GROUP PROJECT
1562 Words
Nia had memorized Kai's schedule by the end of every first week of the session for the last 4 years
Not because she was weird. Just... aware. Aware of his laugh, his walk, the way he drummed on desks like every surface was a beat waiting to happen. Aware that even though they’d never had a real conversation, her stomach still fluttered whenever he walked into a room.
So now, sitting beside him every day as seatmates, was basically a form of slow emotional t*****e.
She couldn’t talk to him—not with her voice doing that awkward choke- then- squeak thing whenever she tried. So she stayed quiet. Scribbled in her notes. Avoided eye contact like it was a death sentence.
It was safer that way.
---
Kai was confused.
Scratch that—he was frustrated and confused.
It had been a full week of sitting next to Nia and she’d barely spoken more than two words to him. He didn’t get it. She wasn’t shy with other people—he’d seen her laugh with Rivy a million times. But with him? It was like she turned into a ghost.
“You ever had a seatmate who acts like you’re contagious?” he asked Asher after class one day.
Asher raised an eyebrow. “Bro, maybe she just doesn’t rate you.”
“Thanks, that helps.” Kai said whilst folding a paper and throwing it at Asher.
----
The fluorescent lights in Mrs. Kim’s biology class flickered overhead like they, too, had given up on life. I sat stiffly at my desk—second row from the back, middle seat, right next to Kai freaking Bennett, who, for reasons I’m still convinced were cosmic punishment, had been my seat partner for a week now.
One. Full. Week.
I hadn’t spoken to him.
Not really. Maybe a few panicked “sorry”s when my elbow bumped his, or a strangled “uh-huh” when he asked if I had an extra pen.
It wasn’t like I hated him.
I was just... terrified.
Which was ridiculous, because he wasn’t terrifying. He was just a boy. A boy with annoyingly perfect curls and a laugh that sounded like trouble and who had been the center of every one of my 2 a.m. daydreams since I was thirteen.
No big deal.
I kept my eyes glued to the flower doodle blooming in the corner of my notebook. If I didn’t look at him, I couldn’t say anything stupid. That had been the strategy all week, and so far it was working.
Until Mrs. Kim clapped her hands.
“Alright class! Let’s settle down—your lab partners for the semester- long genetics project are up next. This project is worth twenty percent of your final grade, so take it seriously.”
Around the room, heads popped up. Chairs scraped. The room practically buzzed with anticipation and lowkey panic. I held my breath, praying to be paired with someone safe. Someone quiet. Someone I didn’t secretly obsess over.
But the universe? The universe has jokes.
“Kai Donovan and Nia Quinn.”
I swear I forgot how to breathe.
The pen slipped from my fingers and rolled dramatically off the desk like even it was done with me. I bent to pick it up, bonking my head on the table. Smooth. So smooth.
Beside me, Kai looked up from where he’d been lazily spinning his pen. “Guess we’re partners,” he said, voice low, amused.
I looked at him.
Mistake.
His eyes were the exact shade of rich coffee. And right now, they were focused solely on me. Not in a mean way. Not even in a “who are you again?” way. Just... calmly waiting. Like he expected me to respond like a normal human being.
“Cool,” I croaked. “That’s... yeah. Cool.”
His mouth twitched, like he was holding back a smile. “You sure?”
No. I was not sure. My neurons were melting. I was currently mourning the death of my dignity.
But I nodded anyway.
“Great,” Kai said, leaning back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head.
Rivy, from two rows over, made direct eye contact with me and mimed fanning herself like an auntie at a wedding. I wanted to disappear into the floor.
Mrs. Kim continued reading out names, but I couldn’t hear her anymore. Just the sound of my pulse pounding in my ears. I was officially doomed.
..The bell rang.
I made it approximately three steps out of class before Rivy pounced. She grabbed my wrist like a woman on a mission and yanked me into the girls’ bathroom with military precision.
“Nia Quinn,” she began, shutting the door behind us with a bang and checking under the stalls like we were in a spy movie. “Do you know what just happened?”
I slumped dramatically against the sink. “Yes. I’m having a very slow and very public mental breakdown.”
“You,” she said, stabbing a finger into my chest, “just got paired with Kai Bennett. The guy you’ve been secretly in love with for four years.”
“Lower your voice!”
“You sit next to him every day, and now—now!—the universe has granted you an actual excuse to talk to him! Girl, this is divine intervention.”
“It’s a group project, not a marriage proposal.”
Rivy ignored me, already digging through her bag. “You’re going to need a game plan. New lip gloss. Emotional support snacks. Emergency flirting strategy.”
“There’s no strategy. I can’t even form sentences around him.”
“You said ‘cool’ today. That’s progress.”
I groaned into my hands.
Rivy pried them away. “Listen to me. You are Nia freaking Quinn. You survived that time your skirt ripped in assembly. You gave a whole history presentation with spinach in your braces. You are resilient.”
“That was trauma, not resilience.”
“You’re ready.”
“I’m going to faint.”
Great! If you faint, maybe he’ll catch you. Very romantic. Boom. Story for the wedding toast.”
I stared at her. “I hope you know I plan to haunt you when this all goes horribly wrong.”
You already haunt me with your Kai monologues every day.” She smirked. “Now get it together. Wear this tomorrow.”
She slapped a shiny pink lip gloss into my hand. The name read: Confidence Juice.
I was mid-bite into a slightly soggy chicken sandwich when the entire atmosphere of the cafeteria changed.
It started with Rivy going still. She was sitting across from me, mid-rant about some English assignment, but her eyes flicked up over my shoulder like a hawk spotting prey.
Then she grinned. “Don’t freak out.”
My heart stopped. “Why? What? What’s behind me?”
“Don’t turn yet. He’s walking this way.”
“Who—”
But I didn’t have to finish the sentence. Because a second later, a familiar voice said, “Hey, Nia?”
I turned. Slowly. Like my neck had forgotten how joints work.
Kai Bennett stood at the end of our lunch table, one hand gripping the strap of his backpack, the other tucked casually into his pocket like he hadn’t just derailed the entire timeline of my afternoon.
He looked... annoyingly good. His curls were damp like he’d just come from practice, and there was a smudge of ink on his knuckle. He blinked at me with those unfairly pretty eyes.
“Oh. Uh. Hey,” I said. Except it came out more like, “Heyeuh.”
Rivy made a sound that could only be described as a restrained scream-cough.
Kai smiled at both of us—politely, like a boy raised with actual manners—then looked back at me. “Just wanted to ask if you’re cool meeting at the lab after school? Like... 4-ish?”
I blinked. Words were not happening.
“We could get a head start on the project,” he added. “Figure out who wants to do what. Unless that’s too soon?”
Too soon?? I would’ve met him at 2 a.m. in a thunderstorm with frogs falling from the sky.
“N-no! I mean, yes! That’s fine,” I said quickly. “Cool. Totally fine.”
Kai’s smile widened like he found that genuinely amusing. “Alright. See you then.”
And with that, he gave a casual wave and walked off toward the jock table, where his friends greeted him like he’d just returned from battle.
I didn’t move. I was frozen in time.
Rivy leaned across the table, her eyes wide and sparkling. “Nia.”
I didn’t blink.
“Nia.”
Still no reaction.
She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Babe. He asked you to meet him. After school. Alone. That’s a date in the nerd world!”
I finally blinked. “It’s not a date. It’s a science meeting. There will be bacteria involved.”
“Exactly. Nothing says romance like shared eye contact over a microscope.”
“I can’t do this.”
“You’re doing it.”
“I’m going to combust.”
“I’ll bring marshmallows.”
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- Writer
