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The boots would give her walk a nice sway, and the blouse had a dropped neckline that hinted at some of her other assets. She tossed on a twisting silver necklace and matching bracelet, declared herself ready, and sauntered downstairs. If her mother noticed that Elise was slightly more dressed up than usual, she didn’t mention anything. Elise thought it should be hard to argue with your child’s fashion choices when said child was in the top ten of her class, but somehow, her mother managed it. Still, on typical days when neither mother nor daughter was looking for a fight, the subject of Elise’s attire was simply left alone.
                  Elise barely slowed to grab an orange from the bowl on the kitchen table and her messenger bag from the foyer before she headed briskly out the door; she wanted to get to school early to visit the library before homeroom. As she cut across the park a block from her house, though, she made herself slow down and breathe in the scents of growing things. Being surrounded by nature, sheltered under the trees and away from people, she was more calm these days, stronger and more sure of herself. People brought too many busy emotions with them, and were far too unpredictable. So she took a moment to center herself before submerging once more in the cacophony of humanity called high school, like a submarine captain taking one last breath of fresh air before diving into inky darkness.
     
                  Unwilling to lie to herself, Elise also couldn't pretend that she wasn't looking for the boy throughout the day. She didn't usually pay much attention to the student body at large, adopting the mentality that if she ignored them, they would ignore her. Most of the time, it worked-- so she was surprised and a little uneasy to find that as she scanned the hallways for the new boy, she noticed the eyes of other students lingering on her. She wasn't sure how to react to such attention, having avoided it for so long, and it was hard not to let it make her nervous.
                  It didn't take her long to realize that her apparently attention-grabbing search was in vain-- Elise didn't see the boy again until she was walking from seventh period history class to eighth period Latin. She was expecting to see him in eighth period as it was, and the anticipation made it difficult to concentrate in history class; the butterflies that took up residence in her stomach as the bell sounded and she gathered her things were acutely embarrassing. Her dignity kept her from rushing out the door, but she did sweep gracefully from the room rather more quickly than usual.
                  The hallway was packed with students, as always. The third floor was the juniors' territory, and as she wove her way through packs of them chatting at their lockers, she felt a brief pull to join in conversations with them-- an impulse she hadn't had for years. She squashed it quickly, making her way to the water fountain and pausing to take a drink, watching the hall out the corner of her eye.
                  And then, quite suddenly, he was there, striding out of the art classroom to her left. She straightened up, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering up a hurricane. For a brief moment, she considered running as her stubborn refusal to let anyone scare her warred with her nervous desire to flee down one of the other staircases and try to slip into Latin unnoticed. Then the moment for flight was gone, as he glanced over and saw her standing there.
                  “Ah, Elysia,” he exclaimed, a slight smirk curving his lips. “I get the impression you were looking for me.” It wasn't a question, so she almost didn't bother to embarrass herself with an answer-- particularly when she noticed his eyes rake over her from the elegant twist of her hair down to the tips of her vintage leather boots, and back up.
                  She had to say