As soon as she entered the restroom, Clara checked the stalls and was glad to find all of them empty. She chose the last one and locked the door.
What had just happened?
It couldn't have. She kissed the Doctor. That's a fact, and no matter how many times she tried telling herself she was in a dream, everything felt more and more real.
It was an accident, so it didn't count as cheating. Oh God, how is she ever going to look at the Scottish bastard the same way ever again?
She tried to calm her mind. It wasn't a big deal. She had kissed other men before. So why was this any different? It felt different and left her feeling as if she was on cloud nine. It was a feeling she never felt when kissing Danny or any of her previous boyfriends. A spark.
No, that can't be right. She hates the Doctor's guts, so kissing him would repulse her, but that wasn't what she felt at all. How could she be attracted to someone who nearly hit her with his car, calls her a she-devil and control freak, and insults her height?
"Ok, just calm down," Clara told her self, closing the toilet and sitting on the lid after making sure it was clean.
She hates him and he hates her.
But his lips felt so soft against hers and despite his scrawny appearance, the Doctor felt like a really cuddly teddy bear. He felt so soft.
It then occurred to her that he never got angry over the kiss.
Maybe her nan is right.
"Nope," she said out loud, rising to her feet.
What a ridiculous thought that the Doctor likes her, and it would be even more absurd if she feels the same way. She has a boyfriend. A loving and caring boyfriend who respects her.
The things she felt earlier were definitely a mistake. She was probably just confused after the fall. That's all.
With her back straight, she left the stall and walked out of the restroom.
Just as she was about to reach her office, John's door swung open before he stepped out, his mind clearly somewhere else.
"Oh," the Doctor said when he caught sight of her.
"Lecture room?" she asked awkwardly, unsure of what to say. A group of people walked past them.
No doubt they're visitors.
"Yes," he answered, eyes looking at the wall behind her before walking away quickly.
Clara entered her office and slid her bag down to the floor.
How on earth is she supposed to concentrate when it's her turn to deliver the lecture? The Doctor might stick around since the Q&A session would start immediately after. As a matter of fact, she wasn't sure what to expect from the taster session.
Maybe she should sneak in and see what it will be like. Yes, that way, she would be more prepared. Besides, she had only taken part in open day twice, before she worked at the university.
Silently, she trailed behind a father and daughter who were heading in the same direction.
The Doctor was busy looking down at his notes when she entered the room and Clara took the opportunity to sneak into the back row, hoping that he wouldn't notice her.
She sat down next to a group of students and waited for the lecture to start.
John finally looked up after a few minutes. The smile he had playing on his lips disappeared when he spotted the Impossible Girl among the crowd.
Clara shifted in her seat a bit. She had a feeling he was staring directly at her, but he couldn't possibly spot her in this sort of crowd, could he?
The Doctor cleared his throat before giving an introductory speech.
"One of the modules first years will have to take is Vector Calculus, which I teach," he explained. "The topics we usually cover in it are multivariable differential calculus, vector and the cartesian equation of straight lines in 3D, Green's Theorem, Stoke's Theorem, just to name a few."
John the produced a whiteboard marker from the pocket of his trousers.
"You may be familiar with the derivative of a function with one variable, but how do you differentiate a function with two unknowns, say x and y," he continued, writing an equation on the board. "Suppose we have f equals to x squared plus y squared."
Clara listened intently to his lecture, despite her being knowledgeable in the same area. There was something about the way the Doctor spoke that caught everybody's attention, and she wasn't spared from the spell either.
For the next twenty minutes, he carried on with the lecture and stopped after giving a brief explanation of a theorem.
What she couldn't help but notice is how he kept glancing in her direction every few minutes.
"And that's basically an idea of what the module is like," he said. "I could explain to you how crop rotation can be described by differential equations, but that's a story for another day, but there's going to be another lecture now."
Yep. It's confirmed he could see her in all this crowd. How? She could think about that later as it was her turn to give a talk. She rose to her feet and descended to the front.
The lecture room began resounding with murmurs while the Doctor sat down in an empty seat in the front row. He's probably there to stick around for the Q&A session afterwards.
Clara walked past him and reached the desktop.
Before all of this mess, John Smith planned to have stayed in his office while Clara delivered her lecture, but as soon as he spotted her at the back, his brain and body just weren't quite under his control anymore.
She smiled at the audience nervously, introduced herself and joked a bit that she was probably going to make a mistake somewhere down the line since this was the first time she had ever done a taster session.
Clara could see John crossing his arms, expression the same as always. The resting angry owl-face.
"So one of the first year modules that I teach here is Calculus," she began. "I know it sounds unoriginal and boring, but I didn't come up with the module name," she joked once more.
A few people smiled and laughed quietly.
"As my colleague explained in the previous lecture, differential equations can be used to described nature, and the simplest differential equation is a first-order ordinary differential equation."
