THINGS AREN’T ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM

Vanessa sat in her desk chatting with various friends who surrounded her as the bell rang signaling the beginning of class. Vanessa continued to talk with her friends until the teacher walked towards the front of the class and began talking about the homework assignment issued the night before.

Vanessa turned and faced the front and began rustling through her papers just like everyone else looking for her homework. She quickly found it and waited quietly for further instruction. The teacher asked for the papers to be passed to front and she did so passing up the papers of the people behind her as well.

“As you all know, this semester is quickly coming to an end. And to celebrate this, I’m giving you guys only 1 more assignment,” The teacher announced calmly with a slight smile on his face.

Many excited whispers erupted from around the room but were quickly cut off by the teacher beginning to speak again.

“Ah ah ah, but there’s a catch. This is going to be your major assignment, worth a lovely 15 of your mark.”

Groans replaced the excited whispers.

“Oh don’t be so disappointed. I’m being nice by letting you complete this project in partners!” The teacher said enthusiastically.

“Jesse, I’ll be your partner!” Vanessa quickly said to her best friend who sat across from her.

“Ah but of course I’m picking your partners for you.” The teacher continued.

“Phff, guess not.” Jesse said as she raised her eyebrows and tossed her pencil on her desk.

“The assignment is going to be a written assignment, and it’s going to be about changes in literature throughout history. You must give detailed examples of changes, talk about authors of different times; prove that you’ve read more than the “Goosebumps” series in your lives. I’ve posted the pairings on the bulletin board near the door. You best get started now; it’s due in 3 weeks.” The instructor then walked away from the front of the class to the back where his desk was located and watched as all of his students complained.

“This is ridiculous. Watch, I’m going to get paired up with someone I hate.” Jesse told Vanessa.

Vanessa shook her head and said, “No, don’t be so pessimistic. You never know, might end up with someone you really like.”

“Right Vanessa,” The brown haired girl said sarcastically as she got up heading toward the bulletin board.

The blonde followed closely behind her friend. When she reached the board she scanned the paper looking for her name. After a moment she finally spotted her name in the bottom right corner. The paper read:

“Vanessa Laillen – Jenna Madison”

“Jesse, who’s that?” Vanessa inquired while frowning a little as she concentrated trying to recall a face to identify with the name.

“Ah crap, I hate that kid. I knew it,” Jesse whined as she turned away from the board slightly annoyed at who her partner turned out to be.

“Jesse?” The blonde asked again.

“What? Who’d you get?”

“Jenna Madison. I can’t remember who that is.”

Jesse turned to give Vanessa a sadistic smile. “Lovely. You got the freak.”

Vanessa continued to give Jesse a puzzled look.

“See that girl at the back with the red hair? She’s scribbling something on her page? Probably some type of suicide note,” Jesse finished with a bitter laugh.

The blonde girl looked towards the back of the room and eventually spotted the girl her friend had been describing. Vanessa soon remembered who she was. That girl had been in a few of her classes in previous years but was pretty quiet and kept to herself. But she also had a reputation for being hostile and snapping at anyone who tried to talk to her. “Oh dear. This is going to be interesting.”

“Damn right. Good luck!” Jesse laughed as she slapped her friend on the back and headed off to find her partner.

Jenna sat at her desk writing meaningless things on her page. She hadn’t bothered to get up and look to see who her partner was. It wasn’t as if it’d be someone she was friends with. So instead of wasting her energy, she just sat and waited to see if her partner would actually bother to come over and talk to her.

“Alright, here we go. It’ll be ok. I’m sure she’s not as bad as everyone says,” Vanessa thought to herself as she began her trek towards Jenna’s desk. Once she got there she sat down in the empty desk adjacent to the red head. “Hi!” She said cheerfully.

Jenna slowly put down her pencil and just as slowly turned her head to see who was greeting her. “Oh God no,” She thought the second she saw who was there. “Popular and beautiful…great,” The red head thought to herself summarizing the blonde. “Hello.” She finally managed.

Vanessa continued to smile in the red head’s direction and struck up a conversation with her, “So, this project is going to be pretty bad isn’t it? I gotta say, this isn’t my favorite subject.”

Jenna continued to stare at the beautiful blonde, “Really. Well, I think it’s going to be amazing,” her statement just dripping with sarcasm.

Vanessa’s smile twitched just slightly, but determined to at least get on civilized terms with the cynical loner, continued, “Mm, when do you want to work on it? We’re probably going to need the entire 3 weeks.”

Surprised at just how long her partner was keeping up this cheery façade, she replied in an almost affable tone, “Whenever you like. I’m free basically all the time.”

“Well we should work on it now I guess, but how about after school as well. I don’t have track and field today, and I don’t work either.”

“Ok, that works fine for me,” Jenna replied softening up a little.

The girls brainstormed about the project for the remainder of the class.

Jenna found herself actually liking her partner. She was expecting her to be a bitch or at least a snob. But she had been surprisingly nice and thoughtful so far.

Vanessa too found herself not so tense around her partner. They had similar ideas for the project so there had been no major conflicts yet. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so be after all.

---

The final bell rang and the majority of the students began to head home. Jenna slowly made her way towards the library where she and Vanessa had agreed to meet. She had to admit to herself that she was slightly nervous. So far things had gone quite well and she wasn’t use to that.

Jenna sat down at one of the many empty tables; the one where she normally sat at during lunch hours. She waited for a while and began to wonder whether Vanessa had forgotten. But just then the blonde came jogging in and headed towards the table at which Jenna was seated.

“Sorry about that. Mike wouldn’t let go of me for a while.”

Jenna just raised her eyebrow.

“Oh, Mike is my boyfriend. He’s a little domineering sometimes.”

“Mm, I see. Anyways, guess we should start,” Jenna suggested as she began pulling her notebook out of her backpack.

The 2 of them worked on their project only for about half an hour before deciding to call it quits. They had actually achieved a lot more than expected in the given time frame.

“I didn’t realize you knew so much about literature,” Vanessa stated as she got up from her chair.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The other girl said defensively.

“Nothing. I just don’t know anyone else who knows that much about it.” Vanessa said urging her innocence.

Jenna stared at her for a moment, but then replied, “Well, I read a lot. Not much else to do in my house.”

“I see. Well, I think it’s cool that you know so much. I read a lot too, none of my friends read, so there’s no point in trying to talk to them about anything pertaining to stories and such,” Vanessa said with a laugh.

“Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that you read a lot as well. Just as you’ve admitted, most popular people don’t read much,” The red head said as she open the door out of the library and held it open for her partner.

“Oh,” Vanessa said surprised by the simple but polite gesture, “Um, well, yah I guess. I wouldn’t say that I’m popular though.”

“Mhmmm. Count the number of friends you have and try to say that to me again,” Jenna said as she turned and walked down the hallway.

The second Jenna had her back to Vanessa, she couldn’t help but smile.

“There’s something very troubling about that girl, but she’s actually not half bad” Vanessa thought to herself as she walked the opposite direction towards her car and headed home.