AN: Two chapters mean twice the reviews! Yes? No? Oh, ok.
Guy's POV (I guess I should have done this at first, huh?)
Eating
"Out of all the rotten luck," Guy growled as he and his friends entered the cafeteria. He and his friends had this strategy: three or four of them would find each other and choose a table and sit approximately three to four chairs apart, enough chairs that larger groups wouldn't feel comfortable sitting down at the table. Those that sat down first would stare down the smaller groups that had the misfortune to think they could sit down in the spaces that were left. Eventually, these intruders would leave the table.
The ones who sat down first did this because seats would often become scarce, especially a large space of chairs, while most of them stood in the long line for lunch. And if they waited at a table too long, they wouldn't have enough time to eat their food after the line went down. It was the dilemma of many Ceres cafeterias.
But that dilemma did not plague the Elite Blondie School Amoi Academy, oh, no. All the Blondies and upper Elites and dignitaries' sons and daughters sat at the tables, talking on phones, or typing on laptops, or mingling with one another. There was no food to be seen and lunch was to start in a few minutes.
What's more, the seats were largely taken except for this gigantic space in the middle of the cafeteria. The place was mostly segregated with the Ceres kids off to one edge of the hall, the Midas children at another part, and the Eos youths (or brats, as they were quickly beginning to be called) to another side.
The middle was the only exception. The long tables (pushed together) held some Blondies and Midas Elites and was only missing some mongrels to make the mix complete, and Guy and his friends fit the bill.
And it just so happened that Guy's favorite Blondie was sitting at this basically free table, with all his Blondie and Platina friends (minus Megala Chi, who was rumored to had gone home early). As this was the only place to sit, Guy, Riki, and all those others from the sketch, including Daryl and Toma, who were absent in the gym, sat down there. They sat in the usual order, with Riki and Guy in the middle. Unfortunately, the middle was usually reserved for the MVP, and so they sat directly across from Iason and Raoul.
"Hello, Riki," Iason said smoothly, and in such a way that Guy was sure it was meant to antagonize him. It was too smooth, almost inviting.
Riki simply said, "Hi," then, "Where's the food at?"
"What do you mean?"
Riki rolled his eyes, and Guy glared. "Where's the line at? Where do you get the food? Why are we sitting down?"
The Blondies held blank expressions. Raoul, looking irritably at the mongrels, had Xian to his side, and Nico sat Xian's opposite side and he said, "In a regular school, students stand in line to get a meal."
"Really?" some of the Blondies said.
"They don't bring it to you?" Xian asked, eyes wide, the color making them even more striking.
"They bring it to you," Juthian answered questionably. He sat across from Nico next to Yui, who sat in front of Xian, diagonally from Raoul. "That's amazing."
"It is?"
"To me? Totally. So when's they gonna bring the food?"
Just then, a man stepped to a podium that Guy and the others hadn't noticed when walking in. He announced over the noise of the crowd of students the day's lunch menu: "Caramelized apples, braised pork loin, cheese soufflé, stringed beans with ginger and bacon, steamed carrots, and Brussels sprouts are the entrees for today. For dessert you have your choices of a regular carrot cake, pear and green tea ice cream, and several pies. Please enjoy your meals."
With that, dozens of waiters and waitress-looking people began delivering the food to the tables, placing silver domes on the table while others settled silverware wrapped in fancy napkins down in front of the students. The napkins had the school's logo on it, a crest of a shield, another usual crest. Yet another waitress, and several more, asked them for their choice of drinks.
"Whatcha got?" Riki asked, excitedly. Guy guessed that his boyfriend felt like he was in some fancy restaurant- which was exactly how he felt.
But the waitress sneered at them, and he suddenly felt unwelcome. He sneered back, and Riki said, "What's your problem?"
The waitress shrugged, sniffing disdainfully. "Just tell me what you want to drink already."
"I asked you what you got?"
"I don't understand your language."
Riki made his eyes wide with mock innocence and placed his hands before himself in a display of exaggerated refinement. "What beverages are you offering on this lovely day, Madam?"
His friends began to laugh, and Riki himself cracked a grin.
Guy couldn't help himself from looking over at the Blondies, who were, except for Iason, all staring at the exchange like they never seen anything like it before. Iason looked amused, as if this was expected of a mongrel, and the smile on his face irritated Guy. It was as if Riki's act was a show just for him.
Of course, he reasoned to himself, the paranoia was all in his mind (It wasn't) and that he was getting heated over Iason's not-very-platonic interest in Riki.
