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„You coming to Stacy’s party this Friday? Her parents are out of town for the entire weekend and I heard it’s gonna be off the chains, bro!” Jordan exclaimed. „And you know what else I heard?” the boy asked with a huge grin on his face.
Connor shrugged. „Daria is totally going. I know you like her,” Jordan said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Connor let out a small sigh. „No, Jordan, you said I like her. You just wanna hook up with Meaghan and Daria happens to be her best friend who hangs around her every minute of the day and you want me to distract her so you can seal the deal with Meaghan.”
Jordan ran his fingers through his thick black hair. „Dude, c’mon, help a bro out!” he threw his hands in the air.
„But I really don’t want to go out with Daria,” Connor groaned. He couldn’t bear the thought of listening to that girl babbling about whatever the hell she was interested in. Clothes, make up, the latest gossip. Whatever it was, Connor couldn’t give a shit.
„She’s hot. She’s a cheerleader. What is wrong with you?” Jordan looked genuinely confused. He couldn’t imagine why his best bud wouldn’t want to spend a drunken night with her.
„Have you ever thought about that maybe when I’m looking for a partner, looks is not the only thing I’m concerned about?” Connor sounded frustrated at this point.
Jordan bursted out laughing. „Oh my god, dude, you sound so gay. I ain’t asking you to marry her, I’m only asking that you distract her a little bit. I don’t care how you do it, just do it for your brother here. And a little bit of this...” – he slightly elevated from the bench, did a few hip thrusts then sat back down – „never hurt nobody,” he continued with a smirk on his face.
Connor rolled his eyes. At that moment, he felt so embarrassed about to call Jordan his best friend. The guy wasn’t so bad if you actually took the time to get to know him but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a complete idiot. Hell, he really was. He was lucky he was good-looking, otherwise everyone would’ve hated his guts. Jordan was tall, though he wasn’t as tall as Connor, who happened to be 6’1”. He was of Greek origin; he had olive skin, big dark chocolatey brown eyes and wavy black hair. His body was toned, his face was symmetrical, and he had that mischievous smile that made girls go crazy. They called him a „Greek God”, and Connor couldn’t really argue with that. His friend was beautiful.
„Okay. I’ll do it,” Connor replied.
„Yes, that’s what I’m talking about, baby!” Jordan shouted and smashed his fist down on the table.
„I’m not finished. I’ll do it. On one condition,” he continued. „We’re switching lab partners in bio.”
Jordan didn’t even hesitate for a second. „Done. I don’t care, nerd’s a nerd right? Oh shit, I forgot my textbook in my locker. Meet ya in class, bitch,” and he stormed off.
Connor was relieved. Although Jordan and he were tight, they weren’t lab partners. Both of them had chosen a smart guy so they’d get good grades without doing any or very little actual work. Well, that was Jordan’s reasoning anyway. Connor himself wasn’t that bad of a student but he couldn’t lie, it was pretty damn comfortable that way. But he had a small problem with his partner this year; he couldn’t stand the poor bastard. He’d been talking gibberish non-stop – it sounded gibberish to him anyway – and if Connor had to spend another 50 minutes with that dude, he would’ve done something he would’ve regretted. He figured Jordan wouldn’t care about all that stupid talking until the kid did all the work for him.
The ringing bell interrupted Connor’s chain of thought.
He stood up from the bench, threw what was left of his sad lunch in the trash and slowly made his way to class.
As he entered the small classroom, he immediately noticed that Jordan was sitting next to his old lab partner. Connor glanced at the table where his friend used to sit and acknowledged that both chairs were empty but he paced through the room and sat down anyway.
Their teacher, Mr. O’Reilly, walked in shortly after that. „Good afternoon, class!” he greeted the students with a thick Irish accent. He started scanning the room as he was speaking. „Okay, today’s project is going to be a longer one...” his gaze lingered on Connor for a brief moment, then moved along.
Connor suddenly got nervous. He didn’t have a partner for the project. He didn’t mind working alone but it seemed like Mr. O’Reilly had other things planned.
„Mr. Stevens, Mr. Adams Foster,” he called out. „Both of your partners have called in sick today so you’ll be working together on this. Mr. Adams Foster, please come forward and take the seat next to Mr. Stevens,” he made a hand gesture.
Connor heard a quiet grunt coming from behind him. He was desperately trying to remember which kid was the vice principal’s son but he just couldn’t pair a face with the name.
The next thing he knew was that someone had dropped their textbooks on the desk and hopped onto the chair on his left.
Connor turned his head and almost let out a curse word. It was that guy.
He was tall, skinny and pale and his sense of style was...peculiar. He was wearing a pair of grey shoes that seemed like oxfords to Connor (although he wasn’t sure), maroon skinny jeans, the kind that was so tight they looked like leggings. Connor was convinced that the only method of removing them was simply cutting them off with scissors. He also had a grey V-neck sweater on, with a shirt underneath that matched his pants. His glasses, that were slightly too big for his face, had a thick black rim. His dark brown hair was cut short - but not shaved - on the sides, kept long and messy on the top. Connor thought it was messy on purpose, it was probably styled that way.
So that was Adams Foster. The frickin’ hipster kid.
„Why are you staring at me?” he heard a bark.
Connor hadn’t realized he was glaring until then. His face started burning from the embarrassement so he quickly turned away and fixated his eyes on the desk. He cleared his throat. „Sorry, I wasn’t...staring.”
„You obviously were but whatever. Thanks to Taylor and her stupid sinus infection, I’m stuck with an airhead.”
Connor frowned, then tilted his head to face the boy. „Excuse me?” his voice sounded alarming.