Chapter three:

Vernajean opened her compact mirror and checked her hair. She adjusted her barrettes before glancing up into the nearby classroom. When she looked into the room, she immediately spied Cutie Pie sitting at one of the long black lab tables. Trying to gain her attention, Vernajean waved her hand while calling out her name in a loud whisper.

"Cutie! Cutie! C'mere!"

As she did then, it not only sparked Cutie Pie's attention, but the attention of Mr. Piper^ as well. Mr. Piper walked over to the door and adjusted his glasses as he looked at Vernajean.

"Ah miss Williams! What a pleasant surprise. What exactly is it that you, uh, have come to my classroom for?"

"Actually Mr. Piper, I came to get Cutie Pie. We're taking pictures for the yearbook."

"Pictures for the yearbook? Where's your camera?"

"Camera? Oh see somebody else is bringing it." She looked toward Cutie Pie and waved her over "C'mon Cutie Pie let's go!"

With a slight grin, Cutie Pie stood up and grabbed her book bag before walking over to the door. She greeted Vernajean with a smile and looked at the teacher.

"That's right. Hot- ah, Rosalie Totsie is getting the camera and meeting us where we're taking the pictures."

Mr. Piper looked from Cutie Pie to Vernajean for confirmation. The girls both nodded. "Alright girls you are excused."

The girls thanked Mr. Piper before walking away from the classroom. They waited until the teacher re-entered the classroom and closed the door, before they darted down the hallway, heading towards freedom as they saw it. Once they were far enough away, joining Rosalie and Vinnie, they stopped to greet their friends. Vernajean turned to look at Cutie Pie.

"Now that we're here, do you have any idea why I got you out of class?"

Cutie Pie sat her book bag down on the floor beside her. "I don't really care. Just as long as I'm not in Mr. Piper's class right now." She rolled her eyes.

Rosalie grinned. "Yeah we thought you could use a break."

Vinnie patted his chest, over the pocket of his jean jacket. "Got a special break for all of us to share right here."

Looking from his pocket to his face, Cutie Pie snickered. "I like those kind of breaks the best." She picked up her book bag. "Let's go."

The four of them then headed down the hallway towards the nearest exit. First, checking to be sure the coast was clear; Vinnie opened the door for the girls. Once all the girls were outside, Vinnie followed them, closing the door behind. Quickly and as quietly as possible, the students ducked around to the side of the building where they were sure to be away from any windows. Vinnie leaned coolly against the wall and reached into his jacket pocket. As he pulled out a lighter from his pocket, he grinned with a slight chuckle.

"Always the best kind of break during the school day." He glanced at all three girls "Unless one of you wants to make out." Receiving only un-amused expressions, he nodded with a grin. "Ok we'll do this instead."

A few minutes later, as a small cloud of smoke surrounded the students, they all laughed together. Their laughter died down and the smoke cloud began dissipating as the topic of the day was introduced to Cutie Pie.

"So, Cutie Pie," Vinnie said, "We've been friends with Epstein for a while and with you for a while too. We know you two ain't together no more, but we've seen how happy the two-a you were together."

Cutie Pie looked down "Oh yeah… what's this about, Vinnie?"

Rosalie grinned slightly, gaining Cutie Pie's attention "We know you were tryin' to talk to Epstein before, an' he gave you the cold shoulder, didn't he?" Cutie Pie nodded "Epstein still really cares about you, Cutie Pie."

"He does?"She looked at all of them for confirmation, trying not to seem too hopeful. "Well it sure

didn't seem like it."

"Well he does." Vernajean replied, placing a hand on Cutie Pie's shoulder. "He's just hurtin' right now because you wouldn't talk to him when he wanted to. And when he tried winning you back you turned him down."

"I know." She looked down again "I feel bad about it. But I have good reasons why I haven't talked to him yet." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter now, since he won't talk to me again."