The waitress sniffed, annoyed to have the mongrels laugh at her and listed a huge amount of drinks to choose from. Riki ended up choosing a drink that was rather common to the kids of Ceres, at least the legal drink, some ginger ale, while Guy asked for sparkling cranberry juice. He wasn't sure what a cranberry was, but it sounded good with sparkling and juice.
He heard Yui say, possibly reading the tag on her shirt, "What do you recommend, Nina?" and knew his friend was trying to mend the awkward situation, but the waitress Nina just said, "Would you just pick something?"
And then Raoul intervened, looking angry, "What do you recommend?" His face challenged any opposition from her.
To him, the waitress was stuck, and words stumbled from her mouth: "I'll just take some green tea, usually."
"That sounds disgusting. It does not go with today's food at all. Pick something else."
"Black tea?"
"Even worse."
"Well, you kids can't drink any wines! I don't know what to say."
"Then keep your mouth shut, waitress." Raoul turned from her dismissively and said to Yui, "I would take your friend's suggestion and try one of the mock champagnes. I think the mimosa would taste especially delicious with the braised pork loin."
Yui murmured a thank you, blushing (earning himself some knowing smiles from his friends) and ordered the mock mimosa.
Nina gathered the rest of the orders, noticeably treating the Blondies with more respect and patience, but was regarded most aloofly. She left in a huff and Riki hissed behind her, "Flat-assed bitch."
Guy snorted, "You were looking?"
"You know how big asses are all in your face? Well, her no ass was all in my face."
Riki reached for the food, lifted a dome full of Brussels sprouts and sniffed. He choked, slamming down the cover quickly.
Guy covered his nose, saying, "What the hell was that?" Toma, Sarius, and Ru down the table had covered the lower half of their faces as well. The other wolves had distaste written all over their faces.
"Those were Brussels sprouts."
"They stank! Do people eat those for real?"
"They sure do." As an example, Iason opened the lid, making all the sensitive noses cringe, and scooped some of the vegetables on his plate. When he was done, he poked one with his fork and ate it.
"Eeeelgh! Nasty, nasty," Riki muttered. Uncovering another dome, he found the pork loin, which Guy knew was what his boyfriend was looking for. Sure enough, Riki excitedly cut a tiny piece off the pork loin, then placed the bigger piece on his plate.
Iason leaned forward, raising an eyebrow, "Are you sure you can finish all that? What about some nice vegetables?"
"What are you, his guardian?" Guy spat defensively. "Leave him alone!"
"I don't see what you mean… I was only making a suggestion. Of course, you seem like just the person to blow things out of proportion. I see you and Riki are close."
"We're boyfriends."
"Oi, Guy!" Riki said hurriedly, blushing only a teeny tiny bit.
Guy then felt very, very angry and it must have shown on his face because Riki jerked back as if he had been stabbed by his feelings.
"It's true, ain't it?"
"Yea, it's true, but we ain't gotta shout it to the whole world."
"Why not?"
"Why?" Riki searched for the right thing to say, rolling his eyes. "Because it's private stuff. Our own beeswax and no one else needs to know."
Guy glared at Iason, who lifted both eyebrows this time. "This guy doesn't seem to get it," Guy said.
"You were the one who said that you two were boyfriends. I in no way insinuated the need to know that information."
Guy simply snarled, feeling irritated not only because of Iason's action, but also because he didn't quite know what 'insinuated' meant.
"Let it go, Guy. We're all right." Riki rubbed his shoulder comfortingly.
"Yea," he answered, ignoring Iason's smile at them, a smile that he wanted to smack off so badly. What did he have to smile about?
Half and hour later, Riki, taking a sip of his ginger ale, looked at the clock, then pulled out his schedule. "Lunch is a whole hour?"
"Can I talk to Riki, Guy? Or is that going over the line?" Iason asked, looking serious, except for that small smile.
"What the fuck ever."
"Yes, Riki, lunch is an hour."
Raoul's leg was shaking the table.
Iason continued, talking to Raoul, "I'm guessing that your art class is next."
"It's horrible. I didn't do enough; the colors are all wrong." He pulled out his portfolio and spread his painting in the air. "It's all wrong," Raoul said again.
"It's pretty," Yui said.
"Pretty?"
"It's pretty magnificent," Iason added; with Yui nodding.
"That's good… That's good."
