Pairs

Wei & Jean
Marcus Doan & Matt
Melanie & Alyssa
Dallas & Tori
Emma & Marcus Dunlap
Alto & Chad
Elizabeth & Frederick

Jordan & Michelle
Scott & Anna

when you're lost, the reindeer will guide you

1. pretend to fill form yes
2. turn it in
3. whine or be happy
4. talk with other kiddos if you want
5. once everyone posts i'll move on to end of day

G'day mates! It's the third day of school, hooray! Aren't you all excited to be students? Learning is so fun and important. However, it has come to my attention that students do need to have time to socialize. Yay!

Anyways, the rules and regulations of the project are simple: you are to stay in contact with your partner throughout the entire year and log your conversations in a journal. At the very end of the year, your journal and a final feedback sheet will be submitted as your final grade for the entire year.

Ahem! Please pay attention to this: A student will receive a zero if he or she does not stay in contact with his or her partner or even worse -- if said student or their partner break the rule of anonymity. Students are required to use a screen name and fake alias when talking to their partner that must be used at all times. This means that you can be paired with your brother, your best friend, your girlfriend or your worst enemy without even knowing about it -- the possibilities are endless! And so are the potential romances, drama and so on.

This project is intended to be used as therapeutic use, with hopes of self-discovery and possible inspiration!

Enjoy!

Cut.

In every English class going on in Wellbridge high-school right now, students are being handed a form sheet. The English teachers happily drone on about the positive effects this project is bound to have. Some of you are probably happy, some of you are not. There's not much the students can say about it though. After all, you are just kids. The teachers remind their students that the first assignment is to be completed over the weekend: E-mail your partner over the weekend and start your journal. With that, the teachers patiently wait for the students to complete the form and turn it in so they can start pairing people up.

When the forms were passed out after the explaining of the project and the related details, Marcus just sighed a little bit, "A year long project that'd leave my partner with a zero...great." he thought. At the same time, he knew his dad did get a new job, one that didn't involve so much moving, but it was still a lingering worry. Eventually, he filled out the forms that were involved with the project and turned it in as he headed to the lunchroom, getting a pizza slice, side salad, ranch, and a few other things. Then came the real challenge, here he was a senior at the school and he had no friends to sit with.

Wei glanced down at the form she had to fill out and sighed. It was only the third day of school and they already had a project? A year-long one too, nonetheless. She filled it out with simple answers and hoped that it was enough to satisfy her teacher. She quickly turned it in and waited for the period to end.

During lunch, she sat in her usual spot, by herself outside behind the gym. It was quiet and usually no one ever showed up here, except maybe an annoying couple looking for a spot to make out and in that case, all she had to do was look at them and then they'll leave. She ate her lunch in peace, not really thinking about anything.

Marcus Doan did not like the idea of this project one bit. It just seemed annoying and like a waste of time. He was so annoyed that he barely caught himself writing down a swear word on the official project sheet. He just scratched it out, which didn't help make it look any more professional, but he couldn't care less. As long as he passed, he was going to do the least amount of work and effort possible. It would mean much less stress on him, something he wanted for his last year in high school.

When he finished filling out the sheet, he turned it in and immediately headed off to lunch once the period bell rang. Once he got his food, he mentally debated over whether to sit with his (loud) friends or opt for a more quiet and peaceful lunch at the gym bleachers. Bleachers won. A couple minutes later, he found himself sitting at said bleachers. As he ate his lunch, his mind drifted back to the English project. Overall, he thought it was dumb. He wondered though what kind of partner he'd get. He never really talked with other kids outside of his group of friends, and though he considered himself chill and easygoing, there was something about being forced to talk to someone he'd never met before, that kind of intimidated him.

He hoped his partner wasn't a total dick, at the very least.
___

Alyssa Gabin fared a bit better attitude-wise. Though she was a bit skeptical that the project would be as amazing as the teachers kept saying it would be, she figured she might as well do her best and try to enjoy the ride. This kind of project was new to her, and she was admittedly intrigued in how this would all play out. She filled out her form as best she could, and turned it in.

Lunch soon came, and she was spending it with her small group of friends. Most were talking about the project they'd all been given, but Alyssa didn't have much to say, and just gave occasional nods during the conversation unless any of it was directed to her, only then would she reply. But again, she really didn't have much to say at all.

"Hmmm..." Alto said, putting his pen down. He regarded his work thoughtfully, he didn't find any flaws. But still... "This isn't sarcastic enough." He decided. He realized it now, but he'd been a bit more serious about it than he would usually have been. Last time he'd done this he'd roleplayed as a vampire, but this time he'd done it as himself.

"Whatever, this'll be good enough I suppose." He walked over and submitted his form and left the room.

---

A few minutes later...

