30 Days

VII.

Pretending she was busy preparing for art class, Blanche kept surreptitiously glancing at the door. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but she was waiting for a certain boy to arrive. A few minutes later, that boy stepped into the room. But what she wasn't expecting was that he'd plopped down into the seat next to her, acting like he'd been sitting there the whole year.

"What?" Ashe asked her when he noticed her motionless.

"N-nothing," she replied.

His seat wasn't next to her. His seat was way over across the room. Why was he sitting next to her?

Ashe leaned forward in his seat and frowned. "I can't sit here?" he asked, as if reading her thoughts.

Blanche furiously shook her head. "Of course, you can!"

But he wasn't listening anymore. Adjusting the height of the drafting table in front of him, Ashe placed a paper on the incline.

"So here is the sketch for the school fair," he told her. "What do you think?"

She took a moment to regain her composure. When she did, she tilted her head to get a better view of what he had placed on the table. Then her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open.

Wow.

It hasn't even been a week but Ashe had already outlined every detail of their art collaboration for the school fair. They were planning to make individual paintings and assemble them all together into one mural mosaic to form an image. He even included her ideas and frankly, she didn't think they were that good until she saw how well he presented them together.

"It's... it's amazing," she breathed. "That's what I think."

Tapping his pen on the sketch, he told her in what seemed to be a teasing tone, "You can add more cats if you want to."

Blanche laughed. "Don't be a jerk."

"So you won't put more cats on our—"

"I didn't say I wouldn't," Blanche hurriedly replied.

His mouth twitched. "Let's get to work?"

She eagerly nodded at him.

Ashe went to the supplies cabinet to get the paint they needed and Blanche watched him go with a smile. He was really kind to her, she thought. On top of that, he was dependable, generous, attentive, humble—

Oh, God, she thought with a start.

She was falling for him.

**********

Under the shade of a tall willow tree, Ashe lounged against the grass. Reclined on his back with his eyes closed and his hands folded behind his head, he looked like he was in deep sleep when in fact he wasn't. And that was because there was a certain girl running around the field, calling for the school cat.

"Chairman, aren't you hungry?" he heard her shout. "I've got some food for you."

Ashe furrowed her brows, trying to sleep. Soon, her footsteps and shouts disappeared and he thought he was finally at peace.

Something landed on his stomach and his eyes flew open. Blanche was staring down at him, the school cat in her arms.

"Chocolate to give you some energy," she explained, nodding at the chocolate bar on his stomach. "You can't function without food right?"

Not entirely true. He couldn't function with or without food at all.

Taking the chocolate, he sat up and tore the wrapping off.

"Thank you," he told her after taking a bite.

Blanche grinned at him. Then she sat next to him, taking great care to fold her skirts under her legs. The cat was purring contentedly in her arms and he instantly wished it was him instead.

He blinked.

Where the hell did that thought come from?

"You really do like cats," he commented, giving the cat another look.

"I love cats," she corrected happily. "But my father's allergic so I can't have a pet cat at home." Her eyes fell on the cat and she went on, "I actually want to take Chairman home. I'm worried about him running around school. And there's no one else interested to take him. It really sucks that I can't take him—"

"I can take him home if you want."

He blurted this out without thinking. Stunned by his rash words, he sat there, his body locked tight.

Damn. It was already a pain to look after himself. Why was he offering to take the cat in?

A smile slowly formed on Blanche's lips as he sat there frozen and instantly, he stopped thinking.

"Really?" she asked.

He couldn't find it in himself to deny her. So he nodded.

Her smile grew even brighter and damn if it didn't make his heart beat faster.

Damn, he thought with a start.

He was falling for her.