“David and Fin.”

Two students stood up and moved to the other side of the classroom.

“Maryanne and Van.”

Another two students stood up and moved.

“Juliet and Kadin.”

I stood up, shocked. What? Am I partnered with Kadin?

Mrs Davis was reading out names for a chemistry assignment. As much as I didn’t like group work, random names from a hat were even worst.

I glanced down at Kat and frowned.

“You’re going to be fine,” Kat smiled, trying to cheer me up. “If Kade lacks off, let me know and I’ll teach him a lesson.”

“Ah, thanks,” I replied and headed to the other side of the room.

Settling down to a desk, Kadin smiled as he sat down next to me.

“Looks like we’re partnered up, just like the old times,” he grinned at me.

“Yeah…”

“So how should we do this?” Kadin asked.

Deflated that I’m not partnered up with Kat, I sighed.

“What’s up with the sighing?” Kadin questioned, frowning at the same time.

“I thought that Mrs Davis would let us chose our partners for this assignment.”

“Does that mean you don’t want to be partnered up with me?” Kadin asked, looking a little sad and offended.

“No. That’s not what I meant,” I defended. “I was hoping to work with Kat since I’m new to this school.”

“I see,” Kadin nodded. “I’m new too, so we’re pretty useless if we want to know how Mrs Davis prefers things when scoring extra marks.”

“Exactly.”

Kadin looked down at the assignment sheet and sighed, “I guess we’re in the same boat then.”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” Kadin looked at me with shiny green eyes, “we can compensate our newbieness by starting the project earlier than everyone else.”

“If I remember correctly, you’re pretty good with procrastination,” I stated the fact.

Back in my previous town, I knew Kadin through a group project as well. He was in the same English class as I was. Our Year 8 English teacher decided to pair us up for a creative writing assignment. From there, I learnt that Kadin was great at procrastinating. He just gets distracted too easily.

“Ah,” Kadin scratched his head, “that was when I was a kid. It’s been years now. I’ve changed, Jules.”

Jules? Not that nickname again.

“Don’t call me that,” I gave him the daggers.

“How come?” Kadin frowned. “That’s my personal nickname for you.”

“The only name I allow people to call me is either Julie or Julie.”

“What’s the difference?”

“That’s the point,” I rolled my eyes. “There’s no difference.”

Kadin chuckled, “I see. You’re still the same as ever.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, debating whether I should take his statement as a compliment or an insult.

“Anyway, we’re getting side-tracked.” I changed the subject. “Let’s get this started so that we can get it over and done with.”

“Sure.”

“So which module should we make a model of?” I said, skimming down at the assessment notification.

“Hmm…” Kadin looked down at his notification and scratched his chin.

I gazed at him and noticed his bed hair.

“Oh, I know! We should totally do the fullerene molecule!” he grinned at me.

I quickly typed in ‘fullerene molecule’ into my laptop and hit the search button. Pictures of the soccer ball-like molecule came up onto the screen.

“I like this molecule,” I said, nodding to the screen. “It looks like a soccer ball.”

“Yeah, I know.” Kadin nodded and leant closer to my laptop. “That’s why I chose it.”

“Alright!” I smiled, feeling motivated. “Let’s do this!”

“Yes!” he grinned at me. “Let’s do this and ace it!” He raised his hand in the air.

I tilted my head and looked at his hand in the air.

“Come on,” he pouted, “high-five with me.”

“Nah,” I looked away from him. “I want to leave you hanging there.”

“Geez, this girl.” Kadin nudged me in the shoulder.

“Hey! Don’t ‘geez’ me.” I nudged him back.

He laughed.

“Bye Kat,” I waved to my best friend.

“Where are you going?” Kat asked.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you that Kadin and I are going to start working on the chemistry assignment this afternoon?”

Near the end of our chemistry lesson, Kadin and I agreed to work on the chemistry assignment right after school. That way we could start it earlier than everyone else and get it over and done with.

“Yeah, you did,” Kat smiled as she remembered. “Okay, see you tomorrow then. If Kade ever slacks off, let me know, okay?”

“Sure thing,” I grinned at her.

“See you then!”

“See you!”

