Life in a small town is supposed to be great, right?  I mean, all the movies tell you that people from small towns are “the salt of the earth” and have “small town pride” and images of neighbors borrowing a cup of sugar fill your head.  To some extent that is true, but there is also a downside of going to high school in a small town. You see, in a small town the high school is pretty much run by a small group of people in the “in” crowd who are the superstars of everything.  They are the starters in every sporting event, the leads in every play, the homecoming court, and the teachers’ favorites.  If you are not in the “in” crowd, you have little hope of ever being noticed, unless you have a tragic back story, in which case the crowds will cheer for you to show what a nice little town you live in.  And while the local newspaper, Facebook, and school yearbook gives evidence to how popular these people are, the truth is, those of us not in the “in” crowd secretly hate those who are.  We hate their smiles which are testaments of their happy, “in-crowd” lives.  We hate their letter jackets, which boast of their stardom even if they never fight for the rebound.  We hate their laughter in the commons and confident attitudes. I mean, of course they are confident; everything always works out for them.  We hate…well, okay, you get the picture. 
This is one reason those of us not in the “in-crowd” hate it when teachers assign partners, rather than letting us pick our own.  I mean, sure, if I end up working with people in my same social group I will most likely end up doing all the work, but at least then I don’t have to work with one of those c***y jerks who would still make me do all the work, but who would then blame me for every point we get marked off.  So, when Mrs. Smith informed us that we would have a semester-long partnered project for our English class, I sat at my desk and prayed that we would be allowed to pick our own partners.  Sure, there was the risk that everyone else would pair up, but since we had an even number in our class, I wouldn’t have to ask Mrs. Smith to place me with another duo; I would just get whatever other loser no one wanted.  Mrs. Smith was new to our school.  She wouldn’t just randomly assign partners without knowing any of us, would she?  That would be a recipe for disaster!  No, she wouldn’t dare do that! 
The room has five rows of desks with four desks in each row, there is a Promethean board at the front of the room.  Mrs. Smith’s desk was at the back right corner of the room which is the opposite from the door.  The back wall of the room is just completely filled with windows. 
“Now, each of you will log onto our class site to find out who you will be working with this semester.  Then I would like you to move to sit by your partner and prepare for your first assignment.”
No!  This isn’t fair!  I mean, working with someone the teacher selected when she doesn’t know us or understand the social system here?  Wait, before I panic, maybe I should check and see who I was placed with.  I mean, maybe she actually picked someone I could work with.  As I wait for my laptop to boot up and log into the class site, I say a few more prayers.  There are twenty people in our class and eight that I could picture working with.  My odds are pretty good.  So, I scan the page and my eyes finally find the section I’m looking for. 
The page explains that we will work with a partner throughout the semester on reader responses and discussions and will turn in a journal of those discussions as well as a final PowerPoint project.  Okay, not too bad.  Then I read the most important part: the partner’s list. Okay, NOW I can panic.  There before me it says “Justin Johnson”.  No!  A semester having to put up with Justin Johnson?  Football captain, class president, drama star Justin?  There has to be a way out.  I actually read the fine print of the page now.  There it is!  There’s a statement that if there are extenuating circumstances, partners can be changed.  I’m rescued!  I can hear some people shout or giggle in excitement about who their partner is and a few moaning their disappointment.  Now, all I have to do is find the pair that is just as mismatched as we are and convince Mrs. Smith to switch us around. 
I scan the room as people move to form their partnerships.  I can see Brittany is also searching the room.   That’s a good sign.  She’s an “in” person and must have been matched with someone on the outs.  She sits down next to Gilbert Sullivan and then gets back up and walks up to Mrs. Smith.  This is it.  She’s going to ask for a new partner, and I will generously volunteer to switch.  I mean, Gilbert is a nose picker, but he’s a nice guy and will actually work on the project and I won’t even have to do all of the work.  Mrs. Smith won’t turn Brittany down.  No teacher turns down the popular kids, and Brittany is even more popular than Justin. 
“Mrs. Smith, I’m Brittany.  I really need to switch partners.  You may not know, but I have volleyball practice every night after school, and Gilbert doesn’t have a car, so getting together to complete these projects will just be impossible.  I really need to pair up with someone who can meet after practice,” Brittany says with that look and voice that no one can say no to. 
But then I hear, “I’m sorry, Brittany.  Everyone has been paired up.  You will be given time in class to do most of the assignments and will be given at least one weekend to complete any larger assignment.  The PowerPoint is not due until the end of the semester, so you will have plenty of time to complete that, and you will create a shared google doc for all assignments, so both of you can work from home and at school on your documents.”
