"...Try again with more breathing, please?"

"Trying - to... Find a way to..." He is blushing so much right now. "Ask you out?"

Darren smiles a bit and giggles like a school girl. "That... Would be great!"

"But seriously - where did the hair thing come from?"

"I was trying to say that it looked nice today and - I just kind of... Screwed that up."

"Yes, it was traumatizing, she made gestures!"

"Gestures? What did the gestures even serve to illustrate?"

Blushblushblushblush. "I am not explaining them, suffice to say the things she thought we should be doing instead of me - being a dweeb and utterly failing to even get a sentence right."

"Well. I am glad you like my hair, and I am glad you like me, and we are going to be late for English if we don't move it. Or at least I am, because I am slow."

"Right, um - to English." Pause. "... Would it help if I carried your books?"

To English. "That was a polite way of asking if you wanted me to," he points out, awkwardness incarnate.

"...You are adorable. But no, I'm fine."

"Okay," he laughs. "Thank you."

Bella's going more for "smiling quietly to herself, fussing with her smooth and shiny hair".

They have separate classes next period, but Bella brushes the back of Darren's hand with her fingertips and smiles at him before their paths diverge.