Just A Click Away

Prologue

Prologue

The only noise that could be heard in the advanced human anatomy class was the incessant ticking of the clock. The tile floors amplified the sound, as if telling the already-aware students that that their dismissal from class was just moments away. For Gabriella Montez, scribbling away in her notebook, it had gotten to the point where it was rather agitating.

She sat back in frustration, reading over her notebook. She had finally finished all of the notes that her professor had assigned, but she was not completely satisfied with them. Gabriella had listened to the lecture, however, she had found it more and more difficult as her brain began to drift to different thoughts.

Thoughts that clouded her mind were the Mathematical Theory class report due next week, her morning job at the student break lounge, and much more importantly... him.

He was a person that she had found on her college's forum just three months ago while she was trying to find out when an English paper was due that she had preferred not to ask her professor about. She had posted her instant messaging screen name, and he'd responded the next day. Somehow, they found themselves drowned into deep discussions about life, college, and jobs.

She saw it odd to think about him as a friend, since she didn't even know his real name, but in a way, he sort of was. They knew each other as Baskethead and Brainiac. Gabriella, of course, being the Brainiac. She also knew he was relatively smart and was very insightful, plus, he used to play basketball. But as Taylor had said when Gabriella was wondering about who he was, "Oh, he used to play basketball? Well that narrows it down to... every male in this school!"

In a way, Taylor was right. Almost every attendant at the University had once played basketball. If you had not been a cheerleader, you had played basketball or been on same sort of acedemics club. Out of all the places Gabriella had visited, she found New Mexico to be particularly focused on basketball.

Snapping her out of her thoughts was her professor--in his usual 'before class dismissal' routine--shuffling some papers on his desk, casually glancing at his watch, and finally cracking a smug smile.

"Class is dismissed," he said quietly, opening the door next to his desk. Gabriella quickly closed her notebook, got up, and made a beeline for the door. Today had been rather long and getting home was the first thing on her mind.

Not paying attention to anything around her, Gabriella didn't notice that at the exact same time, another person was trying to get through the door. In his attempt to pull ahead through the space first, he caught Gabriella off-guard and, with a squeal of surprise, she dropped her notebook. All of the loose paper in it went spilling into the busy hallway.

"Watch it!" She said icily, picking up her papers, knowing instantly who the person was.

"It's not my fault you weren't paying attention, Gabriella," he replied just as coldly, trying to get the stray papers that were dropped in the hallway. Gabriella looked up to stare into a pair of deep blue eyes that almost every girl in high school had fallen for. Except her.

"You could have at least waited all of two seconds for me to get out of the door!" She fired back, getting the final piece of stray paper up off of the floor.

"Again, I say, you could at least pay a bit more attention!" Troy rolled his eyes, storming off in the opposite direction of Gabriella. Spinning hastily on her heel, the aggravated biology major walked out of the science building, mumbling under her breath.

Afternoon spring air greeted her happily as she stormed into the courtyard, towards her dorm room. She let her feet take on auto-pilot while the usual post-Troy thoughts came to mind.