Brian stepped back from the bench, and in his focused state almost wiped his brow with the sandpaper he held in his hand.
Time had vanished - he had no recollection of an hour passing since he started working. But a glance down at the piece of wood on the bench before him told the story of the period. Sat on a small, flat board was the fruit of his efforts: a near-perfect sphere of oak, slowly and carefully chiselled, rasped, and sanded to an exact diameter in any direction. The grain flowed around the four-inch shape, appearing to be rings around a distant planet.
"That's nice"
The voice startled Brian. He thought only the teacher would be still in the room, but instead the first person to see his work turned out to be Claire.
"Jeez! You... you made me jump. Um... hi" stammered Brian. His first meeting with one of "The Breakfast Club", as he had styled them in his essay, and it had to be with one of the girls. With Andrew or Bender he would have been more certain of himself. Still nervous, for sure, but fear of a jock or a drop-out was more familiar to him than fear of looking dumb to an attractive girl.
And Claire was looking good. There was something different about her from Saturday. Something somehow better than the Ice Princess he'd always seen in her. There were deeper, darker edges, he realised - almost as if a little bit of Bender fashion had been allowed to creep into her closet.
Suddenly he stopped - aware that he had, at close quarters, been actively checking her out. And equally aware that she had caught him at it. Color rushed to his face, color that wouldn't have been out of place in her previously all-too-pink wardrobe.
He forced his eyes back up from her legs, moving slower than strictly necessary past her hips and breasts, up to her face. Expecting to be bawled out or laughed at, he was amazed to see her smiling.
"Hey, Brian - it's OK" she quickly said, seeing his discomfort. Having taken Allison through a pretty steep learning curve at the weekend, she felt that she could cut Brian some slack, and maybe help him shed some of the self-awareness that held him back so much. "I'll let you in on a secret - girls really don't mind too much if you stare, as long as you don't make it so obvious all the time. It feels... good, to be admired."
Brian still wasn't completely convinced, but her tone helped him regain his voice.
"So what are you doing here?"
"I was on my way to the library, and I saw you in here. Thought I'd come say hi..." Claire lied. She really didn't want to admit that she'd been trying to find John, and that the wood shop was the third place she'd tried since class let out. And the Library was a safe bet - usually as far from John Bender as it was possible to be.
"Well I've got a free next period - it'll just take me a second to clear these tools away. Mind if I walk up with you?"
Claire shrugged. "Sure thing, Brian. Oh - by the way, I really did mean what I said"
"What - about girls liking it when we check them out?"
"Huh? Oh - yeah. But mainly about the wooden ball - it's real nice"
"Oh" said Brian, and the two broke into smiles as they walked out the door.
