The History Project (Niah & guitarfan28)

[Niah]

"What's your next class?" A teenage male asked the young woman. Mia Deddario looked up from her lunch nonchalantly, "history." She replied, before taking a mouthful of her pasta. "Boring" Nick responded and then looked to another female. "What about you?" He asked the other girl, whose name was Alesha. "Maths" Alesha told him, as she picked at the food on her friend's plate. "Ugh, you're killing me, Tess tell me you have something better?" Nick asked the last member of their group. "Maths too" Tess informed him with a smile. The male began groaning like a disappointed child who had been told that they couldn't have candy. Mia couldn't help but shake her head as she laughed. "What does it matter anyway? They're not gonna let you just walk in." She asked him. Nick had a free period and had decided that the best way to keep himself occupied would be to tag along with one of his friends to their class. Right now his plan was going poorly, mainly due to his dislike of work. "Er... I think you're forgetting how charming I am Mia." Nick joked, flipping his blonde hair slightly.

His three female friends began to giggle, however their good mood was quickly shattered as another student walked past the table. Tate, one of the linebackers for the football team, shoved an elbow into Nick's back. "Fag!" The jock hissed at the blonde. Within seconds Nick was on his feet and Mia followed swiftly. "Don't Nicky! He's not worth it!" She urged her friend. There was a moment when it seemed that Nick and Tate might end up in a fight, as the two stared at one another. However eventually Nick sat back down, leading Tate to smirk. "Knew it, wimp!" He taunted, before continuing on his way. Nick folded his arms, his fists clenched in anger. With him being the only male in their group of four, bullies were always accusing him of being gay. Even though it wasn't true, that's not what really bothered him. It was the fact that the accusations felt more like homophobia that pissed him off. Mia let out a sigh as the bell rang announcing that it was now the end of lunchtime. Herself, Alesha and Tess stood up from the table. "We'll see you later Nicky, try not to punch anyone during your free period, yeah?" Mia said with a sad smile, before heading to class.

Unfortunately bullying was a regular occurrence for Mia and her friends. In fact that little lunchtime incident was practically Tate being nice, compared to other things that he had been known to do. Mia herself was a target due to her lack of money. With her mum running off after her little brother was born disabled, they were left with just their dad. Medical bills for a sick brother and only one income meant that they were left with very little money by the end of it all. Turning up to school in second hand clothes and none of the latest gear left Mia open to torment. The only time she was ever truly happy was with her friends or at home with her family. She never let those egotistic, shallow jerks see her fold though. Always one to snap back and tell them where to shove it, that's the type of girl Mia was. She only stopped Nick from swinging a punch because she didn't want him to get expelled.

The short brunette said goodbye to Alesha and Tess, as they splintered off to find their next classes. Mia walked into Mr. Jenkins classroom and found the history teacher looking somewhat chipper. This was probably her first warning that today was about to get a whole lot worse. Whenever teachers were this happy, it was mainly because they had a brilliant idea that wasn't always so fantastic for their students. Mia took her seat in the middle of the class and set down her books and stationary ready to start. Slowly but surely more students began to filter in through the door as the lesson was almost about to begin.

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane Heywood shook his head when Tate walked back to the table, "Did you see that fag stand up and actually think he was going to fight me? What a freaking idiot." He sat down with a handful of cookies he probably took from other students and Zane grabbed one. Zane was the quarterback of the football team and the most popular guy in school, with the students and teachers. He didn't do badly in school when he actually tried. Tate frowned when Zane stole a cookie, "Dude?!" Zane laughed, "You could lose the pounds man and plus you have a handful. Didn't your mother teach you to share?" The other guys at the table laughed a bit.

The football team was undefeated so it put a lot of pressure on Zane. He wanted to play ball in college so he had to step it up to get noticed by scouts. With dreams of getting into a good school and to keep the team undefeated he had to be on top of his game every week. He would focus on each week and each opponent one week at a time. His mornings started early with a run if they didn't have morning practice then they had practice every day after school. He also tried to eat healthy for the most part, minus cookies and a few other treats he would give himself. Zane loved the attention he got during football season. There was just something fascinating to him about being the most popular guy in the school. He just hoped he could continue to be their hero or Monday would be a long day, having to show up with a loss under their belt.

