Chapter 27: Nailed it (Katherine)

                                    

                                          
"We shouldn't've spent so much time messing about yesterday," groaned Shelby, raking her fingers through her hair, "And who said the assignment was due today? It might be due next week on Friday,"
Katherine looked up from the laptop she was studying, "Mr. Grim said it was due today and if you had been paying attention in the lesson it was set instead of staring at the back of my head, you would've known that,"
"I was not staring at the back of your head," spluttered Shelby.
Katherine raised an eyebrow, "If you say so,"
"I wasn't!" Shelby sighed frustratedly.
"Just thank your lucky stars that we have history last period so we can spend this precious time in the library to finish it up," Katherine went back to her screen.
"What if I don't have lucky stars? What if we fail this assignment? What if-"
"I thought you didn't care if you failed the assignment?" Katherine asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you’re right, I don't care about me failing the project, but I care if you fail the project,"
Katherine stared at Shelby for a split second, taking her in, "You know... that may be the sweetest thing you've ever said to me so far,"
Shelby folded her arms firmly across her chest, "It's the truth,"
Katherine smiled and latted the empty seat next to her, "Come on, I wanna show you the PowerPoint and run you through what you're gonna say,"
"Ok," Shelby slid out of her chair and into the seat next to Katherine, who adjusted the angle of the computer for her to see it.
"Soooo, I'm gonna start with the introduction- Shelby, what are you doing?"
Shelby had laid her head down on Katherine’s shoulder so that she was facing the computer screen. She looked up at Katherine, scanning her face for a moment, "Don't mind what I'm doing, just carry on explaining,"
"But we're in a public space, what if one of our classmates walks in? Your "dark and brooding" reputation will go down the gutter," Katherine eyebrow was creased with something that Shelby had never had directed at her before.
Her inside felt warm and fuzzy when she replied, "Let them walk in then. I really couldn't care less,"
Katherine’s eyes softened into a smile before she turned back to the computer, "Oh fudge, we've only got fifteen minutes of lunch left. Let's make this count,"
*
"You ready?" Katherine asked Shelby, peering into the empty history classroom.
They had waited the whole lesson in another classroom with a sub, in silence, working over a sheet to do with the founder of Hermitcraft. But now it had come to their turn to present their project.
"I think so," Shelby shook out her sweaty hands. She wasn’t really sure how to be feeling about this presentation. Her classmates were not really helpful in that area either. Gem had come in practically skipping and saying that it had gone amazingly well whilst others had come in with a not-so-similar opinion.
"Good," Katherine sucked in a deep breath, "Let's do this,"
Shelby chuckled nervously as Katherine opened the classroom door and went in first.
Mr. Grim was sitting at a desk in the centre of the room facing the projector, looking down at a sheet of paper with a lot of numbers on it, "Ah, girls! The last pair! Are you ready for this?"
Katherine forced a smile while she set up the computer with their PowerPoint, "I was born ready for this Mr. Grim,"
"That's great!" Mr. Grim's gaze flicked over to Shelby who was standing nervously at the edge of the board.
A large scale painting of Glimmer Grove back in its day popped up on the board and Shelby swallowed.
Katherine came round from the computer to stand next to Shelby, subtly brushing her hand against Shelby's.
"You're gonna be fine," she whispered.
"Excellent!" Mr. Grim grinned at them from his seat, "Take it away ladies!"
"In the beginning, Glimmer Grove was just a meadow until its founder and ruler Princess Katherine, or more formerly Queen Katherine, built it up from the ground..."