I waved and headed to the library.

When I was close to the library entrance, I saw a particular red-head, standing there leaning against the wall. He was looking down at the ground, or his shoes, frowning as he was deep in thought.

I knew that the red-head was Kadin but for some reason, he wasn’t like his usual self. Whenever I see him, he would usually be happy, smiling like there were rainbows in the sky, or at least be as happy as he was during chemistry today. At the moment, that wasn’t the case.

“Hey Kad—” I opened my mouth and stopped.

I just heard some rustling near the bushes. I turned around and scanned my surroundings. Is Ice Pack Stealer here?

My guts were telling me that there might be a prank set up in front of me. I scanned my surroundings again but didn’t notice anything particularly odd.

“Hey Julie!” Kadin called out as he wore his familiar smile. “Just came?”

I guess I stood there too long analysing my surroundings that even Kadin looked up and noticed that I was already here.

“Yeah…” I replied, still concern about the potential prank. “When did you get here?”

Kadin walked towards me. “Just a few minutes before you.”

I walked closer to the library doors and smiled at Kadin. “Did you run here after the bell went? Because I swear, you’re fast.”

Kadin chuckled, “Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, that’s not important at the moment, let’s get in the library and brainstorm on the materials we should buy for the assignment.”

“True,” I nodded in agreement.

Both Kadin and I headed towards the library’s entrance.

“After you, my lady.” Kadin gestured.

I cringed at his words, “Er… thanks?”

He smiled at my loss of words.

The moment I stepped through the door, I felt my legs wobbled. My arms grabbed whatever I could to keep my balance stable.

Now, my legs didn’t wobble because I was weak or anything like that. There was something on the floor that made it slippery. Anyone would’ve wobbled and slipped like I did. For me, I happened to grab onto Kadin because he was the closest thing to me.

He, too, was surprised when I suddenly grabbed his arms. When he realised that I slipped on something, he was already walking onto the substance that was on the floor.

Both Kadin and I feel hard on the ground. Thump!

“Oww…” said Kadin.

“Argh…” I said reaching for my bottom.

“Are you okay?”

“I think so.” I rubbed my bottom as I turned to look at Kadin.

I didn’t know I was sitting so closely next to Kadin that when I turned around his face was literally a few centimetres from mine. I blinked, noticing his widened green eyes.

Quickly, I pushed myself away from him and tried to stand up. I slipped again on the first try but on the second try, I grabbed the door knob and pushed myself up.

When I was standing on my two feet, dusting myself, Kadin struggled to stand back up.

“Need a hand?” I asked.

“I should be okay,” Kadin mumbled.

After a few more attempts, Kadin was finally standing up.

I stared at the floor, noticing the pinkish liquid substance.

“Is that soap?” I analysed the slippery floor.

“Looks like it,” Kadin answered my question.

I placed my hands on my hips. “To think that he would use such a pathetic prank is…” I paused to find the right word, “just so sad.”

Look, I thought that Ice Pack Stealer was a pro. But it seemed like his pranks were pretty much C-grade.

“He?” Kadin raised his eyebrows. “Who’s this ‘he’?”

“No one important,” I waved Kadin’s question away.

“Are you perhaps…” Kadin paused, “in a prank war, at the moment?”

I was about to deny his question until I noticed how serious his facial expression was.

Hearing my silence, Kadin sighed. “Juliet, you do know how dangerous pranks can be right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I rolled my eyes. Really, I don’t want to hear a lecture from him.

“They why are you—” Kadin stopped. “Let me rephrase this. Is there something you want to tell me?”

I rolled my eyes again. Yes. Mind your own business.

I didn’t want him to get involved with my life like my previous school. In the previous town, Kadin was always telling me not to prank and always told me there were other ways to get back on those students. But they wouldn’t leave me alone every time I tried his method.

“Okay…” Kadin frowned. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then.”

“Kadin,” I said, “thank you for your concern. But I don’t want you to worry about it. I can handle it myself.”

Kadin stared at me, wanting to read my true thoughts in my mind. “If you say that then,” Kadin began, “I won’t ask you about. Let’s get inside the library and start on the assignment.”

“Thanks.”