Zane didn't always do all the bullying and mistreatment. He couldn't lie that he wasn't around when it happened and he didn't exactly stop it so he was very much just as responsible as if he did it he supposed. Most of the time he just tried to ignore it. Ian their running back looked at him, "Did you do the English paper." Zane smiled and shook his head. "No I had Elliott write something up for me." He chuckled a bit, "Man I'm too freaking busy with practices and stuff. Plus Mr. Turner doesn't seem to care, he wouldn't want to have to be the reason the quarterback gets benched." The guys envied Zane and how he ran the school it seemed. Just then the bell rang and he grabbed his Powerade and finished it off before getting up to throw his stuff away. Going back to the table he grabbed his bag and took off for class. He said bye to his friends before heading into the classroom for his history class.

Zane found his usual seat at the back of the class and sat down. A couple cheerleaders turned to talk to him, "Hi Zane. Worried about the big game Friday?" Zane smiled, he loved cheerleaders, or well the attention they gave him. "No. I'm not worried. I know we will win. It will be a good game though." It was a tradition that the players dress up for home games in dress clothes with a tie. Then their girlfriends or a lucky girl got to wear whatever jersey they didn't need for the game. Away games the players wore their away jerseys. Their colors were Red, Black, and White. Red jerseys for away and Black for home games. They had a home game that week. "Zane who's wearing your jersey Friday?," The other cheerleader asked. Zane smiled, "I don't know yet. Week's still early." The next bell rang to indicate the start of the class. The girls turned around to pay attention and Zane just smiled.

 

[Niah]

Once the last student had taken their seat, Mr. Jenkins closed the door before swishing around on the balls of his feet to face his class. He clapped his hands together enthusiastically, causing a few students who hadn't been paying attention to jump. The history teacher was what Mia would refer to as; slightly eccentric. He looked to the teenagers with a huge grin, before finally beginning to speak. "Whose up for a little project?" He announced, opening his arms wide almost in celebration. A few students instantly groaned, but Mia couldn't help but smile. She found Mr. Jenkins quite funny and personally enjoyed projects, yeah as if the bullies didn't have enough ammo, Mia was also a huge nerd. She was smart, enjoyed school work, loved books, theater, sci-fi etc. As lame as it may seem, she actually felt a little stir of excitement at Mr. Jenkins' plans. Already her mind was buzzing about what she may be given to do. "Even better, how about project partners?" He added.

At this a few people glanced towards their friends, obviously hoping that they would be able to pick their own partners. However the history teacher quickly dashed their hopes by whipping a piece of paper off of his desk. It clearly had all of their names already organised upon it. There was another flurry of moaning and shifty eyes, as people began to wonder who they would be paired up with. "World War II! Fascinating and distressing time in our history. Over the next two weeks you and your partners will delve in head first to this subject. You will research your particular aspect, co-write a paper and plan a presentation to show to the class. Leanne and Sarah, you will be researching the invasion of Poland. Jackson and Michelle, you will be researching concentration camps. Sean and David, you'll be researching the Normandy landings. Mia and Zane, you'll be researching the attack on Pearl Harbor..." The rest of Mr. Jenkins words failed to compute with Mia, her mind too in shock with what it had heard. Zane?! Zane freaking Heywood?! Any hint of excitement that had once been there for this project, was now quickly being killed off.

Mia could feel people's eyes upon her and heard a few furious whispers being uttered. She just kept looking forward, refusing to give them the satisfaction of even acknowledging their existence. While her face attempted to stay neutral, her insides were practically twisted. Of all the people in the class, why did it have to be him? His pack of cronies spent most of their time torturing Mia and her friends. Now she was going to be forced to work with their leader?! This day had officially been upgraded from bad to down right hellish! Oblivious to the chaos that he was unleashing, Mr. Jenkins finally finished reading the list and looked up to find a lot of annoyed faces staring back at him. Hardly any student had been paired with someone that they would consider a friend, but Mia was convinced that she had the worst deal out of all of them. "Well... don't just sit there. The project started the moment I read the first set of names, find your partners and get cracking! The library is open for research, I have several books that I can hand out and I'm also available for any help that you may need."

