Chapter two
Frowning, Gabe entered the teacher's lounge. He then turned back toward the door, looking into the hallway.
"Epstein will you get in here?"
Taking his teacher's cue, Epstein entered the room, visibly upset. He crossed the room in a huff and then stood with his back turned toward Gabe. Scowling, he folded his arms over his chest and looked down at the floor.
"What's the matter with you, Epstein?" Not getting a response from his student, Gabe entered another question. "Talk to me, Epstein, why were you fighting with Todd Ludlow?"
"Well Mr. Kotter, I guess I got tired of punchin' the lockers so I decided to hit something that might hit back."
"Why would you do that?"
Epstein whirled around to face Gabe. "He laughed at me, Mr. Kotter. Nobody laughs at me and gets away with it. Also, Todd Ludlow always bugged me." He raised a fist, shaking it a little. "I always wanted to knock that smug grin off his face every time he looks at me."
Gabe lowered Epstein's fist and placed it by his side. "You can't just start fighting Todd Ludlow every time he laughs at you or gives you a smug look." He paused briefly "Wait a minute. Why were you punching the lockers?"
"I don't wanna talk about it."
Gabe sighed, watching him turns away. "I just caught you fighting with Todd, which you say started because he laughed at you. Then you say this was after you were hitting the lockers. Now what set you off, Juan. What got you so upset you felt the best thing for you to do was punch the lockers?"
"Alright, alright!" Epstein exclaimed, turning back to face him. "It was because of Susie." He pointed a finger at Gabe. "But it was partly your fault!"
Gabe was stunned and looked at him bewildered. "My fault?"
"Yeah!" Epstein softened his features. "Yeah. If it weren't for you sayin' I should do something to win her back, I wouldn't of had to make a fool of myself in front of everybody when she turned me down."
Gabe cringed. "Oh. Juan I'm sorry that happened to you. But it's still no reason to beat up Todd."
"Well what is a reason to beat him up?"
"There is no reason, Juan."
"Then what am I supposed to do, Mr. Kotter? Susie won't even talk to me. I tried taking your stupid advice to win her back and I got humiliated in front of everybody! She broke my heart, Mr. Kotter. Tell me what I'm supposed to do about that."
"There are ways to deal with that sort of thing that don't involve punching defenseless lockers or rearranging Todd Ludlow's face."
"What are they?"
Gabe walked over to the door and shut it before walking to the couch. "Come over here, Epstein. Let's sit and talk this over." He sat down.
Epstein let out a heavy sigh and hunched his shoulders a little. He hesitated before walking over to the couch to sit by Gabe.
...
It was the next morning and thanks to the previous day's massacre of Todd Ludlow in the hallway, nobody dared to bring up the subject of Cutie Pie to Epstein. As well, Epstein strolled into the school with a grin, appearing as though he was not affected by the events of the previous day. When he approached his friends, they were gathered in front of Gabe's classroom in the middle of a game involving throwing quarters against the nearest wall. Epstein stood back a little and watched as Freddie tossed his quarter. The coin landed a few inches away from the wall, much closer to it than the other quarters. Freddie cheered with a laugh, turning towards Vinnie and slapped him a double low five. Seeing this, Epstein fished a quarter from his pocket and jumped into the game with a smile.
"Watch this." He said with a laugh, preparing to toss his quarter.
He tossed the quarter and then he and everyone else watched as it hit the wall, ricocheting off it. The coin darted a little bit down the hall.
"Very impressive Little Juan." Horshack said with a slight tone of sarcasm before laughing.
"No problem."
Epstein walked towards where his quarter landed. Ignoring the other people around, he bent down to pick up the quarter. As he grasped the coin, he spied a pair of familiar looking platform shoes. Hesitating slightly to stand upright, he hoped that the shoes were on the feet of another girl than who was on his mind. His shoulders stiffened a little as he gazed upon the face that peeked through the fanned out curled brown locks. Seeing the small, slightly sad grin, he frowned a little, as he looked at her, not knowing what to say.
"Hey Juan."
"Cutie Pie." He looked away from her.
"So, Juan I, uh, I was hoping I'd run into you before class."
