three
Our teacher was crazy and I swore by that.
She had the brightest shade of purple hair you'd ever see. She wore tribal print dresses every day and listened to African music while we worked on projects. Once I walked into the well-lit room, I took a seat and waited for the class to begin.
A few minutes later Ashton stumbled in with Michael Clifford and Calum Hood. Two of the most immature boys you'd ever meet. They took a seat at their usual table one away from mine.
Mrs.Rain walked out of the back room with a smile on her face. She was an older lady. I would guess fifty-five or sixty. I wasn't sure but she defiantly had an interesting sense of style. I admired her love of nature, though. She was probably considered a hippie but I was never sure.
"Good afternoon class," she smiled softly as she clasped her hands together tightly. "Today we'll be starting one of my favorite projects personally," She then walked around the class and handed each of us a small piece of lined paper.
"Alright, I'm going to be assigning you all partners. Your task for this quarter is to create a piece of artwork. You can use anything you want or any technique you want. It must be inspired by any type of artistic culture." She continued to talk about the rules of the project before calling off our names one by one, pairing us with others. "Michael Clifford and Calum Hood," she said as she read off of her small paper. I saw the two high five each other out of the corner of my eyes. I chuckled to myself. She named off a few more groups as I sat with my hand holding up my head as I tried to keep my eyes open.
"Shannon Montgomery and Ashton Irwin," my eyes widened. My heart stopped. It took a moment to process the fact that I had been partnered with a guy who I was positive absolutely despised me. He looked over at me before I watched his eyes fall colder and colder with each second. I gulped and looked back at Mrs.Rain. She re-assigned our seats. I awkwardly grabbed my things and took a seat across from Ashton. "Okay, jot down ideas on the pieces of paper I handed out earlier, good luck." My eyes flickered up to meet Ashton's. He looked rather angry, obviously, he didn't want to be here, and I couldn't blame him. I didn't either.
"What?" He snapped.
"N-Nothing," I mumbled. "Do you have any ideas?"
"No not really," he said quietly. He seemed calmer. I put my mind to work beginning to think of all the possible things we could do. My pencil danced across the paper as I thought of plans. He watched me carefully. I couldn't help but think about his mysterious hatred for me. He seemed so sweet the night we met. I guess he just needed someone there for him that day. I guess the fire was too much to handle for one person.
"Music." I hear. I glance up to see Ashton looking into my eyes. Music. I nodded my head and smiled at his brilliant idea. Music. Of course. I was quite simple actually.
"That's brilliant," I mumbled with a smile. I couldn't help but notice a small smirk appear on his lips. My eyes flickered up from my paper to see him looking at me again.
"Can we just get this over with," he snapped. He had clearly abandon whatever thought he had just been thinking about. My mind seemed to wander back to the day we met. I had stayed with him through all his testing. The MRI, the CT scans. I was there through it all because from what he told me, he didn't have a lot of families to be there for him. We spent about 10 hours together that night but after that, he never wanted to see me again and I wasn't sure why.
I continued to think for the majority of the hour. He was such an interesting person yet he was so cruel, I had no clue what made him so upset all the time, but frankly, I didn't really care much. He was honestly on of the most stubern people to even ste foot into my life and I wasnt sure I'd be able to deal with it.
"Give me your phone,"
"What?"
"Give me your phone," he snapped once again. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and watched him type something into it. He shut it off and handed it back to me. I grabbed it from his large hands and checked to see what he had done.
Once I clicked my contacts. The first name that popped up caused my eyes to widen.
Ashton Irwin.