2~ The Project

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The next morning I forced myself to get out of bed and there was only one way to do that. Coffee.

I happily trotted downstairs with the smell of delicious coffee in my nose.

I poured myself a cup and sat in the kitchen with mom drinking coffee.

I looked at the time and if I didn't start getting ready soon I would be late for school. So I forced my self to get ready.

There's a lot of forcing myself to do things in the mornings.

As I put my shoes in I saw something out of my window. It was a person, my neighbor getting into their car. Wait, that's Delilah.

I rushed across my room to text her not to leave her house yet.

she listened because her car never left her driveway. I grabbed my bag and rushed outside.

"Aspen!" She squealed when she saw me and ran into my arms.

"You live there? Right next to me?"

I was in shock. I knew a girl my age lived there but I didn't expect it to be Delilah.

"Yeah, and you live next to me?" She squealed.

"How have I not seen you yet? I've lived here for a few days"

"We'll I was at my grandma's this weekend and I worked late last night."

"You know what this means right?" I squealed.

"Best friends!" We screamed ta the same time.

"So, how was the cheesecake? I made it myself." Delilah said nonchalantly like we didn't just find out that we lived next to each other.

"Delilah the cheesecake was amazing. You did good" I laughed lightly.

"The recipe was my grandma's, she opened the bakery, my parents run it now though"

We talked a few minutes before going to school. She drove me because I didn't feel like driving this morning.

The warning bell rung and I headed to English and she went to her first period class.

Ashton was sitting at the desk on his phone. I sat next to him and tried to make conversation.

"So since this project is sixty percent of our grade and due in two weeks I think we should get started with it today. Do you want to meet up in the library after school and start it?"

"No, I don't do libraries, we'll go to my house instead." He didn't even look up from his phone.

"I hardly even know you why should I-"

"Meet me at the side of the school after school" he completely ignored me.

The tardy bell rang and class started.
We started the class discussion of why we read classic literature and not modern crap.

"Modern books have no meaning, no moral to the story. It's simply just there. Classics like To Kill a Mocking Bird or Moby Dick or Romeo and Juliet actually have a purpose" a girl spoke up.

"Like what? What is so meaningful in the Great Depression, a man getting his leg eaten, two idiots dying when they could've avoided everything" Ashton spoke up.

Leave it to him to go against classics.

"No, themes like subsiding prejudices and treating everyone as equals, too much of something is not good, and true love knows no bounds." I argued.

"You can't argue that modern literature doesn't have any morals. There's a moral to every story."

"Name three" I challenged looking staring into his blue eyes.

"Hunger games, stand up for what you believe in. Hobbit, take risks in life. Lord of the rings, stay productive"

"These books have nothing on the classics, their morals are something you can read on a magazine while you're on the-" I was cut off.

I stood up in protest. Only to be followed seconds later by Ashton.

"Who even cares about the morals of the classics anymore? They're old and don't even relate to the struggles of modern life"

"They're called are classics for a reason, the struggles when the classics are written is the same for several years before and after they were written."

"Name three times you've used or needed one of those morals"

"You can't tell me that you don't have any prejudices, this school is separated into groups, every school is. When you study for a test, if you study too much and don't balance it out you could over work your brain-"

"That makes no sense!" He yelled in my face.

"Oh I'm sorry I forgot you probably don't study, do I need to put it in-"

"Okay" Ms. Dunn yelled above the both of us. "That's enough of that, thank for your opinions, please sit down."

We both huffed in annoyance as we sat down.

"Before all of that happened, they had some good points on both sides of the..." she went on.

I had to do a project with this guy? There's no way this is going to be an easy task.

"So I heard you got into it with my brother" Alex laughed as he took his seat.

"He has no respect for classic literature" I pout.

"Actually he likes the classics, he just likes to argue." He laughs.

"Are you serious? I just had a twenty minute fight with a guy who didn't even disagree with me"

"Yeah pretty much" he laughed.
***
"I heard you fought with Ashton this morning" Delilah sat down next to me at lunch.

"I did, just to find out he just likes to argue and didn't care about what we argued about"

"How'd you find that out?" She asked.

"Hey so I just found out Ashton invited you over tonight, you know for the project. I'm sorry he probably acted like a jerk, but don't worry I'm driving, it won't just be you and him" Alex slid in the chair opposite of me.

"Yeah, thank you for that" I smile at him.

"No problem, anytime" he smiled and walked back to his table.

"That's how I found out." I pointed at his retreating figure. "I sit by him in second period"

"He so likes you" she playfully hit my arm.

"He does not, he's just being nice to me because his brother is a jerk."

I remembered I didn't text my dad to tell him that I'm going to their house.

"Oh crap" I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

"What?"

"I forgot to text my dad that I'm going to Ashton's house for the project"  I shrugged and sent him a quick text.
***
I waited at the side of the school like Ashton said this morning.

Alex pulled up in a blue Mercedes Benz.

My jaw dropped. I could not believe that this was his car.

"Are you coming or are you just gonna stand there?" Ashton snapped from the passenger seat.

I jogged to the car and slid into the back seat.

"This is nice" I looked at the car in shock.