Alto was set up and ready to go. He was in the back of the library, where even the teachers feared to tread. There would be nothing to disturb him now... except the bell. He tapped out a string of characters on his keyboard and he was in.

"Welcome back RoflsMazoy..." His laptop spouted. He pounded the volume down button and the sound faded. He quickly poked his head out of his hiding spot to check if anyone heard it, but he was clear.

This was what he did most days, he brought his modem-stick thing from home and played MMOs. He had enough experience talking to strangers online so this project wasn't going to be a problem.

"Whatever," He sighed, slumping a little, "Doesn't look like anything's going to change."

Matthew huffed gently to himself as the for was slid onto his desk. This was, to put it lightly, a total waste of his time. With as little effort as humanly possible, he lifted up his pen and scrawled out a series of half-assed answers before dropping in on the teacher's desk as he sauntered out of the room and towards the lunch hall. If there was one thing Matthew hated, it was being told what to do and this entire project was just a way for his teachers to force him to 'interact more' or whatever. Of course, he still intended to pass the assignment, he just intended to do so with the absolute minimal amount of effort from his end. It was pretty simple, he'd let his partner do all the talking and sit back and relax for the year. He didn't really care about his English grades anyway.

Matthew found a table near the back of the hall that was totally deserted and slumped down in a chair, before taking his wonderfully over-priced headphones and flipping them over his sandy mess of hair. He was working on mixing a song by a couple of songs by Scottish bands that he had recently discovered. They both sang depressing songs about sex and love and other sad stuff, but Matthew didn't really care about the themes. He liked the accent, the way they sounded and just wanted to know how they would sound together. As he listened, he ate from a lunch his Dad had prepared this morning, and dashed notes and ideas down in a notebook he carried around entitled 'We Were Promised Terrified Bunnies', the name of his latest mix ideas. With his headphones turned up to the volume they were, he could totally tune out the rest of the world and sit in his corner, totally isolated and totally okay with it.

So uncomfortable....

It was like bugs were crawling and slithering across her smooth porcelain flesh, the girl shivering as if in spasms as her tired, bloodshot eyes gazed down at the sheet of paper set before her. It was one thing to try and talk to people in the hallway, but...online? They could be anyone, even...even one of those girls from the cheer squad who kept harassing her all the time. A lump was forming in her throat, and she was sure she could feel the salty sting of tears welling in her eyes from the overwhelming fear she felt rising in her gut, but nevertheless a deep and ragged sigh parted her quivering lips and her pen was pressed to the parchment, scribbling out her name, age, and all that other personal information. It wasn't like the teachers were gonna share this shit with everyone, but still...Melanie was apprehensive.

Maybe she would make a friend out of this? Friend...yeah right. Who was she fooling?

Sighing to herself again, she handed in the form and was off to lunch, sitting at her usual spot outside on the campus grounds underneath the tall, shady sycamore. With what money she had, she had purchased a sandwich, turkey with avocado and light mayonnaise on wheat, her favorite, not to mention a granny smith apple, a small bag of salted pretzels and a green tea. She was used to eating alone, surrounded in utter silence with only her thoughts for company. Well, there was also her music. She pulled from her pocket the small pink iPod nano, sticking the buds in her ears and pressing play. In seconds Mt. Washington was belting tenderly into her ears. She closed her eyes, leaning her back against the thick trunk of the tree...just letting the music carry her away...from everything...

"Damn, a project already?" Jean thought as he began filling in the sheet in front of him. He answered all the questions as truthfully as he could, while cursing having to write in pen when he unconsciously snarked and had to cross the line out. Finishing the sheet quickly, Jean pulled out his book, a collection of Chekov's short stories.

When School ended, Jean dropped by the nearby elementry school to pick up his younger siblings. When the school ended half an hour later, he was quickly tackled by the two children. He picked both of his siblings up and pulled them into a hug, laughing with them as they began giggling uncontrollably. Bringing them back home ,he sat the two chidren down at the dinner table. Bringing out the pitcher of milk and his "secret" stash of cookies, which his mother knew of but he acted like it was a secret with the kids, he began chatting with the kids about their day. Eventually, both of his mother and Uncle returned home and Jean disappeared into the garage to continue working on the old Mustang. "This is gonna be an interesting year." he thought as propped up the hood of the car.

Oh how much Tori hated having to go to school. Especially since this was a school in a place she had never lived and had absolutely no friends in. The paper she was handed was done just a few minutes before the class was over. Tori decided to grab a burger and salad bowl at lunch before wandering into the school yard outside. She sat on a bench in the grass and slid her guitar off her shoulder. It had been a while since she had tuned it so she plucked at the metal strings until the hit they notes she was looking for.

