p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Based on this post: pickuplinesfornerds tumblr com/post/102323194460/skeletontrash-skeletontrash-if-you-have-a (fill spaces w/ dots)/span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3.75pt 0in; text-align: center; line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" align="center"hr style="color: #a0a0a0;" align="center" noshade="noshade" size="1" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas had never really liked math. Sure, he was taking AP calculus, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it (or was good at it, for that matter). He'd have requested to move to an easier math class long ago if not for one thing:/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren Christiansen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He was a smiley, happy kid who had moved from Copenhagen in the start of the school year, and was immediately placed in all of the top classes. His daily choice of wardrobe usually consisted of a collared button-up, slacks or khakis, loafers, and some type of bow tie. His blonde hair stood up in a gravity-defying matter (which he claimed was natural), and he wore huge, thick-rimmed glasses./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"To sum it all up, he was a nerd./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Now, Lukas, on the other hand, was practically a polar opposite. It'd be hard to find him wearing something other than a band t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans, and it'd be even harder to find him without a bored, blank look on his face. Half of his sandy hair hung down to his chin, and the other half was fashioned into a buzzcut, with a cross shaved into the side. He had multiple piercings on his face and ears, and he was emnotorious/em for his quickly growing amount of tattoos./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Now why, you may be wondering, would a punk like Lukas have absolutely any interest in a nerdy guy such as Søren?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Honestly, Lukas couldn't answer this himself. Maybe it was just because of the Dane's cute chubby stature, or maybe it was due to the boy's smiling blue eyes or soft dusting of freckles./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Whatever it was that Lukas liked about him, he had set up a plan to ask the guy out. Yeah, it was a few days after Valentine's Day, but so what? Wouldn't it be too cliché to ask somebody out on Valentine's Day anyways?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"A loud ringing interrupted Lukas' thoughts, nearly causing the poor Norwegian to hit his head as he jolted out of his locker./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Shit, is that the late bell?/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He quickly scrambled his books together, glancing at his watch in the process. He'd really wasted a lot of time thinking while he pretended to be digging in his backpack for something—the hall had nearly completely emptied while he'd been spacing./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He slammed his locker and hurried down the hallway, slowing his pace and acting nonchalant and uncaring as he strolled through the door of his AP calculus class./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Sorry I'm late," he said quietly, sliding into his desk and stretching out his legs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""I'll let you off the hook this time, but don't let it happen again." The teacher said, holding eye contact with him momentarily before turning to the board. "Alright, so today's lesson is on…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas emwas/em suddenly reminded of what he had been planning on doing in this class. He glanced at Søren, who was sitting two desks in front of him, and nearly felt his heart leap into his throat with nervousness./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Don't you dare get fucking cold feet now, asshole,/span/emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" he chided himself, fishing a slip of paper out of his pocket and smoothing it out on the desk. On it was simply written a math problem, with two letters on either side./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He exhaled deeply as he folded it in half and tapped the person in front of him. "Hey, Eduard, could'ya pass this to Søren?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The boy nodded, waiting until the teacher turned her back again before kicking Søren' calf softly and handing him the paper. "From Lukas," he whispered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"No going back now./span/emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" Lukas felt his heart rate increase slightly as he tried to make himself focus on what the teacher was saying./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Now, if x equals four, what is the slope of the tangent line?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Normally, Søren' hand would be straight up in the air, but the boy appeared to actually be putting effort into working out the problem. Lukas peered around Eduard and saw that the Dane had pulled out a sheet of graph paper, and was now starting to plot points on a makeshift coordinate plane./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Shit, he knows how to do it./span/emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" Lukas squeezed his legs together and bit his lip, trying to keep the blush off of his face. He had been partially hoping that the guy wouldn't understand how to do the problem and come to him for an explanation, but that obviously wasn't the case./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Lukas?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The Norwegian started as his eyes scanned the board. "Uh, the slope is... Negative nine?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"If looks could kill, Lukas would instantly perish from the glare the teacher was giving him. "Correct."