Chapter 2.49-Unknown Quantity

                “I’m telling you ‘Riah, it can’t be done,” Roger said sadly, his finger tracing the line he’d picked to emphasize his point. “We’d need better, stronger tools, and more people.”

                At Roger’s feet, Eddie, their sometimes compatriot, looked up from his homework briefly. “He’s right, Mariah. Listen to him.”

                In frustration, Mariah stamped her foot.

                “Aurgh! I just don’t wanna do this,” she whined.

                “You know,” Roger grinned. “You know I can always lock the towel closet while they’re in there. That is something feasible.”

                Today was officially the first day Mariah and Andre would be working together on their shared project and she would do anything to put it off. Roger had helpfully promised to assist her in any way he could. Eddie was just tagging along out of boredom.

                Mariah gave a single laugh, grinning large.

                “While I will admit that it might slow things down,” she said. “I just don’t think I want Andre showing up wet and gross. I mean, that’s why you shower after practice right?”

                “Point for the lady,” Eddie added.

                “Aw, why not? Maybe he’d just skip it and go home to shower,” suggested Roger. “And you’re not helping Eddie.”

                “Fair enough,” Eddie said, getting to his feet. “I really thought you two were serious about locking the entire football team in the locker rooms. But it seems my hopes were dashed. I shall go do my homework somewhere more comfy, thanks.”

                Waiting until Eddie had walked to the end of the block Roger finally made his plea.

                “’Riah, just ask Adkins to reassign you,” he begged her. “Ask if you can work alone. I’ll help you if you need.”

                Mariah let out a heavy sigh.

                “I already asked to be reassigned,” she admitted. “He told me that Andre had already made that request. Then he told me to suck it up. But I promise you, if I can’t handle the work load and he’s slacking I’ll come to you for help. Okay?”

                Roger’s eyes lit up at her words.

                “Great!” he said brightly. “Are you sure you don’t want me to be there today?”

                “Nah,” she answered. “Nah, if we’ve got to work together, I need to give it a fair shot. At least once. And hey! Maybe, if I get lucky, Mom will flip out while he’s there and he’ll just leave me alone, huh?”

                The two chortled for a moment, each with their own vision of what Layla might be capable of around a stranger.

                “Well, good luck,” Roger extended a hand formally. “And if you don’t survive, at least your friends will have the comfort of knowing that you died honorably, on the field of battle, against your mortal enemy.”

                “Yeah,” Mariah rolled her eyes, ignoring his outstretched hand. “Yeah, ‘cause that’ll happen.”

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                Running home she was afraid she’d be late. She’d spent far too much time with Eddie and Roger this afternoon and she’d wanted plenty of time to compose herself before Andre showed up.

                But as she began to run up the walk to the door an awful grinding noise made her look around before she came to a complete halt.

                What on SimPlanet  is Mom up to now?

                With wide eyes and careful steps, she approached the yellow monstrosity her mother was attempting to control. Dirt was flying everywhere from the machine and it had kicked up the dust into a cloud.

                But the noise was unbelievable! How had she not heard it before she got to the house? Or had she just ignored it as she’d raced down the hill, assuming it was something, someone, else?

                Honestly, she’d only been half hoping that Layla would cause a scene. At this very moment, she really regretted hoping that might happen. This was just embarrassing. Maybe she could jump in the hole that thing was digging and it could bury her?

                Where had Layla gotten it from?

              “What?” Mariah shouted once she thought she might be close enough for Layla to hear her. “What.Are.You.Doing?”

                “Worms!” Layla shouted back, never taking her eyes off of the display in front of her. “Your father is all out of bait to go fishing with! So I’m helping him out with this miner. This baby should be able to dig up all the worms he’ll ever need! Ha! And there’s a motherlode of them right there!” Layla jabbed a finger at a light on the display before pulling on the levers again.

                “Stuck!” Layla shouted happily before putting her weight into pulling that particular lever.

                Mariah sighed, rolling her eyes. There’s her mother for ‘ya. Living with ghosts in a land of make believe.

                “Okay, then,” Mariah sighed. “Listen!” She shouted once more. “Listen, someone is coming by to work on homework with me. Just send them up to Tibi’s room okay?”

                But Layla didn’t answer, and Mariah wasn’t going to stick around that dirty, smelly machine a moment longer. As it was, she felt she needed a shower just from being that close.

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                Mariah had chosen Tibi’s old room for several reasons.

                The first reason was obvious. What teenaged male would want to spend any time at all in the rather obnoxiously bright, overly girly room? Truth be told, even Mariah hated it.

