[LOG] THIS MAY NOT GO WELL..

[havefundiedrich]

Who: Diedrich and Pajea
What: two nerds have to do a group presentation for english
When: sometime during the school week
Where: the library!

It was the most dreaded thing imaginable to a student.Group project. And having your partner picked by lottery? Even worse. Diedrich had never talked to this girl before, though he's sure he's seen her around before, and despite normally having no problem talking to complete strangers, he really had no idea where to start with her. She looked like she didn't want to be there at all, which she probably didn't. He understood. Group projects suck. Still, they have to start sometime. And the quicker they get through this, the better.

"Sooo....." Diedrich looked up at his partner, mechanical pencil bouncing in his hand. "Is there any story you want to do for the project?" He moved around a slightly wrinkled sheet of paper detailing the presentation, with a few of the topics having marks next to them.

Comments

[missmysticism]

Pajea's hands slipped from her face, wide eyes staring at Diedrich. "P...J....?"
nobody had called her that. Nobody but...
"Doris." She seemed to spit the name. Her expression darkened. "She paid you to do this, didn't she. How much did she pay? Ten? Twenty? No, she's rich. I bet you got fifty bucks at least." She rose from her chair, looming over her classmate.
"I don't plan on going. Nobody would even want to go with me unless they were paid. That much I know." She froze, realizing the unwarranted coldness she had just spewed at this kid. She sighed and looked down to the table. "...Sorry."

[havefundiedrich]

Diedrich froze completely. He had no idea what was going on. Okay, calling her by a nickname was really rude, especially considering this was the first time they had talked. And maybe a girl doesn't want to be called PJ I mean who wants to be called pajamas?! Who was Doris why was she paying people what is going on

Eventually his thoughts are running too fast for him to catch up and he just sits there stiffly. Oh, she apologized. He should say something.

Say something.

Why isn't he saying something?

"-ry. Sorry. I'm... sorry." It was barely louder than a whisper. Diedrich caught himself and took a deep breath. This time, in a louder voice, "I'm sorry. That was really rude of me." And he tried to flash his usual smile. "We could talk about something else if you want!"

[missmysticism]

Pajea slid back down into her seat shamefully, keeping her eyes fixed on the table.

"No, no, I'm...I apologize." Why would Doris want anything to do with this kid, anyway? She had bigger fish to fry. Besides, she hadn't heard from that girl in years. It wasn't her nature to reappear by paying some kid to go to the dance with her. "You don't have to say you're sorry. You didn't do anything bad."

She shifted her chair so she could face him. "But the uh, the dance. Yeah." She glanced to him, trying not to meet his eyes out of the embarrassment that remained after her outburst. "I don't plan on going. I really don't have anyone to tag along with, and not a lot of people would want to go with...with..." She bowed her head slightly.
"Are you going?" She asked, finally looking up to meet his eyes.

[havefundiedrich]

He shifted in his chair slightly. "I'm, uh, I'm not going." He tugged at his earlobe nervously. "It seems like a... date thing. And I don't really. Have anybody to go with. Either. Yeah.." His cheeks are a little warm. "It might be fun but... yeah."

Diedrich looked over at Pajea. "Um... Would you have wanted to go if you had someone to go with?" Almost immediately, he regretted saying that. He clapped a hand over his mouth. "Sorry, that's probably rude."

[missmysticism]

She studied his face, brows raising in interest. "Ah." Her throat went dry as she started to try and reply. She wanted to say something, anything really, but nothing came out except a small whine that sounded like a creaking stair. Pajea swallowed hard, feeling her face flush. She hoped the huge dark circles under her eyes would hide any evidence of blush.

"I would have wanted to go if I had someone with me." She finally choked out, giving a sharp thump to her chest in trying to ensure her next words would be coherent. "I could take you with me or...or something. If you want."

he's completely forgotten about what happened literally five minutes ago

[havefundiedrich]

He smiled gently and nodded his head. "Sure! That sounds fun."

Then he stopped and narrowed his eyes. "... it's not a fancy dress dance, right?" He was pretty sure it wasn't, I mean, Sadie Hawkin's right??? But if it was, he had no idea if he had anything that would even look right for it.

[internal screaming]

[missmysticism]

Pajea felt her head start to spin. Holy shit. What. What did she just do.
She totally just asked this shrimp to the dance and he accepted.
She wasn't sure whether she should feel proud or mortified.
"It's....it's....Sem....semi formal..." She stuttered, staring at Diedrich in disbelief.
She paused, pondering what one would even do at a dance. She had never been to one, to nobody's surprise, and frankly knew nothing about them. Maybe there was a book on it she could try and find? Maybe she could ask her roommate? Pajea kept drawing blanks on where to begin with this. What a mess this was becoming.
She turned attention back to Diedrich and tried to smile back, though it looked forced and somewhat painful. "Thank you." She said, attempting to inject gratuity into her tone.