I thought I had a close friend. I wanted to do my history project with this close friend, and he said we could do it on a certain topic. But when it came down to it, he chose to be with someone else. Now I am with someone else and a different topic.

Now I don’t know your friend, but it sounds to me like he wanted to be your partner too; he was just too shy to ask. I’m sure that if you had gathered up enough courage to ask him yourself, he would have graciously accepted. This other partner that he chose was most likely his fall-back. If I am misinterpreting the situation fully, and he is not actually shy but instead just doesn’t want to be your partner, then I would suggest making aggresive strides towards strengthing your friendship right away. You can start by giving him compliments, baked goods, or maybe even jewelry (if he’s into that kind of stuff). After that make sure you are always nice to him. If you follow these steps, I’m sure come next project, he will pick you for his partner.