Little by Little

- 1 -

How He Met Her

"Hey, Mathias! Wait up!"

Ten year old Mathias paused in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. A classmate of his greeted him a friendly high five and proceeded to lightly wrap his right arm around Mathias' neck.

"What's up?" The Dane asked, leaning closer to his friend.

"Nothing. I'm just happy." His classmate smiled as he looked somewhere else.

"Huh? Where are you looking at?" Mathias blinked.

"At the most gorgeous girl in school."

"The what?"

His classmate raised his pointing finger towards the direction of a group of girls playing volleyball. Unfortunately for Mathias, half of the girls were facing the court, concentrating on their opponent, who was about to perform a service. He also wasn't familiar with girls from other classes.

"Who?" Mathias asked, nudging his classmate.

"What do you mean who?! Jeez, Matt. She's right there!" His classmate positioned himself in front of Mathias and then tried to point the girl.

Mathias knew that the other boy was trying to show him who that mystery beauty was, but he simply not good at these kinds of things. He had to act like he finally knew who his classmate was referring to.

Yes. He had to.

"Uhh...yeah. I see her right now." Mathias said.

Internally, Mathias winced. He tried looking at the profiles of each girls from both teams but their flurry of movements made it hard for him to really determine who was "hot" or not. Not to mention that a person's perception of beauty differed.

Ah fuck it. He was just going to wing this conversation.

"Well? How do you find her?" His classmate asked.

Uh-oh. Think of something generic, Mathias.

"Err, she looks really good in her outfit and she moves gracefully in the field." The Dane said in a false cheerful voice.

"Damn right!" His classmate flashed him a thumbs up and an approving nod.

Phew, that worked. Thank God for ad-libs.

"Hey Matt."

"Hmm?"

"Wouldn't it be great if we become classmates with her?"

"Sure. I'm down with getting to know unfamiliar faces."

"Huh? You haven't been classmates with her even though we're in the fourth grade already?" His classmate blinked.

Mathias shook his head. "Not really. I've been mostly with similar sets of people."

"Then let's forward to us having her as one of the new faces you'll meet next school year." His classmate gave him a pat on the back.

The days and months rolled by easily since then. Before Mathias noticed it, he had become into a fifth grader. Nothing changed from the get go. As soon as he arrived at his designated room, he cheerfully greeted the class with his standard first-day-of-the-semester greeting. Some of the boys approached and talked to him, while the girls gave him a wave.

Once he got the greetings out of the way, he went towards his seat. For straight four years, he had always been designated as Seat #2 in the initial seat plan. He didn't bother looking at his class information and went straight ahead to the left most side of the first row. When he found his supposed seat, he noticed a girl sitting on it.

"Heya, I think you got the wrong seat." Mathias said as he stood beside the seat.

"Are you sure? My class information said that I'd be Seat #2." The girl turned her head towards Mathias' direction.

Mathias realized he wasn't familiar with this particular classmate of his and studied her profile briefly. She had long blond hair that was a shade lighter than his golden ones. If it weren't for her long bangs, he'd immediately notice her unusual midnight blue eyes.

"Hey." She spoke up, one of her eyebrow raised.

"Oh! Uhm, sorry. I was thinking," Mathias let out an uneasy laugh. "Can I see your class info? I'd take a look at mine but I left mine at home." He lied.

He actually had his inside his bag, but he wanted to know who she was. He wasn't used to talking to someone new and wanted to ease the awkwardness early on by stealthily acquiring little information on the other person.

The girl in question let her eyes linger on him for a second before wordlessly giving him a piece of paper. Mathias thanked her and read her class information. True enough, the words Seat # 2 was printed in bold letters on the upper middle of the paper.

And her name...?

Mathias drifted his eyes lower.

Luka Bondevik.

So her name is Luka Bondevik. Mathias grinned as he returned the paper to its owner. "Sorry about that."

Luka shrugged as she took the paper from Mathias' hands. "Do you know your seat number?"

"If I had to guess, I must be Seat #1. Last name's Andersen. The person that's usually ahead of my last name isn't here so..."

"Oh. That makes sense." Luka moved her body facing front.

Mathias placed his bag on the left most seat beside Luka and sat down. Luka moved her seat a bit to her right and began fiddling with her phone.

Awkward silence.

Mathias wanted to break the silence.

"Anyway, this is the first time we've been classmates." He spoke up.

Lukas nodded without looking.

"Uhm, your class info said your name is Luka?"

Another nod.

Mathias took that as a somewhat positive remark from the other person.

"I'm Mathias Andersen. Please treat me well this year." He introduced himself.

"Likewise."

Later on, Mathias and his former classmate bumped into each other in the hallway. They greeted each other and shared stories how their summer vacation went. When his former classmate asked him about his class, Mathias shared that he recently talked to a new face.

"Really? Good for you. I'm kinda sad that I'm not classmates with her." His former classmate sighed.

"I've been curious for some time now, but who IS your crush?" Mathias asked.

"What are you talking about, Matt? She's your classmate," He pointed out. "By now, you should have realized that she's a new...wait, you didn't mention that new face you were talking about."

"I don't get it? I mean, the only new person I talked to was Luka-

"You what?!" The other boy shook Mathias.

"I said that the only new person I talked to was Luka Bondevik...?" Mathias repeated, his voice showing his uncertainty as he looked at his friend, who looked at him with accusing eyes.

"...you...didn't tell me about her."

Mathias blinked. And then he realized what his former classmate was talking about. Or at least he thought he figured out what was happening.

"Wait, is she your crush?" he slowly asked.

The other boy nodded.

"Oh…"

And that was how ten year old Mathias Andersen officially met Luka Bondevik.

End of the Chapter

A/N: Hi guys. This is actually my first DenNor fanfic...even though I actually love DenNor as much as I like Spamano. Anyway, please bear with my amateur writing skills. With that said, reviews are always appreciated.