She continued the explanation with examples and dived into more complicated equations before finishing off with second-order differential equations.
She had half-expected the Doctor to interrupt her at any given moment, but he never did, and she wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. Maybe he was just as affected by the kiss like her.
"Any questions?" Clara asked awkwardly before John stood up and joined her at the front of the room.
"You can come up front and ask personally if you'd like," he added.
"You two working together on the same research?" a familiar voice asked teasingly.
The Doctor pursed his lips as he spotted Jack sitting in the middle of the room. It looks like he had blended in with the crowd. "No, we're not."
A girl raised her hand. "Are we going to learn higher order differential equations?"
Now that was something Clara could easily and happily answer. "No, in your first year, it's just up to second-order odes," she explained. "Even if you do come across something more complicated as you progress further, we'd usually just try to reduce it to a simpler equation, so technically yes."
Another girl raised her hand. "Are all modules in first year compulsory or do we get to choose?"
"Compulsory, but the good news is that you have several optional modules starting from second year," the Doctor stated. "And in third and fourth year, all modules are optional, except for the dissertation."
The two lecturers continued answering queries for the next ten minutes and as soon as they were done and the visitors had left, Clara Oswald immediately dashed out of the room.
Only the Doctor and Jack remained.
"I have to say that you guys look good working together," he commented, walking down the steps. "There can't be a more iconic duo."
"Shut up, Jack," John growled as he turned around and reached for the whiteboard eraser on the desk.
"Oh come, both of you have done the deed, so just stop acting and say it."
The Doctor looked back, brows furrowed. "Say what?"
Jack Harkness rolled his eyes. "That you like her, well, more than like her."
He turned around and continued to clean the whiteboard. "I don't."
His colleague pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, it's pretty damn obvious from your handsome face that you enjoyed it, so just admit it."
"She was disgusted by it, and so was I."
"She was pretending."
John tossed the eraser back on the desk. "Yeah, how'd you figure that one out?"
Jack pulled out an imaginary notepad and flipped through several pages. "Let's see now… she blushed, became your partner in crime while trying to cover up what happened when Missy showed up, the both of you have stopped fighting, and finally, and this is my favourite, she kept looking at you during the presentation."
The Doctor cursed mentally. His friend did have a point, but it meant nothing since there was no way Clara "The Impossible Girl" Oswald felt anything but hate for him.
Jack took his silence as confirmation. "Now here's the deal, you're going to march out of here and you're going to compliment her."
John looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "I'm not going to do that… that's weird!"
"No, it's not," his friend argued. "What's weird is the both of you acting weird."
"I'm not going to do anything because I do not fancy Clara Oswald," the Doctor grumbled.
Jack shook his head. "So many lies in one day," he murmured before wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "How about this, I promise I won't tell a soul about your massive crush on her, but I get to tell everyone what happened in the lift."
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak. His colleague does have a point. If it wasn't Jack, then someone else would surely spread the rumours. There's just one problem, though. "What makes you think I have a so-called 'massive' crush on her?"
"Do you want me to pull out my imaginary notepad again?"
"Fine," he growled. "Maybe, perhaps, there's a chance that I do like… her a bit, but just a bit."
Jack grinned. "It's a start!" he exclaimed, patting his best bud on the back. "Now go talk to her."
"Why?" John whined. He was bad at socialising, especially talking to women.
"Because we can end this ridiculous rivalry once and for all and I get to be god-father and have my future nieces and nephews call me Don Harkness, instead of boring Uncle Jack."
Jack began pushing the Doctor out of the room and towards Clara's office. Much to his dismay, the door was locked. He even knocked a couple of times, hoping that she would be inside.
John, on the other hand, was relieved to have missed her. He needed time to reflect on what happened earlier in the morning. "Oh look, she's gone home – what a pity."
"Talk to her when you go home, now you can start with compliments," Jack stated. "Think of something about her."
He thought for a few seconds and said: "She's built like a man."
"No, that's not a compliment," Jack sighed. "She might hate you even more for saying that and why would you think that?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Look, I'm exhausted, and I just want to leave."
"Fine, if you can't do compliments, sing to her."
"No."
"Then say you'll share with me one love one lifetime, let me lead you from your solitude," Jack sang.
"No."
"I can love you like that, I would make you my world, move heaven and earth if you were my girl."
"Absolutely not," growled the Doctor as he strode away.
"We'll continue our lesson on how to hit Clara Oswald on Monday!"
John dreaded the coming Monday. Word would surely buzz around that he had kissed Clara, even if it was by accident. What he dreaded even more, however, was facing her again. How could he look at her the same way?
It felt nice to have her lips on his. It felt nice when she was lying on top of him.
It looks like the Doctor's crush on Clara Oswald was getting worse, or rather, bigger.