With the guitar tuned she stopped to eat her salad. It was bland as almost all salad was but it was food and she had been really hungry after she finished the paper they had given her. With her burger in her mouth, Tori plucked the strings as she started the tune to a song. After a few seconds of playing mindelessly, Tori realized that she was playing Maroon 5's Sugar. She sang the lyrics to the song after dropping her burger, half finished, onto its wrapper. Tori was just hoping anybody didn't wander by and find her singing to a song.

Fredrick (Called Harper by friends and a few teachers) cringed at the sound of a project already, fearing it would eat up his time to...do things. He filled the paper out absent-minded, turned it in and shuffled past all of the groaning and distraught students. Fredrick slipped his book bag on his back and popped in his ear buds. He shuffled through his songs until he found the mellowest one. He stopped at Cassette by Stumbline and let the soft sounds flood his thoughts. A hopeful and giddy vibe washed over him as he walked to lunch. Fredrick stopped and scanned for a familiar face craning his neck to get a better view.

As Alyssa hung out with her friends, someone caught her eye as they walked in. She could see they were craning their neck, as if they were looking for someone, and when they looked in her direction that's when she recognized them.

"Oh! Harper!" Alyssa called out with a grin, waving for the boy to come over, "Over here!"

She liked him, he could be pretty quiet and reserved at times, kind of like her. But he was also very sarcastic and blunt, though not necessarily in a mean way. She guessed that was why she liked him, he was funny but honest.

Oh no! She did it again! Curse narcolepsy!

Melanie awoke with a stir, mumbling to herself incoherently as her eyes peeled open softly to the blinding white of the sun in her face. Her iPod had stopped playing, yet the earbuds remained firmly in place. She yawned with a soft exhale, stretching and moving her neck a little to get out the stiffness of it all, but suddenly her eyes shot open. "Shit!" She whimpered rising to her feet and dusting off her skinny jeans. She didn't even bother to pick up her empty bottle of tea or her sandwich wrapper. If anything the wind would take care of that. Pumping her arms, Melanie sprinted across the school lawn, cursing herself more and more with disdainful mutters. Why? Why did she have to fall asleep again? She couldn't even remember what she dreamed.

But wait....

Yet again another thing. She got herself worked up over nothing. No one was leaving as it seemed, so it was still lunch time.

Melanie sighed, thinking about how much of an idiot she probably looked like, her cheeks burning a painful shade of fuchsia. There was a peculiar sound that caught her ear however, the telltale plucking of metal strings reverberating towards her ears, then...a voice. Melanie, she swore it was the song of a siren, beautiful, enchanting, much like her favorite female vocalists. And just as a siren, the song seemed to be lulling her to the direction of the songstress, and there Melanie's eyes beheld her. Oh wow....she's...pretty... Melanie mused listening to the girl sing, hanging onto every note, every lyric. She enjoyed hearing people sing, mostly because everyone's voices sounded so much better compared to hers. But this girl, she was unlike anything Melanie ever heard.

She could just sit there for days and listen to her...gracefully plucking the strings of her guitar and singing with that oh so captivating voice.

Upon hearing of this project, Elizabeth had been unimpressed by the whole endeavor. The thought of being forced to engage in extended correspondence with one of her peers only resulted in her cringing. She couldn't help but observe a lack of any meaningful original thought being expressed. However, it was not as if she had much choice in the matter. She filled out the form with an earnestness and a impetuousness that surprised herself.

Elizabeth quickly turned in the form. This project was going to occupy a great deal of her own time, time which Elizabeth would instead prefer to dedicated to her own writings. In a purely hypothetical scenario, Elizabeth would not so greatly be burdened by a collection of correspondence with someone who possessed as much wit and erudition as herself. Sadly, wallowing in her own intellect, Elizabeth had been utterly disappointed with the status of her classmates' minds. Elizabeth hoped that this would be worth her time at least a little bit, but she figured there was a scant chance of that to ever happen. She simply returned to her desk. Her peers felt an intense dislike of Elizabeth, on which I could clearly trace to their negative reaction to my acerbic snark. Elizabeth saw a definite in that she would be alone at her desk for now. She took out a simple sandwich, bread and cheese and lettuce and tomatoes with turkey and mayonnaise, and began to devour it.

    Chad sighs as the paper hits his desk. It wasn’t so much the fact that it was only three days into the year but the fact that he didn’t want to socialize with a person he didn’t know. I mean of course he probably knew them, but he didn’t know who he would assigned.

    Chad was going to do the project no matter what though. English was one of his favorite classes and he didn’t want to fail. He had never had anything below an A- before. If he messed up it would be the death of him. School was too important to him. More so than anything else in the world other than family.