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"A couple other students glanced at him and snickered, knowing that he'd been completely gone and the teacher was expecting an 'I don't know' from him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Despite the fact that there was a total of only eleven people in the class, the teacher blatantly avoided calling on him again. This left Lukas alone with his thoughts for the next forty minutes, which definitely didn't help his anxiety over how Søren would take the note./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Too soon, the bell rang. Lukas watched as the entire class jumped up and pushed through the door, talking among themselves loudly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Everyone except for Søren, that is./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas' heart sped up as he was suddenly aware of the Dane's presence just a foot away from him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Meet me in the library at lunch," the boy said simply, his face revealing nothing as he turned to leave./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The next few classes went by in a blur, Lukas comprehending nothing as he watched the clock tick on. Finally, the bell rang for lunch, and Lukas practically shot out of his seat. He speedwalked down the halls, his heart hammering as he pushed through the door to the library. The punk glanced around the huge room, looking for the Søren' characteristic hair. Seeing nothing, he walked along the tall shelves, finally finding the boy sitting on the floor in the back of the nonfiction section and reading a book./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He quietly walked over, causing Søren to glance up and put his book away as he stood./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Hey," the Dane said casually, pushing his glasses up his nose./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Hello." Lukas responded, leaning back against a bookcase and blinking at his peer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""So…" Søren began, rocking on his feet. "Do… Do you really feel that way about me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas nodded, pressing his lips together slightly. "Why would I send you that if I didn't?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Well, I kinda thought it was a joke at first…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""A joke?" Lukas narrowed his eyes. "Do I seem like the kind of person to joke about such things?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren grimaced and shook his head. "I just can't shake the feeling…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas sighed and pushed himself off the bookcase. "Do you want to see how much of a joke that was?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Not even giving the other boy a chance to respond, Lukas put his fingers under the blonde's chin and lifted his face up, pressing their lips together in a swift motion./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The Dane kissed back shyly, before taking control and wrapping his arms around Lukas, kissing him passionately and with care./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren pulled back shortly, face flushed red as he panted slightly. "Lukas, I…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Ssh." Lukas put a finger to the other's lips. "I want you to know that what I wrote on that paper is completely true, okay?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He nodded. "If that's right, there's one thing that I want to do to it…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren pulled the folded-up graph paper from his pocket, opening it up to reveal the completed note: a heart made from plotted points on a coordinate plane, with the letters 'I' and 'U' on either side. He dug out a pencil and scratched down their names in the middle of the heart./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""There. It's done." Søren announced, grinning like a child on Christmas Day./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Yes, it was very rare to get Lukas to smile, but, being a human being, he did do it occasionally. This time, however, he didn't smile. He beamed./span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3.75pt 0in; text-align: center; line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" align="center"hr style="color: #a0a0a0;" align="center" noshade="noshade" size="1" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas had never really liked math. Sure, he was taking AP calculus, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it (or was good at it, for that matter). He'd have requested to move to an easier math class long ago if not for one thing:/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren Christiansen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He was a smiley, happy kid who had moved from Copenhagen in the start of the school year, and was immediately placed in all of the top classes. His daily choice of wardrobe usually consisted of a collared button-up, slacks or khakis, loafers, and some type of bow tie. His blonde hair stood up in a gravity-defying matter (which he claimed was natural), and he wore huge, thick-rimmed glasses./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"To sum it all up, he was a nerd./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Now, Lukas, on the other hand, was practically a polar opposite. It'd be hard to find him wearing something other than a band t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans, and it'd be even harder to find him without a bored, blank look on his face. Half of his sandy hair hung down to his chin, and the other half was fashioned into a buzzcut, with a cross shaved into the side. He had multiple piercings on his face and ears, and he was emnotorious/em for his quickly growing amount of tattoos./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Now why, you may be wondering, would a punk like Lukas have absolutely any interest in a nerdy guy such as Søren?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Honestly, Lukas couldn't answer this himself. Maybe it was just because of the Dane's cute chubby stature, or maybe it was due to the boy's smiling blue eyes or soft dusting of freckles./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Whatever it was that Lukas liked about him, he had set up a plan to ask the guy out. Yeah, it was a few days after Valentine's Day, but so what? Wouldn't it be too cliché to ask somebody out on Valentine's Day anyways?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"A loud ringing interrupted Lukas' thoughts, nearly causing the poor Norwegian to hit his head as he jolted out of his locker./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Shit, is that the late bell?