"Thanks, for back there," I said to Sherlock after the end of class.
His mouth twitched at the attempt at a little smile as he walked off, all mysterious with his high cheekbones and nose turned up into the air.
Still confused about the situation, I strolled back to my dorm where my roommate was busily tapping away on Facebook and scrolling through her Tumblr dashboard.
"Hey, Molly," she greeted. "How was... biology, is it? Met any cute guys?"
"Hi, Allie. And, um, no?" I intoned. Should I say yes? I feel like that would be a better conversation-starter, but I haven't met anybody but Sherlock, and he is, from what I've seen today, an annoying prick aside from the little incident at the end. But then again...
"You sound unsure," Allie swiveled her chair and looked at me. She winked. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I am." I snapped.
Allie was a bit taken aback by my tone, and I apologized profusely, blaming it on my hunger. It was nearly noon.
"There are some biscuits, I think, in the pantry," Allie gestured to it at the corner of our small dorm room.
"You know what? I think I'll actually go down to that café down the street. You know, as a treat for making it through my first class without causing too many incidents," I told her. Biscuits weren't going to cut it.
"Sure. Suit yourself." Allie shrugged. "Can you get me some scones to go? Thanks." She went back to her computer and started tapping away.
I grabbed a few bills and a book and exited the dorms building. It was surprisingly busy outside, people milling around, holding hands, or eyes glued to the electronic devices.
The walk to the café took about five minutes, and the place was packed.
"What would you like, honey?" The lady at the counter asked.
"A sandwich, and a cup of coffee. Black, two sugars. Oh, and three scones to go, please."
She quickly assembled my ordered me the sandwich, coffee, and scones wrapped up. I gave her a thanks, paid, and searched for an available seat. My eyes zoomed onto a window table which had just been emptied by two girls. Sitting down, I began nibbling at my food and brought out the book and started reading.
"May I sit here?" A hypnotic voice shook me free of the universe inside the book. Sherlock.
"Um, sure. Of course. If you want. This is a public facility, right? So, yeah, sure." I answered, quite awkwardly, completely taken by surprise.
He sat down, put his palms together, and started watching the people in the café. Just watching. Nothing else.
"What are you doing? It's kind of... creepy."
His head swiveled towards my face, eyes examining my expression. I think I'm hyperventilating. Why am I hyperventilating? He's nothing more than a strange, extremely smart, sociopath. Is my heartbeat always this loud?
"I'm observing," he answered.
"Observing?'
"Yes. See that couple over there?" He pointed. "The guy is most likely going to break up with the girl. His arms are crossed, separating them, and his face sports a very sour look. Clearly, something is going to go down. You see that girl over there? Dressed in blue?" He clasped his hands together and leaned closer across the table. "She is debating whether or not to eat the whole muffin, which, of course, shows she wishes to be thinner. And that boy over there -"
"Yes, yes, I know you like to show off how smart you are and whatnot, but why?" I cut him off.
He blinked a few times, "It's useful. Or rather, it will be useful, taking into consideration the career path I've chosen."
"Which is?" I prompted.
"Consulting detective. The only one in the world."
"And lemme guess," I ventured. "This is helping you notice patterns or something you can deduce better. How'd I do?"
"Not bad. But fortunately, most people are simple to read. No practice required," he stood up. "Don't want to be late for psychology."
"Really? I also happen to be taking that. Well, actually, my parents wanted me to take that, but let me get my stuff. I'm leaving, too."
"I know my way around," he stated. "No need to go to class together when we hardly know each other."
Wait, was he joking? After the whole deducing episode during class? "That - wasn't what I was suggesting," I stuttered, backtracking. "I've got better things to do than conversing with an arrogant smarty pants who think he's better than everyone else."
"I think you're trying to hide something," his face slipped into that look that shows he's deducing his next victim.
"Stop that," I exclaimed. His deductions aren't wanted now. Composing my face into an expression of indifference, I quickly walked away with a murmur of having to give the scones to Allie.
Maybe I should just keep away from Sherlock Holmes, I told myself. He smells like trouble. He seems like one of those people that trouble follows at their wake. But then again, my life has never really been exciting before all this, and he seems like he would be very exciting indeed. I should just treat him now on purely as... as...
There are no words to describe this. Friends? No way. Enemies? Not quite. Acquaintances? A tad bit more than that. I groaned in frustration as I re-entered my dorm and dropped the scones off with Allie.
Walking to class, I was deep in thought.
"In order to establish a collaborative relationship with your peers and each other, what's needed is mutual trust. There are many levels of it, physically trusting another, emotionally trusting them, and many levels deeper. Today, we are going to explore one of the basic levels of trust with a simple exercise that I'm sure most of you have all heard of. You will be paired up with a partner, and will have to fall back, trusting the other to catch you," Miss Mace, the teacher, announced.
There were a few grumbles, but most students seem to comply with it. Until Sherlock spoke up.
"This is absurd and has no correlation whatsoever with the social dynamics and collaboration of this class," he snapped. "And I, myself, have no urge to be lying on the ground with a cracked skull, bleeding, because someone's hands accidentally slipped."
"Mr. Holmes," Miss Mace stood up. "If you seem to have so vast a knowledge of this subject, why don't you come up and instruct this class yourself? Or rather, walk out of here right now. Certainly, it seems, according to yourself, there wouldn't be much love lost."
I could tell Sherlock was going to make a smart-alecky response and possibly emotionally confuse and bash her, so I hissed his name, "Sherlock!"
He glanced back, saw my warning look, and surprisingly sat back down, but with a defiant expression, nonetheless.
The teacher then tossed a look at Sherlock and gave us all permission to get started. Most hanged around awkwardly, as for the fact that they didn't know many people, but some, having been accepted to the same university as their friends, quickly found a partner.
I scanned the room and found no familiar faces, when a small, sing-songy voice announced, "Molly Hooper, right? I'm Maddy, from your biology class. Want to be partners?"
"Oh, sure. Yeah, of course," I answered, a bit ashamed that I didn't recognize her.
While those around us were having trouble falling back without catching themselves (and Sherlock not participating at all), Maddy closed her eyes, crossed her arms into a mummy position, and fell back with no hesitation. Surprised at her straight-forwardness and trust, I caught her at the last second and she stood up with a smile, "now, your turn."
I breathed in one time and then let myself drop back. Maddy's small hands caught me and hoisted me back up.
Because we were done with the exercise, we started chatting and comparing schedules, and just general gossiping.
"The only class we have together is this and biology with Allenston," she noted.
I grimaced at the mention of the name.
"Yeah," she laughed, noticing my reaction. "He's not one of the incentives of going to this school. Rumours say that he has a crazy life outside of this job. Something about an illegitimate son in an insane asylum and cooking meth down in his basement and gambling away most of his money."
"You're not serious, are you? He doesn't seem like that type of person. Too uptight and whatnot."
She shrugged, "That's what my boyfriend had said. He had him last year for biology. And uptight? Not as uptight as that guy before who was being all smart with Miss Mace. What was his name?"
"Sherlock Holmes."
"Yeah, something like that."
Just then, the teacher called us back and we didn't get to chat much more on the subject.
Thanks for reading! And there is a clue about the case that's going to come soon in this chapter. More to come soon. Comments are critiques are very welcomed. :)