Page 104 of How We Began

I turned to Meredith, who stared back at me blankly with a shoulder shrug, and I wondered what on earth I had missed? Ben chuckled behind my chair, and I spun around to him. In her seat next to him was Barbie, but I ignored her.

“What’s going on?” I hissed at Ben.

The blues danced until I titled back on my chair.

“Tell me now, or I’m taking a saw to the Gibson.”

His eyes narrowed but then he grinned and shook his head. “Johnson’s making us do project work and is pairing us up. We’re either number one or two and will pair up accordingly.”

Just as he finished speaking, Crazy Johnson veered towards me.

“Awake, Delilah, at last? How lovely of you to join us this morning.”

Bright red and sweating like the sun, I mumbled something intelligible back.

“Number one,” he said to me, patting a trifle hard on my head. “Number two.” He patted Meredith.

Seriously! Mer and I stared at each other mournfully.

Then I realised that Ben and Barbie were next. There are only two of them, and they would be either one or the other.

I swear, I hoped so hard that I wouldn’t get partnered with Barbie. I’d rather have my legs chopped off.

Johnson’s hand hesitated over Ben’s head—like he couldn’t quite remember what number was next—before coming down in slow motion.

“Number one.” He patted his head gently, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Back at the front of the class, Johnson turned his quick gaze on his room of captured students.

“Okay, everyone, move to your nearest matching number.”

Groaning we all made a huge deal of rustling papers and picking up pens. Meredith gathered her stuff, and I watched in amazement as she stepped right up to Barbie’s desk and said, “Hi, Becky, I guess we should work together.”

That left Ben and I staring at each other and I had a hundred butterflies unfurling their wings in my stomach.

“Hi, Lilah. I guess we should work together.” Blue twinkle.

“Hi, Ben, I guess we should.”

Professor Johnson then launched into a long spiel about what the group work should be about. I didn’t listen.

Ben waited for me after class, and for the first time in weeks he walked inside the library doors with me. We grabbed coffee and took the stairs, and we have been wedged into a study booth for the last few hours.

“So what do you think?” Ben asked me.

“Uh, I don’t know. What do you think?”

“Well, I quite liked his first idea. Did you prefer his second?”

“Um…”

“You weren’t listening, were you?”

“Sorry. Not really.”

“What were you doing instead?”

I shrugged, my heart thumping.