    After turning in the paper he began to read and put earbuds in. The book was titled The Iron Brotherhood: The tale of three dwarves. The book is about three dwarven cousins journeying across land to gather the material to kill an ancient dragon. Along the way they meet tons of friendly people and begin to build an army to fight the dragon. The dragon isn’t their only problem though. Their cousin was given the crown after their grandfather died. Their cousin made the mistake of letting the underdark dwarves into their home city, forcing them out.

Eventually, Marcus found himself a table to sit down at, it was one of the outside tables nearby the gym, which seemed to be pretty unused as only a girl with purple hair (Wei - @karamonnom) was outside. Sighing, he parked his butt on one of them, pulled out a green MP3 player, turned it on and started to listen to Bombshell by Powerman5000 while wearing matching headphone. Eventually, he pulled out his phone and begin to type out some words onto it for a song he was working on himself, but never seemed to find the time for, 'Maybe, just maybe, I'll get somebody who I can bounce ideas off of,' At the same time, he sighed softly before finishing his lunch and focusing on his music, humming along with it while moving his fingers as though he was playing one of the guitars while tapping his feet.

Tori

Location: School Lawn

With a flick of her wrist, Tori plucked all six of the strings on her guitar with a flourish as the tune came to an end. The reverberating sound produced the strings traveled through the guitar until it faded into silence. With that, Tori leaned the guitar against the bench and craned her head up as she finished her burger. If only every day could feel like this, Tori mused to herself mentally as the cool Autumn breeze flew by. She had always lived in the city all of her life and never in a place as small as this. Back in Tennessee, you only knew people from gossip but here you knew your neighbors by their name and not their actions. The only person who's name she knew in Colorado was her Mother's dealer and even then she doubted his real name was 'Jeff Winters'. What parent would give their child such a stupid name?

With her burger finished, Tori rolls the wrapper up and beams it straight into a trash can across the walkway from her. She once again grabbed her guitar and picked a tune she knew from her mental playlist. Hmm, Daylight is a no along with Thinking Out Loud. How about It's A Beautiful Day instead, yeah that works. Once again Tori realized she was playing the tune before she had actually chosen it. It really was a beautiful day as she played the song by the musician Michael Bublé. Once again Tori sung along with the lyrics she had memorized until the very end of the song.

The end of the song left behind only Tori's lingering voice and tears in her eyes. Her Mother had taught her the song before leaving with the New Boy Toy as Tori called him. She wiped away the tears in her eyes and put up her guitar, which she had recently decided to name Bennie, back in his case. With three quick movements, the case was clicked closed as a feeling of being watched came over Tori. She would have been fine with it if she was at a concert or play session but this feeling made her nervous. Tori looked around for a short moment before seeing a person standing not to far off. It was obvious that she had been watching Tori and Tori's first, and only, response was to run away. Within a few seconds, Tori was up and running past the girl and into the school where she instantly went into the bathroom and sat down, back against the wall.

Dallas

Soundtrack

This form was lobotomizing him; Dallas knew it, could feel it work its way around his head with little tweezers and pick, pick, pick. God on high, this was going to suck. Was this what job applications felt like? He'd been looking at a job at Five Guys in the next month or two - because he wasn't busy enough with applications or grades or his Twitter account or etcetera - but if some spare change in his pocket meant another form asking him what he thought of his own personality, he would sooner take his chances as a juggalo or something. Slim and pretty was supposed to be a big market. Dal could make a killing.

At least he could write the word 'douche' a lot. That helped the form fly by. That and Florence. English was normally his As Cities Burn class, but this form had him in the mood for something even more theatrical and writing about his music preferences was gonna murk him if he couldn't actually have a little screen telling him what music he liked. Nobody ever liked to just hear all of it. Had to get into specifics and shit. Blagh.

At least he got it done; he was a quick writer, and his penmanship was neat enough in spite of his speed, so he got the form done and twirled a pencil betwixt his fingers with something that not even an extraterrestrial with no ability to contort its facial muscles could mistake for interest. When the bell rang, he felt like he had taken his first breath in an hour and a half. That one single relieved breath carried him all the way through to lunch, when he realized...aw FUCK...he had rationed himself way too much time for lunch. His dumb ass had been ready to order a pizza...or take a jog to Wendy's...or something that would probably constitute as skipping. Add that to the fact that he wouldn't even have time to eat unless it was on the jog back, and his lunch plans had just been garroted...unless...

That was it. Just skip lunch, lounge outside for a little while and enjoy the breeze, check the texts he'd blown off in English, and eat two burgers after class to make up for the delay. Then tell Mom he ate one for lunch and ask for a little reimbursement. Two burgers and money for nothing on a Friday night. Keikaku fuckin' dori.

As long as that English project didn't totally suck (which of course it did, until such time as it didn't) then today might turn out alright.