There he was.

Erin cautiously glanced at him from behind her book.

He was surrounded by his group of friends. They were laughing and the noise they made echoed around the now-empty band room. He laughed along with them and turned his head in Erin's direction.

Quick as a wink, she hid herself behind her book. Then, slowly, she peeked up from behind it again.

He was gone.

Erin let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey Erin, you looked like a stalker there, you know."

Erin whipped her head around to look at her friend. Doing so made the glasses on her face drop down.

"What are you talking about?" She asked incredulously, even though her face was flushing at the moment. She hastily pushed her glasses back up to look more serious.

Her friend laughed at her flushed face.

"It's pretty obvious that you like him," she said nonchalantly, as if she were merely talking about the weather.

"I don't even know him, Ash!"

"You saw him during summer school," Ash replied "You saw him during Band Camp. He taught you the basics of Marching. I saw you face flush whenever he was near you."

"That wasn't my face flushing. It was the heat from the sun," Erin muttered.

"No it wasn't," Ash sighed "But I will say this..."

Ash scooted towards her friend until their shoulders touched and Erin was feeling quite claustrophobic.

"I ship it," Ash whispered, giggling as she did so.

"W-wait, no!" sputtered Erin. Never had her cheeks ever reached such a rich shade of red before.

"I think you two would look cute together!" Ash clapped her hands like a child expecting a reward.

"Ash it's never going to happen," Erin buried her face into her book again. She tried to make Ántonia seem more interesting than her friend's shipping dreams, but her heart was pounding within her.

Maybe there was a chance...

Just...

Maybe...