opposites do not attract {eddie} {STELLAR!}

[STELLA HINES]

“Eddie Brooke and Stella Hines.”

… Who? Stella groaned and closed her notebook, glancing one last time at her random doodles. She couldn’t remember a time when she had actually bothered to take notes. The name Eddie Brooke was sort of familiar… familiar and irritating. Stella wasn’t sure what it was about the name that bothered her, but she was assuming they must have met before and he’d wronged her in some way. It would explain why she recognized the name but not why she couldn’t put a face to it. Stella liked forgetting people who had pissed her off.

Stella stood and stretched, using this as an opportunity to look around the classroom. Students were pairing up with their assigned partners. Some looked relatively relieved, others downright displeased. Some had ignored the assignment completely and were sitting with their best friends. They acted as if it were nothing, especially when the teacher approached to separate them. Stella smirked a little, giving an imperceptible shake of her head. How stupid were they? It settled down just enough that Stella noticed a boy sitting alone at his desk… and it was then that she remembered.

Oh. Eddie Brooke. No wonder she’d forgotten so easily who he was. Not only had he been incredibly boring, but he’d said ‘ew’ and ‘running’ together in the same post. She was still blaming him for that sleepless morning. If he hadn’t been online in that chat room, she could have gone right back to bed. But no. He’d been online and she’d felt obligated to talk to him. Then again, she had been able to go for an early jog. She’d also come back soon enough that she could take a shower before her roommates, which meant she had plenty of hot water.

Not that any of that was thanks to him. It was just his fault she hadn’t been able to sleep a couple more hours. Scowling at him from where she stood, Stella waved down the teacher. They’d just been about to break up another pair of best friends not following the rules when Stella caught their attention. Before Stella could even start, they’d held up their hand to silence her. “No, Stella. You may not switch partners.” Stella was stunned into silence, only able to gape at the teacher as they led her towards Eddie Brooke.

By the time she’d finally thought up something clever to say, she was sitting in the desk next to him. The teacher had gone off to finish righting the pairs that were wrong. Refusing to even look at Eddie Brooke (every time she thought his name, it was with absolute venom and she was sure it’d be the same if she were to say it out loud), Stella leaned back and crossed her arms. “Great,” she muttered, heavy with sarcasm and annoyance.

outfit

[EDGAR BROOKE]

Edgar Brooke really didn't mind group projects. It was just that he was quiet and really preferred to do things on his own, and if he couldn't, to choose his partners. He especially didn't mind History projects, seeing as it was his favorite subject (he was from Boston), and probably wouldn't mind being stuck doing most/all of the work seeing as that was what happened with most group projects he was involved in. Oh well, if they didn't want to learn, that was their fault, not his.

So he waited patiently as he listened for his name and who his partner would be. He kind of hoped for somebody he got along with, just to make things a bit easier on him.

“Eddie Brooke and Stella Hines.”

That name sounded familiar, and for good reason.

Stella Hines was in more of his classes than he would have preferred. Though he had never made contact with her before this morning, he knew he wouldn't like her simply because she embodied everything he hated. From her bright, obnoxious clothing to her nonstop talking that he could hear from across the gym, she annoyed him without ever speaking a word to him. Though he wasn't the kind of person to judge completely, so if she ever struck up a conversation, he would give her a chance.

And he had, this morning.

They were arguing from the start, as he expected, and about petty things he never thought he would really care about. But something about her just made him cringe, made him want to scream. And that was a big deal, coming from Eddie, who had never screamed in his life. They were complete and total opposites, and his mind kpet traveling back to that statement all day.

Honestly, he didn't care, so he didn't know why he kept thinking about it. Maybe he was just that angry? And it didn't help his anger at all when his quirky physical science teacher had played Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul while the students walked in since they were talking about how positively and negatively charged atoms attract. He nearly walked back out and skipped class, but he sat through it, becase Eddie would never ever skip a class ever, not even for that.

Because, though it may have applied in science; when it came to Eddie Brooke and Stella Hines, Paula Abdul could go jump off a cliff.

When she finally came over and sat in the desk next to him, he didn't look pleased. He heard the teacher and has sighed, because he was hoping for a switch even if he wasn't the type to ask. What kind of last name was 'Hines', anyways? No, that was a stupid thought. He was just boiling, that was all. When he heard the 'great', he glanced in her direction, but didn't look directly at her because he felt like he could burn a hole in her head just with the annoyance. "Do you even know what we're doing?" he asked, doubting she did. At least he had the decency to actually take notes, and good ones at that. She was probably just doodling or obsessing over some stupid boy or something juvenile like that.

[/justify]

{outfit of paula abdul can go fuck herself seriously}

[STELLA HINES]

If there was one thing that made her feel a little bit better, it was that Eddie Brooke seemed very angry as well. Had he so much as looked at her, she was sure she’d feel the stabbing of invisible knives with the way he could have been glaring. It was actually pretty nice, knowing he was a pissed off as she was. Flipping through her notebook (which the teacher had just dropped off, having grabbed it and her backpack from her desk), Stella tried to find her page of notes. Or would-be notes. She scoffed and almost went off at him, claiming that of course she knew, she wasn’t an idiot, before she realized that she did in fact have zero knowledge of whatever it was they were supposed to be working on.

