Now, a few seconds after the bell had rung to end the lesson, she was standing in front of the blackboard, her hands fluttering nervously at her sides. “Please wait a moment before you storm out, I still need to give you your homework!”

Everyone who had already started to get up slowly sank back onto their chairs.

“Don’t worry, it’s not much! Maybe it will even be fun!”

Next to me, Noelle snorted. Seth looked equally as unenthusiastic, though he had been in a strange mood all morning. He was sitting next to Jasper but was adamantly avoiding his eyes, somehow even more fidgety than he usually was. The entire time he was clicking his pen, tapping his foot, thrumming his fingers against the table, raising his gaze only to glance at the clock every other minute.

At breakfast, Seth, known among the cafeteria workers for always coming back for seconds, hadn’t even been able to eat anything. By now I was honestly worried he was ill.

“I prepared some questions about Wuthering Heights that I want you to go over with a partner so that you can take turns answering and asking questions,” Miss Pepperman explained as she handed out some worksheets. “But not with just any partner, of course. I assigned you one that I am sure will be a good match for you!”

I inevitably tensed a little. Most people in my class seemed nice enough, but then there were also those to whom I’d never spoken and whom I knew only from articles on The Chitter Chatter.

“All right, so we have Chelsea and Halima . . . Elina and Jasper

. . . Eric and Lily . . . Seth and Amelia . . . Lauren and Samar . . .

Evelyn and Noelle . . .”

Noelle knocked her foot against mine under the table but didn’t look up from where she was scribbling on her notepad, a smile matching mine tugging at her lips. To my left, Jasper was grimacing, clearly not too happy; Seth looked about ready to slam his head against the desk.

“Come on, it could be worse. Amelia isn’t even that bad,” I whispered to him.

He sent me a blank stare. “Would you like to swap?”

“No, thank you,” I chuckled. “I think I prefer a lovely afternoon with my girlfriend over an awkward one with her.”

“I thought so,” he muttered miserably, momentarily glancing over at Jasper.

Since yesterday, after Jasper’s play, something seemed different between them and I couldn’t help but wonder if what I was thinking was true. I was pretty sure that he didn’t want me to talk about that right here in front of Jasper and Noelle though, so I swallowed down every question I had for now.

Squeezing his hand, I said, “I’m sure it will be fine.”

Seth grabbed his bag without a response, leaving the classroom without waiting for any of us.

Jasper looked like he was about to head after him, but Elina, who was one of the members of Amelia’s cheerleading team, suddenly appeared next to him.