Fanon:Can't Let You Get Him: Chapter 3-A Confession & A Deal

Gina was pretty fun to hang out with! She's also really good at explaining things and tutoring others. It's like she knows everything, even though that's impossible. Gina also had a really cool theory we liked working on together. It was about how there was an alternate universe where there are big, futuristic, jellyfish-ish versions of us. I learned a lot about her! Our friendship grew over the next few days. I also was able to successfully steer clear of that person who tore up my map on my first day of school. And although I didn't talk to Nate, we were in the same classes.

However, something changed. And that change took place on a Wednesday morning.

"Class," Mrs. Godfrey began. "We are going to have a social studies project that counts for 10% of your semester's grade."

Some people glanced at each other.

"We will be doing it in pairs," she added.

Those people had big smiles on their faces.

"I will assign the pairs," she continued.

It was back to just exchanging glances with others.

Mrs. Godfrey proceeded to assign pairs, reading out of a list she wrote.

"Delia and..." I perked up as Mrs. Godfrey read my name from the list. I was curious as to who my partner would be.

"Let's see here..." Mrs. Godfrey mumbled, flipping the page on her list.

"Okay," Mrs. Godfrey told me. "You will be paired with Nate."

Those words made my heart skip a beat, but I didn't know why.

After school, I went to the library and studied with Gina for 45 minutes, like usual. Then we talked for about 10 minutes, like we normally did. I grabbed my bag and headed out of the library. It was 4:00 PM here. But then, I bumped into someone.

"Sorry, sorry!" I exclaimed.

Please don't let it be map breaker guy, I thought.

To my surprise, it was Nate! I felt very, very embarrassed. Even more embarrassed than with the person who tore my map up.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I had detention..." he answered. "What about you?"

"I was studying with a friend," I replied. "Speaking of studying, should we meet before school tomorrow? Since we have that project?"

"Uh...sure," he told me.

"Great! See you!" I said, walking out the entrance.

At lunch the next day, I met up with Nate. We made some progress on our report, although I was mostly the one doing all the research, and Nate was handling the "Illustrations." These illustrations were actually comics about what we were studying. They were cool, although they were a little bit...historically inaccurate.

After we worked together, we went our separate ways for lunch. After I finished my lunch though, I wanted to go see what Nate was up to. I heard him talking with his friends. I saw the one with glasses, the one with darker skin, a girl with black hair and glasses, and a short, chubby boy.

"So," the one with glasses began. "How is your project, Nate?"

"It's good. That girl...Delia, I think that's her name, she has things in good order for the project. I'm working on the illustrations," he answered.

"Cool!" The one with darker skin exclaimed.

"It's not really surprising for me that I'd end up with Delia," Nate said. "She always pops up wherever I go! It's kinda weird."

"That is weird!" the short, chubby one responded.

"Hey, do you know that according to the book of facts, 25% of parings like these may end up in romance?" The one with glasses asked.

"Shut up, Francis," Nate said.

"Wow!" The girl with black hair and glasses exclaimed. "Think about how that would turn out!"

"No, just no," Nate told her. "You don't know that that's going to happen."

"It might!" The girl protested.

"I don't think so, Dee Dee," Nate told her.

"Hey, we need to get to class in a few minutes," Francis said. "Let's go."

They walked off. I learned a lot! And what was that about romance? Maybe it'd be possible...

"How's your project?" Gina asked me in the library. "I pity you, being paired up with Nate."

"It's awesome!" I answered.

"What?" She said, looking surprised.

"It's great! I do the researching, and Nate's illustrations are pretty cool," I told her.

"You don't like him, do you?" She asked. "Nate's a jerk. And he's dumb. Chances are, you're going to end up getting a low grade on the project. You'd be lucky if you got a C-! Last project, he and I ended up working together and I did most of the work! We didn't even get a perfect score! And I ended up getting detention for no reason!"

"Maybe...maybe I actually do like him!" I admitted. "He seems to be funny."

"YOU'RE JOKING!" Gina cried, looking shocked.

"I don't think I am," I said, "I think I actually do like him."

"Ew!" Gina exclaimed.

"Wait," I told her. "Maybe we could help each other out romance-wise."

"How would that work?" she asked.

"Well, I think you may like that short, chubby guy," I began

"I-uh-what?" She stuttered. "Oh, you mean Chad. Yeah, fine, I'll admit it. I do like him. So what though?"

"We could help each other get the ones we like," I suggested.

"Fine," Gina sighed, rolling her eyes. "We'll see how it works. Deal?"

"Deal," I agreed, and we shook on it.

So I got a mission. Operation "Get Nate to like me and get Chad to like Gina" was a go. I just didn't know how to do it. What if I just went with the flow and saw how things would go?