"I say we eat Pizza Hut today," Connor said thoughtfully from inside the eatery.

I was just standing there beside him, starving, so I didn't bother to protest. Anything sounded good right about now. But, he seemed to take my silence as a hint of some sort and added soon after, "Hmmm... okay, maybe not pizza. What do you think about---"

"Get in!" I said loudly, pushing him into the mini restaurant.

"Oh, pushy, pushy, Roberto," Connor mumbled as we approached the counter.

"Shush!"

"Hi, Robbie; hi, Cone," said Amy with a grin. "How may I help you?"

"Hey, Ames," I greeted her with a small wave. "Just a Supreme, as always."

Connor nodded, and piped in, "But with no onions--"

"--and make sure there's peppers. Not too much peppers, but you know, just enough to make it zesty--"

"--and lots and lots of cheese. But not so much that our health'll be jeopardized."

Amy laughed. "All right. So that's... one large Supreme, no onions, three handfuls of peppers, and extra cheese. Will that be all?"

Connor nodded. "Yep." Then, the two of us chorused, "Thanks, Ammmmyyyy!"

She smiled and shook her head as she counted up our change. "I live to serve."

Yum... pizza. Pizza on an empty stomach. Yum. iQue delicioso!

"Hey... Robbie," Connor said in mid-chew. "There's a 'babe' at 5 o' clock."

I rolled my eyes. Honestly. "There's a babe at 5 o' clock." Who does that these days? I'll tell you who. Connor Mandell.

"You can't be serious," I said with a laugh.

"I am serious. Now look already!"

I dropped my pizza crust onto my plate and turned around in my seat to what I assumed would be Cone's '5 o' clock'. And crikey, guess who it was. Just guess.

Ash.

So far, Jere's the only one here in Wisconsin who knows about mine and Ashlee's non-existent history, so of course Connor had no idea about the girl he had just pointed out to me.

"She's... pretty." To avoid having to say more, I stuffed more of the pizza crust into my mouth than I really should have. I nearly choked on it, but it got the job done, at least.

"Darn right she is, Rob. Now, be a dear and go talk to her."

WHAT?!

"Why me?!" I positively shrieked.

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because I have a girlfriend and you don't."

"Oh, toushe, Connor. Toushe."

Well, I had nowhere else to go but to Ash's table. I couldn't make a run for it or hide in the bathrooms--Connor was going to watch me like a hawk. As I neared her table, I began to wonder--did my breath smell okay? Was there a spice in my teeth? I could only hope that this went well.

She was studying. STUDYING!! We don't even have classes yet! Instead of speaking my mind, which would have been disatrous, I simply pulled a chair out across from her and said, "Hey, it's me."

"You who?"

"Me, as in the moron you ran into this afternoon."

Ashlee looked up from her book at last. "Oh, hey," she said with a grin, pushing her books to the side.

"Did I interrupt you?" I asked, worried.

She grinned. "Nah... it's about time I ate anyway." She gestured towards the two slices of pizza to her right and said, "You want one? I think they misunderstood me when I made my order." She took a bite from her pizza and added with a slight smile, "And you know what's even weirder? I didn't get charged extra."

I blinked. "Who was the cashier? Amy or Drake?"

"Drake. Why?"

"He only gives free slices on-the-house to pretty girls like yourself."

You know what the funny thing is? That that right there wasn't a pick-up line--it just happened to double as one. It was really the mere truth. Hahaha.

"Is that so?" she asked, both brows raised. When she noticed me nodding, she laughed. "Don't I feel special."

I grinned. "Yeah, you should."

A whole five minutes passed by and Ash, having just finished devouring her pizza, got up and said, "Oh, gosh... I'd better get going. It was nice talking to you. And," she turned around just as she was reaching for the door, "that slice I gave you's on the house."

For a one glorious minute I thought about doing a subtle victory dance. I had just spoken to Ashlee Moore. THE Ashleee Moore. But, it all went down the drain once I had gotten back to Connor.

He said, "So, how'd it go, and what's her name?"

"Her name's... Ashlee."

In those few milliseconds where I was trailing off, I suddenly realized something.

I hadn't given her my name.