Page 13 of Break Points and Face Offs

What? She’s put us together?

Great, I’m stuck in a group with my arch nemesis and we’ve also been saddled with the sloppiest student in the class.

I’d like to swap Peter for Alice Liang. In fact, I would swap anyone for Alice. Together I’m sure we could run rings around Will. She’s the only other student here as meticulous about her stationary as I am. But as it stands, I won’t get the chance.

The one silver lining in this is that when I glance over at Will, that muscle is ticking in his jaw again. He is not happy about this either. Well, if I have to be miserable, I’m glad he’s miserable, too.

Professor Moreno looks at us before dismissing the class. I swear she’s wearing an evil grin. “I trust this assignment will teach you valuable lessons about yourselves.”

I flash her a charming smile. She’s unmoved by it.

I have to get a head start on this mess. Things haven’t quite started out the way I’d expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to rectify them. I didn’t get this far, achieve this much, by falling at the first hurdle. Rosenthals do not curl up into balls of self-pity just because someone doesn’t like them. We’d all be dead by now if we did.

I practically have to chase Will to catch him up. He’s storming down the corridor so fast I have to tug him by the elbow to get him to stop. He looks like he’s about to growl at me or bite me or something as he looks down at my hand.

“May I remind you of that time in the library when you manhandled me?”

“I did not man⁠—”

“I trust you’ll let me take the lead on this one, William.”

He sucks in a breath before laughing and shaking his head.

I have to jog to keep up as he storms down the hallway toward the exit. “Where are you going?”

“This is a group project, Priestley. G-R-O-U-P.”

“So, what? You want to come over to my house and braid each other’s hair?”

“I don’t want to spend any more time around you than I have to either, but we’ve got to find some way to work together if we wanna get a good grade and be at the top of that damn leaderboard.”

“I agree … about the leaderboard.”

He pauses just outside the exit. Students rush by, getting to their next class, or meandering in groups, complaining about their professors, discussing assignment questions. He waits for me to continue my point.

I flash him one of my biggest smiles. “But surely we can find a way to do this separately.”

He shakes his head, running a hand through his thick, dark hair. It’s really annoying how attractive he is. Why does someone so annoying get to be this handsome? I bet he’s an athlete, too. A 'real' athlete. Not a ‘skinny nerd with a racket’ as people were always referring to the tennis team.

“Whether we like it or not, we have to find a way to work together on this. We can do it in a way that’s least painful for the both of us.”

Or least painful for me.

“Fine,” I tell him. “Group work it is. Can you at least delegate enough to allow me to set up the group chat?”

“Sure, you do that.”

“Great. And I can choose the setting for our group meeting?”

He squints at me, already suspecting foul play.

“Fine.”

It’s difficult to keep the smile in as I walk away.

6

WILL