You're My Hardest Project

After looking at the clock and seeing that we still had five minutes till school ended, I stood up and walked to Mr. H’s desk.
“Hey, I’m heading to Rodrick’s class again.” I told him as I picked up one of the cameras. Mr. H quickly wrote me a note.
“How’s the project going?” He asked with a smile. I hid my annoyed look as I made my way to the door.
“It’s going just fine…” I lied, opening the door then leaving the classroom before he had anything else to say. I glared slightly as I made my way down the hall; since Rodrick screwed with me last night, I’ve been a little pissy all day.
Now, we had three minutes left of school and instead of stepping into Ms. St. John’s classroom I waited right across from the door, leaning on the lockers. I was going to wait for Rodrick to come out of class and talk to him, maybe give him a piece of my mind.
The bell rang loudly and a few moments later kids were storming out of every classroom in the hall. Rodrick was one of the first students to walk out of the Ms. St. John’s room, talking to another boy in the class.
“Rodrick!” I yelled at him. I saw him turn to me and roll his eyes. I glared slightly as I walked toward him and he looked back at the other boy, continuing their conversation, “Hey!” I grabbed his arm, like I’ve done many times before, and he looked back at me unhappily.
“What do you want, shorty?” He asked in an annoyed tone as the other boy walked away. I continued glaring at him as he tried to get out of my grip.
“Okay, first off, I actually have a name.” I said angrily as Rodrick once more rolled his eyes, “And, I would prefer if you took this project of mine seriously. I know you don’t care about it, but I do, and it would be nice if you weren’t such an ass about it.” Rodrick and I stared each other in the eye determinedly.
“Fine, I’ll go along with this stupid project of yours,” he finally said, “I could care less about it, but I honestly just don’t care.” He sighed and I smiled slightly.
“Good, now I don’t want you to mess with me at all anymore.” I said. Rodrick began walking down the hall and I followed right beside him, “So, how about I come to your house today.” I could see Rodrick frown slightly.
“Really, today?” he asked in an annoyed tone as we were soon out in the school parking lot.
“I’m not actually going to give you a choice.” I said with a smirk. He continued to have an annoyed expression on his face as we walked along, “Look, I really don’t want this to suck, so can we at least try not to be so cold to each other?” Rodrick said nothing and didn’t look at me as he made his way toward an ugly white van with the words ‘Löded Diper’ written along the side. I raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing.
“Okay, just so you know, I would really prefer you not tell everyone my life secrets.” He said as he opened the driver’s door and I opened the passenger’s.
“Easy enough; I’ll make a project rough draft and you can tell me what you don’t want in the final.” Rodrick soon started the car and we were out of the parking lot.
“That sounds fair enough… what are all the things you want to know, exactly?” I began pondering his question; what did I want to know about this guy’s life?
“Uh… that’s a really good question…” I said and let a small laugh escape my lips. Rodrick lightly shook his head; “Maybe a little bit of everything?” a sigh escaped his lips.
“You really want to know everything?” He looked away from the road a moment to glance at me.
“Maybe… unless there’s something you’d rather I not know.” I replied with a light shrug, “So, we can start with the easy stuff… do you have a basic schedule?” There was a smirk on Rodrick’s face.
“Schedule?” he let out a laugh, “Sadly, I have a bit of one, but that’s to keep my parents off my back.” I grabbed my small notebook.
“Then let’s start there; what’s this sad excuse of a schedule?” I smiled at him as he went silent for a moment.
“Wake up at 7am, clothes, food, backpack, drive to school, sleep in first two periods, slack of in the next two, have a kickass lunch, slack off in my last two classes, go home, some days my band’ll come over and we rehearse, eat dinner, then do whatever.” I wrote as quick as I could (which made my writing look very sloppy, might I add).
“Woooow, I’m not even one bit an over achiever and I think you’re pretty lame.” I said with a smirk and a laugh.
“Hey, it works for me, that’s all that matters.” Rodrick replied as we pulled in front of one of the many houses and he took the keys out of the ignition.
“If you’re such a slacker…” I thought for a moment, “how did you even get your license?”
“I actually put effort into learning.” He replied as we got out of the car and started walking to the house. I raised an eyebrow.
“And why put an effort into learning to drive a car and not into school?” Rodrick came to a stop at the front door.
“It means freedom, you know? I can drive myself where ever I want to be.” He replied as we walked inside. It was fairly quiet in his house; the only noises I actually heard were coming from upstairs.
“Is that the only thing you put an effort into?” Rodrick turned to the left and walked through an entrance way and then walked into a kitchen.
