It took the rest of the day for me to work up the courage to talk to Theodosia. After the quickest stop at my locker that I could manage, I went down to the hall hers was in.

She was just turning towards me when I reached her. We stared at each other awkwardly for a moment before I just decided to take the plunge.

"Look, I get that it makes me seem really weird and I don't blame you for maybe not wanting to talk to me but I just wanted it out there that I really like you a lot and I want to be more than friends, if we can, but if you don't want to I'm fine with that-"

"I'm not doing anything today." Theo interrupted with a small smile. "We can drop our bags off at my house and go walk downtown?"

I smiled sheepishly at her, rubbing the back of my neck. "That sounds great, actually."

She giggled and walked past me. "Come on, my dad should be at the west entrance."

"He's not gonna be mad at me, is he? For like, kind of asking his daughter out?"

"I'll handle it." Theo waved me off as I fell in step next to her.

As it turned out, she did handle it.

"Hey Dad, Philip and I need to go downtown for our Writing and Composition project and find a piece of inner city art to write on, I told him he could drop his bag at the house." She climbed into the front seat, planting a quick kiss on her father's cheek.

Mr. Burr glanced at me and nodded quietly. "Alright."

I got in the backseat and sat quietly. Theo glanced back at me and grinned.

"How was your day, Dad?"

"Fairly uneventful." He shrugged. "What about yours?"

"It was a lot of fun, actually!" She launched into some story about something that had happened during her Biology class. I smiled and listened to her talk. It was cute, the way she waved her hands around to illustrate her points.

"What about you, Mr. Hamilton? Anything interesting?"

I startled a little as I realized that Mr. Burr was talking to me.

"Oh! Uh, we spent most of my Latin class discussing the Loch Ness monster."

Theo snorted. "Why on Earth were you talking about that?"

I shrugged. "Our professor is easily distracted."

Mr. Burr chuckled. "Would his name be Landweber, by any chance?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah. He's like, ancient."

"I remember. He was old when I was in high school."

"Dad was a nerd in high school." Theo joked. "Took Latin all four years."

I chuckled. "Hey, I'm taking Latin."

"You tested out of French and Spanish, don't even with me." She waved me off and I laughed again.

"Fair."

"You're still a nerd though." Theo laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh whatever, Theodosia. You're taking two AP classes."

"You could too if you actually applied yourself." She shook her head.

We pulled into a driveway in front of a rather large house. Theo hopped out and I did too, walking with her to the front door to drop our things off inside.

"Where do you wanna go?" She asked as we walked back out the door and down to the sidewalk.

"Um, ice cream? I suggested. "Or maybe we can go see a movie?"

"If we're gonna do that I'd better go grab my purse." 

I waved her off. "I got it, don't worry."

"Aw, Philip, you don't have to." She shook her head. 

"C'mon, Theo. It's not a big deal, I got it." I shook my head and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Oh alright, fine." She chuckled. "I guess it'll be you paying me back for me having to ask you out."

"Hey, I would have gotten around to it!"

Theo laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling my arm off of her shoulders and lacing our fingers together.

"So clearly, I wear the pants in our relationship." She joked.

I snorted. "You know, I've been told I look pretty good in a dress too."

She leaned against me as she cackled at the comment.

"You're such a weirdo, Pip."

"But you still asked me on a date." I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes, smiling. "I guess you have a point. Ooh, lets see if A La Mode is parked!"

I let her pull me down the street, grinning. "Whatever you want."

"Nooo, don't say that!" She pouted at me. "You get to make choices too!"

"I will. But today my choice is to pay for whatever you want." I shrugged.

Theo made a face like she was trying to find a way around it. "Ugh. Fine."

I chuckled and squeezed her hand. "Come on, we'll get ice cream and walk through the park, then head back, alright?"

"Sounds good to me."