Genealogy 101

Hi! This is Kit.
Today at school, my teacher Mrs. Leslie had some big news. "Class," she said eagerly. "We are all going to do genealogy reports!"
She smiled at the whole class. Only Kaya, the studying queen, shared her enthusiasm.
A small groan ran through the classroom. "It will be fun!" Mrs. Leslie objected. "You'll just need to draw up a family tree, and bring some interesting facts about your family. The reports will be due this Friday."
I wasn't sure how I felt about a genealogy report. I'm not really interested in that kind of thing even on the best of days.... but for a report? I think, that if I had the option, I would definitely skip this project.
"Now you will need to pick a partner.." I heard Mrs. Leslie say.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Samantha fly out of her seat.
"Can I be Kit's partner??" she bubbled excitedly.
Mrs. Leslie nodded.
I bit my lip. As much as I like Samantha, I really don't want to be her partner on this project.

The last time that Samantha had been my partner in a project was when we were doing a report on Christopher Columbus. I had been put in charge of researching the ships, while she did Christopher Columbus himself. On the day that we presented it, I showed up with ship information, and Samantha showed up with no information, but stylish pink T-shirts with the words, "Christopher Columbus, explorer extraordinaire",  written across the front. Needless to say we did not get a very good grade. 


I raised my hand. "Mrs. Leslie?" I asked. "What will we do if our partners, um, don't exactly do their side of the work?"
Mrs. Leslie laughed. "You don't have to worry about that Kit. Although you will be working together, you will each be doing your own separate project."
This didn't make any sense to me whatsoever, but I just nodded faintly.


After class, I hurried out of the class room distractedly. I was quite absorbed in my own thoughts until Samantha caught up with me. 
"This will be a lot of fun, won't it?" she asked. 
I nodded weakly. 
"How about we start at your house??" 
I looked at her blankly. "Start what?"
"We can start working on the family trees of course! I'll see you there at four o'clock!" 
After saying that, Samantha rushed off to her next class, leaving me somewhat stunned.
I'm still not sure how I feel about this report...


Kit