“I put an effort in my drumming.” He replied and opened the fridge. I leaned on the counter and waited as he began searching for some kind of snack.
As I waited I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looked at Rodrick to see a smirk come across his face. A few moments later, two boys, who looked to be about twelve, walked into the kitchen and stopped when they saw Rodrick and I. Rodrick continued to smirk as he closed the fridge (with a bottle of soda now in hand) and took a few steps toward the boys.
“Well, hello twerps.” He said, “And what baby things have you done today?” The boy with the darker hair (I’m guessing he was Rodrick’s brother) looked at his friend then back to Rodrick. I picked up my notepad.
“None of your business, Rodrick.” He pushed past Rodrick who gave a slight shocked expression. I wrote something down as I took a seat on a chair and continued watching them.
“I think it is my business.” Rodrick replied. I reached for my bag and pulled out my camera; I had to observe and record his life, so I might as well do so now.
“Well, it’s not so just leave us alone.” The young boy began walking away, “Come on, Rowley.” Rodrick quickly slid his foot out in front of the boy, causing him to trip on the ground. As this happened I quickly snapped photo of the action, which caused Rodrick to look at me confused.
“Just ignore me.” I said with a smile and a wave of my hand. Rodrick shook his head but looked back down at his brother who was picking himself up off the ground.
“I’ll tell mom.” The younger kid said; which got me to smile and stifle a laugh. Rodrick did something similar, but made his laugh much more noticeable; at that moment I took another picture.
“Tell her what, that I was being a meanie?” Rodrick mocked and laughed once more. His brother took a step forward and pointed a finger out toward me.
“I’ll tell her you brought a girl home.” I took a picture then realized he was talking about me, which brought a light blush to my face; I didn’t want to be dragged into this. Rodrick looked between me and his brother.
“So…?” He began.
“You know how she’ll respond to that…?” Rodrick looked away and thought a moment before glaring down at his brother slightly.
“Fine; so just go.” His brother began walking away, “And bring the Baby Hippo with you.” Rodrick pointed at the Rowley kid and I stifled another laugh, writing another thing down before taking a last picture. The two younger boys left the room and Rodrick looked back at me, “You know, it’s really weird having someone sit there and take pictures of me fighting with my brother.” I gave him a smile.
“What’s his name, by the way?” I asked. Rodrick rolled his eyes.
“Greg…” He mumbled. I nodded and wrote it down, “Anyway, we can move on now.” He quickly walked back to the front of the house and I had to speed walk to keep up with him. We walked up a flight of stairs and walked to a door. Rodrick opened it to reveal another flight of stairs and I gawked slightly; he had an attic bedroom. I’ve always wanted an attic bedroom!
Once we made it to the top of the stairs I looked around and began taking pictures of the mess that sat in front of me.
“Come on, don’t take a million pictures.” He said as he put his hand in front of the camera lens. I gave a slight shrug.
“Sorry, I just really like my camera.” I replied before setting it down on a nightstand.
“Apparently…” He muttered, “So… uh… there’s really not many interesting things I do…” I nodded slightly with a smile.
“I guess so…” I looked around, “There has to be something though… what do you do when you get home?” Rodrick sat at the head of his bed and thought.
“… Nothing…” he said and I sighed in defeat.
“Well that’s fantastically helpful.” I said sarcastically and sat at the foot of the bed, “Just… tell me about yourself…” I picked up my notepad once more.
“What’s there to tell?” He asked with a shrug, “Honestly, there’s nothing particularly special about me.”
“Not true.” I said and kicked his foot lightly, “Who is Rodrick Heffley?” Rodrick sat and stared at me.
“…don’t care much about school, my focus is on my music, I really don’t like being around my family much, and I cherish my alone time.” He said simply, “Not much to it.”
“There’s just not much you want to say yet.” I replied as I wrote down what he said, “Sooner or later there’ll be a lot more for you to say than you think.”
“I guess so…” He said, mostly to himself, as he picked up my camera and began looking at it. I watched as he pressed random buttons, adjusted the lens, and looked through it. He then quickly took a picture of me and after my eyes immediately widened and I covered my face.
“No pictures!” I replied and heard Rodrick laugh.
“You get pictures of me, I get pictures of you, it’s only fair.” He said and took another photo. I glared through my fingers as he took one of that action.
“I’m taking picture s for a project.” I replied, “It’s my job.” Rodrick rolled his eyes.
“So? I can still have my fun.” He took a few more pictures of me before I gave up.