The nickname that was normally so demeaning to her was now attached to a strangely affectionate feeling and a rush of color to her cheeks. "You really need a nickname, too. Otherwise it's not fair," Annie teases, forgetting all about the fact that she was currently late to class. Detention seemed like a worthy price to pay in order to hang around with Leif. She wonders why she never thought to do so before. Why she would ever have thought of him as frightening or anything other that completely and utterly lovely.
This isn't a feeling Annie's familiar with. She's never felt it before in her life, and it makes it that much harder for her to attempt to pin it down.