We Were Right From The Start

The next day was just the same as every other school day. I sat in science next to Dom and listened as Mr Peatry went on about Mitosis. I tuned out and stared out the window. It was much better to day dream in lessons. It also brought my thoughts, normally, away from the boy sitting in the chair the other side of the classroom. The fact that Liam and I were in most of the same classes, didn't mean that we spent any more time together. In fact, it seemed like Liam tries extra hard to avoid me. "Right, class, next week, we will be doing presentations and you will each be having a different question that I will set later," Mr Peatry said and a collective groan was emitted from the class. "This will be your coursework rather than you submitting a written piece, I will mark your speeches. It will be 25% of your final grade. You will be working in pairs, but you each have to say an equal amount and in total, it should last a minimum of 5 minutes."
"Partner?" Dom whispered to me and I turned him and smiled.
"Of course," I said.
"I will be assigning you your partners by matching pairs randomly on the register," Mr Peatry said and Dom and I sighed. We were by far the brightest in this class and now we were being forced to work with someone else who probably won't even understand this stuff.
"Maybe he will pair us," Dom whispered. I looked at him doubtfully and he shrugged. "I can hope." I laughed softly and then waited for Mr Peatry to call out my name.
"Frankie," he said after a while. "With Dom." I couldn’t help but grin and turned to Dom, who was grinning as well. His eyes moved to something over my shoulder and he frowned slightly, dropping his smile. I turned to see what he was looking at and saw that Liam was in his eye line but wasn’t looking towards us.
"What?" I asked Dom but he just shrugged.
"Now, then," Mr Peatry said when he had finished. I noticed that Liam had been paired with Brad, another sportsman. "I see I have paired Liam and Brad and Frankie and Dom. Not a good idea. Brad, you are with Dom. Liam with Frankie." My heart skipped a beat. What?
"But-"
"No buts, Miss Tyler," Mr Peatry said and I sighed.
"But-"
"Or from you, Mr Spencer," Mr Peatry said and Liam sighed as well.

I turned to Dom with desperate eyes, but he just shrugged. "At least now we'll ace the presentation," I heard Brad say and I turned to glare at him, but my anger died when I met Liam's eyes. He wasn’t laughing or joking, he was just looking at me. I smiled weakly and turned away again.
"I don’t think I can do it," I whispered to Dom.
"You don’t have a choice," he said and I sighed and put my head in my hands.
"Fucking fantastic," I muttered and I heard a gasp from Dom.
"Frankie," he mocked scolded. "You did not just swear!?" I rolled my eyes. Normally I avoided swearing where I could.
"The situation called for it," I said and Dom just laughed.
"At least you're working with someone you know," he said, looking over at Brad, a look of disgust on his face. I smiled slightly but shook my head.
"I don’t know him, though," I said and Dom rolled his eyes.
"Yes you do," he said and then jumped up when the bell rang.
"Don't forget everyone, you must prepare your presentations in your own time, no class time will be designated for this," Mr Peatry said. I sighed inwardly. That meant I would have to spend time with Liam outside of school...

I walked to my locker and put my biology books inside and then slammed it shut. Why couldn’t I be with Dom? Surely changing the randomly allocated pairs isn’t fair? "Someone's in a bad mood," a voice said behind me and I immediately tensed. I turned round and looked at Liam.
"Shouldn't I be?" I asked and his cocky expression melted away and he frowned.
"Look, um, I know...we're not really..." he sighed and looked away for a second before returning his gaze to mine. "I just...I need an A in this. If I don’t I-"
"Sure, I'll get you your A, that's all I'm really good for, after all, right?" I asked him angrily.
"What? I didn't mean that-"
"Whatever," I snapped. "I bet you're thrilled you get to work with a geek so that you don't actually have to do any work." Liam just glared at me and I walked away.

Wonderful, our first conversation for years and we just yelled at each other... I sighed and made my way to my next class, English. This was my one class that I wasn’t with Liam for. I went in and sat at the back, avoiding everyone. Maybe if I spoke to Mr Peatry, he might let me change partners. Maybe if I said that Liam and I...if we had broken up or something and couldn’t be together... I told myself I would go to see him at lunch.

The lesson passed quickly and soon it was 12 o'clock, lunchtime. I wasn’t sure whether I should go eat first or see Mr Peatry first. I decided that Mr Peatry would probably be at lunch now as well so he wouldn’t be in his classroom, so I headed to the cafeteria. I got an apple out of my bag and ate it slowly. Dom and Mandy came a few minutes later and sat down with me. "Dom told me about your science thing," Mandy said and I nodded.
"I'm going to talk to Mr Peatry in a minute," I said and then looked across the room at Liam. "He came over to me after the lesson and said that he needed an A in this speech and I had to help him get it."
"So?" Dom said and I frowned at him.
"So?" I repeated in confusion.
"He would have said that to anyone, maybe he really does need it," he said. I didn't reply.
"What if Mr Peatry says no?" Mandy asked.
"I dunno, but I don’t think I can work with him," I said, glancing over at Liam again.
"What are you going to say to Mr Peatry?" Dom asked and I shrugged.
"I could tell him that we just broke up or something..." I said.
"Maybe," Dom said quietly. I kept looking over at Liam and then he suddenly looked up at me. I looked away quickly, a frown on my features. When Liam's eyes had met mine my heart had started racing and now it wouldn’t stop. I ignored it and just quickly finished eating.
"I'll see you guys later," I said and then made my way to Mr Peatry's classroom.