"You don't know that!" said Vinnie "You don't know he won't talk to you again. Look, I happen to know this 'cause he's like my best friend, but he still wants to be with you."

"Well he must not want to be with me enough to talk to me." She turned to head towards the door. "I should get to class. Thanks for the break guys, I needed it."

Cutie Pie walked back inside, leaving the other students in silence. Vinnie turned to the other two girls.

"So… that went well." He shrugged

Vernajean frowned "Vinnie that did not go well."

"Yeah we're still right where we were before." Rosalie added

Vinnie nodded "Ok, ok so it didn't exactly go well. But we tried, right? And we're still out here so we prob'ly should make the best of it. We've got to come up with some way to get Epstein and Cutie Pie together again."

Rosalie nodded a little, pointing at Vinnie "We should first get them talkin' again, Vinnie. Then let them worry about getting back together."

"Yeah she's right." Vernajean added "No matter how much they want to be together, we can't bring them together for them, other than getting them talking again."

Vinnie nodded "Right. Ok let's go back in there and gather Horshack and Washington so we can talk about this with them." He started walking to the door, knowing the girls were following him. "Oh and," he grinned at them as he opened the door "Nice having this break with you girls. Hope we can do this again some time."

Rosalie and Vernajean looked at him with matching grins. They each laughed as they walked past him. Rosalie patted Vinnie on the chin before entering the school. With a small grin, Vinnie watched her walk ahead of him. He then walked into the school, closing the door. As he followed the girls down the hallway, he felt determined to see that his friends, Epstein and Cutie Pie, find happiness with each other again.

...

It was just after school and most of the Sweathogs had met up together as they walked to the Kotters' apartment. Epstein had declined the offer to join them. However, they realized this made things easier for them to enter the conversation without concern about his feelings. On their way to the apartment, Rosalie and Vernajean joined the guys and entered seamlessly into the current conversation about their friends Epstein and Cutie Pie.

By the time they arrived at the apartment and climbed up the fire escape, they entered as though they were expected by the teacher and his wife. Julie, who opened the window for them, merely grinned without question and turned to her husband.

"Gabe your students are here again." She said through her fake grin. "And let me guess, you have yet another issue to discuss with us."

"Very impressive Mrs. Kotter." Horshack said while nodding his head. "How did you ever guess?"

"Arnold," said Gabe, stepping over to them with a grin, "you are the only group of students who ever come by here. And you usually come here because of some sort of problem that you need help sorting out. So why would this time be any different?"

"And that's why we came here to talk to you, Mr. Kotter," said Vinnie as they entered the apartment "you really get us."

Gabe nodded with a slight grin. "Aren't we missing somebody?" He waved his hands in front of him in a bout of sarcastic surprise. "We're one Sweathog short! Epstein's not here!"

"Nice eye there, Mr. Kah-tare." Freddie said, stepping closer to Gabe. "Epstein's the reason we came here to talk to you. You see, he and Cutie Pie ain't been talking lately. But we know they want to talk."

"So we was hopin' that maybe you could help us come up with a way to get them talking again, Mr. Kotter." Rosalie said

"Not just that," Vernajean replied, "We also want to know if you could help us bring them back together. Since we know they still want to be together but they're being stubborn about it."

Gabe grinned, nodding his head a little. As he looked at all his students, he tried not to laugh, "Ah, so, you mean the brilliant minds of this entire group together could not come up with a good solution to this problem, so you all came here to get me to help you come up with one."

"You're just so good at it, Mr. Kotter." said Vinnie

"Well then," Julie smiled, motioning towards the couch "Why don't we all sit down and we'll brainstorm."

Everyone gathered, either on or around the couch to sit. They began talking about the situation with Epstein and Cutie Pie and what they could do to solve it. After a little bit of discussion, they all conjured up an idea that they felt was their best bet to get their two friends talking again.

Note: Mr. Piper, for those who don't know, is the science teacher present at Gabe's trial during the episode "Mr. Kotter: Teacher."