Molly Hooper was not the kind of girl that you would notice. She was not the kind of girl who had lots of friends. She was not popular. She was very plain, with mouse like features. She was the kind of girl who blended in to the back of the crowd with the rest of the unnoticeables. She never raised her hand in class. She never spoke up. She sat at a lunch table by herself and always brought her own lunch. Molly was not involved in any outside of school activities. She was not in marching band, choir, or science fair. Her parents were not rich, both of them where primary school teachers. You would never speak to her unless you needed the answers in science class, and that was only if you were desperate. So it surprised Sherlock Holmes when he figured out that he had a crush on her.
Crushes were not something that Sherlock Holmes had, therefore it was a rather unusual ordeal. That also meant that he did not know how to respond to his feelings. His first idea was to just tell her, but the chance of rejection outweighed the possibility of acceptation, and for the first time in his life William Sherlock Scott Holmes was nervous.
Sherlock rung his hands and glanced across the Chemistry classroom to where Molly was sitting with her boyfriend, Tom. That was another complication in the matter of liking Molly. She had a boyfriend. A boyfriend who seemed to like her. She seemed to like him too. Girls usually didn't leave that kind of guy, especially for an awkward sociopath like Sherlock.
"Sherlock, you're staring." John waved his hand in front of Sherlock's face, snapping him out of the trance he was in.
"No I wasn't." Sherlock picked up the test tube and poured the specific amount in to the beaker, being very exact with the measurements. Never once did he make a mistake. That was the way Sherlock was. He would rather lock himself in his room with his experiments, those couldn't hurt you. Not in the way that people could. "I was simply observing." He told John.
John nodded. "I'm sure you were Sherlock." He said sarcastically. "You definitely weren't looking over at Molly Hooper and the experiment that she is doing the wrong way." Sherlock's head snapped up, looking at Molly. He knew that in doing it he was falling for John's trick, but he couldn't help it. She was just simply that amazing.
Sherlock carefully set the beaker down in the hot plate. He looked over at John as he was reading the instructions from the handout. "How did you ask Mary out?" He asked John rather quickly, surprising him.
"Excuse me. What?" Asked John, both unsure of what Sherlock had said and wanting to hear him say it again.
"You heard me." Said Sherlock, finishing up the experiment by recording the data. "I'm not going to repeat myself."
John cracked his knuckles as if he were preparing for a fight. Sherlock could picture him as a grandfather telling his grandchildren stories in the same fashion. "You just have to get the courage to go up and ask her." John said. It was not the answer Sherlock wanted to hear. "Ask her to go get coffee. There's a coffe shop just down the road."
"There isn't an easier way?" Sherlock asked, hopeful John would give him some unknown secret.
John shook his head. "It's not rocket science Sherlock." He said. "All that you can do is ask."
"Give me rocket science any day." Sherlock mumbled and turned in the lab report just as the bell rang.
Molly was crying. She sat in the corner of the library, pouring over a book, trying to hide her tears. Nobody seemed to notice and for that she was glad, but a shy dark hair boy in the corner kept watching her over the rim of his own book.
Sherlock couldn't decide wether or not to go and talk to Molly. She was obviously sad. Very sad. What she was sad about Sherlock could not figure out. Her life seemed so perfect. In his opinion she had everything a girl could ask for. She had the grades, a boyfriend, what more could she ask for? But what Sherlock didn't know was that things are hardly what they seem. People put on a cover to lock themselves up, but sometimes it comes down. Exposing them. Making them vulnerable.
John would want you to talk to her, Sherlock told himself. He mustered up all of his courage and walked over to where Molly was sitting. "Molly?" He asked, his voice cracking. Sherlock cursed at himself for being so nervous.
"Yeah?" She looked at Sherlock, wiping away a tear.
"I'm Sherlock." Sherlock said awkwardly. He had no idea if a Molly knew who he was.
"I know." Molly said. She let out a small laugh at Sherlock's confused expression. "We've had science together since first year." She explained. Sherlock nodded, remembering the fact. He tended to lock up most of his school life. Delete it in a way. "I'm Molly." She said.
"I know." Sherlock said. It was Molly's turn to look confused. Her eyebrows raised, making her look cute in Sherlock's opinion. Focus, Sherlock reminded himself.
"You do?" Molly asked.
Sherlock nodded. "We've had science together since first year." He said.
She laughed, her face breaking in to a smile. "That's what I just said." She said.
Sherlock nodded. "I am aware of that." Realizing that that meant she thought he didn't know who she was he continued, "I'm also aware that you are going out with Tom."
"Was." Molly corrected him.
"What?" Asked Sherlock, baffled by what she had said.
"I was going out with Tom. I'm not anymore." She explained. It was perhaps the best news that Sherlock had heard all day. However, it was not the time to get exited. Molly was sad. She needed support and comfort right then.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sherlock said taking a seat at the table.
Molly shrugged. "He was cheating on me the whole time." She looked down at her book and flipped a page. "With Irene." Sherlock nodded, everyone in the school knew that Irene Adler was a time bomb. No one in their right mind would go out with her. "Maybe it wasn't meant to be." She glanced over at Sherlock. They sat there in silence for a long while. Neither of them knowing what to say.
"Do you want to get some coffee?" Sherlock asked, breaking the silence.
"What?" Molly asked, unsure of what to say.
"There's a coffee house just down the road. I was wondering if you would like to go and get some?" Sherlock asked hopefully.
Molly nodded. "I would like that." She stood up and together they left for the coffee house.
They didn't know it then, but the coffee house would become a regular meeting place for the two of them. They would meet there after school for three years to talk about school, politics, and science, until Sherlock finally got up the courage to ask Molly out on a date. They also didn't know that they would surprise everyone two years after that with the announcement that they were getting married. Everyone, that is, except Mr. John Hamish Watson, who had once told Sherlock to ask a certain brown haired girl to a certain coffee shop.