Chapter Four

If you didn't already guess, Ellie said yes. She's so hopeless at this point, I had to stop fighting for her and just focus on myself. After she said yes, Connor and Ellie both ran off to do who knows what for the last few minutes of lunch. I chose to ignore everyone for the rest of the day until it came time for my final work period.

I went into the library like usual, found an empty table in the corner, and waited. This work period was an hour long, and Connor was supposed to meet me here to work on our English paper. It was about 10 minutes into this work period, and I was losing all hope for this boy. Instead of waiting like a complete loser, I decided to start working on some other homework so that I wouldn't be up all night.

Five minutes later, a breathless boy entered the library, looking in all directions until he spotted me, looking all annoyed. I started switching over to my English notebook as he quickly seated himself across from me. He didn't speak, and neither did I. We just sat there, him staring at me, and myself preparing to write.

"I'm so sorry, Liz." 

I have to admit, I snapped a little bit.

"My name is Elizabeth, and if you're always going to be this irresponsible and be late to all of these sessions, I'm finding a new partner. I don't care what your excuse is, just don't do it again."

He held his hands up in surrender, "Jeez, alright. Well, where do we start boss?"

I rolled my eyes, tapping my pen in annoyance. 

"Now that we only have 45 minutes left, how about we just tell each other basic things about ourselves?" 

He nodded his head.

"I'll start. My name's Elizabeth, and I've lived in this town all my life. I'm hoping to go to Highpoint University next year, focusing in business. I want to open up my own business eventually. I don't know what yet, but it'll be awesome. Your turn."

He smiled at me, writing everything down. 

"This is such boring stuff. Alright, I'm Connor. I've moved all around the United States my entire life since my father had business to do in many places. He died a year back though, so we stayed here. I don't know where I want to go for college or what for, but I know I want to travel."

I nodded, writing it all down. 

"I'm sorry about your dad." 

He shrugged, "It's okay. It happened, there's nothing I can do."

I sighed out loud, I was feeling sorry for the guy. I knew about his father, but I never heard him talk about it. No matter how much I didn't want to feel this way, I just wanted to make sure he was okay, because I witnessed how it can make someone feel. Ellie had lost her father a few years back, she was an emotional wreck for the longest time. 

"If you ever want to talk about it, I'm here. Talking really helps."

He nodded, not looking up from his notebook. "Yeah. Let's move on from that subject. What's your wildest dreams?"

I thought for a moment, "Like actual dreams when I'm sleeping, or like what I want for my future type things?"

He shrugged, "Both."

"Let's see, when I was younger, I had this dream that cows were coming out of the lake and would raid my family's cottage and eat all the people. So now I'm afraid of cows, and I'm totally not a vegetarian." 

Connor laughed a bit loudly, earning a glare from the librarian. "And I really want to go skydiving and take some of those really cool pictures people have."

He smiled widely at me, "Those are awesome dreams." 

I laughed, "Thanks, but we can't forget about your dreams. What are they, player?"

His smile disappeared, "For people to stop calling me that."

I stopped smiling as well. 

"Sorry, it's just kind of what came to mind. I didn't mean to-"

"Yes, you did."

I stayed quiet for a bit. This partner thing was going to be much more difficult than I thought. 

"How about your dreams?"

"This is stupid, Elizabeth. We're supposed to be writing a paper about each other and we both know that we're just going to end up writing our opinions. That's not what he wanted and you know that. I really want to start this year off strong and this isn't the way to get that good grade."

I rolled my eyes, "Fine. What's your brilliant idea?"

"Let's go out."

I laughed, but like, not a real laugh. One of those short laughs, only one 'ha'. 

"You just asked my best friend out, I'm not going out with you."

He shook his head, "No, not as a date. As friends, with other friends if you want. We just all go hang out, be ourselves. You can get a feel of how I am out of school, and I can too. It'll make these papers real and actually show how we are to Mr. Porter."

I contemplated for a few seconds. 

"That's actually a really good idea. Fine, where shall we hang out?"

"I know there's this part-"

I immediately stopped him, "I'm not going to a party. That's the worst place to get to know you for a school paper."

He nodded, "True. How about bowling? We could go tonight if we aren't too tired from practices after school?"

"That's better. Are you sure you don't have anything else going on tonight?"

He smiled, starting to pack up his stuff. 

"Nope. Are you okay with tonight? If it makes you feel any better, I can invite some more people to go with us."

All of our stuff was packed and we were getting ready to leave, "Sure. I'll invite a few people as well then. We can head out right after our practices get out?"

He nodded. With that, we left the library, and decided to get our stuff from our lockers. We still had about twenty minutes until school was finished. 

"What are you going to do for the rest of the day?"

He looked down at me, "I might just go get ready for practice and hang out in the weight room. Wanna join? I'm sure other boys will be in there doing the same."

I shrugged, not really knowing what else to do. I knew I was acting way friendly with him, but I figured it would be better for the project if I did so. 

"I guess. I'll meet you down there?"

He nodded in response, then we headed in different directions.