Kitty never looked at him. He was always singing about her, smiling at her, and waving at her. He was sort of an okay guy, too. He was never mean, at any rate. But he was beneath her, Quentin Hedgemouse! He was poor by comparison to her rich family and he didn't know anything cool like French (the language of love) or what 24 karat gold was or how credit cards were the way to a girl's heart. He didn't know anything about when to panic, either. There were certain times she was used to people screaming and he just shrugged and said "Chillax, my Kitty." He was such a LOSER!
But by the same token the things that drove her nuts made her love him. Quentin was always so laid back. He knew a lot about music and famous composers of all kinds of music from rock to classical to disco to country. And she'd never heard a song he didn't know already. Quentin rolled his eyes at her gold watch and said, "Dude, it's a shiny rock." It burned her up but at the same time, with the way her parents were always trying to make more money, maybe having a guy around who didn't really care about gold would be nice. Maybe Quentin had some sort of method to his madness. And his unshakable calm, the laid back way he was content to work everything out through his music, was sort of reassuring. If everything went wrong, he was totally cool.
Quentin thought she was awesome for one reason: He'd never met a girl like her in his hometown, a little speck in Kansas where the total population was five hundred. All the girls there were redneck women, so to speak. They were good people, no doubt, but for once he kinda wanted a girl to act a little girly. If for no other reason than to prove there was another gender. Then he'd met her, the epiphany of girliness. And he had thought it rockin' how she could just put on make up and paint her nails without a care in the world as to how the other girls glared at her. Kitty was cool.
He tried singing to her, but to no avail. She tried flirting with him, but he didn't catch it.
Finally, Quentin sat with her at lunch. Franke had a fit, but Kitty blew her off. Quentin struck up a conversation about 'what do you think that mystery meat is?' and the two soon were chatting like old friends. Franke stared in disbelief before leaving abruptly, her little nose in the air, heels clicking. The two lovebirds didn't notice. They had finally collapsed that wall between them. They could talk! There wasn't even an awkward moment now! When lunch was over, the two departed, Quentin's hand sliding into Kitty's without a care.
She blushed and looked at him, but he just smiled like it was the most natural thing in the world. Typical Quentin, being so calm about everything. So chill. Kitty smiled and thought for the first time, Quentin is the love of my life. Who knew loving a loser could be so cool? As if reading her thoughts, he grinned at her with a little twinkle in his eye.
And everything was cool.