“Mrs. Smith,” I hear myself saying as I walk to the front of the room, “I wouldn’t mind switching with Brittany.  I mean, Gilbert and I live near each other, so it would be easier for us to get together, since neither of us live in town.”
“Thank you, but believe it or not, I really did plan these partnerships carefully.”  Mrs. Smith responds.  “I believe everyone can make this work.  Please take your seats with your assigned partners so we can get to work.”
As Brittany and I walk back to sit by our partners, I look at Justin.  He rolls his eyes and I can only imagine how disappointed he is that he doesn’t get to work with cute, sporty, popular Brittany and is stuck with just boring me.  I sit and turn to face Mrs. Smith and our first assignment. 
“Your first assignment is to create a list of things that you love and that you hate.  I want you to discuss why you put these ideas in these categories.  Finally, through this discussion write your own definition of ‘love’ and ‘hate’.  Good luck.”  I’m screwed.  I mean, how do I tell Justin I hate him.  I hate the social group that he is in, they think that they can do whatever they want and get away with it.  Well this is just great.  When I thought life couldn’t get any worse, it does. 
After having a long English class with a lot of awkward silence, I turn to Justin and ask him, “So … do you want to meet up to work on the assignment?” 
Justin turns to me, “Sure, where do you want to meet?” 
I reply, “Do you want to meet in the library during study hall?” 
“Sure,” he answered me. 
After English I still had 4 classes left.  I walked into my next class, which was biology, and could not focus on the lab experiment, which was mixing iron sulfate and hydrogen together, because I was too busy trying to figure out what I wanted to say for the things that I love and for the things that I hate.  Mr. Wilson saw that I wasn’t paying attention, so he yelled at me and told me to pay attention.  All of the people on the “in” crowd started laughing at me.  I felt so embarrassed.  The bell rang at 9:21 A.M.  I was thinking about what to say for the things that I hate and for the things that I love during the rest of my classes. 
Finally, when study hall came around I was completely focused.  I still had no idea about what to say to Justin.  I walked into the library five minutes after study hall had started, and Justin was sitting there on his iPhone 7 playing games and listening to music. 
I told to him, “Sorry I’m late,” even though I really wasn’t. 
He said, “Doesn’t really matter do you want to go first, or do you want me to go first.” 
I answered him, “Why don’t you go first,” because I still had no idea about what to say about the things that I love and hate. 
He said, “Okay, for things that I love I had like family, football, drama, and being involved in activities.  But, for things that I hate I didn’t come up anything because I don’t really hate anything.” 
I quickly responded to him, “You have to hate something it’s not normal for a person to not have any pet peeves or things that make them aggravated.” 
“I never really thought about hate being pet peeves or anything like that,” he said to me.  Next, he said “I guess I hate how there is a clique system at our high school because people should be able to talk to one another without worrying about how it’s going to affect their social ranking.” 
I was so surprised that Justin, of all people, said that he hates the whole clique system within our school. 
I replied to him, “Well for me, for the things that I love I put family, music, and books.  But, I was surprised that you said that you hate the whole clique system, because you are the ‘top dog’ in the whole system.” 
He looked at me like I was crazy, “I didn’t know that’s what people thought of me.  I mean look at me and you, we’re partners and from different social groups and were getting along just fine.  We’re learning more about each other and now we know by doing this assignment that we found out that we have similar ideas about the social system.” 
“Yeah, I guess we do,” I replied. 
“So, do you want to work on this during class tomorrow?” 
“Sure,” I answered him. 
Before he left the library he turned and said, “See you later.”
A week has passed since the new semester had started.  I have to say, Justin is nothing like I thought that he would be.  He’s actually nice and considerate.  Most of the people on the “in” crowd are snobs and are the class favorites because they are rich or because their parents are well-known.  But, Justin just seems different compared to them.  Yeah sure he has rich parents and his parents are well-known within the community, but he acts differently from the rest of them.  Throughout this entire week I couldn’t stop thinking about him.  I just don’t know how to stop thinking about him.  I thought that I knew everything about people in that crowd, but Justin is making me question everything that I know.  I have to see him every day in English and whenever he laughs, I see that smile and I get to think that I made that smile appear on his face.  What is happening to me? 
Another week has gone by and we are finally done getting to know our partners and I bet that Mrs. Smith has come up with another assignment for us to do this week. 
“Okay, students this week we are going to examine reasons why the two families in Romeo and Juliet may have been at odds with each other and then discuss possibilities that can make families be unaccepting of one another.” 
