The school bell's alerting ring filled the air as Ms. Bustier's small class gathered into their seats for their first class. Mari settled in hers and dropped her pink backpack underneath her desk, then leaned back against the higher desk wall behind her and sighed in undefined emotion.
In the seat in front of her, Félix slid into his chair with no sound at all and almost immediately became motionless, his attention focused unwaveringly on the front of the room. None of the other classmates paid him any attention as they passed him and claimed their own seats.
The class, simply about some more ancient Parsian history and a few assignments, went by quickly. As the bell rang once again, their teacher dismissed the class, and the flood of students swarmed out of the room. Maybe as a coincidence, or maybe not, Mari and Félix were the only ones left still there afterward.
"Mari, Félix, is something wrong?" Ms. Bustier inquired, peering over at them from her paper-covered desk.
"Fine, miss," Mari replied warmly, not realizing until then that her crush was still in the room with her. "I'm just looking for my phone. It must've slipped out of my bag sometime during the lesson." She peeked underneath her desk after a quick dig through her backpack, and, to her surprise, found Félix crouched below his own desk, his expression unreadable as he stared at her.
"It's right here." He picked up her little black and red phone from the floor and slid it over to her. "You're supposed to be careful with your belongings." And without another word, he ducked out from underneath, stood up, picked up his pack, and walked out of the room.