Gemotions

He’d followed her. Liam, usually a model student, found himself grinning widely as he stared at the notification. Mr. Evans, his English teacher. Now the game was afoot. He decided, without much thought, to change his profile picture to a blurry selfie where he was wearing a ridiculous oversized hat.

That evening, he posted a picture of his dog, Winston, dressed in a bow tie. "Ready for the ball!" he captioned it. He checked his phone every few minutes, anticipating a reaction. When a like from Mr. Evans finally appeared, he let out a silent whoop of triumph.

The next day in class, he pretended to be struggling to open his water bottle. Mr. Evans, observing, raised an eyebrow. Liam met his gaze and winked, a gesture that earned him a pointed look and a suppressed chuckle from the teacher. He suppressed a giggle of his own and went back to his work.