“For this end of the term, you will have to work in pairs for a project”, Mrs. Monique said as she kept looking for what I suppose was the project’s data sheet.

“Ivy? Ready to crash some classmates on a healthy competition?”, I said reaching out to my sister who was on the contiguous seat. Ivonne’s response was cut off by the professor who started to talk again. “I know we usually let you choose your partners on your own, however, let's make the situation more interesting this time”, the class as soon as she finished started to complain about the idea. Final projects were a sensitive topic for these people.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I was not asking for your approval or opinions. I was initially considering this as a percentage but seen your enthusiasm… This project would decide your grade for this course. No testes, exams or workshops. You whole grade would depend on your ability to work together as a team with your assigned classmate”. The hall was now awkwardly silent. I didn't have any hopes on ending up with Ivonne as we did almost every project together. I was mentally praying that whoever was my partner was responsible enough to end up with a decent project. I didn't want to fail this subject, in fact I couldn't.

Names came and went by, as the whole class was assigned to someone else. Ivonne got together with the new girl, Carmen or something like that, my second choice, my best friend Steven got paired with the football team leader, some guy last name Smith. Names kept flowing… Since when was my class this big? Maybe I was just overthinking things. The names stopped to come I snapped back to reality. I looked around to find out that everyone was already paired… Everyone but him. He was over the professor’s desk fiercely discussing something. He, I suppose was my partner.

“Mr. Brooks, I’m afraid that this is a final decision”. Mrs. Monique said not even bothering to look up from her pile a documents. “This goes for all of you: pairs are not subject to change under any circumstances, there's no going around with that. You may find the project’s data and requirements already on the College’s online platform. You may consider yourselves dismissed now”. That was it. Apparently Brooks was my partner and he wasn't that happy about it. The feeling was mutual. I never knew why nor could point at a specific moment when all of this started but that was worldwide known fact. We didn’t like each other. But with my grades on the roaster I was ready to play along with anyone if that meant to approved this subject, and I hope Michael was ready to do the same.