The Assignment by JustinsCaramelSenorita
Summary: The first day of your senior high school career. The hallways are filled with jocks, cheerleaders, goths and nerds. It's the first day of the rest your life. But for Justin Timberlake and Tanesha Jameson the first day of school is the beginning of the end.
Rating: PG-13
Categories: Long Stories
Characters: Justin Timberlake
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy
Warnings: adult language
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 09/11/05
Updated: 09/12/05
The Assignment by JustinsCaramelSenorita
Chapter 1: The First Day
Author's Notes: Tanesha Jameson reached out a caramel arm to stop the annoying beeping that was her alarm clock. Leaving her hand pressed against her alarm clock her head turned towards her window, through the blurriness that were her eyes she could make out that it was not yet light out.
She had a policy; she never went to bed while it was light out and she never woke up before it was light out. This was her senior year of high school, wasn't the whole point of that, to fly pass class, party til your brain was fried and barely pass your way to graduation? Of course she never stepped foot into a party. The only time she stayed up til 5 o’clock in the morning was to study. What the party girl she was.
She laid her head down against her now cool pillow and let out a weak groan. It was even to early to be aggravated by the earliness. She moved her hands carefully off of the alarm clock and onto her glasses. They were black; they looked like what you always expected old nurses to wear. This fit her well considering that’s what she was aspiring to be. She found them absolutely refreshing.
She groggily but sufficiently placed her glasses over her eyes. She blinked twice to adjust to the clear vision. Her tired eyes made their way to the bright lights of her digital clock. 6:37 am it said, 6:37 AM. She had 20 minutes to get ready, if she could ever get her gears in motion she could probably be ready in 5. But she gave herself a few extra minutes to get herself together to actually start getting dress.
She moved her body, so she was lying on her back. Of course the covers moved with her, allowing a caramel leg to peak out, ruining her shell of warmth. Reluctantly placing her hand over her cover she yanked off her covers and sat straight up. Short and fast, and your body adjusts to the coldness better. She saw a light beaming from under her door; she knew her sister was up. But of course, it actually took her about an hour to get dressed.
Before her mind could even utter another thought she heard loud unnecessary banging. Her body shivered from the cold and the unexpected banging of the door. "Nesha! Is your black ass up yet?!" Tanesha could see the shadow of her feet pacing the floor outside of her door.
"Yes!" It came out more croaky than she expected. She almost wished she could rewind time so it could come out better. But there's never a rewind button for life.
"Okay, well i'm out. So, i'll see you later on in the day." And with nothing more said from her dearest and only sister Hanna she heard the clicking of her high heel shoes descending down stairs.
Without even seeing Hanna, Tanesha knew that she walked out of there with this confident air about her. All her friends did, except her. But, all of her friends had been popular all of their life. Tanesha was tormented in elementary school, middle school, AND high school. They hated her for being "too smart". Tanesha was an extremely nice girl, or she used to be. But even as grown up as she appeared to be, people still down on her too. So, she kept mostly to herself, never talking to anyone, never making eye contact with anyone. She made friends along the way, and she realized that those were her friends for life. They accepted her the way she was. They loved her, nerd ball and all. And you just don't find friends like that every day.
Finding her pink color painted toes to the wood floor she flinched when the coldness hit her bare feet. After a year of doing this you'd think that her mind would be able to realize that the floor would be cold. She should really decide to invest in footies, because this was ridiculous. She stood up, stretching her tired body in the process. She dragged her body to her bathroom; fixing her shower to the temperature she liked it.
She stood in the mirror staring at her reflection. A reflection she had to force herself to respect everyday waking up. She could easily be what everyone in s was, a stuck up nonproductive person but she didn't want to be that person. Yeah, she could get contacts, and she could cut her already too long hair. She could go out and wear the shortest mini skirts and the highest heels. But that wasn't who she was.
