Private Finished Hand in the Cookie Jar

"Measures? That's clever! I thought I might have been getting sick again," she said, beginning to loosen up a little bit more. The color returned to her face and more so her cheeks at the little 'delightful' adjective added on to her hair color. "Delightful?" Her shoulders visibly relaxed, and she took another generous bite of her cookie. She really wanted to know who baked these so she could get their recipe. Or maybe she could just look it up online? That last one required a lot less stressful human interaction with adults and authority figures.

Now, the statement that she was, in fact, not in trouble made her completely relax--and then tense right back up at the warning that followed. Claudia quietly cleared her throat in an attempt to cover up her nervousness, then nodded.

"...I understand. . .If you do write me up, can I spend detention in your class after school?" she said with the cheekiest little grin. She really hoped her flirting wasn't creepy; she didn't really have anyone to give her feedback on that. "So! What are you in for? I mean--in here for. Not prison."

"We don't? That's dumb!" Claudia rested back against her seat and crossed her ankles, a thoughtful look on her face. "What do you even do in detention? Do you like...sit on your phone? Read a book? Do schoolwork? I got it once in fourth grade for shoving some jerk who was picking on me, but I never went. The teacher forgot she even wrote me up."

The young lady suddenly sat up a little straighter with a surprised and somewhat sheepish look on her face. "Oh, woops!" she said, lowering her voice. "I-is it real important? I'll, like, go if you want." She stood up with muffin in one hand, careful to scoop up the cookie crumbs and sprinkle them in the nearest trashcan. When she was done making sure there was no mess left behind, she hesitated, waiting. It didn't look like she was particularly antsy to get out of there. Why would she be? There was a perfectly nice and attractive man right here who wouldn't remember her name in a week. Might as well make the most of it.

It was good practice for her flirting, anyways. Maybe she'd be able to get him to actually respond to her next time; she knew that he'd just been avoiding it completely. But why? She really did wonder why. She wasn't too young; she was perfectly legal, thank you very much. And she didn't think she was ugly--sure, she wasn't wearing any makeup, but she didn't really feel the need to, being invisible and all. She wondered then if there was something wrong with her, and it kind of made her want to cry.

Being emotional was sort of like riding a roller-coaster. One moment Claudia's totally about to cry because wow she must've really sucked at flirting and being a girl, the next she's all perked up because OMG, did someone say romance books?! The next moment, she's all grins because, wow, that chuckle, and second of all, he wasn't actually going to kick her out.

"Really?! I love romances!" Claudia bounded over and plonked herself down next to him, unable to hide the grin on her face. "Is it good? I haven't been able to find anything that doesn't suck lately, but I read the bad ones anyways. Is that weird?"

"You know, you didn't strike me as much of a romance guy. I was guessing like...philosophy or something. Not that I think you're weird or anything for being into romantic stuff!" she said quickly, taking another generous bite of her muffin to shut herself up before she somehow managed to sound like a jerk and offend him. When she was done, she spoke again.

"So? Tell me about the book! What's it about?"

Claudia silently 'ooo'd at the cover while she listened intently to his explanation. "The War of the Roses? Wasn't that a part of English history?" she wondered aloud, then gasped. "Forbidden romance! Oh my gosh, that's so sweet! I've always liked reading those." She was already itching to ask for the title and author so she could go buy it, but she was distracted from that thought. "Wait, you're actually teaching philosophy? That was a total guess," she laughed (but obviously not in reverse).

She quieted at his offer, dark brows shooting up into the air. Her lips parted to ask if he'd really trust a student, a stranger like her- I mean, come on, she'd been swiping cookies from the teacher's lounge- and then pressed back together to bite back a sound of surprise at his offer. Claudia took a second to run back over what he said, combing through his words to make sure she wasn't just confused.

"Oh!" she said, then cleared her throat to get her tongue untied for two seconds, please and thank you. "Coffee--Of course! I'd love that! That'd be wonderful, except--I don't know if you'll remember me after this." She scratched her cheek, avoiding eye contact. "You can see right through my invisibility, so who says you won't be able to remember me, but. . .what if?"

A breath escaped her, relieved. "I think about fifteen minutes ago, I would've been mortified to hear that. Enough to want to go curl up and die," she said with a quiet laugh. Her fingers wrapped around the edges of the tablet, gingerly picking up and holding it very secure, so, so careful not to do it any damage.

Claudia's eyes flickered back to him, and she grinned. "It doesn't sway it at all," she said, her cheeks coloring red. "You could be four thousand years old and I'd be--well, I'd be a little intimidated, but I wouldn't mind a bit otherwise."

She breathed out, gazing down at the e-reader in her hands. "Right! Coffee. Oh! I should give you my phone number! We need a time and place, right? I can't read your mind, and I don't think I want to live in the coffeehouse until you show up. I'd smell like coffee forever." Carefully shifting the tablet to one hand, she patted her back pockets. A confused look appeared on her face.

"Ummm...." She scanned the room, trying to find where she'd left her phone.