A blush creeps slowly up her neck, across her face, and all the way to the tips of her little round ears. And it gives me an idea for my own rule I should write down:Don’t get distracted by how cute she is when she blushes.I’m pretty sure I’d break that rule multiple times a day though.
“Y-y-you weren’t—” Poppy starts, but she doesn’t get any further than that.
“Don’t sweat it, Brains.” I pull out the chair across from her and sink down into it. But she’s still frozen. She smells the way she usually does—like peppermint and paper—and I say with a sideways smile, “You don’t smell half bad yourself.”
She blinks, seeming to come back into her body, and I slide the notebook across the table to her. As soon as it’s back in her hands, she flips it closed and cradles it to her chest,making me laugh.
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” she finally says.
With a smile, I lean back and tip my head at her. “So, why do we need rules for these tutoring sessions? And should I have known about them? Maybe been provided a syllabus?”
This gets Poppy to crack a very small smile, but she doesn’t look at me as she says, “The rules are to help me focus. Sometimes you can be... distracting.” Her cheeks are flaring red again.
And my heart is beating just a bit faster. “Distracting, huh?”
She nods but says nothing, still not looking at me.
“Well, we can’t have that. So I’ll try to keep my smell over here. Can’t make any promises about the smiling though.”
When Poppy glances up and meets my eyes, I give her a full smile, tusks and all. And this time, she gives me a full smile back, making my stomach do a flip.
She’s so damn pretty.
Poppy sits up straighter and takes what I think is a steadying breath, then levels a look at me and says, “All right, which class are we focusing on today? More runes?”
I pull my notebook out of my bag and fish through it until I find the homework assignment I scribbled down for Herbology 201.
“I’ve got to come up with three recipes for tinctures that can help heal wounds. Do you have any experience in herbology?”
The shy smile she gives meis answer enough.
WE SPEND AN HOUR GOING over different herbs and their properties. Poppy gently corrects me when I write down ingredients that would hinder the healing process we’re trying to achieve. And by the time I’ve got my three recipe lists, I’m feeling like herbology makes way more sense than it ever has before.
“Have you ever thought about being a teacher? Or maybe becoming a professor here?” I ask Poppy as we stand from the little table and sling our bookbags over our shoulders.
She shrugs. “A little. But I don’t know if I’d be very good at it.”
The laughter I let out as we walk through the library draws the stares of the students and earns me a sharp look from the librarian.
“Sorry,” I mouth to her. Then I pull the door to the library open before Poppy can reach it and hold it wide.
“Thank you,” she whispers as she passes by me, the cool air from the hallway sending the baby hairs along her temples fluttering.
Out in the hallway together, I reach my arms overhead in a big stretch. Being in the library makes me feel claustrophobic sometimes, having to be so quiet, and there’s a bit of a knot in my neck from leaning over the table with Poppy while we worked on my recipe lists. It’ll get worked out during the game though. Which reminds me.
“Hey, you busy this afternoon?”
Poppy looks up at me with those big lavender doe eyes. “Um, I don’t think so. Why?”
“I’ve got a runeball game. We’re taking on the Sigil Strikers. You wanna come?”
“Oh, um, I think the other girls were already planning on going, so...”
“So... you’ll come too?” I finish for her.
And now she’s wearing that shy little smile again. “Yeah. I’ll come too.”
“Sweet. I’ll make sure to play extra hard, then. You know, try to impress you and all.”