She took her hair out of her scrunchy shaking it thoroughly, it went past her ass. It was dark brown with golden highlights. She discarded her sleep attire, and swept her hair over her shoulder. She placed one foot into the shower before placing her whole body under the cascade of warm water. She let her head fall under the water, her hair soaking it up. She took a glob of her Hawaiian scent shampoo. This smelt to her like kiwis. She washed her body and quickly rinsed her hair. She turned the water off and wrapped a terry cloth towel around her body. Throwing down the towel after drying herself off, she stepped into her semi-holy jeans, and a dingy t-shirt. She brushed her hair out, and clipped it up to its usual place.
Looking over to the make-up bag her sister begged her to wear, she was almost tempted. She even ran a finger over a lip gloss that claimed to be 'extra fruity', but decided that make-up wasn't her friend, remembering that disastrous attempt at it last year. Let's just say clowns looked better. This was the first day of the last year of her high school career. And she couldn't be happier. But pretending to be something she wasn't this late in the game just seemed hypocritical. She went back to her room and grabbed her backpack, placed it over her shoulder, and slipped into her tennis shoes. She ran down the steps, entering the kitchen, where her parents were talking over breakfast.
Jane, her mom, looked up at her over her cup of coffee. "I see you're making no real attempt at your first day of school, today." She looked over the plain clothes that her daughter wore every single day. She had recently took both of her daughters clothes shopping for school, Hanna picked out things for her and her sister, but they were probably still hanging in Tanesha's closet, untouched.
Tanesha rolled her eyes, while walking over to the cupboard to get a pack of pop tarts. She searched for her favorite; cinnamon.
"Jane, leave her alone. Sweetheart, you look fine." He stood up, and put his dishes in the sink, then leaned over to kiss the side of his daughter's head.
"Thanks, daddy," She tore off a piece of her pop tart and threw it in her mouth. "Because I always want to look FINE." She drenched the word with sarcasm. He laughed, and bent down to give a loving kiss to his wife, before exiting the kitchen.
"I'll see you two ladies, later." He yelled from the living room. They heard the echo of the door closing, as he left for work.
"I just don't get it, Tanesha," Her mother continued on with the subject, while rinsing the dishes she had just used. "Hanna picked out some very cute outfits for you, you could've at least decided to wear something different today." Tanesha plopped into a chair, slumping down in it.
She heard the same speech from her mother everyday. Which basically consisted of, 'why can't you be more like Hanna'. Her mom, though she loved her, was as shallow as they come. She wanted all the new designs for her and her daughter. If Tanesha had no sense of her own, she'd be as spoiled as Hanna was. Her mother just couldn't understand that she wanted to be her own person.
"Sweetie, i'm not saying I don't love you, because I love you no matter how you are," She took a seat opposite of her daughter, drying her hands off with a hand towel. "but how do you expect anyone else to love you, if you don't love yourself?"
"Momma!, just because I don't bother myself with the latest fashion, and it doesn't take me an hour to get dress in the morning, and i'm not worried about whether or not a boy likes me, doesn't mean I don't love myself," She gulped down the milk her mother gave to her. "I do in fact love myself. I love myself THE WAY I AM. And if other people can't love that, then too bad. I'm not changing for you or anyone else."
"Sweetie, I know that, and your family knows that. But you don't let anyone in, so no one else will know that. What about prom?" She watched as her daughter groaned from annoyance.
"What about it? That's ages away from today? Why can't you be a normal mom and worry about grades, instead of whether or not your daughters have guys for the prom?" She bit into her last piece of pop tart, slightly disappointed that she ate it so fast. She was arguing with her mother, she didn't give herself the chance to even savor any of it. This means, she’d be hungry quicker than she would have if she could’ve sat down and ate it in peace.
"What about that handsome Justin Timberlake, he's in your grade right? Nesha, ya'll used to be the best of friends when ya'll were in diapers. Or even Trace...he ---."
"Mom!" She only called her that when she was grating on her nerves. Her mother used the same Justin Timberlake speech almost everyday. His mother Lynn was her mom's best friend. She had to hear over and over from the both of them that they used to be the best of friends, even before out of the womb. But times change, it can't always be like it was. Justin pretty much made sure of that. "Listen, I know you think the world of Justin, but he's changed. High school changes everybody. I am what you call an outsider, Justin and Trace are both on the football team AND the basketball team. They're popular. And the Justin and Trace they show to ya'll isn't the same Justin and Trace I see everyday. They're down right rude and nasty to me. You really want to see me with someone like that?"
