Dreamer Part 4 // Group Projects, Annoying Partners, and Zoning Out

~~We have a test. On the second week of school. Like just WHY? We also had to do math on the first day… seriously, people?!~~

Heya! So yeah, I have been sorta temporarily missing, but I’m sure it’s fine since I’ve been off and on for the past like 2 months and nobody’s gotten super mad at me yet. So that. I mean, in my defense SCHOOL EXISTS and literally just started so I might be scarce for a little longer. But anywho. Speaking of school…

Previously on The Dreamer (because if I wasn’t writing this I’d forget parts of this story over the long periods of time I’m making you wait between sections): Kurota feels this weird connection to one of her classmates, Nova, and she’s not sure why. So far, she continues to be an annoying non-magic-believer and tells her best friend Orenda that all Orenda’s theories (including but not limited to dream visits and soulmates) are wrong. Meanwhile, Nova’s dealing with losing her sister and grandparents to a fire.

Kurota’s been observing Nova from a distance for the past few months and then, in a stroke of fate (or just pure luck), Kurota and Nova are partnered for an English project.

Get Caught Up: Prologue (The Dream) | Part One (Soulmates, Dreams, and Homework) | Part Two (Sisters, Grandparents, and Other Lost Things) | Part Three (Observations, Awkwardness, and an English Assignment)

Nova used to love group projects
She also used to love talking to people.
Used to be popular.
Used to always know exactly what to say.
Used to be loud.
Used to be confident.
Used to be someone who got As and the occasional B.
She used to be a lot of things. But that was before Eli died. Before everyone decided that she was to be handled with care, and before she decided that she hated people for what they’d done to her sister. To her world.
And so now she hates group projects. Especially the kind where she didn’t get to pick a partner who cares about the project just as little as she does. Especially this one, because Kurota Nadir is not the partner she would’ve picked. At all. Kurota had probably gotten honor roll her entire life.
Well, actually, correction, she’d probably gotten distinguished honor roll for her entire life. And she was not going to let Nova do nothing for this assignment. Which was unfortunate, because that was exactly what Nova planned on doing.
As all this races through Nova’s mind, their English teacher is explaining the assignment, and Kurota (who’s now sitting at the desk next to her) is, of course, listening intently. Because it’s Kurota.
Nova, being the opposite of her partner, zones out for almost all of it, and the only part she catches is “So you can complain about your pairings and slack off on this project all you want, but it will still count as a grade for two classes and get two of your peers to a national contest. So start working.”
And, well, the entire class is still silent. Awkward.
“It’s a little hard to do partner work silently, so unless you all want this to be very, very difficult, you better start talking now.” Their teacher’s voice sounds like it could snap at any moment, and Nova wonders what would happen if the entire class went on strike and didn’t talk. Maybe they’d get out of this stupid assignment with these stupid assigned partners. Like the one who had just started talking to Nova.
“Um, what do you think we should choose? Would it be better to do something more well-known like climate change, or something less well-known like water pollution?” Oh gosh. Nova had no clue what Kurota was talking about.
“Well, before we talk about that could you maybe explain exactly what we’re supposed to be doing?” Kurota rolled her eyes at that (or tried to at least – Kurota was not good at rolling her eyes and it just looked like she was glancing at the ceiling) and Nova could tell that this project was going to be a nightmare.

And that’s all for this part! We’re only like halfway through the actual story, but I’m very much looking forward to doing some extra Dreamer posts, so… what would you like to see? How I actually wrote it (like, you know, behind the scenes), deleted things/weird ramblings (the majority of which makes absolutely no sense), the things I based this off of (because it’s, ya know, cli-fi so I need to have some sort of a factual base… right?), a book trailer, or character aesthetics and a tad more about them? Or, like, something else that I can’t think of and you can would be cool too.

Anywho, bye for now!