Shutout

Hypothesis

2 pm

Ramona's speed walking to get into the library at 2 pm sharp. Usually she would have liked to be there 5 minutes early, but her morals were compromised to adapt to the morning (or technically afternoon) she had gotten off to today. Out of the corner of her eye she can spot Beau sitting at a small table near the window. He's looking out the window at a small rabbit in the bush. Ramona approaches as he takes out his phone to take a picture.

Ramona drops her books down on the table, simultaneously scaring the bunny and Beau. The bunny runs off into the bush and Beau jumps so hard he drops his phone.

"Jesus Christ, do you always sneak up on people like that?" He rubs the back of his neck while nervously chuckling.

"Most of the time." Beau continues to laugh but he's not really sure if Ramona's even kidding. Her straight face and dark eyes exude a tone too complicated for Beau to understand. But Beau doesn't mind taking his time figuring Ramona out.

Beau turns his seat around so his back is facing the wall.

"So I think we should stick with chemistry for now because that test is right around the corner and I need to do good or I won't be able to play against East Field on Tuesday."

"Well"

"What?"

"You need to do well. Not good. It's grammar." Ramona doesn't know what she's doing correcting Beau's innocuous grammar mistakes. Her stalling was only going to work for so long before she had to do the inevitable. Her future relied on this, she had to remember that.

"To-may-to, Tom-ah-to." Beau lets his infuriating crooked smile overtake his face. Ramona was strong, she wasn't going to let his infectious grin infect her, she wasn't going to let it make her blush, and she wasn't going to let her sway away from the plan. Ok, touch Beau. She could do that.

"Give me your hand." Ramona bluntly stated while offering out her own hand, palm up. She lets her cold gaze meet Beau's eyes. A soft blush spreads over Beau's cheeks.

"Huh?"

"Your hand." Beau shrugs because what's the worst that could happen. Ramona did break a girl's nose and scares the living hell out of most people but it would be fine... (probably). The size difference between the two is really highlighted by the way when Beau lines up his hand with Ramona's, palm to palm, his fingers extend another inch past the end of Ramona's fingernails. Ramona flips their hands so that Beau's is sitting on the table. She begins lightly tracing over the creases on Beau's palm.

"What, are you like reading my future or something?" Beau cocks his head to the side out of curiosity. Ramona's delicate fingers draw little doodles over Beau's hand with her finger tips. Beau shivers from how fleeting her touches are.

"No." Ramona says, not wanting to explain further. Not wanting to risk Beau thinking she's crazy for making up some impossibly odd condition on his mind. That condition of course being that he can only learn with her hands (or other parts of her?) touching him. Beau's starting to learn when Ramona says no, it's better not to pry. And besides, it would be a lie if he said he didn't enjoy the way she was lightly fidgeting with his hand.

Ramona delved into an in-depth description of atomic structure. Her hand acted mindlessly, allowing her full mental capacity to focus on tutoring. So really she can't be blamed for anything she did next. Or what her hand did. Beau kept his arm outstretched the whole time, he let Ramona do whatever he wanted. Sometimes she was circling Beau's palm with her fingertips, or others she drew invisible pictures of faces and little bunny rabbits. Other times she would let her hand wander, her cold fingers delving under the hem of Beau's sleeve before quickly retreating. She dragged her pointer finger up and down each of Beau's long fingers and sometimes even interlocked their fingers for a brief moment. She fleetingly rubbed her thumb back and forth over the back of Beau's before pulling back again. She went back to drawing small circles over all of the surface area of Beau's palm.