She has always been different from other people. She never was in the spotlight and she never let people get close to her. And somehow, I fell for her.
You hear a lot about people being introvert or shy, but Aliza was much worse than that. She always sat in the right back seat of the classrooms and no one spoke a word with her. Whenever people did she would disappear for a few days and come back like nothing happened. She has always been a big mystery.
Too bad I came around.
I saw Aliza for the first time when I moved places from the north of Canada to California. I started college a day later and I never noticed her until a couple weeks later. The first time I laid eyes on her I knew she was special.
I can remember wanting to walk up to her but most people would tell me it was a bad idea. So I didn't try for a while.
Yet this feeling stayed, I wanted to get to know her. There was this urge in me that said "come on Jacob, just say hi!" Yet I didn't try for a long time.
A couple of weeks later we were put in duos for a chemistry project. Our teacher, miss Pedigress (or "Marga" as she would rather be called), somehow always had the same groups for projects and since I was the new kid, I was teamed up with Aliza (only if I really wanted, because it would feel like working alone, miss Pedigress told me). I didn't mind and after class I walked up to her, as she saw me coming panic shot in her eyes and she started walking faster. She really didn't want to talk. I managed to block the way out before she could escape, making her bump in to me. Shocked by the contact she jumped backwards, looking even more terrified. "I guess we're partners now? I'm Jacob." I said calmly and waited for a reply that never came. I took a step forward and she managed to slip through and escape to the hallway. I watched her going through the hallway, with large and fast paces she walked away to what seemed like the girls toilets.
And that's how I first met Aliza
"Nice try mate, but you knew she isn't easy to interact with." My friend Hero said.
Hero was the first person I got introduced with when I arrived at this college. He is one of the best players at rugby, at least, that's what he says. Also, he is the one that made sure I wouldn't be alone the first couple of days, making sure I made some more friends and I knew where to go. He is a good laugh and he can cook amazing dishes.
"But we should go, the cafeteria has mystery snack day and I'm starving!" Hero added and soon I was pushed out of the classroom to get to the cafeteria across.
••
I had been looking around the cafeteria a lot to check if Aliza was there, but she was nowhere to be found, to be clear, she wasn't at school for a whole week. People say I have probably scared her off and she knows I will try and make contact again.
When she arrived at school I have been inspecting her, or you could say stalked, but I'd rather not. I couldn't find any way other people made contact with her. Was she all alone on this school? I have followed her the whole day, she went to the toilets in the breaks, sat in the same spot every lesson and never spoke a word.
I guess she is all alone.
When you have been "inspecting" someone for a whole day, you get to know their habits. I noticed how Aliza always puts her hair to the right when she wanted to write something down. I noticed how she pursed her lips together every now and then, usually when she was doing some school work. She never got asked any questions by the teachers or other students. She would never look around class when there were questions answered or something happened. She was all by herself, and somehow, she seemed totally fine with that.
Our last period today was Chemistry, where we had to work on our project. I took the risk and sat down next to her slowly. She looked up for a second and then went back to her book.
"I'm sorry for last week, I didn't want to scare you." I said, again with a calm voice.
She looked up again, but this time she nodded, as in saying it was alright.
"I guess you're not much of a talker?" I said and this time she shook her head no.
"Well I am, so I guess the presentation will be all on me." I laughed. "That's alright though, I just hope you could work along with me, if you'd like to?"
At that time the buzzer went, she ripped a paper out of her notebook and handed it to me. Then she quickly made her way out, back to the girls toilets. Hero was on his way to me when I looked at the paper. At the top it said "This is everything I'm gonna do, I hope it's about half of the information."
"Bro how did it work out?" Hero asked as he stood next to me.
"She nodded, and I got information for our project." I said, pointing at the paper.
"Dude! That's never happened before! She is into you!" Hero said jokingly, jumping up a little in excitement.
"Well I guess it's just my luck." I said and got up, I grabbed my bag and walked out to my locker, feeling a little proud.
