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Jade sits tensely in the back of the large classroom. Looking, more like glaring, back and forth between the front door and the empty seat next to McClain, the girl that separated Jade and Kinsey, or at least their seats.

The brunette is jittery at the idea of the obnoxious blonde coming through those doors. Outlandish scenarios contrived by Jade's active imagination instills more fear into her. Scenarios that varied from the blonde coming in and completely raging at the brunette and exposing her actions or the blonde ignoring what happened between the two of them. There was another scenario, but it was more of a fantasy as it involved Kinsey coming into the class and confessing her love for Jade while smothering her with kisses. That scenario made Jade smile momentarily before she feigned being uncomfortable with such a queer thought.

The pencil nearly flies out of Jade's fiddling fingers as the school late bell sounds in all its glory. The sound interrupted Jade's intense thinking and fear.

She doesn't know why she feels more dismay at the blonde's absence.

"Okay class, before we begin, I'd like to discuss our traditional beginning-of-the-year project."

As if on cue, the entire classroom of merely 20 students erupts in agitated ughs.

"It's September!" A random student shouts.

"Did I ask?" Mrs. Rodriguez snaps back, glaring at the boy who said it. "I know you all are hesitant," The teacher starts, "But this will be somewhat of an enlightening experience for you guys, I promise."

Jade is essentially open to the idea of learning something new but she just hopes that this project doesn't consist of-

"Partnerships! There will be partnership pairings for this project due to all that has to be covered!" Mrs. Rodriguez announces, combatting Jade's internal wishes. "I will not accept any individual projects and there will be no partner switching unless you can convince me, which I highly doubt."

Jade slumps deeper into her plastic blue chair. To say she is dissatisfied is a bit of an understatement. Jade and new people did not mesh well together and that was quite evident through her awkward encounter with Kinsey. The brunette always thought there was something wrong with her. She never understood why her encounters with new people were so awkward, but then again, she is an awkward person in general.

"Before I share the contents of the assignments, I will have partners picked first, along with the specific assignment your pairing will be in charge of."

It seems to the class that Mr. Rodriguez does not play. Her experience in the field of teaching, oozes from her precautionary rules on the assignment.

The short and stocky redhead woman takes hold of two turquoise beach buckets filled with slips of paper and starts towards the first desk by the front door of the classroom. Her barely one-inch black heels clink against the floor as she walks at a steady pace.

"This assignment is not meant to be difficult, but to introduce you all to the concept of philosophy and what it really is," She informs, while making her way down the row and allowing students to pick one piece of paper from each bucket."Maybe you may even take something out of this, you never know. If there are any questions about the assignments after I pass them out, I will be more than happy to clarify anything," She adds, coming closer to the middle of the class. Her first period class is one of her smallest classes so it didn't take long before she reaches Jade's row.

Jade sits there, heart subtly pounding as she tries to take glances and find out who got matched with who. Since she's only been here for two days, she doesn't dare ask around. All she can do is wait impatiently as Mr. Rodriguez takes her sweet old time to reach the end of her row.

Mrs. Rodriguez reaches the end of the row, allowing the two buckets to face Jade and intimidate her immensely. She glances at her teacher as if trying to find a way out of this, but the redhead only nudges the buckets in Jade's direction indicating for her to hurry up and choose.

"Ms. Hill, I do not have all day," Mrs. Rodriguez reminds her, with a slight accent coming out, exhibiting her possible impatience with the hesitant brunette.

Jade's face immediately heats up since the spotlight's now flashed on her. Attention is never what she wants. She's always tried to stay low and blend in but it's difficult when she doesn't feel comfortable doing just that. Trying to fit in has always created more anxiety and turmoil within the brunette. She feels all the noncommittal stares coming from the students in the far outstretches of the classroom, while those closer to her, clearly have no shame and spin their heads around, directly staring at her.

Her hand slips into one bucket and then the other, picking out two pieces of paper. She opens the larger piece of paper to reveal the specified assignment for her partner and her. She doesn't care to read it now since she wants to know so badly who she's paired with. Her thin fingers delicately unravel the smaller piece of paper to be disappointed. It is just a number. The number 7. Jade thinks to herself: What the fuck?

The girl McClain that sits next to Jade, leans in to whisper, "She always does this number pairing shit. She pairs us by numbers, so we'll find out once she goes through the attendance and finds whose number matches with who."

Jade thankfully nods at McClain for this information, but inside she is beyond annoyed. Annoyed that she is again delayed in finding out the verdict. The black purposely worn-out sneakers she is wearing, tap against the hard flooring of the classroom. Her jittery behavior can be blamed on the load of caffeine she had this morning or her general anxiety that seems to haunt her every second of everyday.

She waits until Mrs. Rodriguez finally finishes passing out everything and makes her way back to the rectangular mahogany desk at the front corner of the room. She sits up in her seat as the redhead teacher begins typing away mindlessly at the keys on her desktop computer.