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane heard the word project and he sighed, then he heard project partners and he perked up. He loved working with partners. That meant he didn't have to do much work and his partner would make sure they did well cause they wouldn't want to get a bad grade. This could be great. Then he heard Jenkins say the partners. He got partnered with Mia...really nerdy Mia. He let out a sigh and the cheerleaders looked at him like he picked Mia or something. He gave them a look as he flicked his pencil around. It wasn't something he had control over so he wasn't sure why they gave him the dirty look.

Once the class started moving to get with their partners he sighed a bit and got up grabbing a notebook. His buddy beside him looked at him, "Good luck man..." Zane just shrugged. "Don't worry I'll come to you." He said with a bit of an attitude as he got up to walk over to the desk in front of her. He sat backwards at the desk and put his notebook down. His eyes looked her over. She was pretty, he'd give her that, but she didn't really try much to fit in. She hung out with the group his buddies picked on a lot. Great this could be soo fun.

"So...how do you want to do this?" She seemed to be the smarter of the two so he would let her do the planning and let her kind of take over in a sense. He didn't think he could get away with her doing it and him just putting his name on it. That would be too easy and she seemed the type to be stubborn and actually make him work. "Are we just working on this during class? I have practice and stuff so I'm pretty busy." His pencil tapped on her desk as he let out a sigh.

 

[Niah]

Mia had still been kind of zoned out when she heard a male speak. The tone was somewhat gruff and she looked up to see Zane parking himself at the desk in front of her. Her brows knitted together slightly at his demeanor, he obviously wasn't happy with this choice either. She just hoped that he wouldn't take that out on her and end up giving her attitude the entire time. She heard that he had a bit of a reputation for loading all of the work onto his partners in this type of situation. Well that certainly wasn't going to happen with her!

As he sat down, a few girls looked over in his direction. Some seemed furious that Mia was given the opportunity to work with him. The majority of females in this school fantasized about getting close to Zane. The reason was obvious, even Mia could see that he was attractive. However it made absolutely no difference to her, she really wasn't the type to fawn over a guy just because he was good looking. There was a moment of awkward silence before Zane decided to speak up. "Well we may have to meet up once or twice..."

They only had three history classes per week and the project was due in the Friday after next. Working exclusively in class might not give them enough time to complete it. "It won't be every day though, I have things to do too. What times are you free outside of class?" It was best that she got this noted down now. That way she would know when he was and wasn't available to help her with the project. It also meant that he couldn't try and weasel his way out of it after already admitting that he was free. Mia's tone was on the frosty side, but it was hard to be pleasant to a guy who spent most of his time watching as his friends bullied her and other people.

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane wondered what Mia could have to do that would keep her busy. He figured it was probably something nerdy like read or do homework. "Really you have stuff to do? Like what?" Wow jack ass. You have to do a project with her...chill. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I mean like, I didn't know you were in sports or anything." He didn't mean to be a jerk right off the bat. It was just something that surprised him. Maybe she was hanging out with her nerdy friends. She did have friends.

"I have football practice everyday after school. Games on Friday. I'd rather not to do much too early on a Saturday and I tend to have plans Saturday night." He smiled and looked over at the cheerleaders. He opened his notebook to start doodling while he asked her about her schedule. "When are free?" As his doodle came together, it actually turned into a fighter plane, and a not bad of one either.

"How do you want to do this? Do we want to do research online, read books, " Zane shook his head, not really thrilled about reading books, "Or watch some movies or documentaries." He would totally be down for some documentaries but that would require him to let her come over or he to go to her house. He wasn't sure how he felt about her knowing where he lived, but then again if anyone said anything, it was for a project that he had to do. "Would you come to my house or would I go to yours for things?"

