She loves the library.

And she's been walking slowly, up and down the same aisle, tapping her chin thoughtfully. She's read almost every single book in this section, some of them two or three times. But she was looking for something.. different. Something exciting.

Something..

"Oh!" she gasps, having plucked a book off the shelf to find a beaming face staring back at her. "Kris, you startled me."

She's blushing, but she can't look away. Thea can already feel warm eyes on the back of her neck, her girlfriends waiting impatiently for her to return. They'd seen the stolen glances between she and the dashing Kris Flynn-Edwards, and they teased her endlessly.

"How did you know I'd be here?"

kris flynn-edwards

He is the only boy.

Okay, well, maybe sometimes there was this boy from her math class.. but he didn't really count. She's 90% sure he's gay and just talks to her because she's good at math. It was natural to have a bit of a crush on one boy at a time.

But there was something about Kris that made her belly do somersaults worse than anything.

Thea clutches the book to her chest, suddenly self-conscious when he rounds the corner to join her. His nonchalant, confident lean is cute, but she does her best to refrain from staring at anything other than his face. Mostly his cheek, was eye contact weird? He has such pretty green eyes..

And now he's coming closer, and she's fumbling the book in an attempt to pull it away from her to show him. She's so awkward.

"It's.. uhh.. it's an action fantasy novel. About a treasure hunter. It's really good, I hope they make a movie out of it someday."

kris flynn-edwards

Their eye contact is magnetic for just a moment, and she catches herself forgetting words and thoughts. But his hand reaches for.. the book.

So she passes it to him numbly, offering a shy smile as their fingers touch. Had she meant to do that?

"The love interest, actually. She's always supportive of his dreams. Smart, too, a lot of the gadgets and stuff he uses for his adventuring was made by her."

kris flynn-edwards

Just like her?

Thea flushes at the suggestion, unsure how to respond. It takes her a moment, with a long pause of exasperated, embarrassed mouth movements and red ears. She tucks blonde hair behind her ear, nervous.

"I'm not that smart, really. I just like puzzles and math problems."

And she loved to help others, she loved to teach. But she supposes he's right, she is a lot like the female side-character. The thought sort of comforts her.

kris flynn-edwards

Thea giggles, shaking her head.

"Maybe it's all the soccer ball kicks to the head."

She's talking about the headbutting of the ball, though she doesn't know the term, if there even is one. Though at the mention of it, she pales at the realization. Her knowing anything regarding that was evidence that she'd been at his soccer games.

Which really shouldn't be that mortifying or surprising, because the entire school often went to see their soccer team play.

"You want me to tutor you?"

Her heart beats faster.

"Yes! Yes, I'd like that. Sure, that'd be.. nice. I'd be happy to, Kris."

kris flynn-edwards

Thea chuckles, dipping her head. His laughter seems to relax her just a little bit. Perhaps he hadn't noticed her slip of the tongue. Her friends would though. In fact.. she's pretty sure she can hear giddy whispering from a few aisles down.

But when she glances past Flynn's shoulder, those shoulders of brown and blonde hair disappear. Curious.

Her attention returns to his face, eyes widening in surprise at his exclamation. He had also said it so loudly that she's sure her friends had heard. Them and the entire library. The girls blush is deep this time, and she stares at her toes. They're painted a pale shade of purple.

"Uhh.. sure, Kris. That'd be really nice."

She sucks in her bottom lip, stifling a smile. It's cute, and she forgets immediately that Flynn is still holding her book. But instincts tell her that now is the appropriate time to leave, at the most awkward interval in ther conversation. Highschool brain, teenage brain, whatever you call it.

So she exhales, ready to be awkward, and attempts to bid him farewell.

"Uhh.. okay! Um, text me, then? When you, uhh.. need a tutoring session?"

But he didn't have her number, and she hadn't given it to him yet, and she hadn't gotten her book back.

kris flynn-edwards

The two are an unlikely pair. Alethea, from a rich, high-class family in the expensive part of Mistralton. They owned an estate, probably a handful of cars, spent money like it was nothing (mostly for things that were useful, usually).

Perhaps that was why she liked him. He was different, he was kind, he was something sweet and humble and unfamiliar to her. Just a normal boy, in a normal school, who made her feel normal and giddy and good. When he looked at her, she felt like.. she was the most important person in the world.

Thea glances down at the pencil in his hand, momentarily horrified that he's marking it up with ink- but he isn't. Instead, lightly scrawled pencil lead leaves behind his name and phone number. She sucks in a corner of her bottom lip, biting it gently. She's smiling.

And only after he pushes the book closer again does she take it, holding it awkwardly and not to her chest this time. That would be weird, right?

"Okay," she whispers, dipping her head politely, awkwardly, before taking a few steps back. She trips over something a bit, fixes a book she's knocked out of place, before waving goodbye and rejoining her friends.

Naturally, the first few text messages he receives are not from her at all. Her friends had seen him write something in the book and automatically knew what it had been, and harassed her endlessly until she gave it up. Everyone had a crush on Kris Flynn-Edwards, after all.

kris flynn-edwards