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When they were younger, Jess and Amara would always beg their teachers to pair them up on projects together; but they rarely ever listened and instead paired them with other students—reason why, in all the years they went to school together, they might have worked together less than five times.
But now, years later, when neither of them asked to be paired with the other, their teacher decided to assign a group project, and of course, he called Jess' name right after Amara's.
"Mr. Mariano and Mss. Kirby, you two will investigate..." Mr. Jones said as he searched for their topic on his notes, "The historic Stars Hollow Gazebo."
To the whole class it was just two names thrown in one after the other—at random. But to Mara, who jumped from her seat to beg the teacher to let her change her partner, it looked like some sort of torture. Jess stared down at his lap, lost in thoughts, while everyone stared at Mara as if she had lost it. Clearly, it was something no one had expected her to do. I mean, to them, it looked like she was freaking out because she did not want to work with the new guy when it was far from it.
Meanwhile, Jess was once again hating on himself. He was the reason she was acting like this. He was the reason she was doing a scene when she would have never done this before. It was him who decided to be an asshole, leading to her wanting nothing to do with him—which, yes, was his plan, but it still stung.
He felt sick as he heard her beg the teacher.
"I'm sorry, Mss. Kirby, but partners aren't exchangeable. I'm sure you and Mr. Mariano will work out a way to work together; after all, it is 50% of your grade."
"Please, Mr. Jones. He—" Amara begged, and Jess could tell because her leg was shaking under the table that the public speaking was making her anxious.
He wished he could help her calm down, but, again, this was all his doing.
"There are no exceptions, Mss. Kirby!" He sounded annoyed. "Whatever you say won't change anything, so save it. You two will work together. It's final."
"Fuck." Mara mumbled under her breath as she sat back down, crossing her arms in front of her chest; glaring at Jess. "Fuck you, by the way." She whispered to him—leaning closer to him to say it and then jumping away as if he had something contagious.
I know.
Jess just continued staring at his lap.
He really wanted nothing to do with Amara. Yes, he'd had many moments of weakness—and maybe missed her a bit—but he still planned on following his original plan. It was supposed to be easy. He had a plan. A great plan. But no matter how hard he tried to keep his distance from her, Jess somehow managed to keep showing up in her life. It was like the universe kept pushing them together for some fucked up reason—and he didn't even believe in all those spiritual things Liz was so obsessed with.