Stuffing her notebook into her bag where Eddie couldn’t go through it and see how entirely useless she was (it was one thing for him to assume and another entirely for him to be right), Stella turned in her chair and faced him. “Duh. Of course I know. I’m not stupid.” Even so, she looked around the room for so much as a clue as to what they were supposed to be working on. There weren’t any pairs close enough to them for Stella to eavesdrop but she was close enough to the board that she could read what the teacher had written. (Eddie was so boring for sitting close enough to the board that she could actually read what the teacher had written. How did he not get how boring he was?).

History, right, of course. This was History and whatever it was they were working on was to be presented to the class in a couple of weeks. She was supposed to work with him for a couple of weeks? Had she had the strength, Stella would have flipped the desk and stormed out of the room. They could make a PowerPoint or a poster board. She, of course, had no preference. It wasn’t like she’d be doing that much work, anyway. Not only did she not want to, but Eddie was probably the sort of control freak that had to have everything right.

“It hardly matters that I know, anyway.” She said, finally looking away from the board and back at him. She couldn’t seem to stop glaring at him. “You’ll probably want everything your way. Am I right or am I right?” Stella never cared if her partner in a project wanted to do all the work. That was perfectly alright with her. For some reason, there was a voice in the back of her head, tinier than she was and more nagging than her mother, that said she could do her share of the project, just to show him. Just to show him that she wasn’t incompetent. That voice needed to shut up because Stella didn’t care what Eddie thought of her. She didn’t give a damn.

[EDGAR BROOKE]

With the look on her face that he saw out of his peripheral vision, he could tell she didn't know. At least, he liked to think that, because it meant that he was right and she was wrong and that little victory made him almost happy about the situation. Almost. Glancing at her notebook as she flipped through it, he didn't really see what it contained but he was sure it wasn't academic, since she shoved it into her backpack. Shaking his head, he slid his own notebook towards her. It looked like they would be using his for the assignment, which was okay. It was obvious that they were pretty thorough by the lines filled with writng, and extra notations in the margins. There was likely more ink than there was paper, as Eddie always used black pen for notes so he wouldn't be tempted to erase anything and fall behind; striking through a rare typo was a lot faster than erasing. His handwriting was pretty legible for a boy's, though you could tell it was rushed.

Not wanting to be completely rude, Eddie turned and faced Stella as well. It was honestly the first time he had gotten a good look at her, and sure enough, she had bright colors... everywhere. She even had purple hairpieces in (he never got the appeal of obnoxiously colored hair, but then again he was a. a boy and b. never the one to find any obnoxiously colored things appealing). He cocked his head in disbelief when she denied not knowing, then looked back down at his notes, not being one of many words. It could have been worse, he supposed. She could... well, she could have been talking his ear off, for one. The animosity stopped that from happening, at least.

The optimism was twisted, but at least he didn't want to rip his hair out and hide in his room with his guitar. Yet.

Eddie shrugged when she accused him of "wanting everything his way." Though he wondered if Stella would do whatever her share would be wrong, which seeing as she didn't take any notes, it was likely, but then he dismissed it. She couldn't be completely incompetent. "I don't mind doing it all if you're too lazy." It took him a moment to realize how rude he sounded. Eddie made a face, but didn't apologize. He was probably right, and a voice in the back of his head said that every victory against Stella Hines he could get was important. Not that he in his concious state really cared. He glanced at her once again for a second and looked away, annoyed with her because he couldn't afford to be annoyed with his mind at the moment. It was weird, but he didn't try and stop it. Eddie was the kind to go with whatever was happening, except in certain situations, which this was not.

[/justify][/blockquote]

[STELLA HINES]

This was so stupid. The more she thought about the whole stupid thing, the more frustrated she got. Why would any teacher in their right mind pair her with Eddie Brooke? They were basically the complete opposite of each other. On one end of the line was Stella and on the other was Eddie. It was ridiculous and stupid and why was he looking at her like that? Scowling at him, and then trying to appear as if she wasn’t because she figured that would just make this whole situation worse, Stella pulled the notebook towards her and started reading.

… Well, at least his handwriting was legible. Even if she did take actual notes, Stella knew for a fact that the words wouldn’t actually be very easy to read. Most everything in her life was fast, with the running and the talking and everything really, so it wasn’t surprising that she wrote very quickly. Sure, she could’ve have gotten the notes down without a problem. It was just a matter of writing everything before the teacher was half finished with the slide, and then the issue with not being able to read what she’d written anyway. Note taking was just stupid, period. This whole thing was stupid.

… if you’re too lazy. Stella practically slammed his notebook down on the table and had the teacher not been right there, she would have tackled him to the floor and screamed in his face until he understood that she wasn’t lazy, she was thE FARTHEST THING FROM, WHO DID HE THINK HE WAS? Staring at him with a new sort of anger, feeling as if steam was coming from her ears, she ground her teeth, trying to find something to say. Anything. Really. Why couldn’t she find words to defend herself?

