umkansa - atwow highschool au

eighteen

tsireya

Tsireya was seated in her chem class, Lo'ak next to her. She noticed he had a new nose piercing that looked absolutely stunning on him. It suit him so well. She admired the way Lo'ak was taking notes and how concentrated he was. The way the tip of his tongue stuck out slightly and hit the top of his lip as he wrote. The way his head alternated from the teacher to his paper. His handwriting was obviously rushed but readable. "You're not taking notes," Lo'ak whispered, eyes still focused in front of him. "What?" Tsireya blinked back into reality, looking down at her blank notebook. "You're staring, not taking notes," Tsireya looked down at her blank paper in embarrassment. She twirled her hair in between her index and middle finger and picked up her pencil using her opposite hand. "Sorry," she spoke so quietly her voice was barely audible. "No, it's cool. I don't mind, I was just fucking with you," Lo'ak voice was rushed. He felt guilty for making the girl feel bad. Tsireya looked up to see his eyes finally focused in her direction. She gave him smile and began copying off his notes. She figured her handwriting would be easier to comprehend than his.

She took small opportunities to take quick glances at the boy seated next to her from time to time. She started to notice things about him that she never realized before. She noticed how he bounced his leg whenever the teacher moved to the next slide of notes before he finished writing the previous one. How he bit the eraser of his pencil until it was completely unusable. Or how he fidgeted with his earlobe when he was really concentrated. She also noticed the two bracelets located on his wrist. Both on his left arm one was a brown string with wooden beads, the other was a silver chain. "Those notes aren't gonna take themselves," "Huh?" Tsireya flinched, picking up her pencil that she didn't realize had slipped from her hands. Lo'ak let out a small chuckle. "You're staring again," "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Tsireya couldn't hide the embarrassment that reddened her face. She didn't know what came over her.

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"Alright class, there will be a test next Wednesday on the notes we took today. It is a big part of your grade, so if you don't do well, it will negatively effect your grade. For the remainder of class time you may talk amongst yourselves!" The class packed up their things at chatter arose. "What's your favorite animal?" Tsireya's eyes widened at the sudden question. Lo'ak was looking right at her with intense eye contact. Tsireya never realized how pretty his eyes were from up close. "I really like seahorses, but dolphins are a close second," Tsireya perked up. She loved talking about the things she enjoyed. It made her feel even better when she had someone actually listening to her. "Did you know that seahorses are technically fish yet one of the worst swimmers? They're actually really slow. Their fins can move really fast but because the size of them is so small, they actually don't achieve much distance. It's actually really sad because during storms they become extremely exhausted because they tend to be so delicate. But the cool thing about seahorses is they can swim forwards, backwards, up, and down. Not a lot of other fish-" Tsireya looked at the boy seated next to her. His face was completely expressionless and she couldn't decipher what he was feeling. She started to feel embarrassed at the thought that she had been rambling about her stupid seahorse facts. "Oh my- I'm talking too much aren't I? I'm sorry, I really am," Tsireya hid her face in her hands. "No, no! I think its lit you know all that shit about seahorses. It's cool," Lo'ak took her hands in his own, bringing them down to her lap. "You're cool," He smiled at her as he rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles. Tsireya felt the warmth of his palms on her own and had no idea how to react. She stared down at her hands, then back up at Lo'ak. The intense eye contact lasted about 15 heartbeats. She counted. On the 16th heartbeat the pair flinched as the the bell began ringing, signaling that the class was over. "Don't forget, big test next week! Have a great rest of your day class!" After the teacher's friendly reminder to the class about the upcoming test, Tsireya could see Lo'ak physically tense up. A small frown made it's way on her face at the boys sudden discomfort. "Hey, you okay?" Lo'ak nodded, before opening his mouth. No words came out as he hesitated. "Do you wanna come over to my house? To study," Lo'ak cleared his throat as he rubbed his palms on his pants. Tsireya couldn't help but smile widely, teeth visible and everything. She could feel her cheeks begin to ache slightly from how bright her grin was. "Yeah! Sure!" Lo'ak returned the overwhelming grin and nodded.