"So."
Allegra sighed and rolled her eyes with a bored expression as she stared at her work partner.
"So." Came the unimpressed, flat, response from the girl who seemed just as uncomfortable with this pairing.
Allegra leaned back in her seat refusing to let the dismissal bother her. Mallory was dead inside anyways.
Besides, they weren't friends...anymore. Hadn't been for the last few years. Yet, there was something out there laughing down on Allegra at this moment to pair her with girl who couldn't stop nagging her and criticizing her every move.
"I'll do some, and you'll take the rest?" Allegra asked, a knowing smirk on her face at Mallory's scowl.
"Don't be ridiculous, darling," Mallory glanced at the guidelines on the paper on her desk. "We both know that you aren't going to do any of the work. You're much too lazy for that."
Allegra huffed in response.
"I'm not lazy. Besides, school is stupid. I have dreams and ambitions, ya know."
Mallory rolled her eyes, "And how many of those are you trying to follow?"
"Oi, must you grill me for everything?" Allegra groaned, already regretting this.
"Your ego is as big as a parade balloon." Mallory scoffed, crossing her arms, "Someone needs to bring you back down to earth."
"I didn't ask you to be that person, mum," Allegra grumbled. "Besides, you're the one who thinks that she's better than everyone."
Mallory laughed almost mockingly, "I'm sorry, which one of us is dating half the girls in our grade level at the same time?"
"Girls dig me." Allegra held her head up proudly. "Not my fault that you can never score a date, lass."
"You think you're so charming." Allegra froze, taken back at the bitterness that edged into the words of her former friend.
She wouldn't admit that hearing the sharpened tone of Mallory seemed to cut through her in the worst way, but she quickly recovered.
Allegra smiled at Mallory's sudden silence, "Did I strike a nerve?"
Mallory shut her eyes and sighed, hanging her head slightly allowing long dark curtains of hair to block her face from view.
"Can we just focus on the project please?" Mallory mumbled and Allegra knew the only reason that she heard her was their close proximity to each other.
Allegra shrugged, "Fine. I got the first part of the research."
Mallory scoffed softly.
"Fine. Fine. Ya got me. You'll be lucky to get at least a page of work from me," Allegra rolled her eyes, kicking her feet up onto her desk.
"Do you not care this is twenty percent of our final grade?" Mallory asked sounding both confused and concerned.
Allegra shrugged again.
"Nope. I have five dates this week. So I can't work on the project." She ignored the incredulous look from Mallory, "Look. If it bothers you that much, I'll be the one who operates the slide show."
"Both of us have to be speaking, darling," Mallory said, tapping at the paper with her perfect black claw-like nail.
Allegra stalled for a moment.
"Well, you're going to suck at that, lassie." Allegra smiled at the exasperated sigh that followed. "I swear, sometimes, the only person you ever talk to is me."
Mallory glanced away for a few seconds and Allegra swore there was a hint of red in her cheeks before Mallory sighed.
"I can get through with it for the presentation," Mallory muttered, though it sounded more like she was convincing herself to Allegra. "A bit of memorization is nothing."
Allegra nearly fell out of her seat and her eyes went wide.
"We have to memorize it?"
Mallory nodded, circling the third row of their guidelines page, and showing it to Allegra.
Allegra muttered something foul under her breath and Mallory either pretended not to hear it or didn't hear it at all.
"This is hell," Allegra muttered, dragging her hands down her face.
"It's not that bad," Mallory shrugged. "Memorization is simple enough. You do it in your band class, don't you?"
Allegra rolled her eyes, "Yes, but that is music. Something I enjoy. Not some stupid basic project that we're going to forget within the year. Besides..." she trailed off.
"You don't do good with academics, I know."
Allegra hated that Mallory knew her so well at times.
"Whatever." Allegra glanced at the clock and starting packing her bag. "Come up with a game plan and let me know what it is. But don't expect me to respond."
"Who says I'll even text you?" Mallory asked and Allegra froze.
It wasn't a threat. Allegra knew it wasn't a threat. Mallory didn't make threats. At least, not to her. But it sounded like one.
A threat that Mallory might not always be there.
Allegra wasn't sure if she hated the idea or if it relived her.
But, she flashed a smile as the bell rang to dismiss them from class.
"You will," Allegra chuckled as she slung her bag over her shoulder, "Because you love me, Mal."
Allegra left with the rest of her brainless classmates, already dreading the rest of the day.
However, if she had just stayed in the classroom two seconds longer, she would have seen that Mallory had yet to move from her spot.
This is my first time writing something. So apologizes for any mistakes I missed. I am a sucker for childhood friends to enemies to lovers
