The shy boy's name was Marcus. Carrie had never met anyone with a name like Marcus before.

"Where's that from?" she asked.

"Oh, nowhere in particular, my parents are just incredibly pretentious," he said, looking at his feet, her hands, his feet again, across the room, anywhere but meeting her eyes. This was cute, she thought. She was used to boys who stared at your chest and either ignored you or pestered you. She'd never seen a guy look flustered before. Well, yes she had, but she'd never seen a guy look flustered because of her. And none of the guys she knew used words like pretentious, either. She felt stupid, suddenly, for blowing off classes for the past four months. She should have been paying more attention, especially in English. Then she wouldn't feel so stupid now. She hadn't even looked at a book in aeons.