Chapter 3 - Meeting her

p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }It was just a few days later I decided I was ready to meet her as Arianna -- that was the name I chose for my new female self. I had carefully chosen what to wear the night before: a blue knee-lenght skirt and a gray short-sleeved blouse. I was aiming for a "good-looking without even knowing it'' look. I couldn't help thinking it wasn't perfect, but at least I looked pretty in a very cute and simple way. Good enough. The only major flaw were the shoes. I had bought some low-heeled shoes to go with the outfit, but I still hadn't learned to walk on them without looking weird, so I had to go with some plain sneakers, hoping they would add to my simple girl look.
I walked to Uni, as always, but something felt different anyway. Probably the way everyone reacted to me: people moved away to let me through, and some guys conspicuously turned their head around just to check me out. I felt kind of amused and kind of disgusted, but most of all I hoped I had never been as obvious and rude as those guys were, because it really felt humiliating being on the receiving end of it.
I finally made it with a good ten minutes to spare. I climbed the steep and narrow stairwell leding up to the second floor and entered the classroom. As expected, it was almost empty, save for a half dozen people in the back, chatting, and Michela, who was just sitting there ignoring her textbooks, open on the desk in front of her.
I was so astonished I spent almost a minute just staring at her, trying to convince myself that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. When I finally managed to move again, I went straight to her, without even thinking.
«Excuse me...» I said.
«Yes?»
She turned to me looking kind of surprised. She was probably wondering who I was.
«I'm Arianna, and I just transferred here. I'm trying to get up to speed, and I was wondering if you could lend me your notes, or at least tell me what are the textbooks for this semester's courses.»
Her expression changed suddenly into a heart-warming smile. «Of course, no problem! I'm sure my notes aren't perfect, but I'll be glad to help you.»
«Thanks. Just let me know when I can have them for an afternoon, and I'll just copy them and give them back to you right away.»
«Or maybe...» she fell silent.
«What?» I asked, fearing my luck was already running out.
«Are you busy this afternoon? I haven't got any lessons, and we could eat lunch somewhere and then find a copy shop.»
Of course my schedule was just the same as hers, and even if I had had any previous engagement, that wouldn't have made any difference.

«That would be great! Thank you.»
«It's nothing, really. So, How about you? How come you transferred here right in the middle of the semester?»
For a second, I couldn't remember what my cover was. «I.T.!»
«What?» she seemed confused.
«I mean, I was attending an IT degree course, but I figured out I wasn't really intrested in programming or computers, but I was fascinated by the logic behind it. I wanted to learn why those things worked, not how to make them work. So here I am.»
«First time I heard this one. Usually it's the opposite: people drop maths and go for IT, trying to learn something ``practical''. On top of that, a nerdy girl. You're full of surprises.»
I felt my entire face burning: the brilliant and oh-so-believable lie I made up was already being questioned. Luckily, she mistook my fear for shyness.
«Oh, don't worry.» she said. «I'm a nerd too. We're all math geeks, after all.»
I smiled, relieved.
While we were chatting, the classroom filled up, so I sat down beside her and took out my notebook. Everybody fell silent seeing the professor enter the room, and she said to me in a whisper: «If you don't understand something, ask me, ok?»
I nodded.