 

[Niah]

Mia had begun to write out a work schedule in her notebook, when Zane's words made her stop. She placed her pen down upon the table and looked up at him. Her face held an annoyed expression as her eyebrows raised upwards. Was he being serious?! How ignorant was he to assume that only popular people had commitments outside of school? He quickly attempted to apologize, but this only managed to irk her even more. "I'm not in sports, but I suppose you think that if it doesn't involve running around a field than it's not worth doing, huh?" She rolled her eyes and shook her head, before looking back to her notebook. Mia actually had a job, was part of the photography club and also a member of the youth theater. She intended on going to an arts college after graduation and needed an impressive portfolio to get in. One of the requirements was to be skilled in at least two art-forms, she had chosen theater and photography. So a lot of her free time was spent working, photographing, with her friends, family or at the local theater.

As Zane explained that he had plans most Saturday nights, she could hear the cheerleaders giggling in reaction to his smile. "I bet you do..." Mia muttered to herself. Certainly practicing the act of procreation with an airhead bimbo kept him busy she was sure. "All of the above would be best... except for movies." Hollywood's version of historic events were never accurate. At his question about going to each other's houses she paused. Her little brother didn't do well with strangers and plus she really didn't want Zane in her home. She also didn't enjoy the thought of going to his either. "Maybe we should just stay away from each other's houses. Plenty of late night cafes with free Wi-Fi to use." She suggested.

"I work Saturdays and Sundays during the day, but I'm available late Sunday afternoon and night." There was only one Sunday between now and the deadline, so that gave them five classes, four if you didn't count this one, and one Sunday evening to get this done. Her brow furrowed a little as she wondered if this would be enough. Papers often had to be at least two thousand words and they also had to organize a ten minute presentation. Both of which they could only complete after doing all of the research and gathering the information that they needed. She chewed at her lip, a habit of hers that she tended to do when thinking. Her pen tapped rapidly against her notebook before she let out a sigh. "What about after your practice?"

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane let out a sigh. He didn't mean to upset her or really be a jerk. It just kind of came out. "That's not what I meant..." He said softly as he shook his head and rolled his eyes a little. It was something he let go though. Then there was the awkward silence for a moment. Zane only had a job during the summer. He focused on football during school. It was football starting a month before school started and went through the entire season. Now was more crucial being a senior. His goal was to get into college to play football. He was the best quarterback in the county, so it could happen. They were pretty opposite, but Zane had an artistic side he kept to himself.

His eyes squinted and his eyebrow wrinkled as she made a comment about what he did on Saturdays. She had no idea what he did on Saturdays, but she was assuming like he did. "Alright. I have a laptop I can bring to a cafe. I like coffee anyway." It was a bit of a relief she didn't want to go to his house or have him come to hers. He was totally fine with a cafe experience.

He wrote down when she worked. "Where do you work?" His eyes looked up and met hers. He was genuinely curious about what she did for work. Zane looked around his notebook a moment when she asked about after his practice. "I can meet then. I'm done by 5pm. I can shower and meet you. I just have to let my mother know if I will miss dinner." He spoke the last part kind of quietly. "But it's not a big deal. She will save me a plate." He smiled at her before opening his textbook, why not use that as the first source of information since it was right there. "Maybe we should make a timeline. To keep everything organized. Do you want to start today? Get it over with?" Zane would rather get the project over with so then they could just chill and do their own thing afterwards. The less time together he figured the better.

 

[Niah]

Mia gave a nod when Zane informed her that he could bring his laptop, but she didn't look up. She was kind of relieved that he offered, they wouldn't need two and by him bringing his, it would avoid her having to admit that she couldn't afford one herself. The school ran a renting service, a bit like taking books out from a library. They allowed you to take home one of the school laptops for a week at a time. Of course you had to retrieve them from a teacher and sign them in and out, that way if a student tried to steal one they knew who had it last. The thing was; all of those laptops had the school logo on them, so it would be obvious that it didn't belong to her. The popular crowd in this place just loved tearing her down, she didn't need to start giving them even more motivation.

