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