Leo's POV

I walked into the house and stood there for a moment as my backpack slid off my shoulder. My heart was still racing as I felt King's hands still on my arms. My face was still heated at the thought of his thumbs rubbing against my skin so soft and gently, the butterflies flying around my stomach as soon as he touched me, and our eyes locked together in search. I was lost for words. Why did that affect me so much?

"Ugh, stop thinking about it!" I yelled at myself as I smacked both my cheeks between my hands before walking into the kitchen. "It was nothing. Just... a weird moment, happening to everyone. Right?"

The rest of the week went by just as weird as we awkwardly avoided each other. Every once in a while we would catch the other looking and I would instantly feel my face redden as I looked away quickly, thinking of his hands on my wrists. What was wrong with me? I couldn't stop myself from looking at him though.

This happened again on Monday after a long weekend of not seeing or talking to him. I thought maybe it would go away but I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering back to him the longer the weekend went on.

"Okay class, today we will be starting a group assignment. We will be working in groups of two," the teacher announced.

‘Great,’ I rolled my eyes to myself. I hated partnering up with people. The girls in class would always go crazy with this. "Oh Leo, it's my turn." One called out, already starting the fighting. "Shut up, you had him last time." Another said and more fighting came after that as I started to sink in my chair a little, hoping someone would save me when the lovely, heavenly teacher yelled to shut them up.

"Sorry to disappoint girls but I will be picking your partners for this assignment. Now when I call your names, I want everyone to move desks together and sit with your partners." She started calling out names as people started moving around and pushing desks together with their partners.

"King you’ll be with.." My heart started pounding as I leaned forward hoping she would call my name, praying she would call it with everything in me. "Jess." I peeked over in disappointment to see Jess stand up and walk over to him as some of the other girls started to giggle at her quietly.

They didn’t like King all that much because he was a "tall bad boy with a pretty face but a shitty attitude", their words not mine. I mean it's not that I found him ugly because he wasn’t, far from it. He was, actually, really good-looking... for a guy.

Anyways, they didn't really talk to Jess either. She was the quiet one that minded her own business without all the gossip talking and rumor spreading. I don't know much about her but the few times I did talk to her over the years she seemed really nice and super smart too. I know she would make a good partner for him.

"Leo, you're with Joey," the teacher said and I got up to move next to him.

Joey was another smart kid. I was actually surprised she put me with him because me, him, and Jess were the top three students in the whole class. He was also captain of the baseball team and also played basketball in his spare time.

He had mocha dark skin and kept his black curry hair cut short with thin but muscular arms from playing spots. He wasn't the nicest kid around though but I've never had a problem with him before.

We high-fived each other before I sat down. "Damn Leo, I got lucky. We are so gonna kill this assignment," he said to me smiling and rubbing his hands together with excitement.

"You know it. I can't wait," I said with a smile as I took my seat next to him. At least I wouldn't have to do the whole thing by myself this time.

"Okay everyone," the teacher yelled out, grabbing our attitude again. "Here is your assignment." She started to walk around and handed each group a packet. "Each group will have a week to complete this build. We will be making a mousetrap car as a STEM project. At the end of the week, we will have a little race to see what group can make it the farthest. The two who win the race will get not only an A+ but also candy and Yum-Coco bars on our next movie day." 

That made everyone sit up straight. We weren't allowed to eat in class so snacks with a movie sounded great to each one of us.

"Oh shit. Leo, we can do this without a problem man," Joey whispered to me and I smiled back, nodding my head.

"I'll be supplying everything you will need for building. The instructions are in your packets." She went on to go into more detail about the project and how everything will be working. "And I'm going to warn you all now, mouse traps are made to snap closed on a mouse. So that means it will hurt like crazy if you snap it on your finger so PAY ATTENTION and be careful where you put them," she said while walking around the room giving one box to each pair, filled with all the things we would need.

"Okay," she started again as she made her way back to her desk. "Now let's get started. I want you all to look over the packet with your partners and read through it carefully. You have until the end of class to talk it over and tomorrow we will start on the base so let's get an idea in your head today of what you want to do." She opened her book and started reading while we all looked over the packets.

King's POV 

I'm not going to lie when the teacher called my name and Leo wasn't partnered up with anyone yet my heart jumped into my throat. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed when she called out someone else's name instead.

Looking over, I saw a girl with long straight brown hair get up and walk over to me. She didn't seem like all the others that herded around Leo though. Plus it didn't help that the other girls giggled at her walking over to me.

I wasn’t sure why though. She had a little more weight to her than they did but it was a nice healthy look and truthfully, it made her look prettier than them too. Maybe they were jealous.

"Um hi. I'm Jess," she introduced herself with a shaky and shy voice while holding her hand out.

She was scared of me, I could tell just by the way she looked down at the floor and not at me. "King," I said and shook her hand before she took the seat next to me after I reached over and pulled the two desks together for her.

I watched as Leo moved over to his partner more in the front of the class and high-fived each other. Clearly, they knew each other but at least they were friendly. I watched them laugh and talk to each other after the teacher went back to reading her book.

I didn't know why but I was feeling weird about it. I mean this kid is friendly with everyone so why should I care who he was nice to? I forced myself to look down at the packet in front of me to get my mind off of it.

"S-so this is um kinda crazy. I'm not much of a builder. How about you, King?" Jess asked in a nervous voice, looking over my shoulder at the packet in my hands. I passed it over for her to have a look.

"Yeah. I guess," I answered her, half paying attention. I already did this in my last school so I knew how it all worked already. It's not that hard. Of course, I got an F because I didn't actually do it but this time I was going to try and see what happens since the prize was Yum-Coco bars. My favorite chocolate.

I kept an eye on Leo and Joey for the rest of the class, feeling my protective side kicking in. I just wanted to know Leo was going to be okay with this kid. After I got over the fact that we weren’t partnered together, I remembered seeing that kid outside on the baseball field with his team one day. He was the one yelling in their faces with a mean look in his eyes so I mean I had a good reason for it. Leo being safe was all I really cared about but so far he was being nice. Maybe he was just competitive with his sports. I hope.