"Uh huh." He turned away from her and looked towards the ceiling.
"I would like to talk to you." She paused for a second, hoping for a response, instead he remained quiet and seemingly refusing to look at her. "You could at least look at me and pretend to listen to what I have to say."
"I have to get to class."
Walking away, without looking back at her, Epstein headed back to his friends. What he did not see was Cutie Pie standing there watching him with a frown. She sighed in frustration, shaking her head a little as she turned to walk away.
Sitting in the classroom was all but comfortable for Epstein, even while amongst his friends. As he sat there, he did not hear a single word that came from Gabe, even if he wanted to pay attention to the lesson. He glanced up from the doodles he had made on the paper in front of him and looked at the other students. One female student in particular caught his eyes as she sat there checking and fixing her hair in a little compact mirror. The way her hair was styled instantly brought Epstein's thoughts onto Cutie Pie. With a frown, he shook his head and looked away in search for a distraction. Coincidentally, as he was looking for a distraction, someone behind him tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced behind him to see Rosalie sporting a small smirk.
"Hey, Hotsie. What's going on?"
"I was wondering that about you."
"What do you mean?"
"Noticed you and Cutie Pie in the hallway. What was that about?"
Epstein shrugged a little. "Nothing really. She wanted to talk but I didn't have the time."
"That's crazy!" She laughed. "Epstein you've been trying to get her to talk to you since you broke up. Now she wants to talk and you 'don't have time'?"
"Well… yeah. I mean, y'know, at first I still had feelings for her and wanted to still be with her. But now I ain't really bothered by it. I'm actually glad to be a single man." He grinned, "Frees me up to be with other girls, y'know?"
"Yeah." She leaned back and grinned. "Whatever you say, Epstein."
Looking away from her, Epstein then glanced down at his deck. The doodles on his paper once again took his attention. He had to distract himself from the fact that certain images within the doodles oddly reminded him of Cutie Pie; but this only made him think about her even more. His thoughts were interrupted, however, only when the bell rang, ending the class. He sat up, however, only when the bell rang, ending the class. He sat up, watching everyone else leave the classroom. Finally, he left the room and headed toward his locker.
As he rummaged through his locker, he kept to himself, blocking out everyone else around him. He then turned and headed down the hallway, ignoring the fact that his friends were talking about him.
Rosalie stepped closer to Vinnie while looking at everyone else in the group. She was the one who introduced the topic of Epstein's behavior in the classroom. At the same time, Vinnie mentioned the interaction he noticed between Epstein and Cutie Pie just before class started. These two things sparked the attention of the rest of the group.
"Cutie Pie actually wanted to talk to Epstein and he blew her off?" Vernajean asked, surprised. "Is that boy crazy?"
"Maybe Little Juan just got scared of her." Horshack suggested.
"I think yo' the one who's crazy, Arnold." said Freddie. "Epstein ain't ever been scared of nothin', especially no girl. And Cutie Pie ain't exactly the most intimidating girl around."
Vinnie nodded, pointing at Freddie. "He's right. Epstein's just playin' hard to get with her. He might be acting like he don't got feelings for her any more, but he does. He just ain't gonna admit it 'cause he's still hurting."
"Of course." Rosalie replied "And from what I've seen in Cutie Pie lately, she still cares about him too. She's the one who's scared. I think she secretly wants to still be with him but she doesn't know what to do about it."
"How do you know that about her?" Vinnie asked
"I see her in the halls a lot. And I sit next to her sister in Miss Fishbeck's class. We started talking about them."
Vernajean shook her head a little. "We've got to get them together so they can talk. They obviously ain't gonna do it on their own."
"But how are we gonna do that?"
Horshack's question brought them into silence as they all began to ponder the situation. Before either of them could come up with a solution, the bell rang, breaking their concentration. Realizing they should have been in their classes by now, they all turned to walk in separate directions. Vinnie lifted his head as he looked at Rosalie.
"So, Cutie Pie's sister." he started, gaining her attention. "Is she available?"
Rosalie grinned, playfully pushing him forward with one hand. "Forget it, Vinnie. Keep your focus." She laughed.
Vinnie nodded with a grin before allowing her to walk ahead of him.