Break Open a Box of Cinnamon Fruit Toasties
As he walked out of the room, he was still in a daze.
He looked up and down the hallway to see if she was still there. She wasn't.
Taking a deep breath, he took out his new schedule. First period was a study hall. 'Cool', he thought. 'I can just hang out till my next class.'
He went by the vending machines and paid two dollars for a small pack of cinnamon fruit toasties. They were by far his favorite snack. Although a little bummed that he had no access to a toaster, Ross opened the pack and took a bite of the first one.
Smiling slightly, he walked down the hall towards the science hallway.
With an hour to kill, he figured he could start by checking out the new wall posters in his favorite part of the building.
On his way down to the science wing, Ross peeked in at several of the classes in progress.
He recognized people that had been in some of his classes the previous year, although they probably didn't have the slightest idea of who he was.
'Maybe that's why none of them are waving back,' he mused, passing by the cafeteria.
Thoughts of his intense unpopularity lasted him all the way to his ultimate destination.
However, his mind was soon engulfed in a poster on the wall, showing the development of humans throughout the ages, and the major fossil findings up to that point.
After practically memorizing its contents, he moved further down the hallway, reading every single word on each of the posters as he went.
At the end of the hall was Mr. Pita's room.
As Ross passed it, he shot a quick look inside.
At that instant, he froze. There she was.
Sitting in the back row, obviously bored by whatever lesson was going on, was Rachel Greene.
He stared at her. He noticed the way her mouth was slightly open and how she was absentmindedly twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
He smiled, looking at her far off expression. He would give anything to know what she was thinking of.
'Probably all of her other popular friends', he thought bitterly.
And even though he usually made it a rule to hate all of the popular crowd, he had a feeling that Rachel was different.
He knew she was nice, funny, and a great friend because of all the times he had seen her at his house or from the stories Monica had told him.
'There's no way she's anything like the rest of them', he thought happily.
He lost track of how long he'd stood there, his eyes never leaving her for even a second.
It wasn't until Mr. Pita turned around and caught sight of Ross, staring through the window, that he realized what he was doing. He could tell the teacher was upset, his eyes were narrowing and his lips were pursed.
"Excuse me, class," he heard Mr. Pita say through the door.
It was then that Rachel raised her head, shaken back to reality.
Ross momentarily was rooted to the spot, staring awkwardly back at her, embarrassed beyond belief.
Then he ran.
He knew he looked stupid, speeding down the hall, with Mr. Pita glaring at his back, but he didn't really care. He just needed to avoid the possibility of having to explain exactly why he'd been pressed up against the door, drooling over the oblivious girl in the back seat.
He only stopped running when he'd turned the corner into the C wing, where the cafeteria and the auditorium were located.
Desperately needing a minute to relax, he entered the nearest bathroom. Seeing that nobody was inside, he slumped down to the floor, burying his face in his hands.
Ross could feel his heartbeat going down and sloppily wiped his sweat covered hands on his jeans.
Standing slowly back up, he shook his head vigorously.
'I have to stop thinking about her, she probably doesn't even know I exist. Or, even worse, she knows me as Monica's geeky older brother and has heard hundreds of humiliating stories about me. Anyway, the simple fact is that she would never go for a guy like me in a million years. She's the unattainable prom date, and I'm the world's biggest, or at least the school's biggest loser.'
After giving himself the quick anti-pep talk, Ross straightened up and looked in the mirror above the sink.
"Great," he remarked sarcastically, seeing, as all of his other classmates, including her, must have, the remains of his cinnamon snack stuck to his face.
"I really do know how to make a good impression."
Sighing heavily, Ross began to pick off the pieces of his favorite food, which at this moment, he resented more than the stealing of his "Got Milk?" expression.
When he'd finished, and his face was clean again, he walked out of the bathroom.
In his mind, the sentence, "It's never gonna happen," repeated over and over. Attempting to force himself to forget about her, these words were fighting the image of her face, smiling as she had that morning, which he just couldn't get out of his head. Finding himself unable to forget, no matter how hard he tried, he gave up. Her face took over his mind, until the slamming of a door nearby brought him back to reality.
He glanced up at a clock, only two more minutes till the bell rang.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the last of his cinnamon fruit toasties. With a smile, he popped one into his mouth.
Forgetting about Rachel for a moment, he marveled at the fact that anything could be made a little bit better by breaking open a box of cinnamon fruit toasties.