"She doesn't even know I exist!" Marius exclaimed, turning quickly to lightly press his forehead on the closed locker next to him.
"You just need to be positive!" Courf grinned, his deep brown eyes shining under the school's cheap lighting. He tugged on the strings of his gray hoodie, evening out their lengths. "It's not hard. Just go and talk to her!"
"But it's incredibly hard! I wouldn't even know how to start talking to her..." Marius mumbled without taking his head off of the cool locker.
"Look, Marius, she's just some dumb girl," Enjolras piped up. Grantaire shot him a warning look. Enjolras sighed. "There's more important things happening. I'm going to be late for my meeting with the principal to complain about the unfair division of school funds! The sports teams get everything, while the academic and artistic clubs! It's unjust! I can't believe none of you even care-"
"I care," Grantaire added quietly. Enjolras's stern expression softened slightly.
"Anyways, it just goes to show that they don't care about us at all! They just want to turn us into competitive machines! But we are not animals they can train to put into competitions like a dogfight! We can fight back! We can break the system!"
"Oh, shut up you idiot," Eponine snarled as she inspected her nails. "As much as I hate listening to Marius complain about his love life, I'd rather hear him than hear you talk about your little rebellion."
Enjolras huffed as he turned and strutted down the hallway in the direction of the principal's office. He and Eponine always got into these little fights that often ended with Enjolras loosing his temper and storming off. Grantaire gave the group a sheepish look before following Enjolras.
"Ugh, I'm glad the drama queen is gone," Eponine grumbled.
"Marius still hasn't moved. Do you think he's ok?" Combeferre asked timidly. He looked at Courfeyrac for reassurance.
"Yeah, yeah, he's fine," Eponine growled. She always got moody when talking about Marius's love life. She rolled her eyes after Courfeyrac gave her a look of disapproval.
Suddenly, the hall filled with the voices and laughter of a group of teenage girls. Marius whipped his head up and turned to face the direction of the voices. It was a group of cheerleaders, all laughing over inside jokes. There was one girl who always stood out, though. She was shorter than the other girls, with long, curly, blonde hair. She had bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks. She was very quite, but was always smiling. Marius's heart stopped.
"Nows your chance," Courfeyrac grinned. He gave Marius a slight shove in the girl's direction.
"H-hey, Cosette," Marius began. He was already sweating and needed to wipe his palms off on his slightly to big blue jeans.
"Oh, hi," Cosette smiled shyly. She was never very good at talking to people. She never had friends growing up, only her father.
"I was wondering, um, if maybe you would want to, uh, I don't know, maybe go see a movie with me sometime?" Marius stuttered, his cheeks flushing a bright red colour.
"Um, well, sure. I have to ask my father first, of course," she responded quietly, smiling at the ground. "But thanks, Marius. I would love to," she smiled at him. Marius stood frozen as Cosette was pulled back into the crowd of cheerleaders. She gave him one last wave as she left the hallway.
"Nice going!" Courfeyrac shouted, offering his hand to Marius for a high five. Marius didn't respond.
"Marius?" Combeferre asked as he prodded him with his finger.
"She said yes," Marius said with a blank expression. Suddenly, his face lit up with a huge, goofy smile. "She even knew my name!"