I yawn. Hugo slaps my back.

"Come on, wake up! It's nearly our turn!" He says.

I do as he says, and focus on what the headteacher, Miss Morris, is saying. I yawn again. I had to wake up early, for a big meeting in the hall, where every Y11 pupil received their partner, for the 2 month project. Since the group I was in was Group 5, every pupil in my group, as well as me, had to wait.

Finally, Miss Morris announces, "And now, we move onto Group 5!" From my angle, I watch Dove, seated 4 rows in front of me, straighten her back. She's excited for this. It's obvious.

One by one, Miss Morris reads out names of people I know and don't know. Hugo and Cole are working together, Leo is with another guy he's friends with, and Rocky is working with Alina. When he hears this, I watch his face light up, and I smirk at him.

"Shut up." He says, not even needing to look at me.

I snort. "Whatever you say."

To no surprise, I end up in the last 4 pupils. I sigh, and then open my mouth in shock. The other 3 people are Dove, her blonde friend and Maya.

Great. I had to spend time with one of her friends for the next two months. Just my luck.

"Final two pairs. One of them is Lola and Maya-"

No.

There's a ringing in my ears. I go deaf; I can't hear anything. Rocky is staring at me.

"What the heck?" I whisper, coming back to my senses.

I watch as Dove stands up, clearly upset. She storms out of her row and exits the hall, wiping her face angrily.

Miss Morris coughs nervously. "-And the other pair is Dove and Kite."

There's an awkward silence. I'm still in shock. This was a set-up. It had to be. Please, someone just tell me it was a joke. Please.

Miss Morris coughs again. Not a joke.

I put my head in my hands. Why? Just why did this have to happen? How was this fair? What was this school doing?

I lift my head back up. Miss Morris is staring directly at me. I make sure she understands the message in my eyes.

She coughs for the third time. "Your project will be to create a 45 minute presentation on a major world problem. You will need to have 3 different types of lessons in there: creative, humanity, and then whatever else you wish. You have 2 months. When the deadline arrives, over the course of 2 weeks, you will present your work, and then receive your marks at beginning of March. Your project begins now."

I death-stare Miss Morris as she exits the hall. Yeah, 2 months with Dove West was amazing.

I angrily stare at the floor as me and my friends file out of the hall as well. Outside the doors are Alina, Lola and Maya. Dove is nowhere to be seen.

"Kite." Alina says sharply.

"What." I say blankly. I'm not in the mood.

"Alina-" Rocky warns, staring at her, not in an unkind way. He was really obsessed.

"You probably know Dove hates this. I hate it too. If you hurt her in anyway, watch what happened to you Kite Maddox." Alina moves forward, leaning towards my ear. "We can get the police on you again." She whispers.

I freeze. It's noticeable too, that my demeanour has changed. Alina smirks happily, and then looks at Rocky, all traces of sneakiness evaporated.

"Alina." Someone says again, but it's not Rocky this time.

Dove.

"Dove." Alina says softly, repeating my thoughts.

"It's fine. Don't push it." She says simply, tucking her  black hair behind her ears. I wonder how she gets it so perfect.

Dove then glances at me, so quickly I nearly miss it, and then walks away. Alina runs up behind her and hugs her, and soon the rest of her friends follow.

I sigh, and look at Rocky. He shrugs, then turns back around to look, his eyes following Alina.

Lovebird.

"Thank you." I hear Dove whisper. She glances at me again, and then begins to walk down the corridor. I take that as a signal to follow, and I do so after dabbing my friends up.

I turn back around and begin walking. Dove is nearly at the end of the corridor.

"Dove, wait!" I call out. I can't believe I'm doing this.

She stops and turns around. I catch up to her. She stares at me. I cough.

"Listen, Kite. We both don't want to be here. I did not sign up to 2 months with you. But we have to suck it up and deal with it because I am not failing." Dove says sharply, wiping her eyes. There are eye bags and her face looks tear-streaked.

"Strict parents?" I say, at an attempt to be friendly. Hating each other for 2 months seemed childish. At least we could hate each other a little less.

"You would know." Dove states, a little smirk on her face.

I freeze. No. Why is she doing this? Every attempt at trying to be friendly she just reflected back at me. Why?

My face hardens. "Don't you dare." I say, staring at her angrily.

She shrugs at me. "Why not?"

"I don't know what you've been through, but I can guess we have both been through hell. Living hell." I spit out. "Just because of what happened with our parents and the fact that they hate each other, doesn't mean we have to."

"Whatever." Dove says sadly, walking up the stairs.

I cough awkwardly. 2 months were going to be tough.

"Where are we going?" I say, when we climb all the way to the top.

"Library."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Dove turns around, and she bumps into me, her head touching my chest. She steps back quickly.

Wow.

No.

I sigh, clearing my throat to get rid of the awkwardness. "Never mind."

Dove turns back around, her hair falling perfectly down her back. I really needed to stop noticing that.

Eventually, we reach the library. Dove opens the door and lets herself in, not bothering to leave the door open for me. I open it myself, and my mouth falls open.

There were rows and rows of books, shelves stacked so high they touched the ceiling.

It was suffocating.

I look at Dove, who's already looking at me.

"What, have you never seen a library before?"

"Of course I have." I grumble. "It's just so many books."

Dove snorts. "What else do you expect to see in a library, a gym for you to workout at?"

Weird how she thought of a gym. She could've said anything. I hope it wasn't obvious I worked out.

I roll my eyes. "So, what are we doing?"

Dove seats herself at a table at the back of the library, and then looks at me. "You tell me."

"What?" I say, confused. Dove was the definition of confusion.

She sighs. "I left before they could say what the project was about. You. Tell. Me."

"Ohhh." I sit myself down next to Dove.

I explain to her everything that we need to do. When I mention the creative part, she groans.

"I'm like the worst person when it comes to creativity. I hate it so much." She moans, slamming her head on the table.

"I'm sure you'll come up with something." I assure. I really wanted to make a sarcastic comment, but for once we weren't arguing. We were just speaking.

Dove lifts her head up. "Yeah because I'm doing all the work, aren't I." Dove states sarcastically.

I sigh. "I think I have something for creativity." I say slowly, thinking about it.

"Really? What is it?" Dove says simply.

Was I really going to tell Dove one of my very treasured secrets?

Of course not.

"It doesn't matter, it's stupid anyway." I mutter.

"Are you sure? We can always do it, since I'm not the least bit creative-"

"I said it doesn't matter!" I shout. The libration looks at me, and raises her eyebrows in a warning way.

I look down at my hands. I wasn't having this conversation, especially not with Dove of all people.

"Sorry." She says awkwardly.

"It's fine. Leave it." I say quickly, not looking up.

We just sit there in silence. Dove begins to hum something. When I'm ready, I look up. She looks at me.

I sigh. "Can we come to an agreement?"

"For what?"

I look deeply at her eyes. "Can we not argue? I understand that we've been through a lot, but we don't need to argue. Please." I say wearily.

Dove stares at me for a bit, then looks away. "Fine, whatever." She says, fiddling with her fingers.

I sigh. The next 2 months were going to be long.