taf, revisited :: james

Ah, Friday. It was finally the last day of the first week of school, and after this class Mollie would be free for the entire weekend. She couldn't wait. But first--history.

Normally, Mollie didn't mind history so much. It wasn't her favorite, but it wasn't completely boring or anything. The only problem with it this year was that she had the misfortune of getting scheduled in the same class as her cousin, James.

James was an asshole.

They'd never gotten along; the two had butted heads from the moment James joined the family back when they were five. She'd complained religiously to her parents whenever they had to get together, and enjoyed complaining about both her Uncle Lysander and her crappy cousin to her father. It was one of the only things they had in common--their annoyance at the Sparkes boys.

Now she was going to be stuck with him for an entire year, and it didn't make it any better that it had to be her senior year. Blah.

Mollie walked into history class and took a seat in the front of the room where she knew James would never, ever sit. Maybe she'd be able to keep her distance.

When Jamey walked, he had a sort of swagger that only a spoiled rich boy could carry. Always with his nose in the air, like the others around him were below him. They kind of were. So naturally when he walked through the classroom door, his swag was in full force. He stopped and surveyed the classroom, with a look on his face like he got a whiff of something bad smelling. All these idiots were so not worth his time. Honestly this class wasn't worth his time either, but he had promised his mother that he wouldn't skip any classes the first week of school. Bummer.

As much to his dismay, the only clio even minutely worth sitting next to was his snobby cousin, Mollie. They had never gotten along from the very beginning. He had tried to be her friend but she was such a brat. Spoiled rotten.

"What up, cuzo," he said snidely, while sitting at the empty desk next to hers. "Excited to fill that pretty little head of yours with the vast knowledge of Amelian history?"

Mollie had somehow found it in herself to ignore the arrogant way James walked into the room, but found it increasingly annoying as he strutted in the front, peering around like he couldn't find anywhere to sit despite the several open seats. She couldn't tell if he was trying to get a message across to the other students (I would never sit by you peasants) or if he was trying to torture her slowly.

She'd just decided the motivation behind his ridiculous actions was probably a little of both when he slipped into the seat right next to her. Mollie clenched her teeth and shut her eyes for a moment. Unfortunately when she opened them again, he was still there, a grin on his face Mollie wished she could wipe off him.

James wrote:What up cuzo? Excited to fill that pretty little head of yours with the vast knowledge of Amelian history?

"Go away, James," Mollie said stiffly. "I'm surprised you're even here, much less sitting in the front row. Aren't you going to be embarrassed when Miss Henley calls on you and you have no idea what's going on?"

"Contrary to popular belief," Jamey replied, while reaching out and tugging on a strand of her hair. "I do pretty well in history class."

He leaned back onto his desk chair and intertwined his fingers behind his head. Another student came in and was about to take the desk next to his. Jamey looked at the girl with a look of pure outrage. "Uh..." he snapped. "What do you think you're doing?"

Can't you be a little bit nicer? Alma sighed, exasperated.

Jamey ignored his daemon and laughed at the girls dumb look on her face. "Why don't you go sit with the other losers in the back?" He flicked his hand away dismissivley, and the poor girl, her face bright red, went to the back as she was told.

He turned back to his cousin and asked, "Now what were we talking about?"

Mollie jerked away as James tugged at her hair. "Don't you touch me," she snapped. She wanted to shout at him, but he'd already made enough of a scene strutting around the room like a freaking peacock before he sat down.

She was about to get up and move, herself, when a quiet girl Mollie thought was named Julia, tried to sit on the other side of James. He spoke to her so rudely Mollie felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. For a moment, she was shocked into immobility. Had he really just said that? Mollie watched, her eyes wide with horror, as the girl stood up and moved.

"What is wrong with you?" Mollie demanded to James as he turned back to look at her. In her anger she didn't even register whatever stupid thing he tried to say to her next. She grabbed her books and notebook and stood in one fluid motion.

Mollie walked toward where the girl was sitting, and saw that her ears and cheeks red as beets. "I'm sorry my cousin is such an unbelievable jerk," Mollie said to her. Julia(?) mumbled something and Mollie got the feeling the girl would just be more embarrassed if she stayed around, so she left the corner and sat somewhere else.

Luckily, at that moment, two of Mollie's friends walked in the class. They'd missed the drama, so they didn't hesitate to walk over to where Mollie sat and they each took a seat by her. Mollie decided to pretend like the last five minutes hadn't happened, so she chattered to them normally as they sat.

Jamey chuckled and watched Mollie move with an amused look on his face. He thought about following her, just to piss her off, but one of his equally arrogant friends popped in and took the seat that once was Mollie's. The two boys bumped fists and began to bullshit until their teacher walked in and hushed the class. She went on to take attendance, and then began another boring lecture on Amelia and its history.

Since the entire class was full of seniors, they all had to partner up and do a big project that was worth half of their grade. At the beginning of the week she had mentioned it while going over the syllabus, but wasn't going to assign partners until Friday. For the last few semesters, Miss Henley had allowed the students to choose their own partner, but sometimes couples would pair up together but then break up, or even friends would work together but become enemies by the end of the semester, and it was just too much dumb teenage drama and too many failed projects. So this semester she decided that she'd pair these kids up herself.