Romeo and Juliet!  Romeo and stinking Juliet!  That’s a play about love. 
“Do you know what happens in Romeo and Juliet?”  Justin asked me. 
I grumbled to him, “Yeah, I know what happens.” 
“Why are you so crabby?” he asks.
Why am I so angry?  I mean, nothing terrible has happened, and Justin has actually been nice to me whenever we’ve worked together, and we’ve gotten good grades on our discussion posts.  Maybe it’s the assignment.  Do I really want to talk about my family to Justin?  I mean, I love my family, but I’m sure we are not at all like his perfect little family.  My family, well, we’re interesting.  We love to be silly and crack jokes and generally be pretty crazy.  Do I actually want someone from the “in” group to know how odd my family is?  Do I have a choice?  Why do I care?  Why do I care what Justin Johnson thinks?  This bothers me more than I care to admit. 
“I’m not crabby.  So, why do you think Romeo & Juliet’s families didn’t get along?” I asked.
“I don’t know.  You said you knew the story,” he answered.
“The story doesn’t say, which I think is the point of the assignment,” I state. “Clearly they were both rich, so that isn’t what the parents are so upset about. The story does say that it is a long-standing feud, so something must have happened generations ago and everyone just held onto the hatred.” 
“That makes sense,” Justin agreed. “So what can make families not accept each other today?”
“Money,” I say.
“Why is that?”
“Well, those of us who don’t have much money don’t really appreciate those of you who do, flaunt all of your stuff.”  I can’t believe that I said that! 
“We don’t flaunt anything.” Justin responded.
“Are you serious?” I argued in a high-pitched voice.  “Oh, look at my brand new iPhone.  Look at my designer jeans.  Look at my letter jacket.  Look at how awesome I am because of my stuff.”
“I don’t flaunt those things!  So I have stuff.  Is that a crime?  When have I ever flaunted anything to you?”
I start to respond, but then realize that he is correct.  He has never actually flaunted anything.  I was just jealous.
“You’re right,” I state. “You haven’t bragged about your stuff.  I was just jealous because there is no way I could ever afford the things you have.  That’s what I mean.  Money can make SOME people boastful, proud, and others jealous, which can make families not like each other very much.”
“Yeah,” Justin agrees, “Some people do think that having money is what’s important.”
“What about you?” I ask.  “What do you think can make families not like each other?”
“Fear.”
Wow, I wasn’t expecting that from virile Justin!  “Fear of what?”  I ask.
“Fear of being known.  I mean really known; you know, like sure, I can see that people without money might be jealous of those with money, but those of us with a lot of stuff sometimes look at families that just really like being together and we fear that we still haven’t done enough or proved ourselves enough, so we just keep pushing to be better and stronger.  But when is it enough?  When can we just be silly and not worry about what others think of us?”
I just sit with my mouth hanging open.  Could it be that the perfect life I see isn’t really so perfect?
“I think that what I fear, and what my parents fear, is that if we were really ourselves, we wouldn’t be enough, so we have to keep up an act and push harder to be better so that no one will doubt our value.  I like that about you.  You don’t seem too concerned with what others think of you, and your family seems to be okay with that.  That’s pretty cool.” Justin concluded.
“You know,” I state, “maybe we haven’t evolved much since Romeo and Juliet’s time.  Fear and jealousy are still lousy reasons to not try to get to know each other just like a long-forgotten feud.  Maybe if we could just treat each other as people and get to know what each other is really like, then we would be in a better position to decide if we like the other person.”
Justin looks into my eyes and for the first time I don’t avoid his gaze.  I finally realize why I was so nervous about each of our discussions and why I was so crabby when I found out our discussion was going to be about Romeo and Juliet.  I’m falling for Justin.  He isn’t the snooty, bratty, whiney, “in-crowd” person I thought he was.  I had judged him, just like I thought he had judged me. From the look on his face, I believe that he might like me too.
“You know,” I state, “I could teach you how to care less about what others think of you.”
“You could?”  he laughs.  “And just how would you do that?”
“Well, you could take me on a date.  That would allow you to experience the full humiliation of being seen with someone less than acceptable in your circle.”  I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth. But, surprisingly I hear him laugh.
“I suppose that would work,” I hear him say.
“Um, what?”  I stammer.
“You know, I thought it was odd that Mrs. Smith would put us together.  I always thought you were really weird and I thought that fate was working against me.  Instead, I realized that you are a very wonderful person.  I’m so glad that I didn’t avoid fate!”
“Me too,” I state.  “I guess you just can’t avoid fate.”