"Who's that kid?"
Maya said, "Which one are you pointing to, Riley? Really, you should specify who you're tring to identify if you want me to give you an accurate reply."
"The one with the ruffled brown hair, Peaches," said Riley.
"Minkus?"
"That's his name?"
"His last name, actually, but yeah."
"What about his first name?"
"Does it matter?" Then, at Riley's skeptical look at her: "I really don't know it. In Art, Miss Keller refuses to say his first name, and always calls him by his last name. It must be pretty bad."
"Well, I think he's cute."
Maya snorted. "Him?" she chuckled. "I guess he's not bad, but what about Lucas, the guy you've liked for over three years now?"
"Wow, Maya, can't I think someone's cute without it going back to that dreamy hunk? He's a little cute, but of course, I'm not going to give up on Lucas because of him, y'know. It's just that he's adorable whenever he's reading his books and scrunching his nose up in that little way he does."
"You haven't just noticed this right now? You've had your eye on him for awhile, haven't you?"
Riley blushed. "Well, I've noticed him a week ago, and I -"
"And you haven't known his name for over a week?" asked Maya incredulously.
Her blush continued to rise up the features of her face, and she hid it in her hands as she said, "Hey, I've only been watching him during lunch. I can't just go up to him and ask him his name, and say, 'Oh hey, I've looked at you, and I just wanted to tell you that you look cute.' That's impossible. I can't even do that with Lucas, so how would I be able to tell this random adorable kid, eh?"
Maya shrugged. "You can admit it to me."
"Yeah, because I've known you for basically all of my life. There's barely anything I can admit to you, y'know."
"I know."
"Good. Now, you gotta learn his name."
"Whaddaya mean I have to? Shouldn't you do that on your own?"
"You have a class with him. You can talk to him."
"But that's Art, Riley, and I don't like wasting my time trying to talk to other people while I work on my own stuff. It's distracting."
"Then why not just do it after class? I'm sure you can do it."
"How about no? I'm not talking to him. You want to know his name, so you talk to him."
"Peaches," said Riley in a singsong voice. "I know you can do it."
She shook her head. "There's no way," she said, her voice pouring in her reserve tenacity.
"Do me a favor, Peaches, please."
She looked down at Riley. Her brown eyes were glistening, and she sighed, falling easily for the bait. "Okay, okay."
"Yay!" yelped Riley as she enveloped the blonde in a tight hug. "Thanks."
"Whatever."