean, I didn’t do it, but I thought maybe a little bit of chaos would’ve been fun,” Luca said.
That was a total lie. Luca either ordered it or did it himself. It was probably Tabitha who started the whole debacle. But I kept myself cool, pretending that nothing bothered me.
“Well, assumptions do make you an ass, so maybe you shouldn’t make them,” she said.
The two boys immediately shut up after that. we went back to working on the project, and I could tell that Phoenix was upset that I agreed to going with Dane to the dance. Luca on the other hand, was the king of snarky comments. He made a few every now and then, and I ignored them.
We’d have to work on this together, and if it meant that I’d have to deal with this harassment, then so be it.
For the next few days, we worked on this project. At first, we started in the library, since there was a room to work in. At first, it was also very awkward. I wanted to do most of the work myself, but there was definitely a wall slowly coming down.
However, after a couple of days, Phoenix sighed.
“I’m sick of working in here. Let’s go back to the dorm,” he said.
I paused. Was that really the right thing to do? I know all three of them each had their private rooms, but they all lived together. I hesitated, but then, Phoenix spoke.
“We’re not going to hurt you. We have a project to do, and it’s better if we just work together rather than apart,” he said.
It was mature of him, I’ll give him that,” I started to feel a bit more relaxed.
When we got to the dorm, I got a better look. Before this, I came over here once, and I just walked in, grabbed my shit, and then left. But now, I looked around, and I could feel a hint of jealousy course through my veins.
This place was beautiful. I thought my campus apartment was nice, but there were fancy fixtures, and I could see the plush couch. We agreed to sit down around the coffee table, with myself in between the two of them. When we worked together, it felt different.
Instead of the thee of us at one another’s throats, it was strangely civil. Phoenix would make a couple of comments on things every now and then, putting down Luca’s ideas, but he was strangely supportive.
“I like the way that sounds. I think putting together a PowerPoint presentation on the type of government I’d like to see is probably the best way to do it,” he said.
“Right. I think that’s the best way to do it,” I said.
“You know, you’re pretty smart there Jules. Maybe I was wrong about you,” I said.
I could feel the small hint of attraction that Luca had. Even though he was a total douchebag otherwise, there was something pulling me in, making me gravitate towards him as well.
But, whenever Luca showered me with any compliments, Phoenix was always there, scoffing.
“Come on, let’s get back to this. Jules has great ideas, but ideas that aren’t written down are just going to be that—ideas,” he said.
“Hey, calm down there smarty-pants,” Luca said.
I could tell that the icy tension between them was only growing more so. But there was also a lot of playful flirting that happened too.
Thorn would show up on occasion. He didn’t really pay much mind to us, but the mysterious man would look at me, and sometimes I felt
