Page 43 of Tattooed Love

Shrugging my shoulders, “Don’t take your fear of public speaking out on me.”

Jax huffed and I grinned to myself. It was just too easy to stir him up.

“You ready Jackson, Amber?” Mr Woods asked us as he stood to the side with his clipboard.

“Ready as ever,” I replied with a grin. “I can start us off if you like Jax?”

Jax grunted, which I assumed was his reply. Clearing my voice and straightening up, I smiled at my dense classmates.

“Good morning everyone.” My smile got slightly bigger. “This is mine and Jackson’s report.” I handed the piece of paper over to him.

Jackson took the paper and gave it a once over “Amber and I analyzed a soldier whose name was Captain John H Miller.”

Jackson stopped, flipping the page over in his hand, and then turning to glare at me, lowering his voice. “Where’s the rest?”

“That’s it.” I lowered my voice to match his.

Jackson’s eyes narrowed into slits. “What do you mean that’s it?” he hissed under his breath.

“I had to use the Internet to get that, be grateful,” I shot back under my breath.

“Is there a problem Amber, Jackson?” Mr Woods frowned.

Jackson scoffed.

“Isn’t that the name of a character off Saving Private Ryan?” A girl with glasses piped up from the front row.

“Yeah, she’s right. Tom Hanks plays the character,” a boy next to her affirmed.

I narrowed my eyes at both of them “Well, it’s based on a true story.”

“No it’s not,” the boy argued with me. I rolled my eyes; man, I could throttle this kid.

I could hear Jackson grinding his teeth. “You had one job,” he hissed under his breath.

“I did more than you did. I researched that,” I hissed back, while pointing at the piece of paper he was holding.

“Amber, Jackson, are you going to continue with your report?” Mr Woods asked, sounding annoyed.

“You mean you stole a name from a movie,” Jackson scoffed at me. “You really put in effort.”

“How was I meant to know it was a fictional character? It had a picture of soldiers next to it!”

“Unbelievable.” Jackson tossed the piece of paper back to me.

“Amber, Jackson?” Mr Woods snapped.

“We’re finished,” I replied coldly, and smoothed out the wrinkles on the paper, which Jackson had crumpled the corners of.

“Are you two seriously telling me that that’s your report? Those few sentences? And that the soldier you chose just happens to be the same as one from a hit movie?” Mr Woods snapped. “I cannot believe you two! Seats now. See me after class.”

Jackson shot me a glare over his shoulder as I followed him back to our seats. “One job, that was all I gave you. One job,” he muttered under his breath.

Rolling my eyes, I slumped down in the chair next to him. “You are over-reacting.”

Jackson grunted and crossed his arms, watching as another pair stood at the front of the class, ready to begin their speech. I glared at them, realizing it was the same pair who had done me in earlier...

“It’s their fault,” I cursed in their direction, “if they had kept their mouths shut...”

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