Opposites Attract? (Parker)

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi sighed. She wasn’t looking forward to this at all. She hated projects, especially with other students. But unfortunately, she had been paired with another person, and she didn’t have a choice. She would have preferred to work alone, but she couldn’t persuade her professor otherwise. So, here she was, stuck with someone who she didn’t even know. The only thing Karashi knew about him was his name. Parker.

Parker? What kind of name was that? Karashi shook her head as she sat down at the little coffee table with all of her stuff that she needed for the project. She was planning on doing all of the work herself. That’s how she usually did it, and she was completely fine with that. She just wanted to get the work done, and she wanted to make sure it was done right. For some reason, she never trusted other people with projects. Karashi had just been raised that way.

Karashi sighed. She spread out her materials, and organized them in a way that she could get to them easily. Now that she was ready, she looked at the watch that she always wore. Her partner was supposed to be there in five minutes. She was always early for her engagements, so it didn’t surprise her that she had five minutes to spare. She decided to use that to start on the project, figuring that if she were going to do all the work, then she might as well get a little bit ahead. Well, that was an understatement. She, being the prodigy she was of her parents, already had all of the research done. She just had to put it in project form. She just wanted to see what this guy Parker would come up with first. Karashi always made sure to have a back up plan.

[Parker Matthews]

School... Homework... Projects... They all sounded like foreign languages to Parker. He had been so occupied lately, with Dex and other stuff that school had pretty much just passed in a blur. He didn't even know what his current project was about! How incredible lame wasn't that? All he knew was that he had been paired up by someone named... K..Ka? Hirashi? Oh, whatever. He didn't care either way. All the formal introductions could be dealt with when he met his assigned partner, and then, then he could sit there and pretend to remember his or her name.

With his hands in his pockets, Parker walked down the hallway towards the student lounge to 'finally' meet whoever he had been paired up with. Parker almost felt a little bad for his horrible attention span. It was one thing that he didn't know who the fuck his partner was, but a whole different thing that he had no clue whatsoever what the topic of the project was!

Entering the student lounge with a scowl on his face, he scanned the room for any sign of life, and his eyes fell quiet on a brown haired girl. She had covered the table in all kinds of material and Parker had to admit, it was rather impressive. ''Uh..'', the boy began awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his hand. Damn, if only he could remember the name of his partner.

''Are you...'', his voice trailed off as he took the time to actually look at the girl. She was pretty.

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi heard footsteps, but she barely glanced up. Hardly anyone approached her, so the footsteps could only mean one thing: her partner was here. She looked at her watch. He was a minute late. She decided not to hold it against him. This time. Next time she wouldn’t be so nice. When it came to her studies, she took the projects, homework, tests, etc. very seriously, as she had been taught her entire life. She wasn’t about to let her partner ruin her perfect grades. Karashi started to shuffle her papers.

Karashi heard him speak, and she knew what he was going to say even before he said it. No, it wasn’t her power. It was the way he had started his sentence. The nervous ‘Uh’ that come out of his mouth was a clear indicator. “Karashi Usaki, yes,” she replied sharply, not even bothering to look up. She reached into her backpack and took out her laptop, opening it as she shuffled some more papers around to accommodate for the technology. Karashi never went anywhere without her laptop.

“You must be Parker. Have a seat.” Karashi gestured to the seat next to her, still not looking up at him. She was determined to set the rules even before he spoke, but she needed him to sit down first. She finally looked up at him. She had to admit, he was cute, but he looked like the bad boy type, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to get into that. She needed to focus on her studies first before she even considered a relationship. “Well? We can’t exactly do the project with you standing over there can we?” Normally Karashi wasn’t this forceful, but when it came to her grades, she gave no mercy to anyone.

[Parker Matthews]

The pretty girl didn't seem as pretty anymore as she opened her mouth and started spitting out glass. Parker's expression changed into that of a mix between shock and a glare. She just sat there, as if he was air. Not that he minded or anything, because usually, that's how he liked it. But this tiny little thing caught him off guard with her sharp voice and her entitled attitude.

It was pretty clear; She scared the shit out of him already.

Parker stood there completely dumbfounded, trying his best to come up with something to say. Anything. But as the brown haired girl with the impossible name continued to speak, running back out into the hallways seemed more and more tempting. ''Right...'', he mumbled and took a few uncertain steps towards where she was sitting, then stopped again. He turned on his heel and sat down at the opposite end of the table. At least now, if she wanted to get hissy and scratch his eyes out, he'd have some room to react.

Twiddling his thumbs, Parker remained silent for another few seconds before the shock started wearing off. ''So... What exactly are we doing?'' Please don't kill me.

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi sighed. She had been too forceful again. She really needed to watch how she said things, especially when it came to her grades. She was glad that he was at least speaking to her, especially after she had barked at him like that. “You can call me Kara for short. I know my name is difficult.” She looked at him finally, smiling. Her voice was a lot softer this time. She was trying to restrain herself from barking at him again. Kara was finding it difficult.

Kara watched as he sat down, very far from her. She sighed, putting a hand to her temple and rubbing it. She had already gotten off on the wrong foot with him. ‘Great. Way to make a new friend Usaki,’ she scolded herself mentally. She sighed again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bark at you. It’s just I take school very seriously, so I’m not too fond with working on a project with someone.” Kara thought for a minute, and realized that the way she said that came out wrong.

“What I meant is that I like to work alone. I’m not saying you’re a bad person. I’m just…” Kara stopped. She was making it worse. “I’m just going to stop talking about me now.” She patted the seat beside her and smiled at him. “I promise I don’t bite. My bark is worse than my bite,” she told him, smiling again. She then cleared her throat and went back to her papers. “Well, it’s this project. We need to do an analysis on the history of a particular country. Their cultures, traditions, etc. Doesn’t sound too hard does it?” Kara looked at him.