Mia was a little surprised when he inquired about her job. Instantly she was suspicious, why did he want to know? So that he could gather his friends around and come aggravate her at work too? She would have thought so, if it wasn't for the expression on his face. He met her gaze and seemed actually interested, which was... weird. Mia gave an uncomfortable shrug. "The Java cafe... I'm just a waitress." She mumbled the last part. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her job, when the tips were good it meant that she earned decent money. Plus it was better than nothing and her family really needed the cash. However she also knew that certain people tended to look down on such work. The teenager raised an eyebrow when he told her about his mother. She wouldn't have thought that the king of the football team needed to report to his mum like that. Didn't rich kids just do whatever the hell they liked? "Yeah that's a good idea" Mia replied to Zane's suggestion of a timeline.

"How about we put aside three days for each part of the project? Today in class, tomorrow after school and Wednesday in class we'll do research. Friday in class, Sunday afternoon and next Monday in class we'll work on the paper. Then Tuesday after school, Wednesday in class and Thursday after school we'll work on the presentation. Then next Friday is when we hand it all in?" She asked, looking up to see if those days worked for him. It wasn't the quickest way of getting it done, with her suggested schedule they'd be working together all the way until the deadline. However it was either that or cram in as much time together this week as possible, so they wouldn't have to see each other next week. The only problem with that was; it could end up being stressful and she had other commitments to tend to, so couldn't dedicate every day this week to the project.

Following Zane's lead, Mia picked up her matching textbook also. She began looking through the index to find the corresponding pages to the attack on Pearl Harbor, there were ten of them. "You wanna take pages thirty to thirty-four and I'll take thirty-five to forty? Just write any decent facts down that could be used for the paper and presentation, we'll compare notes after?" She suggested, that should keep them busy for the rest of the class at least.

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane actually thought it was cool she worked at the cafe. Maybe if he got on her good side he'd free coffee. Not that he needed free coffee. But maybe he wouldn't have to wait in line. There was always something in it for him. When he realized that it made him seem pretty shallow. When he was at school and with his family he was two different people. Most of it was an act to try to be cool. It had worked so far. Why would he change how he acted now? "Do you get free coffee for yourself?" He wasn't asking for him he was legit curious how that worked if you worked there. It never crossed his mind that she had a bad job, in his eyes, he respected her for having a job. Most of the cheerleaders had everything handed to them. Not that he was any different himself, but he did work during the summer and he worked hard.

He tried to follow her schedule. "Hold on. I have to write this down." As she said what each day they should work on he wrote it down in his notebook. That way he could let his mother know when he would be home and when he wouldn't for dinner. It seemed that the two would be spending a lot of time together. His eyes looked at her. Like really looked at her face. She was pretty, really pretty. Then he realized he was checking her out so his eyes moved down to his notebook as he let out a deep breathe.

"Sounds good." He said to the split of their section in the textbook. Zane first just read the pages and thought about what he just read a moment. Then he started to think about how depressing the war was. The he wondered what topic was the most depressing, and realized there wasn't one that was worse than the other. He didn't know how these young guys could join the military and know they may never come home again. It made him think about how different life would be if things were the same now. Zane would forget football and be thinking about serving his country. It was something he thought maybe they could include in their presentation as Pearl Harbor was what got the US in the war in the first place. He started jotting down some notes and made a note to talk to Mia about it later. It wasn't something he felt like bringing up in front of the rest of the class.

He couldn't help but keep glancing at Mia before the bell rang. "So we will share notes tonight? I'll see you tonight at the cafe okay?"

 

[Niah]

Assuming that their obligatory small talk was now over, Mia simply continued on with her work. However it wasn't long until Zane was speaking to her again. Maybe he was just being polite, attempting to keep pleasant conversation and a good atmosphere between them, since they had to work together. The question was; why? To be honest she had been expecting nothing but awkward silence from the male and an attempt to just rush through everything so that he could get as far away from her as possible. However instead he was being friendly. Perhaps Mia was just naturally cynical? She just didn't get why a guy from the same group that regularly bullied her and her friends, was suddenly acting decent towards her.

