"I fell asleep as soon as I got to my seat."
The old woman said this with complete conviction.
Girl:...
"Aw, young lady."
The old woman looked as if she understood. "I know you want the boy to talk to you."
"You don't want him to ignore you."
"Oh, nonsense."
The old woman shook her head. "He's not ignoring you."
"It's just this old woman talking nonsense."
"Don't be mad at him, young lady."
The more the old woman said, the more ridiculous it got. The girl couldn't help the vein in her forehead twitching.
"No!"
He just didn't want to talk to her.
And was this old woman misunderstanding something?
"Shh."
The old woman raised a finger to signal for the girl to keep her voice down.
"Not so loud."
"You'll wake him up."
Girl:...
The girl stood stiffly in place for a while, watching the old woman look at her in confusion, as if wondering why she was still standing there.
Just as she was about to speak, the old woman seemed to figure something out and smiled. "You want to keep looking at—"
"No!"
The girl hissed.
The old woman froze.
The girl squeezed her fingers hard.
Forget it!
The girl turned and walked away, her steps a little heavy.
Then the old woman's amused remark behind her nearly made her stumble.
"She's shy, too."
The girl chose the seat farthest from the boy.
She glared out the window, still indignant.
After a while, she glanced over from the corner of her eye.
When she saw the old woman had turned back around, her head bobbing slightly, the girl felt relieved.
The girl turned her head.
She looked at the boy in his seat.
Just like before, the