The Perfect Woman (Peppa Pig x Dora)

The Perfect Woman

"...and if you carry the seven here, you'll get the answer. See?" I spoke softly to the quiet girl across the table from me. 

She had seemed skittish ever since I started tutoring her, but after three months you'd think she would stop jumping at the slightest change in volume. I watched as she slowly nodded, and finished the question I helped her through. Looking at her fancy script, I watched as she completed problem after problem until she got through the rest of the assignment.

Smiling, I got up, nodded a silent goodbye, and left the small study office. Walking into the brisk fall air, I popped my headphones on and bobbed my head to the beat as I made my way to the coffee shop on the south edge of campus. A fair walk, but the drinks are worth it. It was only eleven by the time I got there, but I planned on staying until 2 so I could head straight to my next lecture. After ordering a large hot cocoa, my favorite drink from this cafe, I sat down and opened my laptop. 

Unlike the people I usually tutor, I work better in loud environments. It's peaceful, and people watching has always been a favorite of mine. Every few paragraphs I write on my latest essay, I scan the area around me, seeing what people in the shop were doing. After I got almost all the way through my essay and finished my hot cocoa, I looked up and saw her.

She walked in with purpose, her brown bob bouncing with her every step. Honeysuckle eyes scanned the shop with confidence as if she was looking for someone she knew was here, but her brows furrowed as though she didn't find who she was looking for. Before she reached the counter, our eyes locked, and my stomach did a flip. I could feel my face starting to heat up as she caught me staring, but I hid my face behind my hair and went back to work. After less than a paragraph of typing, I looked back up as she was ordering.

Her pink top looked almost too small, her pants too short, but both looked frayed and distressed enough to pass as a favorite outfit she's just grown out of. A tan satchel sat at her hip, weighed down by its seemingly heavy contents. Her brown combat boots were laced with what looked like laces, but they seemed almost like nets tied back together in odd places after the laces had split and frayed, a seemingly fresh coat of glue coating the laces and splashing onto the surrounding shoe. Her eyes were still scanning the cafe and again landed on me. I averted my eyes once more and continued my essay, having committed her to memory.

I jump slightly as a cup of hot cocoa was placed in front of me and a body slid into the chair across from me. My eyes track the tan hand that held the cocoa up to the girl I had been staring at from across the store, my mind completely blank and my face expressionless at best. Her gaze was still sweeping the shop for a few moments, a white-knuckled hand gripping her satchel before she finally turned to me, pushing the drink a bit further and letting go with a hesitant smile.

My face felt like it was about to melt off as I slowly looked from her to the cup and back, opening and closing my mouth like a fish out of water. I watched helplessly as she laughed quietly, looking between my burning face and the door.

She stared at me a second more before speaking, "... your face is pinker than your hair, what's going on inside that pretty little head of yours?"

"P-p-pretty..." was all I could manage before my mumbling would have turned into screaming. Nobody had ever paid attention to me for more than math help and to pick on me, and it was very obvious to anyone with a brain cell and eyes at this exact moment. It didn't help that this stranger was the prettiest and most mysterious person I had laid eyes on.

Her vibrant eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked me up and down. "Are you repeating me, or do you think I'm the pretty one?" She spoke, a smile forming on her face. 

My senses returned to me slightly as I opened my mouth to utter a measly 'Both'. Her smile widened at this, my hands pawing at the hot cocoa I had been gifted, arguably gripping it harder than the stranger with her satchel. A sudden shout as the door slammed open caused me to jump, turning to see two police officers staring at my table very intently.

My mysterious stranger stood, grabbing my bag in one hand and my hand in the other, making a break for the side entrance, giving me barely enough time to grab my laptop and run after her. The cops lost no time following us, and I stared at the back of her head incredulously, wondering how in the hell I went from writing an essay to running from the cops with the cutest person I had ever met within minutes.

She was an oddly fast runner, practically pulling me along as we slowly but surely lost the cops. I found my voice for the first time since seeing her, shouting "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?".

The mystery woman turned to me, grinning ear to ear. "Dora, and I hope you like running, lover girl!"