Project of the (NOT) elite

Ugh, another languished day in high school with these simpletons. The teacher is going over the upcoming project, but I’m obviously not paying attention.
 *Chuckle*
 I may have done that aloud. My desk partner gives me a look before returning to whatever he was doing.
 “… And that concludes the overview of the group project, so if there are no questio-”
 “Group project!?” I blurt out.
 “Yes, Marcel, a group project of three students… as I was saying, if there are no more questions we’ll begin the pop quiz.”
 There’s a collective groan from the students. But a true sigma like me is always prepared after all, haha! Even though I got 63% on the last test… but that’s only because I was preoccupied with more pressing matters.
 “Yo, Marc, take one and pass it back.”
 “Uh, um, right, yeah… sorry, spaced out.”
 Shit, I slipped up. Okay, let’s get back on track. Let’s see what the quiz is about.
 “Name the 5 basic types of sand dunes”,
 “Describe the different types of deserts and explain the conditions that lead to their formation”,
 “Label the following…”
 Heh, deserts—is that the best you can throw at me, Mr. Huang? Child’s play. “Alright, is everyone done? In that case pass them forward and to the right, you’ll be marking each other’s quizzes.”
 The papers get shuffled around and I get some random student’s paper: Justin Wallace. Who? Does he even go to our school? Well if he does, he’s evidently not very bright. Wrong, wrong, half mark. This class… ugh, so stupid. I finish marking the student’s quiz and hand it in to Mr. Huang. After everyone else has finished he begins the lecture but I can’t focus on it, my mind is elsewhere. I can’t believe we have to do a group project. That just means more work for me since no one ever contributes and it’s always the smart guy who does all the work. Bah, what do I have to be responsible for their grade if they’re too lazy to do any of the work?
 The bell rings, signaling the end of class and school for the day. Ah sweet release. I start packing my stuff when I notice a student approaching me. Ugh, what does he want. No, wait, is that a g-g-girl?
 “Hey, you’re Marcel, right?”
 “Y-yeah. Uh, you’re… Emily?”
 “Lush. Yeah, I’m Emily. I marked your quiz today; mate, you got a perfect 10.”
 Ah, I see—I see where this is going.
 “You got a group yet for the project?”
 Yup, called it.
 “N-no, I don’t.”
 “Mind if I join your group then? If you and Jermaine here are okay with it, of course.” Jermaine being my desk partner, I assume.
 “Sorry, Emily, but I’m not in Marcel’s group.”
 With that, he gets up, puts his hand on my shoulder, and gives me a wink. What the hell is that supposed to mean!?
 “Alright, see ya. So who else can be in the group then?”
 Is she stupid? I don’t fraternize with these sea urchins and I certainly don’t know anyone in class-
 “Hey, you guys looking for a third member?”
 “Oh, hey ya, Logan. Yeah, yeah, we were looking for a third member. Wanna join?”
 “Yeah! You guys pick out a desert yet?”
 Please, if there is a God, why do I have to be in a group with Logan Depadieu? I can’t fight against him, his social power is overwhelming. I really hate this guy—I mean, even a guy like me knows who he is. He thinks he’s sooo cool just because his birthday was in January so he got to take his driving test before the rest of us and mommy and daddy bought him a nice car. What a douchebag.
 “Emily, you’re from New Zealand, eh? Why don’t we pick a desert from there?”
 “Heheh, yeah sure, that’s a good idea.”
 “What do you think, Marc?”
 “Yeah… I-I guess.”
 “Great, then we’re all in agreement. Let’s meetup right now and get a game plan going, eh? I’ll let Mr. Huang know our group.” We quickly decide on some desert and then those two begin incessantly chatting about normie stuff. I knew this would happen. Maybe I can ask Mr. Huang if I can do a solo project. And somehow we’re supposed to make a five minute presentation out of this? I suppose it’s doable, though unlikely. I guess the library has some books about deserts somewhere.
 “So do you agree, Marcel?” Logan says.
 “Huh? About what?”
 “I’ll do the intro, talking about the kind what kind of desert it is; Emily’ll talk about the desert and the Maori since she’s from there; and you can talk about the plant and animal life. Sound fair?”
 “Y-yeah… I guess.”
 “Come on, man, say it with a bit of conviction,” he says, ‘playfully’ slapping the back of my shoulder like I’m his bro. Don’t touch me.
 “I g-guess I’ll look for a book about the desert then.”
 “Sounds good, dude. We’ll meet here tomorrow again after school. Don’t forget. So anyway, Emily, I’ve got this party on the weekend…”
 I better find a book quick before I blow my brains out. We meet up again the next day and I already know that they haven’t done any work. At least I have a brief outline of the main topics that each of them can talk about.
 “Um, so I got a brief outline of the topics and a few points you can talk about. You’ll have to do a bit of research for though,” I manage to stammer out.
 “You didn’t have to do that, Marcel, we already started on our parts, just focus on yours, man.”
 Yeah, I’m sure they do, then they’ll come crying to me last minute begging for help and I have to bail everyone out again. It’s all so tiresome.
 “Yeah, we got some stuff done last night. Do you have MSL Messenger? My host family has a computer that they let me borrow, and Logan and I coordinated our research last night.”
 “Oh, uh, my family doesn’t… have a… computer.”
 “Bummer, dude. Well, we still have the computer labs at the school that you can use.”
 “Right, yeah.”
 “Anyway, we should start deciding what we should put on our presentation poster. Any ideas Emily?”
 “I don’t know yet but let me check with my host family if they have some arts and crafts material that I can use.”
 They continue to talk about the presentation poster while my mind wanders elsewhere.
 “Marc? Earth to Marc. Can we leave the plants and animals to you?”
 “He’s a bit of a space cadet, huh?”
 “Sorry, I’m just tired from all the work I did last night.”
 What kind of work would a high school student even being doing?
 “Don’t stress the project, Marc. It’s a group project after all, no need to do everything yourself.”
 “Yeah, like Logan said. Once you find some images you can send me a message on MSL if you make an account, or email them to, and I’ll ask my host family to print them out for you.”
 Emily proceeds to scribble something down on a scrap piece of paper. I feel dirty just looking at this.
 “Okay, we’ll I’m gonna go use the l-library’s computer to find some images then…”
 I spend the next 30 minutes browsing the internet looking for images. The rest of the week seems to proceed fairly well, as well as it can in this hellscape, until it’s the day of the presentation. I’m dreading the whole thing. We put the final touches on the poster yesterday and went over which parts we’ll talk about and the order. But none of that matters because I know those two didn’t do any actual work, or, well, enough to qualify as work among normies. Luckily I came prepared and have enough material for a ten minute speech if need be. Worry not, my school marks, I’ll save you.
 “… And that concludes our presentation. Thank you.” Emily gives a half-bow as she concludes. The class gives a light round of polite applause.
 “I think that pretty well,” Logan remarks. Emily nods in agreement.
 Did aliens mind control these two last night in order to make them do some actual work? I can’t believe what happened.
 “You did pretty well yourself, dude.”
 Again with the touching.
 “Uh, thanks.”
 “Don’t mention it. You’re a pretty smart guy, just need ya to talk more. Oh yeah, my parents are away for the weekend, why don’t you join the party I’m going to throw? You know where I live right? Same place as when you came to my birthday party in 8th grade.”
 I give him a wry smile and nod my head. Maybe high school isn’t so bad. However, I know better. This is clearly a trap. Nice try, Logan, but you’ll have to do better than that to fool me. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t hurt to do a bit of reconnaissance when the party does start…