walking home

Christopher walked alongside Gabriela, causing students as well as some teachers to whisper, no doubt about them. Looking at them from the outside you see a tall, good-looking brown hair brown-eyed man walking next to a girl a head shorter than him, with brown pigtails, glasses so thick you can't see her eyes, and a buttoned-down shirt tucked into a long skirt. It kept everyone guessing what they had in common with each other.

Being in the top 5 of his class and the silly introduction the transfer student gave, the students in her classes figured he was either assigned to tutor her or offered to help her since it would most definitely be hard for a country bumpkin to keep up in their city school. Mind you, Gabriela is not from the country but a different city, the students just assume that due to her style of dressing.

Ignoring everyone's whispers and stares were easy for Christopher since his mind was set on questions to ask Gabriela when they got away from school grounds. On the other hand, Gabriela felt all eyes on her. She could feel the stares of jealousy and curiosity. Not being one for the attention she wished she could run into a hole and hide or better yet, have her brother pick her up.

Her brother was about the same height, maybe a bit taller than Christopher, dark brown hair in a cool guy haircut, nice eyes, well built, and very protective of her. She is truly grateful to have an understanding protective brother and wishes him to be there now.

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"I saw you earlier when I was playing tennis. You looked like you have seen me before." At the mention of 'seen you before', Gabriela nearly tripped on-air as she tried to act normal and continue walking, instead of freezing on the spot like her whole body was about to do. Quick to react, Christopher reached to grab her shoulders as he moved in front of her to catch her from falling.

The shock was clearly on his face when then eyes met. Her glasses had slid down her nose a bit allowing him to look straight into the green eyes he has seen before. "It's you", he stated as he still held onto her shoulders. 'It's you', rang in her head over and over again, finally waking her up, pushing him away, and quickly fixed her glasses. Trying to keep calm, I mean no one would believe she is the same person as the one who caught his eye during summer, even though she was. "Thank you for catching my fall. And this is the first time we met." (formally at least, so she wasn't lying technically-she thought).

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Christopher's thoughts were going a mile a minute trying to figure things out, like why dress country, when she is beautiful? Why keep quiet when she is full of energy when she dances? Breaking his own thoughts he decided to follow her lead if anything it might not be her if only he would've gotten her name. Oh, that's right her boyfriend!

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Caught off guard....again. She looked at him or more so glaring at him, but no one could tell due to her thick glasses. Not knowing how to answer until she remembered her purpose of letting him walk her home today. "No." Was her simple reply. As they continued walking, he continued asking questions and she continued answering. "Are you nearsighted or farsighted?" "What?" That was all he needed to know to confirm she was just dressing like this on purpose, bringing him back to the question, "why?".

After a moment of silence since Christopher didn't answer her question nor did he ask her anymore. Gabriela was confused, then realizing her mistake, she tried to brush it off, "What did you ask me, I didn't hear you."

(Apparently, she got too nervous and isn't really thinking about what she is saying, since it was a peaceful road they were on and there was only the clear sound of his voice when he asked his questions.)

Hearing her ask him to repeat himself made it clear that she is a talented dancer, but not clear on everything else. He smiled looking at her as they continued walking "Never mind." That was all he could say, he knew who she was and didn't want to make her feel any more nervous than she already was. Sweat was already appearing on her face.

To her surprise, Christopher lives the next block over. As they were about to part ways, he asked, "want to walk to school tomorrow morning? I don't have any morning practice." She assumed for tennis so she didn't ask nor did she want to walk with him in the morning, but couldn't think of a reason to reject him, so she just glanced at him before saying ok.