Chapter 32: Hidden Tiger

Ali spent the rest of the day looking Sophia. She was by the window, three rows in front of him to his left. Her hair was illuminated by the morning sun, and unlike most girls, she didn't shy away from the rays by closing the curtains. She seemed to bask in it, smiling as she looked out occasionally while the teacher droned on in front.

Initially, when she had stared at him unblinkingly before, he had thought she was repulsed by his touch when he had saved her from falling. Although he repeatedly told himself that it didn't matter what other people thought or how they viewed him, he was still human.

It still hurt.

He didn't blame her nor bear her any grudges, so he was simply going to let go quickly and walk off. It was only when she rushed to him to apologize, and thank him with her face tomato-red did he realise it wasn't disdain earlier, but extreme embarrassment. Seeing such a cute reaction from such a fair and pretty girl, to him ... was a novelty.

His interest in her grew. In truth, she had caught his eye from the very first day of class. At first, it was because there was something really familiar about her but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Because of that, he would be observing her and trying to figure out just where he had seen her before. He was sure he would have remembered such a pretty girl, so he was frustrated when nothing came to mind.

As time passed by, Ali found that watching her in class was a pleasant past time. She was pretty, so of course it was easy on the eyes but it was more than that. She was genuinely a rather nice girl. She would help around without being asked, was polite and cheerful, did her class duties with diligence when it fell on her turn and was generally well liked by everyone.

Unlike him, of course. He didn't really do anything but people tended to avoid him. There were some who did try to make friends with him but he could tell that it was for who he hung out with and not for him. Thus, he never really bothered with them. Eventually, people avoided him and he was the lone wolf in class.

Naturally, he noticed that Sophia was one of those that had never approached him either. Not that he really blamed her for it, as he was a guy and sitting in the back row. Since he was not approachable, why should she take the initiative to come over? Why would anybody, for that matter? She didn't deliberately ignore him, but she didn't make an effort to get to know him either. He, himself, was well aware that he didn't mix so the lack of interaction was really no one's fault but his own. For the first time, however, he felt like he did want to make an effort this time.

Ali noticed one thing different about Sophia today. He could tell from the way she would furrow her eyebrows, or appear deep in thought, that something was bothering her. As curious as he was, he couldn't do anything as he wasn't close to her at all. If he approached her to ask, she'd probably run away faster than a speeding bullet. Wouldn't a personal question from a stranger make you think he was a stalker?

Ok, fine. He was a stalker.

But a harmless and nice one.

Ali sighed, and thought of various possible scenarios and the best possible means to approach her without scaring her off. He leaned back, the chair being balanced on the back two legs as he stared at the ceiling, thinking hard. His attention got distracted a bit when he stared at the ceiling. Seriously, the ceiling needed paint, and the janitor needed to do his work properly. He could see the cobwebs at the corner of the room and several dust bunnies stuck on it.

"Erm ... Ali?" came a tentative voice on his left.

Ali was so shocked when he heard that all to familiar voice that he lost his balance and the chair tilted back, and fell with a huge crash. He just barely saved the back of his head by instinctively bringing it up as he fell backwards. His back still hurt though, and his body jarred from the impact. As he lay there dazedly for a while, his legs hanging in the air with his arms spread wide open, the whole room erupted in laughter.

"OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!!"

Ali looked up and saw the extremely worried face of Sophia, her hands on her mouth as she crouched down to gingerly touch him. "Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

Her gentle hands were touching the back of his head softly, as if trying to see if he had a bump or something while her eyes were starting to tear up. Ali just lay there, shocked senseless for while as he simply allowed her gentle investigations on the state of his head.

He was trying very, very, VERY hard not to stare at her chest that was looming quite close to his face as she leaned forward to inspect the back of his head. Then that vision of loveliness was replaced by her worried face, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. Ali blinked, finally snapping out of his stupor and grabbed her wrist that was on his head gently but firmly. Her fingers stopped moving, but was still entangled in his hair.

"I'm fine," he managed to squeak out. Clearing his throat, he swallowed and let go of her wrist as he said while getting up, "Don't worry."

Sophia felt like she could just die. 'Just shoot me,' she groaned internally. First, she had smashed into him early in the morning. Then, she nearly smashed his head open by startling him. Now, she was running her hand through his hair so freely. It was only when his strong hand wrapped around her wrist that she realised how intimate she had been, running her hand all over his head and through his hair. Remembering how soft his hair was and how close she had been, made her blush.

She coughed to cover her embarrassment, standing up and held out her hand to help him up. He waved the kind gesture away, assuring her that it was okay. Putting the chair back in position, he smiled at her to ease her worry and asked, "Sorry for scaring you like that. What's up?"

"Oh," she said, then hesitated. She could feel the gazes at her back, well aware that everyone in class was curious and now listening in as well. So she leaned forward and said in a low voice, "Can I see you after school? At the Blues Corner. There's something I need to tell you."

Ali's eyes went slightly wide, and Sophia suddenly realised what she said, and how it sounded. After school. Need to talk. Blues Corner, one of the more quieter areas in the school.

"No no! It's not a confession! I really need to tell you something!" she quickly said, rapidly waving her hands about in front of her. The last thing she needed was a misunderstanding!

"Sure," Ali replied with a smile and then the bell rang. It was amusing to see how flustered she could become and how red her face was. Even her ears were red.

Sophia didn't reply, but turned and rushed back to her seat before the teacher entered. She quickly took out the textbook and opening it, hid her blushing face behind it. She knew, from how hot her face felt, that she must be bright red by now. Her desk partner was nudging her, whispering and asking her what was going on. Sophia just shook her head, indicating that she didn't want to talk about it. Her desk mate persisted for a while, but had to stop when the teacher came into class.

Ali's gaze continued to stay on her long after class started.

**--**--

When the school bell to end the last class rang, Ali didn't get up from his seat until the class was emptied out. He wanted to give Sophia time to reach Blues Corner first, and he would go there in due time. Not too late, though but just enough time so that people won't notice anything weird. He didn't want anyone to make up rumours about her.

As he walked through the door, he found that there were three guys standing right outside staring at him. He ignored them, pretending that he didn't know that they had stayed back for him. As he walked by, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he stopped, looked at that hand and its owner before asking, "What?" while pushing that hand away.

"Don't start getting weird ideas just because Sophia was nice enough to pay you any attention," the guy whom Ali recognised as Hank said.

"Weird ideas?" sneered Ali, "The only one who has any weird ideas here is you. I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ali turned to walk away, making Hank grit his teeth in anger. He sent a punch to the back of Ali's head, but Ali merely leaned to the side, grabbed the fist as it flew by the side of his head and twisted the arm. Hank yelled out in pain, and found himself on the knees while Ali locked the twisted arm behind his back and pressed down.

The other two were going to come and try help, but Ali merely pressed more pressure on the twist, making Hank smash his hand on the floor in pain.

"Tell your lackeys to back off, or I'll break your arm." Ali hissed.

Hank managed to stammer out the words through clenched teeth and the others did his bidding. Ali gave one last twist, pushed Hank forward and glared at the others, "Let this be a warning. I don't fight, but it doesn't mean that I can't - or won't. You'd better hope there is no next time."

Hank and the others looked on as Ali walked away. Never in their life did they think that the mild mannered boy that didn't cause any ripples in class, was a tiger in disguise.