                It was just so, so, purple. And pink. Bubble friggin’ gum pink. Could Tibi have gone any more cliché with her girlyness?

                Secondly, when Tibi had left she’d taken every piece of furniture from the room so it was nicely empty, giving them plenty of room to spread out while doing their work.

                Spread out, had also been the biggest point in that they had an entire room to separate from each other.

                This was her finally sustaining hope when that effer and gone and plopped down right next to her. Right next to her! What was wrong with him?

                Well, this is fun.

                Finally, Andre sat up.

                “I get it,” he said firmly. “I get that you didn’t want to be partnered with me. I know that. But we’re stuck together and I have no intentions of letting our partnership tank my grade. And since you don’t seem to be the one who wants to start, I will.”

                Mariah’s shoulders slumped as he read over the requirements. They had to pick an author from the list and read at least 2 works by the author they chose. Then there were 10 elements to the project. 1 element due a month, to be presented to the class. The final grade on the entire project made up a third of their grade for the year.

                When Andre had finally finished reading the list of elements required he looked up.

                “You’re a Victorian and Classic literature buff, I know,” he said, making the corners of her mouth twitch.

                Damn straight.

                “But I’m not nearly as familiar with those authors,” he admitted. “However, I’m really good with modernist authors. You are also pretty good with those. So I’d like to suggest we focus on one of the writers from that period. Plus, I don’t think anyone else in class is going to go for any of those.”

                Well, that was something to think about. If they chose an author everyone else wanted they’d also be competing with classmates as to who did the better job. Mariah liked the idea of competition, but since Andre was an unknown quantity she might be out of luck.

                “So what do you say we keep it to a more difficult genre?” Andre asked. “It might mean a harder job, but I think we can pull it off. Working together? I know we can.”

                Eliot or Doolittle, Hemmingway or Faulkner, Mariah really wasn’t familiar with their works. In all honesty, Faulkner kind of intimidated her. But when Andre read over the name DH Lawrence her interest was piqued. That sounded like a friendlier name.

                “Lawrence,” Mariah said, speaking for the first time, using her pen to point to the name on the list.

                At the sound of her voice, Andre suddenly sat up and grabbed her arm.

                “Ah! Yes! I’m so glad you’re finally participating!” Andre beamed as Mariah’s dropped pen rolled out of sight.

                “My mom had us read his works a long time ago and I really don’t think anyone else will pick him either,” Andre continued.

                Mariah was almost completely panicked. Since Sabria’s usage of her as a child, Mariah had learned to navigate life without allowing anyone to touch her for any reason.

                 No one touched her. Her mother didn’t touch her. Roger didn’t even touch her. His offering of his hand for her to shake today was unusual. Mostly he remembered and respected her boundaries. She’d even managed to get around the crowded school hallways without bumping into anyone. Why was Andre touching her?

                Tears were threatening when she finally managed to stop the panicked voice in her head long enough to whisper “Please let me go.”

                Surprised confusion swept over Andre’s before he finally followed her gaze and looked down.

                Mariah had frozen, her breath shallow and quick, and her mind blank. And then she realized something. His hand was really warm, his palm sweating a little even. The realization of all of this came in a flash and it jarred her.

                Just as she managed to get her breath under control again, just as she was trying to decide if his touch was light or if he had a firm grip (out of curiosity) he released her hand.

                “Sorry,” he muttered, looking at her for only a moment before blinking, rolling his eyes, and looking away.

                Andre resumed reading from the sheet, this time listing aloud the works by Lawrence that were approved by their teacher.

                Slowly, Mariah brought her arm back into herself, hugging it close. The extra warmth on her wrist was already fading as a new thought struck her. She’d liked him touching her. It had been encouraging and friendly and for a crazy moment, it made her stomach flip.

                No more of that, Mariah shook her head, pulling her focus back to a discussion of which works they should choose to focus on.

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Questions anyone? I’m really hoping I explained all that alright. Sorry about Eddie in the first shot too. Of course random townie insists on sitting right behind where I staged that. Lol. (Well, not so random to me. He's actually one oh Phedra's sons. And all of them followed me around town crying that day since that was the day Phedra passed finally.)

And as to the project, I’ll probably go over what all they’re required to do later on. It’s fairly intense, but it has parts of it that should be easier than others, and certainly won’t take up their entire time. However, it will keep Andre around quite a bit. 

Finally- the homework poses are up for grabs if anyone would like them. I needed poses that were a little angrier than the in game animations allowed for and I figured there might be others out there who have sims who hate to do homework too. =D