"I don't really like coffee..." She replied. "But I get the odd muffin." Mia looked up to find Zane glancing at her, but he swiftly went back to writing. She self-consciously tucked a stray hair behind her ear and looked down at herself. Was there something on her? Shrugging it off, she simply went back to doing her part of the reading. As the minutes slipped by, everyone in class got on with their projects. A few students decided to head to the library, one of them being a cheerleader. As she walked past, she shot a scowl in Mia's direction. Mia's brow furrowed, seriously?! She looked over to Zane, was every girl in school going to hate her because she got to work with him? The whole experience was truly wasted on her, any other girl would be loving this! They'd be flirting with him, finding any excuse to get closer to him and just generally attempting to keep his attention. Whereas she was just sat there, doing work and wondering what all the fuss was about.

When the bell rang, Mia couldn't believe how fast the time had gone. The book was obviously more detailed than she had been expecting. Her and Zane didn't even get a chance to compare what they had written. They weren't due to meet up until tomorrow after school and she'd rather spend that time doing more research, not going over their notes from today! Surprisingly, Zane offered to meet up tonight as well, to go through the notes. Well it would mean that their time tomorrow wouldn't get cut into she supposed, but she had youth theater first. Zane finished football practice at five, but she wouldn't be done until half six. "Um... I won't be able to make it until like seven, half seven. Unless I can get a ride off someone."

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane looked at her confused. "You don't like coffee? Are you human?" He smiled at her a bit as he was being playful with her. "Muffins can be cool. I like the banana nut ones the best." What the hell was he doing? Was he flirting a bit with her? Why did he find the need to tell her the kind of muffins he liked. He was completely oblivious to the people giving her dirty looks as he worked on his information.

Zane thought about it. "I can just pick you up. Just tell me when and where." He didn't mind picking her up or taking her home. It would be dumb for them to wait longer to get to work together because she didn't have a ride and he could easily pick her up where ever. It also wouldn't be an issue for him to drive her home, it wouldn't be right to have her walk if it was late when they were done. "Here..." He grabbed her notebook and put his number down. "Call or text me." It would make sense to be able to keep in touch, in case someone had to cancel this way.

He gathered his books and put them in his bag. "I'll see you tonight..." He gave her a small smile before heading out to his other class. The rest of the day at school flew by it seemed for Zane which he was okay and happy about. He went to the locker room after class to change into his practice uniform and then headed out to the field. His buddies started giving him a hard time about Mia. "I can't help it. We have to do a project together. She doesn't seem that bad." He gave them a shrug.

"If she's not that bad, get her to go out with you. Like legit date you." Tate smiled and was enjoying giving Zane a hard time.

Zane shook his head, "It's just a project."

"I bet you can't get her to date you before the end of the football season. I bet you can't do it."

"I can get anyone in this school to date me. Even Mia." He shook his head but Tate kept egging him on. "Fine...IF...If I take this bet, what is in it for me?" Tate thought about it, "My Les Paul." Zane stopped. That was a few thousand dollar guitar. And Zane always gave Tate shit for not ever playing it.

"Before the end of the season?" Tate nodded with a smile. "Alright and if I can't?"

"I get your guitar..." Tate grinned, and laughed. Zane shook his head. "You'd never play it!" But that was the plan and Tate knew it would torture him. "Fine. I'm in."

 

[Niah]

Mia really hadn't been hinting at anything when she mentioned the need for a ride. Her intention was probably to get one of her friends to pick her up or maybe someone from the youth theater could drop her off on their way home? What she certainly hadn't been expecting was for Zane to offer her one himself. "Oh, no, no it's fine." She began to say, however he was already writing his number down in her notebook. "Um... thanks." The young woman said a little awkwardly. She didn't know how she felt about getting a ride from him, what with the entirety of their interactions up until this class being nothing but negative. I mean sure it was nice of him, but still. "Yeah sure, see ya." Mia added, as Zane picked up all of his belongings and headed out.