"Listen, young lady, I will not have you bad mouthing Justin. He is a good young man, and if you gave him a chance, i'm sure you could become friends again. Then maybe you could date him, and ya'll ---."
"That's what this is all about isn't it," She said as she stood up. "You just want me to date Justin because his mom is your friend and they both have a lot of money. Justin and I never talk...we never will." She looked down to her watch. "I have to go." Aggravated with her mother she didn't even kiss her goodbye. She just ran out the house and into her black Mercedes. As she buckled into her seat belt, she remembered the conversation that Justin shared with her after seeing her car. He had the audacity to claim that she only got it because he did, and she somehow thought it'd make her more popular. Her birthday was a day after his, and once her mom seen his cherry red Mercedes she just HAD to get her daughter one just like it. She saw her mom walk out the door, so she sped off before she could waltz up to the car.
She hated everything about school, except of course the work. She hated having to pretend to socialize with everyone. She hated how everyone separated themselves into groups, like they couldn't possibly hang out with someone who was "below" them. She hated EVERYTHING about Justin Timberlake. Everything...she hated his looks, his popularity, how girls threw themselves at him. And most of all how he thought he was the shit, and that every single girl wanted to take a whiff of it.
She pulled into her regular parking space, and began to walk up to the building. She saw Hanna and the rest of her "popular" group, it amazed her that she never hung out with Justin, but maybe her sister wasn't as dense as she came off to be. She had to give her sister some credit, she wasn't stupid. But the girls she hung around sure were. They were full of air, all of 'em. She tilted her head down slightly and briskly walked to the doors.
"Tanesha!" She heard her sisters voice call to her. She inhaled before turning around and giving them all a fake smile. She tried to be polite to everyone, until they gave her a reason not to be. Except Justin and his crew, that ship had sailed, and she wasn't pretending to be anything with him or them. She just stood there standing, til her sister waved her over.
"Hi." Tanesha said shyly to the bunch of girls. But they only scoffed to her, and excused themselves from Hanna. Yeah, were officially off of her DO speak to list. She seen her sister's hazel eyes roam over her clothes.
"What's this?" She asked waving her hand in front of Tanesha's body.
"Clothes." She responded as if she should KNOW that.
"No, they're rags that not even homeless people would wear! Mom bought you clothes, NICE CLOTHES, why can't you be considerate and at least where an outfit for her."
"Funny, she said the same thing about you." She turned around, bored with the conversation, and searched for her friends. The friends that, would only jokingly tease her, but her sister was serious about everything she said. Though she knew her heart was in the right place, she still didn't need to hear it EVERYDAY.
Hanna was going to maliciously respond to that, but her eyes fell onto something behind Tanesha's head. Tanesha scrunched her nose up in confusion, then she heard a whistle, and as if the popular breeze blew past her, Justin and his retarded crew were standing beside them. She had wished she were anywhere but there. Guess she must’ve forgotten her magic beans at home.
"H-a-n-n-a, damn girl that must be another way to spell delicious." Tanesha watched through somewhat amused eyes at Justin trying to "spit game" at her sister. The other dimwitted boys in the group whistled and hollered, and smacked Justin on the back, as if his remark was anywhere close to witty. Hanna rolled her eyes and continued to talk to her sister as if none of them were even there.
"Nesha, just promise you'll wear some of them, SOMETIME this year." As if Tanesha had JUST walked up to the group Justin turned around to face her. She watched all of the guys faces contort into disgust. Yep, pretty sure she wanted to be ANYWHERE but there. Surrounded by horse manure, or even STANDING in it would be better than this. She closed her eyes and waited for the venom to spit from his mouth.
"What the fuck are you wearing, girl? Did you visit the dumpster this morning?" She turned to look at him; she was ready to rip his head off. "Hanna," He turned to her. "How is this your sister? The hot-as-fuck genes must not run throughout the family." As soon as Tanesha was about to bark at him, her sister did all the talking.
