Ahhhhhhhh it was time!!! Finally!! Benji had been counting down the minutes to his meeting with Penny ever since he'd woken up that morning. But, you know, toooootally casually. Tooootally. Ahem. It was just Potions help, after all. Nothing to get worked up over.

But of course, worked up he was. How could he not be? He straightened his tie one last time -- he'd only done it about 5000 times already, but you could never be too careful -- and made his way out to the designated spot at the Whomping Willow. He'd brought along his Potions textbook, but he was already feeling a little jittery. How was he supposed to study under these conditions? Why did his tutor have to be so pretty and smart and amazing and distracting?! He had left the castle pretty early and thought he might beat Penny down there. Maybe he could, like... Pose coolly while waiting for her so he looked brooding and pensive or something when she got there.

...And then he spotted her from behind. (Thank Merlin because his posing idea was just embarrassing.) He froze momentarily, and yes, straightened his tie one last time. Alright, you can do this! he thought to himself. Get it together! There's no reason to be nervous! You're only... You know... Hanging out with the most beautiful girl you've ever seen. NO REASON AT ALL to be nervous. None!!! With that less-than-inspiring inner monologue finished, he took a deep breath and walked over to his Penny.

"Hey," he said from over her shoulder, not wanting to sneak up on her or scare her. That was casual, right? Sounded cool? And not like an idiot? He realized then that his palms were all clammy, and he desperately wanted to discreetly wipe them on his pants, but he wasn't sure how to do that a) without her noticing and b) while holding his Potions book. Instead, he just kinda tried to pretend it wasn't happening... But truthfully, all that was running through his mind was the following panicked stream of consciousness:

Ohnoohnoohno I'm with Penny and my hands are sweaty and what happens if she notices like what if for some reason she touches my hand while we're talking and realizes it's super sweaty and then thinks I'm gross or WHAT IF she tries to hold my hand and it's like this????? And then her hand gets all sweaty because of mine being sweaty??? And then she never wants to talk to me ever again, let alone hold my hand and no COME ON BENJI, she's not going to hold your hand, why would she, she's got no reason to do that, she's got no reason to think you'd even think that, right? Are you being obvious right now? Does she know you think she's beautiful? And smart? And funny and ridiculously cool and all the things you've ever said you wanted in a girl? HOLY COW, why are you even thinking about this right now? This is NOT HELPING the Sweat Situation we have going on here, my friend. But while we're on the subject, here's a reminder that if she decides your sweaty hands are really gross, she'll definitely never want to kiss you and OKAY AGAIN NOT HELPING, don't think about kissing Penny, don't think about kissing anyone, but ESPECIALLY don't think about kissing Penny because she's going to KNOW and that's so AWKWARD and just basically what are you doing?! CHILL OUT!!!!!!!!

Perhaps needless to say, he was having a certified Minor(?) Freakout internally, and his brain yelling at him to chill out was, you know, not really helping. In this 10-second span of these racing and super embarrassing thoughts, his face didn't betray much other than a slight tinge of pink crossing his cheeks. But on the inside? Yeah, heading fast into meltdown mode. For his sake, she'd better say something quick to interrupt his thoughts. Poor kid. This had all happened so fast. They hadn't even met that long ago, and he was already deeeeeep into crush territory. Ahh, puppy love and raging teenage hormones. A winning combination, indeed.