"Damian and Mariam!"
Ya rab, please don't do this to me. I've been good, haven't I? I didn't deserve this. 
"There is no way I'm working with him," I protested to Mr Newton. He was either immune to a student's pleas, or just had no sympathy whatsoever.
"You have no choice, Mariam. I left it up to chance, and the chances are right here in my hands," he waved the two pieces of paper with our names on them. Trust Mr Newton to assign us partners using names in a hat. I was starting to lose the reason why he was my favourite teacher in the first place. Oh, wait, that's right – because he always gave me A's.
"But Mr Newton," I wasn't one to beg and whine like this, but I was getting desperate. Across the room, I caught Damian's smirk. Why was he smirking? After embarrassing me in front of the whole class I would have to spend four periods a week for the rest of the year, he had no right to smirk.
"No buts, Mariam. You are working with him, just as Russell is working with Aidan, and Denise is working with Florence, the hat decides all," Mr Newton held up the black trilby hat as if it were an orb swirling with prophecy.
"The hat is stupid," I muttered, folding my arms and sinking in my seat. We were expected to work on a project on the universe, and each pair would be given a different aspect to focus on. I had immediately looked to Denise, excited at the prospect of working with her, just as we had done for the past year in physics. But then Mr Newton had to go and spoil my mood by bringing out his stupid trilby hat. Seriously, what kind of physics teacher carried around a trilby hat?
"Don't hate the hat," Russell whispered to me, waving his fingers inexplicably in the air. "The hat knows all."
I rolled my eyes. "The hat is just as hollow as your head, Russell."
Russell looked offended. "Someone's in a bad mood."
"Can you blame me?" I jutted my chin over to where Damian sat, laughing with Aidan and scribbling something on a piece of paper. No doubt it was something dirty. "I have to work with that."
"Well, I have to work with Aidan," he grumbled.
"Aidan gets straight A's," I pointed out.
"Oh, yeah," Russell brightened up.
"I feel sorry for you, girl," Denise shot me a sympathetic smile. 
I shrugged. "It's fine. I'll just end up doing all the work, anyway."
"Oh, and one more thing," Mr Newton added loudly so that everyone could hear. He had finished calling out the names while we were all whispering.
"You and your partner must both do equal amounts of work, or else you both fail," for some reason, he glanced at me, raising his eyebrows pointedly, as if he had heard what I had said. God help me.
"Hey, partner." 
I tried not to sigh too heavily as Damian set his battered pencil case on the desk and slumped into the plastic chair, his legs stretched out under the table. I opened my laptop, tapping my fingers on the mouse pad as I waited for it to start up. Damian did the same, drumming out a tune on his keyboard and immediately pissing me off.
"Can you stop that?" I asked as nicely as possible, but you might as well be telling me to touch a rainbow, because it didn't come out nicely at all.
Damian glanced at me, thankfully obeying my words, but he had a sly look in his eyes. "Why do you hate me?"
I was a little taken aback by his question. "I-I don't hate you," I stuttered.
Damian smiled. "So you like me?"