The last lesson of the day for her was English and it went by fast enough. Before she knew it, Mia and her friends were heading to Nicolas' car. As she shoved her things haphazardly into her bag, her notebook dropped to the floor and Nick stopped to pick it up. The pages had flipped open and he looked down at the phone number scrawled upon the paper. "Hey, whose number is this?" He asked curiously. Mia looked up, grabbing at the notebook swiftly. "Zane's..." she mumbled. "Heywood?!" Nick spluttered. "It's not a big deal, it's just so he knows where to pick me up from." All three of her friends were now listening intently. "Why is he picking you up?" Nick continued to question. "Jealous much Nicky?" Tess asked with smirk. "No, the guy's just an ass is all!" He retorted. Then Alesha was next to chime in. "Actually, I don't remember him ever bullying us." Nick rolled his eyes. "No he just sat by and laughed while his goons did it for him." He added. Tess and Alesha nodded in agreement with him, none of them liked Zane, but could you really blame them? "Mia wouldn't be interested in a guy like that anyway! Right?" He asked her.

She was now on the spot as all three of her friends stared at her. "Right!" Mia said in agreement. If the truth be told though, she hadn't even thought about it. "He's just picking me up so we can study, nothing else. You guys know I need to keep my grades up if I want to get into arts school. This project is really important, it's going towards our final grade. We just have to put up with each other for two weeks and then we never have to speak again." They climbed into Nicolas' car, Mia jumping into the front passenger seat. "So was he a jerk in class?" Tess asked. Mia shook her head. "No, he was kinda... nice." The car went quiet as once again they all looked at her. "Will you knock it off! These two weeks are going to be hard enough without you guys on my back about it too!" She chided. Tess and Alesha began laughing and complaining about Zane, as Nick pulled out of the car park silently.

Mia was dropped off at the theater and waved goodbye to her friends, before heading on inside. For almost the next two hours, her youth group went over lines and even managed to fit in a dress rehearsal. The youth theater prided itself in giving opportunities to teenagers in the local community. So all of the costumes were designed and created by fashion students. Mia was walking around in a dress tailored in the style of 17th century women, corset and all. "I can't breathe." She said, shuffling around behind the stage. "That's the idea, beauty is pain." One of the costume designers joked.

Mia grabbed her phone from the side and looked through her contacts, she had added Zane earlier. She hesitated as her thumb hovered over his name, maybe she just call her dad or Nick instead? She sighed to herself, or maybe she should grow up! Zane had offered to pick her up and had given her his number. Was she really going to be petty and immature by refusing to accept his help? Between the two of them was she honestly going to be the one on the lower moral ground? She still had half an hour left, but with no idea how long it would take Zane to get here, she decided to text him now. She gave him the address of the theater and told him that she'd be finishing in thirty minutes, before putting her phone back.

 

[guitarfan28]

Zane worked hard during football practice. They had a big game coming up and he wanted to do well. He pushed him self a bit far and was a little sore after practice. He walked with the guys back to the locker room. They were talking about the game and the party after. The party was at a football player's house and was heard to be super epic. Zane liked going to the parties because he got a lot of attention, especially if they won. The girls would flirt with him and the guys congratulated him. He seemed to always be center of attention.

After practice he showered and got dressed. He put on jeans and t-shirt. He went home and worked on his other homework. The volume on his phone was up. He ate a small snack as he worked on his homework but figured he'd wait and maybe get something while they worked on their project. Mia would probably be hungry as well. Once he got the text he waited a little and grabbed his bag packing it up with his laptop and books. He grabbed a hoodie putting it on and zipping it up and then heading downstairs. "I'm heading to do a project with someone from school. I'll be back later. I'll get food while I'm out." He shot Mia a text that he'd be there.

He got in his car. Turning his radio on before taking off to the theatre. He sat and listened to music and looked on his phone as he sat and waited for Mia. He had no idea what she was doing at the theatre and was half tempted to go in and find out but it really wasn't his scene and he didn't want to get her in trouble or be rude either. With his stomach growling he was hoping she would be quick coming out to the car. His hand ran through his hair before he looked out the window towards the building. He wondered how he could get her to date him. Getting to know her more was on his agenda. He made a mental note of things he needed to find out. Her hobbies, likes, her family, her favorite movies and music. He didn't know if he had enough time to pull this off. Be polite was another thing he needed to remember.