After she arrived at school, 55 minutes late, the rest of the day carried on normally. Only 3 children were ill, 2 found themselves in the principal's office and only one student broke out an argument on the real truth of the civil war. Part of the reason she had decided to teach ages 5-7 was the hope that they wouldn't be mature enough to question her academic skills, but boy was she wrong.
It was the last hour of her daily after school meeting and the hands of the clock appeared to be crawling agonizingly slow from number to number. Under the table her phone rested upon her knee, constantly waiting to feel that familiar buzz. He hasn't text her in over 7 hours. Of course the simple explanation would have been that they were strangers and he had more important things to do, like saving people, rather than talking to her. But he knew her name and they lived in the same area, so were they still classed as complete strangers?
Quite suddenly, causing her chin to slide off the hand it was resting on, the phone in her lap began to vibrate. Instantly her blue eyes flicked down toward the screen, still trying to keep it unnoticeable as the head teacher continued on with her "we need to improve" speech. There, on the screen in front of her, lay 6 letters instead of the 11 numbers she had been hoping for. It was Bonnie. Obviously she hadn't been as secretive as she thought as her friend began to question her absence in a thread of, slightly threatening, text messages. Caroline replied with a simple "'I'm okay" and shot her friend a fake smile from across the table.
It was when they had moved to the topic of empowering the students that she decided to do a little empowering of her own. Taking initiative, she pulled up their messages from earlier and prepared to add one more. It wasn't until the blank message remained blank for several minutes did she realise she had no idea what to say. Be yourself, she thought, now becoming extremely bored from the meeting that there was no other option than to do this.
Help me?
Something simple in this case was very effective. It was a question which initiated conversation, it was friendly but nothing too personal, it may have been desperate but at least she was being honest. To her surprise she only had to suffer the meeting for a few moments more as her phone began to buzz again, this time she was not disappointed. For a moment she questioned why he had replied so quickly and if he actually had a job, but that was soon filed away when the feeling of joy began to creep up her spine.
Handsome hero at your service
Embarrassingly this made her laugh a lot more than it should of, causing her to suck in a breath to keep herself from exploding in the middle of the conference room. In the back of her mind she could picture him sitting at home, with a bottle in his hand, looking smug at his very impressive flirting skills. It did eventually occur to her that she had no idea what he looked like or just how "handsome" he was.
Don't get ahead of yourself you could look like a dog for all I know
Ouch its always the blonde ones who bite back
How did you know I was blonde?
I do now
Will you stop doing that?
What
Getting information out of me using manipulation
Manipulation is a strong word
So is dick
Do you teach your students with that mouth blondie
I prefer Caroline
Me too
She would be lying to herself if she didn't admit to the butterflies fluttering away in her stomach, bringing her right back to her teenage years. Of course it was crazy that a stranger, who could be of any age or in fact any species, was having this type of effect on her.
So what was your emergency Caroline?
I'm in a meeting I think you can guess the rest
Ahh boredom fever I think I have a cure for that
Which is…?
Let's play a game
Deal. 5 questions each, I ask a question you answer
Go for it
Name?
I already told you that is off limits
Age?
27
Another smile appeared across her face, this time accompanied with a sigh of relief at the fact that he was in her reach. Age wise anyway.
Hair colour?
Brown
You only have two questions left are you really going to waste them on something so generic, I didn't know you were so plain Caroline
Okay what is your favourite number?
The one I'm texting right now
I will stop being generic when you stop being such a flirt
Sorry not going to happen
And why is that
I don't know you just seem to have that effect on me
She had an effect on him, SHE had an effect on HIM. This time there was no restraint that would have been able to control her flirtatious giggle escaping her mouth, echoing through the very quiet meeting. Bonnie stared at her opened mouthed from the opposite side of the table, her eyes quite intentionally giving her an intense stare. The principle had stopped her speech also staring at the highly embarrassed Caroline, slowly sinking down her chair wanting the floor to consume her whole. With one swift flick of the eyes towards the door and a courteous "I think you need a minute outside" from her boss, Caroline raised herself from her seat and dragged herself out of the room.
You really are a jerk
Not really the reaction I was expecting
You just got me kicked out my meeting
And how could I have done that when clearly I'm nowhere near you
I laughed so hard at that stupid compliment she practically threw me out
Well if it was stupid I will just take it back
Oh no don't do that
Desperate much?
Pretty much
I've never met someone who actually admits it
That's because you have never met anyone like me
You're right, I haven't
And he still hasn't she added in her mind knowing that he wouldn't do it himself. But why would he, he was having too much fun to add a little reality to the mix.
Okay my turn
For what
The game silly
how old are you?
Now who's being generic
someone who wan't to stay out of prison
I don't think this is classed as doing anything wrong
Then answer the question
25
Favourite subject?
Mysterious handsome heroes
Now who's being flirty
Art
Any pets?
No just little old me
I thought you were 25
It's an expression dumb ass
I know I just like it when you get cranky
Oh you have not seen me at cranky
I take that as a challenge
next question
ah nice way to avoid the subject
single?
when have I not been single
I can't imagine why ;)
when you meet me you will know why
WHEN I meet you?
you only have one question left make it good
oh it's going to be good
we shall see about that
why did you text me back? I know you're a pretty smart girl but even I know having a full on conversation with a wrong number can be risky.
Their conversation was once again interrupted as a flock of people began to exit the door next to the wall she had decided to lean on. The meeting was now over which meant they could all proceed home, but a certain brunette was not letting go of what happen inside the meeting that easily.
"Caroline Forbes what the hell is wrong with you" her stern voice was complimented with a quick slap of the shoulder and a raised eyebrow. If she wasn't older and several inches taller, she would be very afraid of her friend right now.
"Ouch Bonnie" It was obvious she was faking the pain and was just playing along to avoid answering the question she knew was certain to come. Acting was never really one of her skills.
"You have 5 seconds to spill or I will spill this on you" Bonnie gave the coffee cup in her hand a little wiggle to indicate what she was referring to. The blondes eyes fell to her newly brought silk pink top tucked neatly into her one of a kind pencil skirt. This outfit was way too expensive to be covered in cheap coffee, or any coffee for that matter.
"I'm fine" she whined taking a step past her friend, fixing her bag on her shoulder and walking away with any dignity she had remaining. It wasn't long before her phone was glued back in front of her eyes gazing over the envelope icon resting on the bottom of the screen. 4 new messages.
Caroline, you still there?
I haven't scared you off have I?
I have to go work starts in a few minutes
It was nice talking to you
After letting the anger towards her friend making her miss his texts subside her being began to fill with worry. It was nice talking to you. Not talk to you later or leaving her a question to possibly spark up another conversation later when both would be drunk after the day's work. Maybe her fling with the mystery guy was over after just one day. But who was she kidding; falling for a stranger was just too crazy to even think about being possible.
