Chapter 3

It was the next morning, and Brian woke up from a very good night's sleep - even if he ended up sleeping late. He was able to finish all his needed homework, study for the Social Studies exam later, and had glee club practice later in the day.

Singing is one of Brian's passion ever since he was a lot younger. He was not very sports-oriented at the time, so for Brian, his release and means of expression had always been music. It was adamant to him that he wanted to be a singer/performer when he grows up; and he knew that the weekly glee club practice would help him achieve that goal this early.

Being in the very good mood that he was in, Brian was happily humming randomly as he walked towards the main entrance of the school building. He had his back up on his shoulders, and was moving his head from side to side - to the rhythm of the humming he was doing.

Brian was just a couple of meters away from the entrance, when all of a sudden, he felt a loud force push him from behind. The next thing that he knew, Brian found himself lying on the gravel floor, his arm instinctively protecting his head from hitting the floor.

Brian looked up, his whole body still hurting from the incident, wanting to know who or what was it that hit him. He saw a group of 3 boisterous boys, whom he saw were laughing out loud at what they just did.

The one in the middle even looked back towards Brian and, with a devilish grin on his face, commented: "Haha! Lame Geek!"

Brian slowly sat himself up, and started to wipe the dirt from the of his polo shirts. He looked at the three boys angrily, while they walked into the building. Yet, a part of him believed what the three boys commented about him. To Brian, what they said was true: he was lame, and he was a geek. No questions about that.

From out of nowhere, Brian noticed a hand reaching out to him on his other side. He looked up, and saw Marc standing beside him, also angrily looking at the direction of where the three boys entered.

"Fuckers." grumbled Marc, still reaching out his hand to Brian.

Brian took Marc's hand and held it. Marc then pulled Brian up, with a very concerned look on his face as he watched Brian clean himself up more.

"Does it hurt somewhere?" Marc asked, as he placed his hand on top of one of Brian's shoulders.

Brian shook his head, before sighing loudly, fixing his glasses and his clothes, and stood up straight. He didn't want Marc - his new found friend - to see him as how he and the other people saw himself - a lame geek. Brian wanted to portray that he was strong, and he was going to be strong, even if at that point, he was already teary eyed.

"No, I'm fine."

"Okay." Marc softly replied, as he tapped Brian's shoulder and nodded in acknowledgement.

Marc started walking a few steps towards the entrance, while Brian still stood there, trying to stop himself from crying. However, he saw Marc stop and heard him say:

"It's okay to cry, but you better wipe those tears if you don't want to be late." Marc then looked back to Brian, smiling, and nodded his head towards the direction of the entrance - calling onto Brian.

It was only at that time that Brian realized that a couple of tears were already falling from his right eye, at the same side that Marc had stood beside earlier. Brian quickly removed his glasses, wiped his tears off by his hands. He wore the glasses again and looked at Brian, smiling, before he walked towards him.

As soon as they were standing beside each other again, Marc placed his arm onto Brian and the two boys started to enter the school building - together with the rest of the students.

****

That afternoon, classes for the day were all over. In Class 7G, almost all the students have started to leave the classroom, with the exception of Brian. He was still sitting on his desk, scheduling that homework that he had to do as soon as he went home. It was a daily activity the Brian did every end of his classes, which made it more efficient for him to finish everything in the soonest time.

Maria, Brian's classmate and constant seatmate, was used to this regular activity of Brian.A couple of times, she did try it herself and it did help her remember to finish her homework. She, however, can only wish she was as smart as Brian.

"You're not yet done?" Maria asked, as she walked towards Brian's direction. She had already left the classroom a couple of minutes ago, when she realized that Brian was still inside.

"Almost." Brian replied, as he glanced up to Maria, smiling faintly before continuing his activity.

Maria sat down beside Brian, placing her bag on the seat in front of her, glancing at what Brian was doing. Maria, for Brian, was someone that he would spend some of his time at school, knowing that she doesn't use him for homework or anything else. Their friendship remains in school though, they rarely speak to each other when they're at home.

