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desk when the teacher arrived. I
hoped that she’d pair me up with someone who cooked better than I
did.
    “ Alright everyone, take your
seat.” The teacher, Mrs. Gianchi, was a feisty Italian woman with
dark hair she wrapped tightly in a bun and anchored to the top of
her head with several clips. Her smile was warm and generous, and
her cheeks glowed bright pink, presumably from the heat of the
ovens in the room. I’d seen her walking around in the halls before
with her flowered aprons, and they usually looked nice, but today
she had on a striped dress and the combination of the two made my
eyes hurt.
     “ Good afternoon.” She
stepped her petite frame up onto a small stool so everyone could
see her better. “We’re going to jump right into cooking today with
an easy lesson on candy making.” She explained how we were to mix
up the ingredients and record the effect the various temperatures
had on the candy mixture as it heated up. She directed us toward
the stoves, dividing everyone up into pairs. When she came to me, I
still didn’t have a partner.
    “ How can this be?” She
pulled out her roll book. “There’s an even number of students
enrolled in class.” Before she could find the list, Seth appeared
out of nowhere, startling me.
    “ Sorry I’m late,” he said
with a grin.
    Oh, no! This can’t be! We now had
three classes together!
    “ There you are,” Mrs.
Gianchi said to him, closing her book.
    “ I was held up, it won’t
happen again.” He looked over at me and quietly added, “I had to
fix my hair.” Heat overtook my face, and I looked away.
    “ I need
you to partner with Maggie.” He smiled broadly at Mrs. Gianchi’s
request. I turned my back on him as he slid up behind me, standing
much too close. I moved a few inches away, hoping he wouldn’t
realize it. He did and scooted even closer. I got the distinct
impression he was teasing me. I folded my arms across my stomach
and glued my feet to the floor. He would have to walk over me if he
thought I’d give him another inch. My eyes stayed fixed on the
teacher, and yet I could feel his smile burrowing into the
back of my head. She handed me the instructions, and I accidentally
bumped into him moving toward the small counter. Still ignoring
him, I began measuring and pouring items into the pan.
    “ Would you like my help, or
am I supposed to stand here and look pretty?” he asked. I passed
the recipe over and signaled for him to continue. He poured and
measured so quickly I had a hard time keeping up with what he was
doing.
    Neither of us spoke as the
temperature of our candy mixture slowly rose. Bore the Snore’s
class was more thrilling than this… well, maybe it wasn’t
quite that bad.
Thankfully, Mrs. Gianchi interrupted our rampant excitement.
“Class, remember drop a small amount of your mixture in cold water
at each temperature gauge, and record the reaction on your
worksheet.”
    An eternity later, the stupid mixture
finally reached 230 degrees, our first test temperature. I reached
into the pot, scooped up a spoonful of the sugary substance and was
about to drop it into the glass of cold water, when an
all-too-familiar voice startled me, causing me to spill the liquid
candy.
    “ Seth, what did you do in a
previous life that doomed you to be stuck with her for a partner?”
Hillary. She was dressed in jeans and a cute black shearing jacket
with a white fleece collar that made her alabaster skin glow. I
never felt uglier. She gave me a supercilious look as she folded
her arms across her chest. Her perfect chest. I quickly folded my
arms cross my not so perfect chest, as if it was a big secret God
had forgotten to give me breasts. “Nice sweater, by the way,” she
added. “It just screams trailer trash.”
    “ That’s enough, Hillary.”
Seth frowned and glanced over at me. I was surprised that he
actually shut her down. Impressive, though it didn’t seem to bother
her at all since she just flipped her hair and twisted