It all started when I overslept that morning. I knew nothing good was going to come from the day because I had already had a rough start. When I was assigned that group project in fifth period, I knew it was karma for me missing some of the school day.
We didn’t get to pick our partners, either. The teacher assigned us partners and I was paired up with Jimmy and Kim. I grunted with an eye roll, despite trying to be subtle about it. Jimmy didn’t care about school. He never did his homework and he never arrived to school on time. He never paid any attention in class and didn’t bother to bring his textbooks, a notebook, or even a pen to class with him. Kim did her homework and she was smart, but all she cared about was how her face looked. She sat in the back of the class, constantly taking out her hand mirror to check that the make-up hadn’t melted off her face.
I wondered if this was going to be a good thing. Maybe if I just did the entire project myself, things would go a lot smoother. I would definitely get a decent grade because I knew what I was doing. I wouldn’t have to worry about waiting for Jimmy and Kim to give me their part of the project and I also wouldn’t have to worry about whether they did a good job on their parts or not.
I would be in full control.
My teacher then announced that each group member would be getting the same grade, so we all needed to really work together in order to earn our grade. I scoffed. Yeah, right. I turned around in my desk and noticed that Jimmy’s head was down on his desk sleeping and Kim was texting under her desk.
Maybe I could just tell my teacher I did all the work and she would make an exception for our group. She knew how Jimmy and Kim were—it was May. If she had any reason to think they would actually do the work, then my teacher was crazy herself.
I delegated to Jimmy and Kim to make it seem as though I was trying to include them. I asked what parts of the project they wanted to do and when they didn’t respond, I assigned parts to them. I didn’t want to sound bossy, but at least they couldn’t say I didn’t try to give them a chance.
I did their parts without telling them, too. I wanted to make sure it got done and didn’t want to be scrambling to finish the project last minute in case they didn’t do their share of the work—which neither one of them did.
I planned on talking to my teacher after class the day the project was due. I wanted her to know that I did all the work. Jimmy and Kim did not deserve a good grade.
“Sasha, Jimmy, and Kim, I would like to speak to you after class.” My teacher said the moment the bell rang. What was this about?
When all my other classmates dismissed themselves, I walked up to my teacher’s desk with Jimmy and Kim right behind me.
My teacher looked me in the eye. “I was told this morning that Jimmy and Kim had to work together on this project because you didn’t want to be included?”
My jaw dropped. You had to be kidding me….