"Thanks" Alex smiled. "We have to go pick up our little brother, I hope you don't mind"

"Of course I don't" I smiled actually exited to meet him.

We drove in silence with the radio on in the background most of the way to the school.

"What brought you to San Fran?" Alex asked.

"Who cares?" Ashton shared his point of view, as always.

I ignored his comment and answered Alex's question. "My mom got at promotion at the radio station and they transferred her here."

"That's cool" he said as he pulled into the school parking lot.

He went in and grabbed his brother. They came back out holding hands and the little one skipping.

He climbed in the back seat and looked at me with big blue eyes. His brown hair was not like the rest of his brothers, or at least the ones I've met.

"Who are you?" He asked sweetly.

"I'm Aspen, what's your name?"

"I'm Flynn, are you dating my brother?"

I tried my hardest not to bust out laughing.

"No, I'm just a friend" I smiled at him.

"Oh ok" he chirped and then went on talking about this day.

We pulled into their driveway and my jaw dropped... again. Their house was huge.

We got out and Alex tossed his keys to a guys who was waiting outside.

"Thanks Ronan" he said.

The boys walked up to the front door. I made my way slowly. I couldn't stop staring at the beautiful house, not to mention it's a freaking mansion.

"Come on Aspen" Alex said.

I snapped out of my trance and hurried to the door.

"Mom we're home!" Alex called knocking on a door.

A beautiful woman, with long blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes, came out a few seconds later. Flynn ran into her arms and she picked him up.

"Mommy!" He squealed.

"Hey little buddy" she laughed ans gave him a kiss on the head before setting him down.

Ashton pushed past us and went somewhere.

"How was school Alex?" She asked and her eyes landed in me in surprise. "I wasn't aware we had company"

"Ashton's project partner" he explained and hugged her before walking in the same direction that Ashton went.

"Hi I'm Sydney, I'm their mom" she smiled at me and stuck out her hand. I accepted the handshake.

"I'm Aspen Peterson"

"Nice to meet you Aspen, let me get Ashton down here so you can start on your project." She walked over to an intercom and called for him to come downstairs.

"Let's go to the living room" he groans and walks away. I assume to the living room so I followed him.

Their living room was so big and beautiful.

"Wow" I couldn't stop the words from escaping my mouth.

"Why are you like that? It's just a house. Get a grip"

"Some people don't have stuff like this. Not everyone is as rich as you are. To me it's not just a house. I've lived in an apartment my entire life so I'm sorry if I think your house is gorgeous and express it out loud" I huffed.

For a second his tough exterior dropped. "I'm sorry I don't have great experiences when it come to having a partner." But just like that it was back up. "Can we just get this over with?" He groaned.

"Yeah" I muttered. "How about you pick the theme?" I took off my backpack and sat on the couch.

"What's the list?"

I pulled the list out of my backpack and handed it to him.

"How about growing up?"

"I like it" I smiled at him for the first time.

We got to working on the project. I was on my laptop starting the slideshow presentation and he was writing notes.

The couch eventually felt uncomfortable so I moved down to the ground.

"Hey Ash" a voice said as he came into the room. His words died off as his eyes fell ion me. I looked up to see one of the boys, I'm pretty sure it was Parker but let me just say he was HOT.

He had blue eyes just like the twins. His dirty blonde hair was styled straight up.

"Who are you?" He asked, when he finally noticed me basically laying at his feet.

"I'm Aspen, Ashton's project partner. Speaking of, we've been working for a while maybe we should take a break or I could come back another day." I looked up at Ashton.

"We'll you've been working, I was watching Netflix"

"Ashton I swear, did you do anything?"

"Don't get your panties in a twist I did a little bit" he handed me a piece of paper with only a few words on it.

"I've been working for an hour and this is all you did. I'm not going to sit here and do all the work. I swear if you don't do anything you will regret it." I yelled at him.

"Okay okay, I'll do something...next time" he smirked.

"No, you will sit right there and do it right now!"

"Wow" I heard Parker whisper to himself.

I've never really gotten mad at a partner before but Ashton's a whole new definition of partner.

"Who wants cookies?" A lady appeared in the living room next to Parker.

"I do" Parker and I said at the same time.

Ashton started to get up.

"No, by the time I get back you have to write at least three examples and a little explanation on each of them." I said in an authoritative voice. He pouted but did what I said anyway.

I walked out of the living room with Parker.

"That's the first time he listened to anyone about school work." Parker said.

"Well I am not about to do the whole project by myself. He needs to do his work."

I got back from having the most amazing cookies in the world and talking for a little bit. I made sure to get Ashton a few cookies.

"How's it coming along?" I asked walking into the living room.

He handed me a paper with four examples and three sentence explanation with each of them.

"See what you can do if you actually work? These are actually really good" I said as I scanned over the paper. "I brought you some cookies"

"Thanks" he mumbled with a mouth already full of cookies.

"I guess I should text my dad to come pick me up" I said pulling out my phone.

"I could drive you" Alex came up behind me.

I'm not gonna lie he kind of startled me.

"Oh ok" I slid my phone back into my back pocket and grabbed all my stuff.

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