“Yo.”

Julie blushed light pink and peered up at the lanky boy towering over her. “Um…yo?”

He flashed her a smile and pulled a chair out, the legs scraping against the classroom floor. “This seat taken?” He phrased it as a question, but before she could even think to answer, he’d plunked down, the chair shuddering under his sudden weight.

“Uh…well…I guess not.” She shuffled her papers and scooted a little to the left, away from the giant who was quickly sprawling himself out and taking up entirely too much room.

This was why she hated the spring semester. All these kids switching in to the accelerated classes, thinking they owned the place and taking up more time and space than they were worth until they finally realized they weren’t cut out for the type of coursework demanded by these types of classes. She knew it was a bit snobby, but she’d also seen it happen too many times before. She set about straightening her pencils and pens, ready to pay attention to the lecture when the boy leaned over, his head propped on his hands.

His breath smelled like Doritos. “I’m going to go get lunch after this. I hear they’ve got blue jello in the cafeteria. They’ve never got blue jello.”

Julie smiled awkwardly. “Sounds…um…special.”

“I wouldn’t say anything, you know, but you seem like the type of girl who doesn’t get enough blue jello in her life, you know what I’m saying? So…you wanna come get some with me after this?” He raised his eye brows. “I’m Joel, by the way.”

He stuck out his hand and Julie took it, letting courtesy trump the fact that there was still orange Dorito-dust on the tips of his fingers. “Uh…hi Joel, and uh…thanks, but no thanks. I’m not big into…ehm…blue jello.”

“See? That’s totally what I mean! I bet you’ve never even had blue jello!”

Julie dropped his hand and straightened her papers a bit more, but to her dismay, they were already straight. “Well. Um…no!”

“Dude!” He grabbed her hand again. “You’ve seriously never had blue jello? Oh, man, it’s no longer a choice. You’re definitely coming with me…uh…” He craned his neck to look at her notebook, meticulously labeled with her name…and her phone number, and her address, to return to if lost. “Julie. Ha – look, see, our names even start with Js. Joel and Julie are going to get jello.” He jumped up and yelled to the filling classroom, “JOEL AND JULIE ARE GOING TO GET JELLO!”

Glad for the slightest moment that she was still holding his hand, Julie yanked on it and tugged him back down into his seat.

“Joel!” Her voice was a vehement whisper as her face glowed red. “If you want me to go get jello with you, jumping up and proclaiming it to the whole world is NOT the way to do it!”

He looked abashed for several seconds, then he raised his head again. “Does this mean you’ll do it?”

The professor was walking to the front of the class room, and despite her better judgment, Julie leaned in and whispered, “Yes.”

Joel grinned wide and grabbed her hand one last time, giving it a quick squeeze then picking his pencil back up and turning to face the teacher.

Inwardly, Julie smiled.