His Deepest Secret

Charlotte was awake bright and early the next morning. It was going to be a good day, she could feel it. She walked to school, the chilly Autumn air surrounding her. The sun was low in the sky, rising ever so slowly. With her hands stuffed in the pockets of her coat and her silky, dark brown hair hiding in the hood of her jacket, she walked up to the school gates.

Anderson awoke at three a.m. His body jolted, awakening from the nightmare he was having. The one he always had. Slowly, he got up from his bed. He padded to his bathroom to brush his teeth since he had fallen asleep reading his textbook. After brushing his teeth, he looked up into the mirror, staring at his reflection. Hatred filled his eyes. Anger aroused deep within his heart. And the only word that could come to mind was "Why?"

He tried going back to sleep until he had to wake up at six, but he couldn't. Instead, he just laid in bed, waiting for the minute his alarm clock beeped. When it was finally time to get ready, he got up and dressed himself, looking as perfect as usual. He went downstairs, grabbed his keys, and went out the door into the freezing cold air, grabbing his letterman's jacket as close to his body as he could as the cold breeze harshly swept over him. Today was certainly not going to be a good day.

---

School was about to start in a few minutes . Students bustled to class, each walking with longer strides to get into a warm classroom.

Charlotte was walking to her chemistry class, her earphones craftily hidden in her jacket and hair so no one could tell she was listening to her iPod. She was looking down as she walked, noticing how her best friend had drawn two stick figures that looked like ninjas in a small corner of the top of one of her Converse.

Anderson was not in the mood and did not feel like putting up with anyone's crap today, but he had to. He was Anderson. As he walked to class, he kept his head down, trying to get inside the building and out of the 28 degree weather.

With their heads down, they weren't paying attention and ended up walking straight into each other. Anderson scoffed and walked away, not even caring to apologize. He should never have to apologize to anyone. Charlotte frowned and continued walking. She wasn't going to let today be a bad day.

---

Lunch ended. It was English for Charlotte and Anderson. Both hated going to this class, knowing they would somehow manage to argue with each other.

With a tense vibe around them, they both took their seats. Yesterday was still clear as day in their memory.

With the whole class extremely talkative and energetic today, Mrs. Heinagan had a little bit of a hard time getting everyone to realize it was time to shut up.

"What's the warm up? I don't see one on the board," shouted an apparently very bright student.

"There isn't one Ian, which is why nothing is written on the board." The class snickered at him. "Today is a great day. Today is the day I assign project partners!" she told the class.

"What project?" The whole class was pissed off. Her projects were the hardest.

"Take out a piece of paper and start writing my instructions for the project. You and a partner will each be assigned a scene from a play of Shakespeare. You will painstakingly pick apart each sentence from the scene you are given and explain it. After you complete that task, here comes the fun part. You will rewrite it using contemporary language and make it like a scene of today. You will use proper grammar and complex sentence structures. After you rewrite this, you both will construct a model of what the scene would look like back then and another model of what the scene you have rewritten would look like today. The whole purpose of this project is to make sure you comprehend and understand the play inside and out. Your models and rewritten scripts and explanations will be used by other students as we read the play together. It's due in a month. We are still on 'The Great Gatsby' and I want to have this project done before we start 'Julius Caesar'."

Everyone was silent and pissed off. They hated the project already.

"Who's my partner?" a student yelled from the back of the classroom, winking at a girl sitting right next to him. The girl rolled her eyes and looked to Mrs. Heinegan.

"Listen up. I'm telling you the pairs right now. Carson and Vieja. Johnson and Hernandez..."

Charlotte tuned the teacher out until she heard her last name, which she knew would be said last. For some reason, she was always the last on Mrs. Heinagan's lists for things.

"Smith and Wailey."

Charlotte froze in place, her fists clenched together tightly.

Anderson stared at his desk, trying to pretend like he did not hear the teacher.

"Can we switch partners?l" A girl with blonde hair did not look happy with her partner, the known geek of the school.

"No. They are final," Mrs. Heinagan answered.

Anderson was staring at his partner with such hatred.
Charlotte turned back to look at her partner, noticing that he was already staring at her.
His eyes burned with fire.
This was not a good day.

Charlotte and Anderson were assigned to be be partners for a project that would take a month to complete.

This was going to be a living hell, they both knew it.