Chapter One

Felicity looked at the list.
No!
She checked it again, maybe she read wrong.
Nooo! Felicity groaned. Anything was better than this. Anything!
Her best friend, Kimberly, walked up to her
"What's up?" she asked sensing something was wrong
Felicity just pointed at the list. Kimberly scanned the list then gasped."oh I'm sorry. I don't see how you got paired up with him".
"Him" was Joshua Derives.
He was a pretty o.k. guy but the fact that he was at the bottom of his class paired with the fact that he was a slob made him a prime candidate for teasing.
"At least you don't have to share a tent with him." Kimberly mused, "He's a boy."
"Yeah," Felicity agreed, "I would just die if I had to."
Everyone was looking forward to the annual 4th grade camping trip that closed out the nature unit in science. Felicity had specially requested that her partner be Kimberly but she got stuck with Josh!?! That was at the other end of the spectrum!
It was the end of class so she went to see her teacher. She was grading papers.
Ms. Wilder was hurriedly grading papers when a shadow fell over her desk. A dark angry shadow. She looked up, it was Felicity.
Ms. Wilder groaned inwardly. She was expecting her.
It took all of Felicity's will power not to just let out what she was feeling and scream at Ms. Wilder. All of it. But to be fair, Ms. Wilder wasn't having such an easy time keeping a straight face either. It had been a tough day. Jerry Washington had stuck two crayons up his nose and nearly passed out.
But now she just made a mental note to take two aspirins when she got home and plastered on a smile.
"What can I do for you Felicity?" she asked although she already knew what it was about.
"I want to know," Felicity said, struggling to keep her voice even tempered, "How I got paired up with Josh?" she practically spat.
"I won't have you talking about any of my students that way.: she said, frowning slightly because she felt the same way about him.
"Besides, you're always paired up with Kimberly. I thought this time we would try something new!"
Felicity nodded, although on the inside she was fighting back tears. She blinked them back and walked away.
Ms. Wilder shook her head. She would have handled it the same way.
Now while all this was happening, Josh was at the other side of the school thinking almost the same thing.
How did he get stuck with "Miss Snotty Uppity Know-It-All". Sure she was popular and rich, she hated him and the feeling was mutual.
He remembered the last time they had been paired up. The trip to the Everglades. He almost drowned and he got his brand new shirt ruined.
Josh swallowed, he didn't get new shirts very often. He remembered how she and all her friends had laughed at him when he wore the shirt to school the very next day.
They were like vultures. He almost never wore that shirt again but like I said, he didn't get a lot of new clothes. In fact he was wearing the shirt right now.
It's arms were frayed and it was tight. If you looked closely you could still tell which side he had smacked off the swamp buggy and into the mucky swampland.
He knew that he was going to have to wear the shirt until it was absolutely shredded.
Josh thought about complaining but he was already on thin ice with his teacher. He walked off the school's campus and down the sidewalk, absentmindedly swinging his arms. About a block down the street Josh's arms collided with Felicity's books which she was carrying for a change( Usually she paid someone to do it for her).
They slammed on the floor and Josh scrambled to pick all of them up.
"I'm sorry...really,really.. I didn't mean...I-"
Felicity put her hand up.
"Stop talking."
Josh did.
"Drop my stuff." They fell to the floor with a hard thud.
She pulled out a small spray canister from her pocket and sprayed it all over the books. Then she picked them up. Josh got a whiff of it. Air Freshener.
"Now don't you ever EVER touch my stuff again." She turned on her heel and strutted away.
Josh, still a little confused about what happened also walked away.
"Jerk!" they both thought as they walked home in opposite directions.


-End Of Chapter One-