"You stupid motherfucker!" Hanna pushed him back, he stumbled back, but not much. Did she forget to mention her sister had a mouth like a sailor? "You are so fucking rude, and then you act all surprised when no girl in her fuckin’ RIGHT mind, wants to deal with you." She grabbed her sister’s hand, and they walked into the school building. Tanesha knew Hanna didn't care for him too much, but she didn't expect that to come out of her. Tanesha saw a blur of Justin as Hanna drug her on, but he didn't seem hurt or even shocked by the statement, he just laughed it off. Probably thought that was her attempt at flirting. The grip she had on her wrist was starting to hurt a bit, so she jerked her arm from her, which made her stop walking and turn around.
"Tanesha, don't listen to that jackass, you're beautiful. It's just...you need to appreciate --." Before Tanesha could hear another word out of her sister's mouth, she felt someone else tugging her, leading her in a different direction. When she could get her focus, she saw her main people walking her off to her class. When they reached the doors to her first period she thanked them silently for getting her away from all the lectures she was about to receive from her sister.
"Looks like you've had a crummy day, Suga!" Leann her best friend in the whole wide world said to her. She was everything Tanesha wanted to be. Though she was a little on the hefty side, she didn't let anyone bring her down. She was always cheery, and she thought of everything in the best light.
"I knew that if Hanna was talking to you, she must've been on one of her "self esteem" rants." Her other BEST friend Brynn said to her. Brynn was on the tall side, but her dazzling blue eyes, and wavy natural blonde hair, made every guy in school and some girls want a piece of her. She was so beautiful, both of them were, between the both of them, she felt as though it seemed like they went to adopt a friend.
"I don't know what everyone's problem is today," Tanesha started, entering the room, ignoring all the eyes that were on her. "It's like EVERY single person wants to give me a "your beautiful, it's just .." speech," As she made her way to the back of the room where her friends normally sat together, she didn't see the foot that slid in front of her, and she hit the floor. Her friends were instantly by her side, helping her up, and wiping her off. Tanesha's blazing brown eyes, find the laughing blue eyes of Justin. He and his friends were doubling over in laughter. As though making someone trip was HILARIOUS.
"WHAT is your problem!?" She screamed at him. He stood up, his 6'1 frame easily towering over her, as if that was supposed to intimidate her. She stood her ground, though Justin standing over her did intimidate her some.
"My problem?! Is it my fault that those ugly ass glasses don't do a thing for your vision? My foot was clearly visible for all to see, yet you're the ONLY one who stumbled over it."
"Justin!" She began to scream at him irately, but was interrupted.
"Mr. Timberlake," She watched Justin sit down in his seat as if he were some type of angel. "Ms. Jameson, is there a problem?" Their teacher asked him, he was leaning against the desk, with his arms folded.
"Mr. Blevins, I was just minding my own business. Justin decided that he wanted to be an extra prick today, and --."
"Take a seat Ms. Jameson." She sat down in her original spot, in the back of the room. "This is your senior year, folks. This is not the time for me to be babysitting you. This is not a babysitting service. You deal with your problems before school starts, but when that bell rings," He pointed to the speaker, as if on cue the school bell rung. "That’s time for you to come in here prepared to learn. Is that clear?" They were some scattered ‘yeah's’.
"But ...Ms. Jameson and Mr. Timberlake are perfect examples of what your last year project will be." He grinned at the both of them; Tanesha didn't like the feeling of this. But she never failed; she never got less than a B on any project, test, and assignment. "Tanesha and Justin, can you stand up here for a moment?" Tanesha reluctantly stood in front of the class. On her way up she heard Justin whisper 'suck up'. "I heard that, Justin. But I also remember asking you to do the same."
"Mr. Blevins, can you get someone else? Someone who deserves or even wants to stand next to that." Tanesha didn't want it, but she could feel her face heat up with embarrassment, he always knew what to say to make her feel less than inadequate.
"I guess you'd feel right at home, if I sent you to the principal office on the first day, huh? Just get up here, so you can get this over with." Justin walked up to the front, and stood next to Tanesha.
"This is your entire fault." He told her between gritted teeth.
"Shove it!" She retorted louder. Mr. Blevins cleared his throat, silently commanding them to cool it.