"Okaayyyy," Miss Henley sighed while going over her roster. "Julia Tule, I want you to pair up with Damian Grey...Mollie Sterling?" She glanced up at Mollie in the back then glanced back down at her roster, "You can work with your cousin, James Levis-Sparkes." There was no drama between cousins, right?

Jamey immediately and dramatically turned his whole body to face his cousin in the back, a huge, annoying, and maybe a little arrogant, grin on his face.

Mollie had been looking through her textbook, trying to find an interesting topic for the time period Ms. Henley had discussed, when her teacher spoke her name to assign the groups. She looked up expectantly before James' name was called immediately after her own. The smile had only made it halfway onto her face before it froze. She kept her eyes on Ms. Henley, refusing to look in James' direction. She was sure he was tickled freaking pink.

This was the biggest project of the semester--and Mollie had been looking forward to working hard on it. Now the entire thing was going to be a nightmare. Ms. Henley droned on, continuing her list of pairs, completely oblivious to the panic that was setting in on Mollie.

She heard her two friends groan for her. "Oh, gods, how awful! That really sucks, Mollie!"

How awful indeed.

"Okay everybody," Miss Henley said, after finally going through the roster. "I want everyone to get with their partners for the last fifteen minutes of class, and discuss your ideas together!"

As Miss Henley went back to her desk, all the students, including Jamey, stood from their seats to sit with their appropriate partners. He sauntered over to where his cousin was sitting, and sat at the empty desk beside her. Her two friends had presumably said their goodbyes and left to sit with their own partners.

"What up cuzo," he said, while lightly punching her arm. "Didn't this work out perfectly?"

In the few minutes it had taken for Ms. Henley to finish with her list and then give instructions, Mollie had pulled herself together. She forced a smile onto her face as her cousin came flouncing over to sit in the seat next to her.

"Perfectly," she agreed. She was going to do her best to get through this. She hoped if she tried to keep a good attitude up she'd at least give herself the peace of mind needed to survive this semester.

"I was thinking we could do something about the Earalas overloridian from 2008," she said, immediately launching into the topic at hand to cut out any small talk James might have wanted to make with her. "Apparently he was a push over and got Earalas in a lot of trouble because of it."

Jamey was surprised that she didn't have some smart comment to retort back to him. He should have expected this though, from Miss Goody Two Shoes. For as long as he could remember, Mollie was always trying to be the perfect student. Always getting good grades, always working her life away on some stupid project or another. The way Jamey looked at it, you either waste your life away studying, or you go out and live. Albeit, his view of "living" was getting drunk or high in somebody's mansion.

"Whatever princess," he said, leaning back in his chair. "I'm cool with whatever."

If James though the nickname "Princess" bothered Mollie, he had another thing coming. "Great," she said, ignoring his posture that signaled complete lack of respect. "So I think what we need to do first is talk about..."

Mollie set out a timeline for James to follow, pointing out when certain parts of the project were due, as per the syllabus. "I think we should start this weekend," she told him. She knew maybe she was jumping the gun a little, because it wasn't due until the end of the semester, but this project account for a large part of their grade, and she would rather get it done well, and early, than wait until later.

Jamey was only half listening to his crazy cousin's plans for this project. He didn't get why she was so invested into this dumb school shit. The only reason why Jamey even was still in school was to please his parents. Otherwise he would have dropped out a long time ago. It wasn't as if he wasn't smart enough for it, he was just bored with it.

Mollie wrote:"I think we should start this weekend,"

"Wait, this weekend?" He asked, finally jumping back into the conversation. "Mollie, you know there's always huge parties the first weekend of school, right?"

He knew she knew. He'd seen her at plenty of parties himself. Why would she want to do something so lame?

"So let's do it on Sunday?" Mollie asked in a 'duh' sort of voice, her eyebrows raised. "We can go to the library and do some research, get some good ideas about what each of us should be doing for the rest of the semester."

James' face looked particularly punch-able as he stared at her with a horrified look, and if she'd been a few years younger, at home in Earalas, she would have actually considered doing it. Instead she forced herself to breathe deeply. Students were already beginning to shuffle at of the room, her friends Helene and Violet included. Vi looked over her shoulder before she walked out the door, offered Mollie a sympathetic look.

"You know what?" she said finally through a thin, forced smile. "Forget it. Have fun this weekend." She didn't want to deal with him anymore--not today. She'd force herself to try again on Monday. After a nice, long weekend away from him.

She grabbed her folder and textbook and started shoving it back into her bag so she could catch up with the girls before they got too far away.

Jamey was satisfied with this answer, and he smirked.

"Alright cuzo," he said, while reaching out and patting her back. "Good on ya!"

He stood, unopened books in hand, and left Mollie to rejoin his friend that had been waiting for him, and the two snobby boys left, discussing their plans for the upcoming weekend.

END