"Alright, you guys know the drill. When I state your name let me know what number you got and the person with the same number will raise their hand so I can log you two as partners," She announces as her plain black semi-rimless framed glasses hang loosely on her nose as she remains close to the computer screen.

At this point, Jade is beyond agitated. She is over it. There are almost through half of the class and Kinsey has not been paired with anyone. She has accepted that the universe does not seem to want to play in her favor. And she is right.

"Jade Hill."

"7."

It's silent. No one raises there hand. Everyone looks around, assuming that her potential partner is not even paying attention in class.

Mrs. Rodriguez squints her eyes as she looks up from the computer screen, trying to keep her glasses on as she looks into the cluster of students. She catches the hint and tips one of the buckets towards her, checking inside of it to find the last number in the bucket.

She glances in the direction of Kinsey's empty desk. "I guess since Kinsey isn't here, she'll get the remaining number. She'll be your partner, Jade," She decides before moving on to the next student.

"Rick- "

"Mrs. Rodriguez!" Jade surprises even herself when she interrupts the teacher. She's never done this sort of thing but her overhwhelming desire to avoid her problems forces her to act impulsively.

Mrs. Rodriguez grits her teeth at the brunette, "Yes Jade, what do I owe this sudden interruption to?"

Everyone's eyes are on her now. It's like their eyes are boring holes through every part of her body. She wants to take back this moment and pretend she didn't say anything, but that's not how the space-time continuum works.

"Uh." She swallows in a deep a deep breath, "W-What if my partner never shows up to class?"

Jade mentally bangs her head against the desk. Is that the best you could come up with, Jade?

"Then I'd suggest you hunt her down because this class is even and there is no switching partners," She replies objectively before moving on. "Where was I? Oh, Ricky Amatteo."

Jade defeatedly sighs to herself. She brushes her hand through her loose, thick hair before leaning back into the plastic chair. Yeah, the universe is most definitely on the opposite team because it's no where on her side.

She feels a slight, but pinching nudge into her upper arm, forcing her to divert her attention to McClain once again. She's becoming annoying in Jade's book, but the brunette is able to mask her vexation and deal with her.

"Yes?" Jade asks in a low groan.

"I don't know why you look so down. Maybe you'll actually be on her good side now."

Jade gives her a questionable stare.

"Come on, everyone knows about the new girl that bumped into Kinsey Scott on her first day," McClain ends with a low chuckle, "I mean, I would have died of embarrassment and fear. I'd never want to be on her bad side. See this as a blessing," The blonde ends dramatically, using various hand motions.

"Um... thanks?" Jade replies, unsure of how to approach this odd character. Why do I attract the weird ones?

"Glad I could help," McClain shrugs cheerfully at Jade, unaware that she did not help at all.

Jade lays her head onto the desk with her arms wrapped around her head so she can roll her eyes in solitude.

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Kinsey Scott sits atop the girl's restroom counter, scrolling mindlessly through her phone as she skips her first class of the day. Anything to avoid the brunette that made her feel "things".

After the blonde ditched her first period class, she made her way to her usual skipping spot. The bathroom. In there, no one would dare tell on her since every female is afraid of Kinsey Scott, the girl that even had the boys at the school intimidated.

She made herself comfortable in the little corner of the sink with her legs crossed. No girl that came into the bathroom so far uttered a word to her since they knew it was best not to.

One petite girl comes out of the stall and makes brief eye contact with Kinsey before immediately directing her line of sight to the tile flooring, quickly approaching the sink to wash her hands to leave. The intimidated girl washes her hands in the midst of the awkward silence while Kinsey simply doesn't seem to be fazed by this peculiar site.

The girl soon realizes that Kinsey is sitting directly in front of the paper towel dispenser. As she starts to wipe her hands against her khaki overalls, sheets of paper towel are shoved into her face. She proceeds to hesitantly receive the paper and daringly looks up to Kinsey.

"You could of just asked y'know. I'm not that evil," Kinsey states, smirking at the petite girl.

Kinsey felt bad for the girl. She isn't just mean to everyone she crosses, even though that's how it may seem. She has her moments.

The girl shakily wipes her hands with the paper. "T-Thank you," The girl basically whispers before scurrying out of the bathroom.

Kinsey chuckles to herself since she noticed the wet spots that plagued the girl's khaki attire. "Must be a freshman," She whispers to herself. She's kind of cute.

Kinsey goes back to what she was doing on her phone. She is on social media, scrolling methodically through multiple profiles and tags before finding the profile she was looking for in the first place.

@jade_hill22

She can't help herself.

Her eyes furrow as she focuses intently on stalking the brunette. Kinsey would argue that it's not stalking, but instead investigating her natural curiosity.