Maria finds Brian interesting though. Frankly, she's one of those girls who can see how handsome Brian was, beneath his glasses and 'geeki-ness' as they would call it.She likes him, but Brian seemed so focus with his studies and grades. She's just happy that, even with her pig-tailed hairstyle and that she knows there are a lot of more beautiful girls in school, Brian spends a lot of time with her when they're at school.

Several minutes passed, and Brian was done with what he had to do. He was about to place his things inside his backpack, when he noticed Maria staring at him, her eyes glazed, as though she was frozen. Brian grinned, then broke the silence that was between them.

"Maria?" asked Brian, still looking at her, grinning.

Hearing her name woke up Maria from her trance. She shook her head a bit, before realizing that she was just staring at Brian all this time. She felt embarrassed, and her cheeks reddened. She looked around, then occasionally glanced at Brian, who was just looking at her smiling.

"Let's go?" invited Brian. He knew that he caught Maria on a very embarrassing situation, and did not want her to be any more embarrassed.

Maria agreed, and immediately got her bag from the seat in front of her. "Sure." She immediately stood up and walked out of the room.

For a couple of seconds, Brian just watched her - with a big grin on his face. He couldn't help but chuckle as he stood up and followed Maria out of the room.

***

"Can I tell you something?" Maria asked, as she and Brian were walking through the corridors of the school building, their bags on their shoulders.

Brian looked at Maria, wondering what she was going to tell him. "Um...okay."

"I have a crush with someone." Maria replied, glancing at Brian, smiling.

"Oh..." Brian nervously said. Hearing that made him think that Maria was going to confess her feelings to him, after what happened to them inside the classroom. "Who?"

Maria suddenly grabbed Brian's hand, and pulled him to follow her. "Come, I'll show you."

Together, they ran and Brian found himself being dragged towards the covered courts, on the other side of the school grounds. Finally, after some time of being dragged and running, Brian found him and Maria stop. He leaned on his knee, panting and trying to catch his breath.

Maria, on the other hand, stood beside Brian excited and almost jumping for joy. She kept patting on Brian's back, pointing towards her right, while Brian still caught his breath. "There. You see him?"

"Who?" Brian asked, as he stretched his back, then looked towards the direction that Maria was pointing to.

"There, the one in wearing the red jersey."

Brian fixed his glasses, and tried to focus on who Maria was pointing to. On their right, there was basketball game playing between two teams. One team was wearing blue jerseys, the other team was wearing red jerseys. Brian looked at Maria, confused."Which one did she mean? It can't be all of them." he thought.

"Maria, they're all wearing red jerseys!" Brian reacted, looking at Maria, confused.

Maria, excited, pulled on the right sleeve of Brian's polo shirt, still pointing at the same direction. "No, don't mind everyone else. Look at # 18 !"

Brian looked again at the group of boys playing basketball, and tried to focus on the player wearing the #18 jersey. After a couple of seconds, Brian got a clear view of who it was, and smiled when he recognized who it was.

Maria was pointing towards the direction of Marc, who at that moment, was calling for the basketball to be passed to him. Their point guard, after some time, chest passed it to Marc. After dribbling a bit, Marc side stepped on his defender and drove to the basketball, finishing with a lay up.

Once Marc landed back on his feet, he found himself looking towards the direction of Brian and Maria and smiled back. Maria was jumping for joy, waving back towards Marc, excited that she saw her ultimate crush look at her with his heart-melting smile.

Marc jerked himself up towards Brian as a greeting, which Brian replied back to him the same way, before turning back and running back to the other side of the court. Maria saw the greeting between the two boys, and looked at Brian in wonder. Brian noticed Maria looking at him, with her puzzled look, and looked at her.

"You know him?!" Maria excitedly yet curiously asked.

Brian grinned as he looked back towards the direction of the game, before looking back at Maria. "Yeah, he's my neighbor."

"What?!" Maria screamed, pulling the sleeve of Brian's polo shirt again, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't ask." replied Brian, a bit irritated with Maria's constant pulling of her sleeve. He fixed himself and his polo up, then glanced at Maria