Dirty Little Secret

“Quit throwing shells at me, you jerk!” I yelled, eyes focused on the TV screen.

“Stop passing me and I’ll stop throwing them!” Alex yelled back, hitting me with a red shell again. We were at my house after school, playing Mario Kart together. We had told my mom that we’d do our homework, but we got distracted and started playing video games instead. I heard my phone ringing and paused the game, making Alex whine.

“Shut up, I need to answer my phone,” I said, punching him in the shoulder as I picked it up. The number wasn’t labeled with a name. “Hello?”

“Hey, Jack. It’s Zack Merrick,” the other person said. Oops. I forgot to put his number into my phone yesterday.

“Oh, hey Zack,” I said, glancing over at Alex. Alex rolled his eyes in disgust and stuck his finger into his mouth, pretending to gag himself. I giggled, unable to stop myself. He’s such a girl.

“What’re you laughing at?” Zack asked.

“Nothing. Um, what do you want?” I asked quickly.

“We need to start our project. I said I wanted to come over to your house and work on it – did you already forget?” he asked.

I grimaced, looking at the clock. It was already four; we had gotten out of school at two-thirty. “Oops. I lost track of time. Um, I guess you can come over so we can start it.”

“Where do you live?”

“Hidden Grove Road, a few streets past the mall. Turn on the street and I’m in a blue house on the left. Can’t miss it,” I told him.

“Alright, I’ll be there in like twenty minutes,” Zack said, hanging up before I could say anything else.

I sighed and tossed my phone on the couch, looking over at Alex. “You gotta leave. Zack is coming over to work on his project.”

“I definitely don’t wanna be around while Merrick is here,” Alex said, rolling his eyes and picking up his backpack. “Good luck.”

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

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. I opened the door and Zack was standing there with his backpack. “Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” I mumbled, stepping back to let him inside. “Uh, let’s go up to my-”

“Hello!” my mom greeted from the kitchen doorway. I groaned, walking over to her with Zack. “You must be Zack. Jack mentioned that you guys were partnered up for a project.”

“Yes ma’am. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Barakat,” Zack said, smiling and shaking her hand.

My mom smiled, “You seem like a nice boy. I don’t know why Jack ever said you’re mean.”

“Mom!” I hissed, and Zack just smirked at me.

“And you haven’t even offered Zack a can of soda or anything. Would you like one, dear?” my mom asked him.

“No thank you,” Zack said politely, seeming thrilled at the fact that my mom was embarrassing me.

I scowled at both of them, “We’re gonna go up to my room and work on the project. Leave us alone, please.”

I grabbed Zack by the wrist and tugged him toward the stairs, leading him up to my room. I kicked the door shut behind us and Zack set his backpack down on my bed. “Your room is kinda messy.”

“I haven’t cleaned it in a while. Just be glad the dirty clothes aren’t still on the floor,” I said, sitting down in my desk chair. Zack sat on my bed, looking around the room.

“You have a lot of posters.”

“Yes, I like music. Could you please quit inspecting my room and help me get to work on the project?” I asked, pulling my science stuff out of my own backpack.

“Alright, jeez. Somebody’s moody. Just because you got stuck with me as a partner doesn’t mean we have to hate each other the entire time we’re working on the project,” Zack said, unzipping his backpack.

I sighed, “That’s kind of hard.”

“Well get over it. What do we need to start with?”

“We should start with an outline so we know what we’re gonna do, and then we can just go from there,” I suggested.

“That’s stupid; we should just start with the report and ignore the outline,” Zack frowned.

“Do you want to do this project yourself?”

“No...”

“Then shut up and just go with what I say,” I said, scowling at him. He glared back at me before trudging over to my desk and pulling up a chair to sit next to me.

We worked on the outline for the project stiffly, trying not to argue. It got a little easier the longer we were working, mostly because we were trying to be civil to each other. Zack and I wrote out a little outline for what our report would be about, so he was satisfied. We were working on that when there was a knock at my door.

“Come in,” I called out hesitantly, setting my pencil down.

My mom opened the door and stood in the doorway with a smile, “Want some of the cookies I made earlier?”

“Mom, I said to leave us alone,” I groaned, shaking my head at her.

She shrugged, “Alright. I’ll just take the cookies back downstairs.”

“No, wait – leave the cookies.”

Zack laughed as I jumped up and took the cookies from my mom, shutting the door and walking back to my desk. “Can I have one or are you gonna eat them all?”

“I’m not fat, I can’t eat fifteen cookies,” I scoffed, then paused. “Actually, I could, I’m just not going to.”

“I definitely could too, but I’d have to work out afterwards,” Zack chuckled, leaning back and looking around my room again as he ate one of the cookies. “Hey, is that a Baltimore Ravens blanket?”

“Yeah,” I said, turning in my desk chair and looking over at my bed.

“I didn’t know you like football.”

“I love football. I just hate everyone at school who plays football,” I said, shrugging.

“Ouch,” Zack said, pulling a fake pout at me.

I shrugged, “It’s true. But yeah, I have a bunch of Ravens stuff. The blanket, a poster on the wall over there, and a few jerseys.”

“That’s so cool,” he said, looking impressed. He stood up after a few minutes, picking his backpack up from the ground. “I should probably get going. My mom and dad will want me home for dinner soon. We should just meet over at my house next time, if you want.”

“Okay, sounds good,” I said, nodding.

“Cool. See you at school,” he said, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and heading out of my room. He poked his head back in the doorway to look at me, “By the way – you’re more tolerable than I expected.”

I smiled slightly, “So are you. Now get out of my house.”