His face was inches from mine when he snarled, “you will respect me, or I will make you regret it.” Sure you will, hotshot. The only thing I will regret is how much air we’ve shared. Can you lose brain cells by standing near someone who lacks them?
“I’m so scared,” I drawled, “look at me, I’m trembling.” Giving him a sarcastic smile while I did no such thing, I placed my left hand on his chest and pushed him away to sit in my chair. He stared at me in shock for several moments before growling softly, and I growled back at him, snorting when he backed away a step.
Growling under his breath, he walked around the table to sit beside me with a grim scowl. Scoffing, he asked, “so why were you gone yesterday? Did you skip because you think you’re better than us?”
Sighing, I gave him an expression full of my disapproval, and he seemed to shrink from it for a moment before scowling again. “First, I know I’m not better than anyone, hotshot. That’s one of the biggest differences between us. I live in reality, while you dance around like a giddy fairy in your little fantasyland. Second, it’s none of your business why I wasn’t here. It’s not like you care, so why waste time by asking so futile a question?” I scoffed.
Hearing several snickers, I glanced up to discover a full classroom and sighed inwardly, cringing when the tardy bell rang a moment later. “Well, since we’re all here, I guess we’ll start class early,” Mr. Hicks announced cheerfully. Several groans filled the room, and I dropped my gaze with a slight smile. “So, we will try something new to see how it goes. You will work on a project with your tablemate,” I stiffened, not even risking a glance at the asshole beside me. “But it can be on any topic in history, I just have to approve it. You will do a poster, and PowerPoint, to present your project to the class in two weeks. So, I suggest you use this time to discuss what you want your topic to be since this project is worth forty percent of your grade this semester.” In an ironic poetic way, the bell rang as soon as he finished speaking. Way to signal the end of everything little bell, because I’m sure Kyler would rather kill me than work on this together.
Sneering, he muttered, “since you’re the suck-up, you can do it by yourself. I don’t care what it’s on so long as it looks good.”
“Well, if you don’t help, it will look blank,” I replied calmly. I was nobody’s bitch, and I would not carry his ass. And, since I might not even be here in two weeks, it wasn’t like it meant anywhere near as much to me as it did him.
“You will fail us both out of some stupid sense of superiority?” He demanded coldly, and I glared at him.
“Do you listen to anyone other than yourself, hotshot? No, I will fail us because I’m neither your bitch nor will I carry your ass because you’re too stupid to figure out how to do a project,” I growled. I was done with his shit after yesterday. He could continue pretending he was some big, terrible bully. But all he was, to me, was a boy trying to wear clothes too big for him. Sorry, kid, but you have nothing on the adults who made the game.
“You will do it, street rat,” Kyler warned, “or I will make your life hell.” Wow. So original. Did he hurt himself coming up with that?
“And here I didn’t even know I was enjoying paradise,” I mocked, and he bristled. “Nice try, but do you really think you’re the first asshole I’ve dealt with? Sorry, hotshot, but you ain’t that special.”
Kyler opened his mouth to snarl some disappointing retort, but Mr. Hicks snapped, “is there a problem, Mr. Cooper and Miss Draven? Something you’d like to share with the class, perhaps?” He arched his brow while awaiting our answer, and I sighed.
“The hotshot over here wants me to do all the work,” I told him, feeling Kyler’s hateful glare, albeit I refused to acknowledge it. “And he’s pissed because I refuse.”
“You little bitch,” Kyler seethed, and I scoffed, although I grinned after a moment and smiled sweetly before barking at him. The expression of shock on his face was priceless. He gaped and tried to say something several times, but no words escaped his mouth, which only heightened my amusement.
“Very well,” Mr. Hicks chuckled, “you seem to have this situation under control. Therefore, I’ll let you handle your peer unless he becomes too much for you. Pick a topic, and if you grind him under your heel, you might make something of Mr. Cooper yet.” He looked back at the work he had at his desk while the class snickered.
“What about medicine,” I mused while Kyler continued to stare at me in shock. “World War II is when most modern medicines were developed because of the experiments Hitler had scientists perform on the innocent people in his concentration camps. We could do a project on that.” Morbid, but fascinating in a way. Plus, the morbidity of it might intrigue Kyler. He shook his head with wide eyes like he couldn’t believe what I offered. “Or there’s always how Hitler was a painter in Turkey, but nobody bought his paintings, so he went to Germany instead. So, we could do a project on what would have prevented some tragedies in history.”
“No to both, Miss Draven,” Mr. Hicks called cheerfully, and I scowled although he didn’t look up from his desk. How did he even hear me?
