Dirty Little Secret

[Jack]

I sat down on my stool in science class next to Alex, letting out a huge burp. The few people that were already in class complained or looked at me in disgust, and I just laughed. My friends and I had just chugged a whole bunch of pop at lunch to have a burping contest, much to the disapproval of the lunch tables around ours.

“You’re in a good mood,” Alex mused, chuckling as he set his books down on the table.

I shrugged, “I’ve had a good day. Plus you and I are hanging out after school, so my day will be even better after I kick your ass at some video games.”

“You know I’m going to beat you,” Alex argued. I opened my mouth to retaliate but then felt myself being pushed out of the way as someone walked past me. I spun around to see who it was and scowled when I saw Zack smirk at me as he sat down at his table.

“Asshole,” I muttered, turning around to face the front of the classroom as the bell rang.

I was half asleep as I took notes during class, but at the end of the period our teacher announced that we were going to be starting a project on the chapter we were learning about DNA, chromosomes, and genes. As soon as she said it would be a partner project, everyone began talking.

“Don’t get too excited, you guys. I’ll be choosing your partners for this project,” Mrs. Adams said, and the entire class groaned.

“Why can’t we choose our partners?” I whined.

Mrs. Adams raised an eyebrow, pointing directly at Alex and I, “Because when we did a project in our chemistry unit, you two blew something up!”

The entire class burst out in laugher, and so did Alex and I. We had mixed the wrong chemicals and basically blew something up, causing us to be sent down to the nurse’s office for the rest of the period to treat the chemical rashes we ended up with.

“I still don’t see why we can’t choose partners,” Alex protested once he had stopped laughing.

“I’m choosing partners so it’s completely random. There are a few groups of people I want to split up and that’s the best way to do it,” Mrs. Adams explained. She pulled out a little box with slips of paper, beginning to partner people up. Alex was lucky enough to get partnered up with Rian, who grinned at him from across the classroom. “Jack, you will be partners with...”

She reached into the box and I crossed my fingers, whispering to Alex, “Pick a nerd. Pick a nerd.”

“Zack Merrick will be your partner.”

“No!” I exclaimed, blurting it out as soon as the realization settled it. I spun around to look at Zack who was just sitting there with a small smirk on his face. I could hear snickers throughout the class as people tried to contain their laughter.

Mrs. Adams raised an eyebrow, “What’s the problem, Jack?”

“I can’t be partners with Zack. He’s... he’s...” I struggled to think of a school appropriate description. “He’s annoying!”

“To be fair, Jack, you can be just as annoying as he is,” Mrs. Adams said with a sigh.

“We can’t work together. We don’t get along,” I insisted desperately. “Anyone but him.”

“I’m not switching anyone’s partners. Do you have a problem with this, Zack?” she asked, turning to look at him.

Zack shrugged, shaking his head, “Nope, it’s okay with me.”

“See?” Mrs. Adams said, turning back to me.

“But-“

“No buts. I’m not switching your partner, and that’s final. You two can get over your differences and work together,” she said firmly, frowning at me before continuing to partner people up.

I looked at Zack again, who still had the smirk on his face, before turning to Alex and giving him a desperate look. He patted me on the shoulder reassuringly, “I’m so sorry.”

We got the instructions for our project and the bell rang a few minutes later to dismiss us from class. I tried to sneak out of class before Zack saw me, but he caught up to me and put a strong hand on my shoulder to stop me.

“Hey, Barakat. Meet me in the library after school today so we can talk,” Zack said simply, walking away when I nodded.

Alex made a noise of disgust when he caught up to me, “You got the worst partner ever. At least I got Rian.”

“Fuck you.”

--------------------

I walked down the hallway after school, heading toward the school library. School had ended ten minutes ago, but I had been stalling because I was afraid to meet up with Zack in the library. I was hoping that none of his friends were with him. Alex and Rian had ditched me, telling me that they’d meet me down in the parking lot if I was still alive.

I pushed open the double doors and walked into the library nervously. It looked pretty empty in here. I walked around for a minute, unable to find Zack. Where was he? The asshole probably blew me off...

“Over here, Barakat.” I spun around when I heard Zack’s voice. He was over by the windows in a secluded alcove. Thank god – he was alone. None of his football friends were with him.

I walked over to him, shifting my backpack on my shoulder, “Uh, hey.”

“You’re late.”

“Sorry... I was talking to my friends,” I apologized, crossing my arms.

Zack pursed his lips, seeming like he was trying to hold back a comment, “So how are we gonna do this project?”

“I hope you know I’m not going to do all the work,” I warned, and he nodded.

“Of course not. But you can spew the ideas and I’ll help out.”

I sighed, “Well I figured we can do a DNA model and write a report for the other stuff.”

“Sounds good,” he said, looking impressed. “You wanna meet at one of our houses or something to work on it?”

“As opposed to here, where we’d both be teased and ridiculed?” I asked dryly, and he shrugged, unashamed.

“Pretty much. So, you wanna meet at your house tomorrow after school?”

“I, um, I guess so...” I trailed off as he tore a piece of paper from a notebook, writing his number on it and handing it to me.

“Here’s my number – can you write yours on this?” he asked, handing the other half of the paper to me. I scrawled my number onto it and gave it to him. “I’ll call you tomorrow so I can get your address and come over to work on the project.”

“Okay,” I said, shoving the paper with his phone number into my pocket. “See you tomorrow, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Zack nodded, starting to walk out of the library.

I sighed. Well, that wasn’t too painful. Maybe working with him would be okay.

“Later, loser!” he called out as he left, a smirk back on his face.

Or not.