Free So Hot For You by Melanie Marks

THE WISH
     
     
    Krista trudged across the classroom to the seat beside Cooper, but didn’t actually sit. Instead, she just stood there, unsure what she should do.
    Cooper glanced up from the note he was scribbling, then did a double-take. “Hi,” he murmured, staring up at Krista, curious-like. Like, what are you doing standing here?
    Krista rolled her eyes. “I’m going to have Mrs. French switch us to different partners.”
    Cooper nodded, “Okay.” Then he kept looking at Krista while she waited for Mrs. French to notice her standing there, looking unhappy.
    Finally Mrs. French came over. “Is there a problem Miss Turner?”
    “Yeah,” Krista said tentatively, unsure how to proceed, since Mrs. French had said she wouldn’t switch partners. “Um … Cooper and I—we don’t get along.”
    Mrs. French looked at Cooper. “Is there a problem I should know about?”
    Cooper shrugged, like he didn’t know what it was. Great.
    Krista groaned. “We. Don’t. Get. Along. His girlfriend hated me.”
    “His girlfriend? Aspen Rollings , who died ?” Mrs. French asked, sounding like how-dare-you-bring-up-that-sweet-dead-girl-to-get-a-new-lab-partner? She smirked. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”
    “No, but he—he,” Krista gestured to Cooper, who was looking all wide-eyed and innocent and waiting for her to go on. “He hates me too.”
    Cooper shook his head and gave a little laugh. “No I don’t.”
    “Yes he does. He’s just saying that to torment me.”
    Mrs. French smirked again. Krista had never noticed how evil and nasty her science teacher’s smirk actually was, until today. But now she noticed. Big time. It was very evil. And nasty. And she did it a lot. Way too much. “It seems to me, you are the tormentor here Miss Turner. Why don’t you cut the guy some slack and sit down? He said he doesn’t hate you. He said there’s no problem, and I said there will be no reassigning of lab partners.”
    “But he wrote *#@# on my locker last year!” Krista hadn’t meant to say that so loud. Everyone turned and looked at her. They smirked too. Everyone was smirking today.
    Mrs. French looked at Cooper questioningly. He shook his head, first at her, then at Krista. “I didn’t write it.” He raised his eyebrows, staring into Krista’s eyes. “I didn’t. I swear. Aspen did—I told you that.”
    Krista huffed, so tired of his denials. “I saw you with the paint.”
    “Yeah, because I was taking it away from Aspen. I was trying to stop her.”
    “Good enough for me,” Mrs. French said. “I know Cooper pretty well. I believe him. Sit down and get to work, Krista. And maybe show a little compassion.”
    Compassion? Compassion! I’m the one that needs compassion , Krista thought irritably. But she didn’t say that aloud. She didn’t say anything. She simply took her seat, feeling picked on and grumpy.
    Compassion, grrrr !
     
    ***
     
    Three weeks had gone by with Cooper as Krista’s science partner. She noticed his eyes on her a lot in class. She couldn’t help the way his glances made her feel—light-headed and tingly. It was his eyes. They were so warm and brown. They seemed to caress her at times, as though she were something he cherished. But that was crazy. He hated her—or at least he used to. She had to admit, they were getting along pretty well together as lab partners. He was smart, maybe as smart as her. In any case, they were doing the best in class—far better than anyone else. With other partners, Krista had done all the work, always. That wasn’t the case with Cooper. He actually took initiative and tried to match her vision on assignments. It was nice. He was nice … maybe … it seemed.
    Still, when Cooper reached out, grasping her arm after class one day as she was getting ready to leave, Krista jumped.
    “Sorry.” Cooper quickly let go of her arm. “I was just wondering if you want to get together after school today to work on our project?”
    Krista bit