where's my love

III

Dan was instantly regretting his decision. 

Not only because he had to actually hold a conversation with Chloe, but because now if it all worked out, he would have to deal with her presence for a while. 

And since the weekend had ended and Monday came around the corner, he had taken the majority of his morning thinking of a way to spark up a conversation with Chloe. Noticing that he had no intention of being kind to her that morning, it took longer than he thought it would. 

Dan frustratedly stomped on a few leaves on the sidewalk and looked up at the tree branches above him, giving him shade in the early morning sunlight peeking through the leaves. Dan instantly felt a bit better about the morning's thoughts, and he placed a smile on his face the rest of the way towards the school. 

~

As expected, the majority of the school day dealt with teachers briefly teaching a lesson and assigning pages of homework, which the students had no idea how to complete. Luckily for Dan, a few of those classes were shared with Phil, who consistently distracted Dan by saying stupid jokes and making terrible puns and then getting scolded by the teacher for 'disrupting' their class.

The pair sat in lunch by themselves as Chloe sat across the cafeteria talking with other friends that she made in her dance class over the weekend at a party. Phil continued to exchange glances between Dan and over Dan's shoulder at Chloe. After a few moments of this motion, Dan sighed and dropped his fork into his half-eaten salad, and pushed the tray to the side, crossing his arms on the table, and leaning forwards. Phil stopped mid-bite of his sandwich and then lowered his arms, resting them against the edge of the table.

"What?" Phil asked, squinting at Dan curiously. 

"If you're gonna keep staring at her, then why don't you get up and ask her?" Dan questioned, waiting expectantly for Phil's answer as his cheeks reddened and he lowered his eyes to his sandwich, hiding behind his hair.

"Am not," Phil mumbled

"Bullshit." Dan scoffed.

"You agreed to help me get her number!"

"You're the one who said she can sit with us, and you actually can hold a conversation with her," Dan challenged, and Phil rolled his eyes. 

"You're right about that, but you're still going to get her number for me." Phil declared and returned to eating his sandwich. Dan groaned and pulled his tray back in front of him. 

"And if anything, I'll buy you pizza if you do," Phil added and took another bite from his sandwich, smiling up at Dan while chewing. Dan pursed his lips and glared at him. 

"You better." 

~

In Mrs. Fairchild's classroom, the pairs were ordered to flip through the lessons of the chapter and find the answers to the 'fill-in-the-blank' worksheet in front of them. Dan admittedly enjoyed the fact that he was given a simple assignment but hated the fact that since both Chloe and he excelled in the sciences, they finished the worksheet rather quickly, and were bombarded with the low whispering of other groups asking for the answers to the questions.

After a while of mentally pep talking himself, Dan gathered up the courage and turned towards Chloe, who was reading a book that she had been reading since the first day. She didn't notice Dan's movement at first and Dan cleared his throat to get her attention. She was shocked at first, looking up from the pages with her wide green eyes, but after a moment of staying silent, relaxed and bookmarked the page, closing and pushing it away from her, giving Dan her full attention.