/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He quickly scrambled his books together, glancing at his watch in the process. He'd really wasted a lot of time thinking while he pretended to be digging in his backpack for something—the hall had nearly completely emptied while he'd been spacing./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He slammed his locker and hurried down the hallway, slowing his pace and acting nonchalant and uncaring as he strolled through the door of his AP calculus class./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Sorry I'm late," he said quietly, sliding into his desk and stretching out his legs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""I'll let you off the hook this time, but don't let it happen again." The teacher said, holding eye contact with him momentarily before turning to the board. "Alright, so today's lesson is on…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas emwas/em suddenly reminded of what he had been planning on doing in this class. He glanced at Søren, who was sitting two desks in front of him, and nearly felt his heart leap into his throat with nervousness./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Don't you dare get fucking cold feet now, asshole,/span/emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" he chided himself, fishing a slip of paper out of his pocket and smoothing it out on the desk. On it was simply written a math problem, with two letters on either side./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He exhaled deeply as he folded it in half and tapped the person in front of him. "Hey, Eduard, could'ya pass this to Søren?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The boy nodded, waiting until the teacher turned her back again before kicking Søren' calf softly and handing him the paper. "From Lukas," he whispered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"No going back now./span/emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" Lukas felt his heart rate increase slightly as he tried to make himself focus on what the teacher was saying./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Now, if x equals four, what is the slope of the tangent line?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Normally, Søren' hand would be straight up in the air, but the boy appeared to actually be putting effort into working out the problem. Lukas peered around Eduard and saw that the Dane had pulled out a sheet of graph paper, and was now starting to plot points on a makeshift coordinate plane./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Shit, he knows how to do it./span/emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" Lukas squeezed his legs together and bit his lip, trying to keep the blush off of his face. He had been partially hoping that the guy wouldn't understand how to do the problem and come to him for an explanation, but that obviously wasn't the case./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Lukas?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The Norwegian started as his eyes scanned the board. "Uh, the slope is... Negative nine?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"If looks could kill, Lukas would instantly perish from the glare the teacher was giving him. "Correct."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"A couple other students glanced at him and snickered, knowing that he'd been completely gone and the teacher was expecting an 'I don't know' from him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Despite the fact that there was a total of only eleven people in the class, the teacher blatantly avoided calling on him again. This left Lukas alone with his thoughts for the next forty minutes, which definitely didn't help his anxiety over how Søren would take the note./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Too soon, the bell rang. Lukas watched as the entire class jumped up and pushed through the door, talking among themselves loudly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Everyone except for Søren, that is./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas' heart sped up as he was suddenly aware of the Dane's presence just a foot away from him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Meet me in the library at lunch," the boy said simply, his face revealing nothing as he turned to leave./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The next few classes went by in a blur, Lukas comprehending nothing as he watched the clock tick on. Finally, the bell rang for lunch, and Lukas practically shot out of his seat. He speedwalked down the halls, his heart hammering as he pushed through the door to the library. The punk glanced around the huge room, looking for the Søren' characteristic hair. Seeing nothing, he walked along the tall shelves, finally finding the boy sitting on the floor in the back of the nonfiction section and reading a book./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He quietly walked over, causing Søren to glance up and put his book away as he stood./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Hey," the Dane said casually, pushing his glasses up his nose./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Hello." Lukas responded, leaning back against a bookcase and blinking at his peer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""So…" Søren began, rocking on his feet. "Do… Do you really feel that way about me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas nodded, pressing his lips together slightly. "Why would I send you that if I didn't?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Well, I kinda thought it was a joke at first…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""A joke?" Lukas narrowed his eyes. "Do I seem like the kind of person to joke about such things?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren grimaced and shook his head. "I just can't shake the feeling…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Lukas sighed and pushed himself off the bookcase. "Do you want to see how much of a joke that was?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Not even giving the other boy a chance to respond, Lukas put his fingers under the blonde's chin and lifted his face up, pressing their lips together in a swift motion./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"The Dane kissed back shyly, before taking control and wrapping his arms around Lukas, kissing him passionately and with care./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren pulled back shortly, face flushed red as he panted slightly. "Lukas, I…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""Ssh." Lukas put a finger to the other's lips. "I want you to know that what I wrote on that paper is completely true, okay?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"He nodded. "If that's right, there's one thing that I want to do to it…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Søren pulled the folded-up graph paper from his pocket, opening it up to reveal the completed note: a heart made from plotted points on a coordinate plane, with the letters 'I' and 'U' on either side. He dug out a pencil and scratched down their names in the middle of the heart./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;""There. It's done." Søren announced, grinning like a child on Christmas Day./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"Yes, it was very rare to get Lukas to smile, but, being a human being, he did do it occasionally. This time, however, he didn't smile. He beamed./span/p