Ever since then, she'd find him crossing her route to lecture halls and classes. She'd share the same lunch period. Although he never sat near her group, she could spot him scoping her out from a distance. It was apparent what was on the young man's mind.
At first, she saw this as an annoyance. She had no interest in the balloon of a boy. She had half a mind to pull a prank or make a scene to drive him away. She was about to do just that when he crossed her. They bumped into each other, as Pleasance was on her way to independent study. It was almost subconscious; she was caught up in her head, thinking about her slow improvement academic, and worrying over it. He, on the other hand, was just plowing forward through the hallway, without stepping out of her way. They collided there, in a burst of book and study materials that went flying everywhere.
"Oh... Sorry." The boy said slowly. "Uhm... I-I-I'm... W-W-Will. C-Can I help you p-pick up the b-b-b-books?"
She glared at him and went about gathering up her things from the floor without even deigning to answer. Pleasance thought that ought to be it; the boy would be too mortified to pursue her attention anymore. Yet he persisted!
"Hey, uh, I saw you at lunch..."
Pleasance slapped one tome on top of another, pulling it toward her. Her face contorted in an irritable expression, lines creasing her brow, "So?"
She swiftly packed her satchel with study materials, heedless of whether they belonged to him or her. Then, she stopped as her hand fell on one of the pages of his sketches. It was a moving spider on a paper. She shrieked at the sight of it, recoiling backward.
"Oh no, no, no! It's okay, Pleasance!" Will said, "Just an illusion I've been working on! I'm sorry you had to see that... Oh man..."
Pleasance sat on her backside for a moment, gathering her nerves slowly. She let her heart rate lower just a touch before speaking to him, "You did that?"
"Yeah! I'm so sorry, ugh, you probably think I'm a creep..."
Pleasance said nothing of the sort, although his perspective was fairly accurate. But even creeps could be useful. Pleasance wasn't the only one who was squeamish when it came to arachnids. She happened to know that her brother had a deathly fear of the eight-legged things. As this dawned on her, a secret smile crept across her lips, and she instantly changed her tune toward Will.
"No, not at all! That was..." Disgusting, revolting, creepy, and given your fascination, I don't want to know what you're thinking of doing to me while spending the lunch period staring at me. But she said none of those things. "That was amazing! You're must be so smart."
Will blushed deep red at that, and couldn't look her in the eye. She gathered up her things and stood up. After he'd gathered what he could of his study materials, he rose to stand in front of her. "Could you do the same illusion to anything, even a bedsheet, maybe?"
Will snorted, "Of course! It's a simple matter of replicating the flipped field and added elasticity of the material. It's almost easier than paper, even!"
Pleasance took a step toward him and grinned happily. "You know Arthur Hedgethorne? He's a couple of forms below you."
"Yeah, I think I've met him... why-"
"I need you to put those spiders on his bedsheets. Sneak into his dorm."
"Uhhh... I-I don't know about that, Pleasance"
She didn't know which was more annoying. That he knew her name without being properly introduced or his reluctance. "I'll make it worth it, trust me!"
Will put on a steely face for a moment, his pillowy face trying its best to tense up, but all it did was add another chin. "One date in the Stacks! In a fortnight."
"Done!" Pleasance blurted out. "You'll do it then?" She reached out to shake his hand. After a moment, he extended his own and shook.
"Yeah, I'll do it, but uh... We won't get in trouble, will we?"
"Oh don't worry about it. Arthur's my brother. He'll think it's hilarious." She smiled with confidence at him. He reluctantly returned the smile.
Around a week later, after the plan had been executed to perfection, Arthur ended up in the infirmary, getting treated for a panic attack. According to what Pleasance heard, he'd been hyperventilating when they found him shivering on the bed, the illusory spiders crawling over his face as he repeatedly slapped himself.
That almost made it worth being in the office of the Internal Affairs lady. Except Pleasance was there in the company of Will, who'd also been summoned. Pleasance pointedly looked away from him, crossing her arms.
The damned blimp of a boy had ratted her out. There'd be no date!