"Now," He clapped his hands together. "I've watched over the last four years, and the four years before that, and so on, how each and every person in this school attaches them to the cliques and groups that they think they belong in, or the only ones that accept them," He started pacing the floor while preaching. "There's the popular kids that consist of Justin ...which include; Jocks, Cheerleaders, Preps ...and all the other names you kids give yourselves. Then the not so popular kids like Tanesha," She wanted to dig herself into the ground. Maybe if she picked up a shovel and dug out her embarrassment grave, no one would even take a second glance.
"That are; Goths, kids that don't dress as nicely as others, and whatever one would consider being an "outsider". But what a lot of you guys fail to realize is that once you get to college and out in the real world, that's all you're going to be faced with. You're going to be working with people or even for people that you once considered a geek. You're going to marry, though you don't think it now, someone who WASN'T popular in school. You're going to be surrounded by each type of person out there. They don't care how popular you are on your application; they don't care if you were Captain of the cheerleading squad. When it comes down to work, it's never a popularity contest. And what i've noticed with some of you kids, that outside of your cliques and extra curricular activities you have nothing else. This is basically your life. What are you going to do at the end of school year? So!" He said more excited, he reached over to a fish bowl with lots of little papers in it.
"Here's what I have for you today. Til the end of the school year, let's say...the day before prom, you're going to be partnered up with someone for the WHOLE year, and your assignment is to hang out with that person. I want you to get to know them, I mean outside of school also, their cultural background, their siblings, and their family. What they plan to do with their life, every single detail of them that you never knew before. You will be doing any and all school assignments together for this class, so i'd get comfortable with that person if I were you. I want it in a 5 page essay, and guess what folks? It counts for half of your grade. So, for those of you who aren't exactly passing...i'd jump up on this opportunity." He took another fish bowl and passed them around to the people he WANTED to pick from it. There were groans and sighs, and NOONE was happy with their selection. But Tanesha had a feeling she wouldn't be able to live with hers.
She was anticipating the actual moment when it was going to happen. Not a good anticipation more of a ‘can’t wait for it to be over’ anticipation. It all happened in slow motion, the walking of her teacher, the beads of sweat running down her face, her taking her hand and wiping it across her forehead. Mr. Blevins stood in front of them fish bowls in hand, awaiting their picking. His smile was more devious than anything, and she had a feeling he kind of liked having this sort of power over them. They reached in at the same exact time.
"Tanesha!?"
"Justin?!" They screamed in unison. The whole classroom was filled with laughter, with the exception of her friends. She couldn't believe this, the one person she couldn't stand more than anything was the one person she had to spend MOST of her time with.
"Mr. Blevins," They both started, but he quickly put an end to all whining.
"There will be none of that. All decisions are final. I suggest you guys find some mutual ground, because you will spend a lot of your time with each other. Get use to it, embrace it, love it," He turned around to face the class, while his two other students were fuming. "That’s what all of this is about, folks, finding someone new, exciting, and interesting to be around. Get out of that shell you've locked yourselves into for 4 years. If you can't come together to at least get this project done, you fail. Simple as that." Mr. Blevins excused them to their seats. There was nothing else that could be said. Their arguing about it wouldn't solve anything. Mr. Blevins never changed his mind, what was done was done.
"Now, tomorrow all the tables will have your names on it. You will be sitting with your partner for the remainder of the year," The tables were two to a seat, and Justin nor Tanesha knew how they were going to survive this last year of high school. "Talk this over with the ones around you, because you won't be seeing their faces in this classroom that often. Enjoy." He sat back in his seat, and started on some papers for his next class.
Tanesha sat quietly, swirling her gel pen in her hand. She couldn't keep her mind off of having to be paired up with Justin. It was cruel and unusual punishment, for the both of them. She almost felt bad for Justin, too. She knew how badly he wanted to be paired up with one of his friends, or a cheerleading member, or even his girlfriend. Oh, did she forget to mention his girlfriend Brooke Davis, only the head of the cheerleading squad? And she was giving Tanesha the deadliest evil eyes she'd ever seen.
This year was going to be PERFECT.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
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