Her face was burning red and her knees were shaking slightly. She hated being in front of the class.
"My name is Leah McNichol. I'm from England. My father is a traveling medical teacher, so I move around with him. Nothing special." She smiled, gave a small bow, and took an empty seat next to Toby.
"I thought it was fake," Toby said quietly.
"Excuse me?"
"Your accent. I thought it may have been a ploy to get people to notice you."
"No. It's real, derived from Henrey Higgens himself." She smiled. "And people don't like me or notice me because of my accent anyways."
"I guess not…" he sighed, not knowing what to say. He felt like such a dork. E watched her copy down a few figures from the board. She worked the problem for a few seconds and then threw her pen down on the notebook with a heavy sigh.
She looked at Toby. "I can't do this," she whispered.
He smiled and moved over to her desk. "Here, let me help." He took the pen and did a few calculations, showing her step by step how to do it.
"So...I do this?" Leah asked, quickly writing down the steps.
Toby wasn't listening. He had caught the scent of Leah's hair--tangerine--and was lost in the thought of what it would be like to touch it. The fiery locks had to be soft--all their shine had to count for something. "Right, Toby?...Toby?"
"Huh?" It was the second time he had to be pulled out of his daze today. He hadn't been like this since he met Kendra. He looked down at the page with the frilly cursive scroll in purple pen.
"Is this right, Toby?" Leah asked again.
"Yeah. Good job." He smiled at her.
She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Goddess." She wrote down a few more notes before looking up at him. "Could you come over to my place tonight and help me learn this?"
Toby nodded. "I would be more than happy to."
"Thanks so much!" She smiled broadly as Toby went back to his desk.