The bell rang through the classroom, signaling the end of class. Travis slowly put down his pen, continuing to stare at his book. A few girls walked past him to Mary. Travis could hear them introduce themselves as he closed his book. Putting the book in his backpack, he was about to take out the book for the next class when Christian waved at him to go to follow him.
At the opposite side of the classroom in a corner, Chris cleared his throat. "Love at first sight huh?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Come on, don't play dumb. I've NEVER seen you that focused on paying attention during class. You usually start falling asleep or doodling in your notebook, not taking notes and sitting up like a statue."
"I didn't look like a statue…right?"
"Like 'The Thinker.'"
Travis immediately turned red and hit his forehead with his hand. "Great, so now she must think of me as some sort of statue and a weirdo."
"I knew it. It was love at first sight."
"…so what if it was?"
Chris smirked. "We're changing tactics. Instead of planning the next phase of "Get Travis A Girlfriend," we're going to start "How To Make Mary Fall For Travis!"
Travis put his finger to his lips and motioned his hands down. "Shhhh idiot! You were starting to raise your voice!"
Travis could hear giggling behind him. Travis slowly turned his head around to see two female classmates staring at Travis.
"You…you didn't hear anything."
One of the girls nodded and made a motion of zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the zipper, but giggled immediately after.
"Great…look what you did!"
"Hey, you gotta get over your shyness and embarrassment, and that's step number one! Introducing yourself!"
"…no."
"Come on! You can't date her if she doesn't even know who you are. We go through this every time you like a girl! It's starting to get a bit old now."
"Oh yeah? And how do you think I should introduce myself? You know how I am. I get red easily, fumble with my words, and next thing you know, I'm sweating a lot. Not exactly the best thing to get the ladies."
"Hmmm…that is true. I remember when you liked Hannah and introduced yourself. You looked like you had just been lying in the sun for hours, red as a cherry. Why don't we do a more subtle introduction?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, do something that isn't obvious that you're trying to talk with her." The bell rang again, signaling class to begin again. "Think of something during class. We'll talk about it afterwards."
Chris patted Travis on the shoulder and walked back to his desk. Travis followed him and sat down at his desk, taking out the textbook for the next class. Sighing, he took out a notebook for his class, and flipped through the pages of doodles until he found a clean sheet of paper. Another teacher, Mrs. Lewis, walked in the classroom. "Alright class, turn to page one hundred two."
As Travis turned the page, he set his elbow on the desk, hoping to act as normal as possible, when he felt a piece of paper hit his face. Opening it, he read, "Drop your pencil on the floor and not seem to notice."
Travis looked at the teacher who was writing on the chalkboard. He quickly responded with, "Why?" and tossed it back to Chris. He didn't have to wait long for a reply.
"Because she might pick it up and give it to you."
Travis sighed. I'm not going to do that…
Quietly crumbling the piece of paper, Travis placed it in his backpack and stared ahead at the chalkboard, listening to the teacher.
"Be sure to write this down! It will be on the test!"
Heads throughout the entire classroom looked down, the sound of writing prevalent in the room. As Travis was finishing writing down what the teacher had said, he heard a small clink on the floor. Looking down, he spotted a pencil that wasn't his.
This isn't my pencil…that must mean…
Travis quickly glanced at Mary, who was doing her finishing touches to the note, not noticing the missing pencil.
This…this must be my chance! Okay…don't mess this up…
Travis bent down and grabbed the pencil. Gathering his courage, Travis slightly waved to get Mary's attention. "Is this yours?"
Mary looked down at her desk, then back at the pencil, nodding her head. "Thanks."
Travis handed her the pencil and went back to staring at the blackboard, his heart beating furiously.
I…I talked to her…she knows I exist!
As a smile slowly formed on Travis's face, he was writing down a note when another piece of paper landed in front of him.
"You look like a turd right now."
Travis quickly glanced at Chris, who was snickering. Glaring at Chris, Travis shoved the note in his backpack.
The rest of the class passed with no other events happening. As the bell rang, Travis set his pen down and stretched. He was about to look at Chris to see what else he had to say when he heard a voice to the right say, "What's your name?"
Looking over, he spotted Mary looking at Travis. "Ah…Travis."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Mary."
"N-nice to meet you too."
Travis heard Chris get up to his left and motion him over. The girls from earlier were also walking towards Mary, so Travis quickly made his escape.
"That turned out better than I expected."
"You did NOT plan that."
"No, I didn't, but still, I thought it would take you at least a day, maybe two, to get you two to introduce yourselves. At least the giant hurdle is out of the way. Now we go on to phase two."
Travis could hear giggling behind him again and looked back, to see the same girls before snickering.
Travis sighed. "Just tell me what's the next step?"
"Actually holding a five minute conversation. I'll distract the girls who seem to flock to her after every class, leaving you time to talk to her."
"…there's no way you could distract all those girls."
"Hmmmm….you're right…hey, you two!"
Travis had a horrified look on his face when Chris started waving to the two girls behind them. "Can you two do me a favor?"
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