The first thing she notices is that she has no biography information and that her profile held an aesthetic of black and white. Just pictures of the brunette wearing all black with a pure white background. There weren't many pictures but the aesthetic is still quite evident.

That intrigued Kinsey even more. Even her social media is virtually private even though it's public. There were no pictures of any family, not even her sister who Kinsey has met under 'unfortunate' circumstances before.

The blonde taps on one photo that draws her attention. It is one in which the brunette is in a lace long sleeve crop top along with a short plain black skirt. She stood in front of a white wall and black couch with a simple string of white Christmas lights hanging in the back. To add to the aesthetic there was a black and white nature painting hanging in the background. Her face looked flawless. The black lipstick and dark makeup that littered her face did wonders.

Kinsey could not pry her eyes from the picture. The way her body looks in the outfit makes something tingle in the depths of Kinsey's stomach.

"Kinsey Scott," A deep, authoritative voice booms.

The blonde flinches out of her concentration and instantly shuts her phone off in the sight of the school's assistant principal, Mrs. Andrews.

Unknown to the blonde is that just before shutting down her phone, her finger accidentally tapped onto the like button of the brunette's photo she was just gawking at. The photo that was from five months ago.

The staunch, tall African-American woman stands before the blonde in a professional all-black pantsuit with her ebony hair neatly pulled into an intricately designed bun. Kinsey jumps off the counter, taking her backpack along with her.

"What?" She dares to question confidently, trying to coat the nervous undertone of her voice. To be completely and truthfully honest, Kinsey is actually afraid of Mrs. Andrews more than any other administration in the school. There is just something about her take-no-shit attitude that threatens Kinsey in every way possible.

"You know damn well what you're doing, don't 'what' me," The woman sasses back, giving Kinsey the same attitude that she gave out.

The blonde huffs in annoyance and rolls her eyes, "I know, I know. I'll be in your office," Kinsey informs as she walks past the woman and out of the bathroom, dreadfully strolling to the Guidance Office.

As she walks, she thinks to herself. I wasn't even skipping just to get out of learning, but skipping to avoid that girl and now look where that got me.

The clattering of heels, signify that Mrs. Andrews is right on her tail.

The blonde makes her way into the Guidance Office, waving at a few familiar faces.

"Hey Mr. Walters, Hey Ms. Mathers, Hey James," Kinsey greets the administrators with a cordial head nod as she passes through the front of the main Guidance Office to the back.

Those that were greeted simply shake their heads and nod back at the blonde.

"Already? It's not even past first period, Kinsey," The man Kinsey referred to as 'James' says, before directing his much needed attention back to the copy machine that is beginning to make weird noises. He is Mr. Davis, her sixth period Physics teacher. The other two that Kinsey shouted out consists of Ms. Mathers, the office secretary and Mr. Walters, the almost-balding school principal.

It is safe to say that Kinsey is not new to the office.

Once she reaches the administrator's personal office, Kinsey takes a seat comfortably in one of the two green cushioned seats, grabbing a Knick-knack off of the table to begin playing with it.

The door opens and Mrs. Andrews comes in. The woman takes her seat in front of the blonde, shaking her head and placing her folded hands onto the desk.

"Kinsey."

"I kno- "Kinsey starts, mockingly bobbing her head.

"No, you don't!" The woman starts off strong, grasping the attention of the blonde. Kinsey abruptly stops playing with the figurine and glances at the woman.

"Kinsey," She begins to lower her voice. "You don't know. You can't keep this up because you're not just another jock. You're the girl captain of the male-dominant football team. That means something. Missing class like this can mess up any scholarship opportunities for you and I won't stand by and let you lose any chances of using your talent to get far. I refuse it. Scholarships don't just come flooding in for the girl football player. I'm sorry to say the truth, but they just don't. You need to start taking school seriously. If not for yourself, do it for all the little girls that aspire to be in your same position because this is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Your grandmother and I worked hard to get you on that team."

The dirty blonde's expression is no longer confident and cocky, but solemn and serious. Her head hangs low as she takes in what the older woman is saying. She knows that she is right. Mrs. Andrews and her grandmother worked so hard to convince the school district to allow Kinsey to at least be able to try-out and be viable to join the team. She'll never forget that and that is why part of her seems to respect Mrs. Andrews.

She knows she needs to start taking this seriously. This meaning her life, her future, and other's futures.

________<~>________

A/N: Aaaaaaaaah! I'm finally back! I'm genuinely, honestly, sincerely sorry that I have not updated this book in so long. There is no excuse for it, but now I'm back and this story is ready to continue on and...HAPPY PRIDE!!!

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Also, how do you think this partnership between Kinsey and Jade will turn out?
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What do you think of Kinsey's 'stalking'?
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What are your thoughts on Mrs. Andrews mini-speech on Kinsey's position?

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Once again, love y'all! ❤️