Knocked Breathless

She approached her locker; she could not help thinking about how bad she felt about Noah.   She didn’t have much homework: a study guide in history, and some problems in algebra.   Dang! She thought to herself as she stared at the bookshelf in her locker. Her history book was on the bottom, as usual.  She sighed dramatically, and dropped all her things to the floor beside her feet.  She then braced her arms above her head to pry the book free.  Then there was a loud slamming of a door.  It was just the janitor. Though knowing this, she still jumped, yanking the book out of her locker and onto her foot.  She then yelped in pain and began to jump up and down on the other foot.  She then proceeded to jump backwards, onto her floor-lying backpack and purse, and fall backwards.  She was just about to hit the ground in a hard splat when something stopped her.  Not someTHING, someONE had caught her.  But who?  Holly had closed her eyes about mid-fall, so she was unaware of who had saved her.  She popped her eyes open to discover her rescuer. Unbelievably, it  was Ayden staring straight back at her.  He smiled cockily at her, and then proceeded to pop her up onto both feet.  

"Uh, thanks." Holly said, extremely surprised.  Ayden had been nowhere in sight, how had he been able to catch her so fast?  She had no time to wonder about this, she only had a little time with him; she would make the best of it.