A/N: yep, i still own nothing. it's all the property of the Palladinos
Pie
He turned to face the class after he finished writing on the board, and began to scan to see how many students there were. He hadn't gotten his class list before arriving, so he was just going to have to take attendance and hope that the lists matched. Before he had even begun, his eyes were drawn irresistibly to the seat by the door, the seat that had been empty when he turned to begin writing. And once again, all he could see was those blue eyes.
How could Rory Gilmore be in his class! In his own section! How could he possibly concentrate while those eyes were looking at him (looking at him full of shock right now), while she was talking and laughing and THERE! He blinked, and blinked again, hoping that perhaps she just looked like his Rory, but she failed entirely to disappear. And then she smiled, a huge happy smile that he had never expected to see from her, and began to say something, and he had to cut her off because he knew she would say something horrible.
"The main element of this section is speaking, so we will mostly be doing that. Once I have taken attendance, I would like you to pair off and try to use the basic sentences you learned in class. I will walk around and listen, so I can get an idea of how where you're having problems."
He deliberately didn't look at Rory as he spoke, although he could see out of the corner of his eye that she looked confused and perhaps even slightly hurt by his avoidance. He took attendance, and tried to settle into a routine, letting the students pair themselves up and listening to them. He began on the side of the room away from Rory, and tried to give all of his attention to the pairs he was listening to, but his attention kept straying to her. Why was she taking Arabic? She was in journalism, he had been reading her pieces in the Daily News, and he knew she had taken German and French before, so there was no reason for her to be here. He wasn't sure he could deal with her being here. But he had to, he had a responsibility, so he moved through the class and ended with her pair. They were going through the dialog they had learned in class reasonably well, but Rory had mispronounced a word, and he couldn't hide his grin when he heard it. She was looking at him when she said it, and he knew she had seen his grin, but she didn't even pause. He managed to get through the rest of the class without making eye contact.
At the end of class, once he had dismissed the section, he concentrated on wiping the board and gathering his things, keeping his eyes down in hopes that she would go away. How was he supposed to deal with this? He wasn't ready for Rory Gilmore, he had no plan for how to keep from getting hurt again. But eventually he had to acknowledge the shoes standing patiently in front of his desk, so he looked up at her.
"What was so funny? During the dialog?" she asked innocently, smiling hopefully at him. He laughed shortly, both at the memory and at the idea that Rory Gilmore was trying to get him to talk to her, after all the time he spent doing the reverse.
"You said…you said that you were—a pie."
She laughed at that, so infectiously that he joined her, and they settled into a shared grin.