Alex sat in his usual seat, anxiously waiting. It was already a quarter to nine, and the class still hadn’t started. Alex’s leg bounced, and he tapped his pen against the tiny desk attached to his chair.
“All right, class,” Mr. Hammond began. “Today you receive your first assignment. I’ve sorted you into pairs. Together, you will create a Shakespearean dialogue, keeping with his themes and writing style.”
Alex smiled to himself. He had done the required reading, so this assignment would be easy.
“I hope everyone here did last week’s readings,” Hammond echoed Alex’s thoughts. “You can get started on your assignment today. It’s due in two weeks. The assignment sheet is being passed around. Make sure you take one. When I call your name, please put your hand up so that you can easily find your partner.”
Alex ignored the first few names that the teacher called out. He was focused on the ideas bubbling up in his head.
“. . . Alejandro Marquez?”
Alex’s hand shot up. “It’s Alex,” he said as he raised his head and searched the room for whoever would end up being his partner.
“You’re partnered with Jacob Greenspan.”
In the back of the room, Too Cool for School slowly raised his hand. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. Alex stared in disbelief before looking back at the teacher and silently pleading that it was some kind of mistake. Ponytail he could have handled. She seemed like she’d at least take the project seriously. Even Man-Bun would have been okay — he probably would have just let Alex take control of the assignment. But Too Cool for School? As attractive as he was, Alex already found him too annoying to want to work with him.
Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He remembered the advice Dorian had given him: don’t judge people on how they seem.
You get one chance, Mr. Greenspan, Alex thought.
When Mr. Hammond finished assigning the pairings, the students stood up and rearranged themselves. Jacob remained seated. I guess he expects me to go to him, Alex thought. With a groan, Alex gathered his stuff and trudged towards the back of the room.
He settled into the chair next to his partner. “Hi, Jacob,” he muttered as he pulled his pen and notebook from his bag.
“Hey,” Jacob responded. “Call me Jake.” The sunglasses stayed on.
Alex had no idea what direction this boy was looking in and he found it unnerving. He opened his notebook and flipped through the pages until he got to his notes on Shakespeare. He was just about to speak when Jake cut him off.
“So I was thinking we should use characters from modern popular culture. And we should go out on a limb and write it in iambic pentameter or something.”
Alex suppressed a groan and willed himself not to roll his eyes. All of Alex’s ideas had been simple, textbook — ideas that would earn him a decent mark. Jake was making things as complicated as possible.
“Maybe we should go with something a bit . . . simpler?” Alex’s voice was so soft, he could barely hear himself over the murmur of the class.
Jake sighed and leaned forward in his chair, bringing himself closer to Alex. He took off his sunglasses, revealing piercing grey eyes that bored into Alex as they searched for something.
“Look,” said Jake. “We’ll have more fun with the assignment if we do something challenging. Something the teacher hasn’t seen before.”
Alex clenched his teeth. He needed to keep his cool around his partner. “I think we should stick with something we know.”
“That’s the point of Shakespeare! To take what’s already established and turn it on its head! That was his whole thing!” Jake’s arms gestured wildly in the air.
No, the point of Shakespeare is to get a good enough mark to boost my average, thought Alex.
But he realized that Jacob Greenspan didn’t care about marks. With a resigned sigh, Alex leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts.
“Fine,” he muttered at last. It was much easier to agree with Jake’s terrible plan than it was to argue with him. “Whatever you want.”
“Right . . .” Jake raised an eyebrow at Alex before shrugging. “Okay, then, here’s what I was thinking . . .”
English was quickly becoming Alex’s least favourite subject.
07