Hello | Brian Quinn

Chapter 3

Brian couldn't believe his eyes. So many thoughts were racing inside of his mind, that he was unable to comprehend the situation at hand.

His first instinct was to repeatedly tap Sal.

"What's your problem?" Sal responded, staring at his friend.

"Look!" Brian pointed at the table that consisted of the 4 girls.

"What the hell!" Sal looked at Brian, sheer terror reflecting off of his eyes.

James and Joe turned their attention towards them, and Brian pointed at the girls once again.

The four teenagers immediately straightened out their clothes and hair, asking each other how they looked.

"Ok, let's calm down. They know who we are, how about we just say hello?" James suggested, trying to relieve everyone's stress.

"He makes a good point. Let's just say hi." Joe added.

"Slight problem, genius. Who's going to go say hello? All 4 of us can't. We'd look like a bunch of morons!" Sal declared, all eyes looking away from his direction.

Sal stared upon his friends in utter disgust.

"Let's handle this the gentleman's way." Joe said, looking at Sal and James devilishly.

The 3 pounced on Brian, pushing him out of his chair onto the floor.

"NOT IT!" The other 3 shouted, causing even more attention to be directed towards them.

Brian glared back at his friends, as he stood up.
All eyes were on him, including Rachel's. He slowly approached her. Brian tried to speak, but words weren't coming out of his mouth. After a painful kick on the back of the leg from Sal, "Hey," escaped Brian's lips.

The other girls laughed, as Rachel waved hello to him.

"Brian? You work at the pizzeria downtown." She acknowledged, a look of clarity spread across her face.

"Yeah. I did over the summer, but not anymore since school has started." He replied, attempting to keep his confidence.

"All of them did." Kristin spoke, addressing the 3 boys behind Brian.

They all waved at the girls awkwardly, Joe's blue orbs meeting Kristin's brown eyes.

"It's nice to see all of you again!" Sal smiled, directing his attention towards Bryony.

"Same to you guys," Bryony grinned back at Sal, causing him to turn the opposite direction to hide his red face.

"Why don't we combine our desks, and catch up?" Joe said, getting mixed reviews from the group of 8.

Moments later, all the desks were aligned in a long, table-like fashion.

Joe spoke to Kristin, while Sal and Bryony stared at each other, barely speaking. James talked with Beth, also speaking amongst all the other conversations, leaving Brian and Rachel to themselves.

"Are you new to the high school?" Brian spoke, trying to start a good flow to the conversation.

"Yeah! My friends and I are originally from the all-girls high school." She explained.

"I understand why you'd want to get out of there." He laughed, causing her to do the same.

"Yeah, this is already better." Rachel joked.

"I'm surprised that you remembered my name." He admitted, looking at her intently.

"Why's that?" She asked.

"Well, my name is pretty forgettable." Brian pointed out.

"A name has no significance, it's the person who holds the name that matters." Rachel explained, causing him to blush.

"I've never quite looked at it that way." He noted, shrugging his shoulders.

"I guess you learn something new everyday." She laughed.

"You really do." He flashed a small grin back at her, as the teacher entered the room.

After what seemed like a ceaseless introduction to the school, the kids resumed their conversation. They all properly introduced themselves, learning each other's names. Along with introductions, they also compared their schedules. Everyone had classes with at least one of each other, which made the day easier on all of them.

Brian had his first period, P.E., along with Joe and Sal. Rachel on the other hand, had calculus with James. Everyone paired off, saying their goodbyes as they exited the classroom.

"That was not cool what you guys did to me back there." Brian fumed, hitting Joe and Sal on the back of their heads.

"Would you shut up? Everything went fine. You got to talk to Rachel, so I don't understand what the problem is." Sal retaliated.

"I would've liked it to have been in a more nonchalant way." Brian informed him, getting a scoff from Joe in return.

"Nonchalant? Is someone studying for their PSAT?" Joe boasted, as Sal smirked.

"This really isn't the time for your commentary, Gatto." Brian replied, as the three entered the gym.

"Look. If you just relax, everything will go the way you want it to. Just have a little more faith in yourself." Sal insisted, patting Brian on the back.

"I'll try." He sighed.

Meanwhile, James and Rachel searched for their class.

"I can't do math this early in the morning." James commented, rubbing his eyes.

"Same here." Rachel responded.

"Especially calculus. That shit is hard." He complained, running his hands through his hair.

"I wouldn't worry too much. Calculus is super easy." She told him, as he looked at her.

"Wait, you're smart?" James questioned, squinting his eyes.

"I don't know if I should be insulted, or take that as a compliment." Rachel laughed, making James smile.

"Almost all of us are idiots. I just don't understand how you could've kept a conversation with Brian that lasted longer than a minute." James cackled.

"Almost all of you? Who's the so-called "non-idiot?" She asked him.

"You're talking to him, sweetie." He beamed, winking.

"Yeah, right." Rachel playfully rolled her eyes at the boy.

"Let's just get to class, smart-ass." James retorted, lightly pushing Rachel into the classroom.