Finally, the weekend had come after one week's worth of classes. I took this opportunity to give the guys in Chi-Town a call.

"Brendan."

"Speaking...?"

I rolled my eyes as I kicked my feet up on the coffee table in the living room. "Dude, it's Robbie!"

I could hear him laughing on the other end. "Ohhh, Robbie! Hey. What's going on?"

"Not much... Oh, man, you wouldn't believe who I just had dinner with the other day."

There was a brief pause on the other end before he said. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

And I actually thought he had something remotely profound to say. But, he didn't, so I filled him in. "Ashlee Anne Moore."

"Did you really? How'd you manage to do that, Robbie? I thought she--"

"--didn't know I existed," I said along with him. "Yeah, yeah."

"So how'd you get her to notice you?"

"It was a bit of an accident, really. Ran into her on campus. Then I saw her again at Pizza Hut... Okay, so maybe it wasn't a 'dinner date' with her, but it was dinner. And a dinner's better than nothing."

"Pizza Hut? Really?" Brendan asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, Pizza Hut... Why do you ask?"

"Eh, no reason. I just figured she was more of a Fazoli's type of girl, that's all."

I have to admit that I agreed with him. Never did I think Ashlee Moore and Pizza Hut would or could be used in the same sentence. But, what do I know? I'd only just met her today, I mean really met her. Maybe there's more to her than I thought!

"Look, Rotang, I've gotta run. Kevin says 'hi'... now he says 'bye', and so do I for that matter. Talk to you later."

"All right, man. Bye."

"I'M HOME!" Connor called as he shut the door loudly behind him. I winced. He's so boisterous. And unnecessarily so.

"I'm aware of that!" I shouted back, taking the mute off the TV.

"OKAY THEN!" he answered, throwing his keys onto the countertop with a clatter.

He collapsed onto the cushion beside me, saying, "So how're things? With Ashlee, I mean. Think you can bag her this year?"

I couldn't believe it. "What do you mean 'this year'?"

"I mean just that. 'This year.'"

I sat up in my seat. "Who told you? Jeremy?!"

Connor laughed. "Chill in, dude. I'm not going to rag on you about it or anything."

I scowled and folded my arms. "Fine then."

He laughed and said, "So, you're really interested in Ash?"

I shrugged. "Maybe... I guess I am."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "And she doesn't know who you are. What a predicament."

I nodded. "Yeah, well... looks like it's high school all over again."

Cone gave a hearty laugh. "Not a chance! You've just got to want her bad enough."

I raised my brows at him. "Go on."

"Well, you like her, right? ...Why?"

To be honest, that thought's never really ocurred to me. Sure, I knew I liked her from the moment I first saw her, but I never knew why. I bit my lip. "Don't know... she's sweet, smart, funny, pretty..."

"She's smart."

"Yeah, I already mentioned that part."

He shook his head. "No, I mean she's smart. Catch my drift?"

"Not really."

He sighed, rolled his eyes, then spoke as if he were explaining to a five-year-old that two and two was five. "She's smart. She reads. She reads a lot. I noticed that--I pass by the library every now and then. And she's always there."

"So she's interested in different things. What's the harm in that?"

"Robbie, do you read?"

"Not a lot."

"What's your GPA?"

"3.2...?"

He looked at me meaningfully. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was calling me stupid just then. "So what? I'm sure there's more to her than grades."

"Dude, her dad's the Dean of Admissions here. And I know he didn't pull any strings just to get his daughter in. He made sure that she would get in on her own."

"So? I'll study harder, and work harder. Problem solved."

Connor sighed. "All right then, pal. It's your brain. Just don't ask me to clean up the mess after it explodes."

I smirked and nodded. "I'll see if I can remember to not do that."

He clapped me on the shoulder and went into his room.

Brow furrowed, I glanced down at the table. My eyes fell upon my Biology book. I glanced up at the TV, then back down at the book. With one click I shut off the television and set the book on my lap.

Might as well get started with my turning-a-new-leaf now.