“I am not lazy,” she finally said in what had to have been the lamest response she could have uttered but there was enough loathing in her tone that he had to have understood how pissed she was. Anybody could have picked up on that. “It is the last thing that I am. Not taking notes does not make me lazy.” The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to strangle him. Stella pushed herself back, the chair making an awful scraping sound against the tiled floor, but she did not want to be near him, not even a little bit.

[EDGAR BROOKE]

Eddie was actually finding this more understandable the more he thought about it. The teacher probably had some method behind pairing complete opposite personalities together, and he often didn't question reasons if he knew they existed. That didn't mean he had acquired any positive feelings about Stella Hines, or that he had to enjoy this, but at least it made it easier to tolerate this.

Oh, look, she was scowling. It was kind of adorable, like a little kitten trying to be mad and throwing a temper tantrum that knocked down all of one bowl of food, and the bowl ending up on top of it and making the owners laugh. And Eddie did, though he didn't laugh so much as chuckle to himself, until he realized that he just compared Stella to something really really cute and lovable, then he stopped and completely erased the metaphor out of his mi-

Holy-

Eddie jumped at the sound of the notebook hitting the table, and instead of a breeze, he swore he could feel the hot air of someone very, very angry whooshing out from the impact of his notebook on the desk. His notebook, with all of his history notes, which were probably the most important of all of the notes he took (most would consider math having that title, but he inherited his mother's ability and really didn't need to look them back over). He glared at the attacker, though the anger was also mixed with confusion and pleading apology. What could he possibly have said?!

Oh, she was offended by "lazy". He could deal with that just by clarifying what he meant.

"Okay, okay, calm down. Don't take it out on the notebook, we need that." He kept his voice steady and calm, though he was angry too, and realized it was like he was a police officer in a TV show trying to talk a gunman down. Just call him Jason Gideon. Oh, right. "There are different types of lazy, alright? Judging by your looks and what I've heard-" did he just hint that she looked "-I'm guessing that you're not physically lazy. But not taking notes makes you academically lazy. Laziness means 'inactivity resulting from a dislike of work', and I figured you didn't like school, which here stands for work." If she didn't think he was an absolute freak before, she probably thought so now. "So I was saying if you're academically lazy, then I can do the work if you don't want to."

Hopefully that worked. He tried not to sound like a know-it-all, but it wasn't easy. That was kind of built into his tone, especially when he was explaining something.

[/justify]

[STELLA HINES]

Oh, she was seething. Furious. Livid. Livid! She was livid. This was unbelievable. They’d literally been sitting here for less than ten minutes and he’d already managed to piss her off more than any person had ever pissed her off before. Seriously! Who did he think he was? Who did Eddie Brooke think he was? Some stupid rude know it all who didn’t actually know everything, cause he evidently didn’t know her at all. … Seriously!!

Tugging on strands of her hair (somehow still careful to avoid her extensions, something rather surprising with how angry she was. It’s not easy to be careful when you’re angry), Stella bit down hard, grinding her teeth together, to resist saying anything else. If she let herself say anything now, she’d probably sound stupid and he’d find more reason to insult her and then they’d never get anything done. In fact, then she’d have detention for months for attacking another student. WHY WAS HE LAUGHING?!?! God, shoot her now! Glaring at him now as he’d glared at her earlier, as if it were possible to stab someone with a look, she let go of her hair and crossed him arms, clenching her hands into fists.

He’d better stop glaring at her right this second. So she’d not had much thought for his precious notebook. So what. Yes, Okay. Let’s hear what he has to say. Let’s just… Was he… Calm down…? She let out an angry sigh, not realizing she’d been holding her breath. She was calm. She was perfectly alright. Stella Hines hadn’t just been considering attacking another student a couple of seconds ago. Hadn’t her mother talked to her about her temper? (Oh, wait, best not think about her mother right now. That would not help).

What did he mean judging by her looks? Was that… a compliment? She felt herself sort of relax, her shoulders falling and her hands uncurling. Had he just unintentionally complimented her? Stella unfolded her arms and tugged on a strand of hair again, much more slowly this time, trying to understand what he’d just said. He’d said she wasn’t physically lazy. Was that… could she assume that… Was he quoting the definition of laziness at her? Who knew the definition of laziness? Why was that something you would ever need to know?

“… Well. Thanks. I guess.” No, Stella. Not you guess. If this is going to work out, you need to work as hard as he is. “No…” she sighed, reaching a hand around to rub the back of her neck. “Really. Uh. Thanks. I’m sorry I over reacted.” You’re right, very nearly made it by her filter but that was one thing she’d refuse to say to him, to Eddie Brooke. It just wasn’t happening. Not today, at least. Looking down for a moment, Stella took a couple more deep breaths, waiting for the embarrassment to replace her anger. It was bound to happen.

“No… I. Er. I want to help.” She peeked up at him from behind her bangs, feeling entirely too sheepish now. She’d over reacted and now she felt ridiculous and stupid. “I can do my share of the work.”