CAPPUCCINO, kotlc

018

Biana was late to science. Again.

"Miss Vacker." Mrs. Belva cleared her throat aggressively, like she was trying to dislodge a small animal. "This is the fifth time this trimester that you have showed up tardy."

Biana winced under the smug stares of her classmates. "Sorry, Mrs. Belva. It won't happen again."

The teacher gave a high-pitched tsk tsk, probably because she had promised that the past four times. "Don't apologize to me. I'm sure your tech partner will be very upset that his group project is quickly becoming a solo task."

Biana raised an eyebrow, sinking into her seat. "Partner?"

"Yes. While you were busy frolicking, these punctual students were busy assigning themselves partners. I've paired you with Mr. Dizznee, who couldn't find himself someone to work with."

Biana turned to a shorter boy sitting in the corner, whose face was quickly becoming the color of his strawberry blonde hair. Biana had heard of him before, mostly from negative comments about his family. And he was her best friend's cousin after all; He looked nice enough.

Mrs. Belva clapped twice, prompting the class to continue working. Biana grabbed her backpack and made her way towards Dex, who was fidgeting with a couple wires.

"Hi, I'm Biana." She offered her hand. 

Dex smiled, and his dimples appeared. "Dex. Sorry about Mrs. Belva telling you off in front of the class. I'm sure you had a good reason for being late."

No, not really, Biana wanted to say. Just spent too much time looking at homecoming inspo pics on Pinterest for Tam and I!

"Not really." She cringed. "Sorry to you, though. I don't want you to have to carry the project."

"It's fine. I like science. Tech stuff. It's kinda my thing." Dex paused, flushing again. "That makes me sound like a nerd, huh?"

"A little." Biana shrugged. "It's fine though. I think it's cute."

Cute?!

Biana had to grip her shirt to stop herself from clapping her hands to her mouth. Where did that come from?

Just leftover thoughts from your regular Tam-swooning session, the voice in her head reassured her. But the sentence sounded shaky.

"-cool," she corrected herself, pointedly. "Sorry. I think it's cool. I don't really know anyone who's good at tech stuff."

That was true- even Fitz, who was good at pretty much everything, could spend hours on his phone without knowing how the device worked.

If Dex noticed her little slip, he didn't show it. He started telling Biana about the project: the rules, what she had to do.

But Biana only picked up on couple of words- invention, contest, technology -as her head spun. 

She couldn't place a word to her discomfort.