Steph's eyes whipped back to Ethan's own blue ones, blinking in surprise as a light blush crept onto her pale cheeks. She had expected him to just sit in silence by her, as most kids did whenever she was forced to be near human contact. Yeah, she did admittedly hang around the fringes of a crowd of the less-popular girls from the school, but it was rare for her to say anything to them. She assumed they let her linger nearby because they felt sorry for her, somewhat. Honestly, when she was just a kid in elementary school, she was more comfortable talking to kids, but since the divorce of her parents and high school, she'd retreated in on herself. The girls she stuck with (More for safety in numbers than anything else - she didn't appreciate the looks she got from others in the school, despite on the outside being unperturbed by them.), who had been friendly with her in elementary school, just accepted her introverted-ness as a fact and put up with it.
"Um... yeah. Thank-you." She said softly, smiling at him, taken aback - and almost flattered - at his surprising kindness. Standing up and easing over to his side and he shuffled over to hers, she sat back down with a content smile, watching the world rush by at the window. The seat radiated a comfortable warmth from Ethan's body heat, and she settled into the window seat with more ease. It wasn't just the window she liked. It was the 'boxed-in' feeling.
Now, normally, someone in her position would be fairly abhorrent of closed in areas, especially in such a hostile place as high school. But she enjoyed it. It reminded her of her little cubby-hole, hidden in an alcove in the wall, which was where she went to Disconnect. No-one, not even her Dad, knew about it, and it was dark, warm, and pretty much the only soundproof place in the house. So, window or corner seats were her most loved places, which was normally the places she sat at in school. It made it easier to concentrate - but she tended to day-dream anyway.
Her eyes were now lingering on her hands, and she shyly darted another glance at Ethan. She felt the need to somehow pay him back for his kindness. Perhaps talking to him would do it? From what she had seen, he didn't really have any friends, just like her. She assumed it was the noise often erupting from his mouth, seen by most as obnoxious and irritating. However, it didn't seem to bother her. From what she had seen from most of her fantasy worlds, most characters like this were just hiding something painful. Or, were just Dwarves. But, hell, she liked both of those things.
"Ethan..." She began, saying his name for the first time softly. "Erm... did you do your art-work this week?" She asked with a coy smile. It was a fairly medicore thing to talk about -school work - but they were in the same art-class, so it was something to talk about, at least. Her headphones were almost yelling at her from her bag, but she ignored the fact they were there. Yes, it would be a far less anxious bus journey with them on, but for the first time ever, she thought it would be rude to just ignore someone - or, specifically, to ignore Ethan.