"Anyway, I don't think how you drew would be what the teacher would get all riled about," Juthian said, almost to himself, sitting on Yui's other side. As it was kind of quiet in the cafeteria (the next two tables were listening closely), the rest heard him easily.
"You. What do you mean?" Raoul demanded.
"The name's Juthian. And I'm just saying that your teacher, a Blondie right? He's probably not going to like that you drew a bunch of mongrels."
"What does that have to do with anything? I should be able to draw what I want- it's the idea behind the painting and how I drew it that matters most."
"And you think your teacher will care about all that? Did he ever just hate a painting because he didn't like… Like, he didn't want this thing in here or somethin'?"
Raoul thought for a moment. "He once gave a student," he said softly, "an awful grade, failed him, I believe, because he drew an apple. And Proffesor Sni hates apples. But he was just feeling riled that day."
Juthian chuckled. "And you don't think he would be upset today that a bunch of mongrels invaded the school ? I mean, you don't even like mongrels."
"You mongrels are fine, except when you curse, or talk about sex, or when you're being just plain awful."
"You're talking about Guy."
"Who's Guy?"
"The dude next to Riki."
"Who's Riki?"
There was laughter at the table at the Blondie who obviously wasn't paying attention to the conversations at the table.
"He's the dude next to Yui."
Raoul looked at Yui, but didn't bother to even glance at Riki's and Guy's faces to memorize them. Raoul's legs had stopped moving as soon as his eyes rested on Yui's serene face. Yui smiled at him.
Raoul nodded. "I don't care if he doesn't like my paintings. I like them, and everyone knows I'm the best artist in this school."
"Aren't you confident?" Yui said with a smile.
"In a class full of numbskulls, you have to show initiative." He whistled a clear note, getting a waiter's attention. "Green tea ice cream," he demanded simply.
"And you, sirs?" the waiter offered, obviously vying for the Blondie's attention.
"I want some of that carrot cake!" Juthian cried out excitedly.
The waiter scribbled it down without looking at him.
"Well, fuck you very much, too." Juthian flipped him the bird.
Yui said, "I would like to try the pear ice cream."
Another scribble, and that was how it went. Scribbling for the mongrels and a bow and a 'yes, sir' for the Blondies and Elites. The Ceres kids took this in stride and when the waiter went away, Sarius said, "He's going to spit in our food."
"Probably, but I'll smell it," Riki answered.
"Whatcha gonna do about it?"
"Prolly nothing I can do."
"I'll give you some of my dessert, Riki," Iason proffered, getting a heated stare from Guy.
"That's going over the line."
"It's completely natural. We both ordered lemon meringue pie." And Guy had ordered apple, of course.
Waiters quickly came back with their food. When they left, Riki and the others sniffed their desserts.
"Spitted," Riki said, a little disappointed.
Yui pushed away his dessert, and upon seeing this, Guy immediately sought out Raoul's reaction. Out of his periphery vision, he could see everyone glancing at Raoul to see.
Raoul didn't disappoint. Guy was ultimately sure that the Blondie had no idea what he was doing, how kind and protective of Yui he was being. But Guy would bet an arm that if he did, he wouldn't give a shit. He stood up and headed for the kitchens. The cafeteria went quiet as he entered the double doors on which a side said "Employees Only". People could hear him shouting after awhile, his voice booming but indistinct, what with all the noise happening inside the kitchen.
The teachers standing watch and eating in their little faculty cafeteria hurried to the scene. Who stood behind were a calm Eadni Elusiax and a grinning Amon Qentu. Sarius saw them and waved them over frantically. They walked up to their table.
"It's good to see that the gang is all back together," Amon said brightly.
"Not that together," Guy answered, glowering at Iason, who looked innocent enough.
Eadni smiled. "Together enough."
"Are you two together?" Ru asked, unable to keep the slyness out of his voice.
The two men looked at each other.
"Sure, why not?" Amon finally said. Eadni covered his blush with one hand but smiled nonetheless.
"You guys look so good together. Like hot."
"Thank you, Ru," Eadni said sincerely.
Raoul now exited the kitchen, followed by several teachers, and several more servers. They arrived at their table and set down the new rows of dessert and taking the saliva-mixed sweets back. Raoul watched Riki sniff the food, tail wagging interestedly, as did the others.
"No spit," he declared.
"Now that you have made such a big scene, are you happy now?" one of the teachers barked, hands on his hips.
"Yes, Professor Bachovsky," Raoul answered impudently, not even looking at the teacher.
"You should watch your tone, boy. You will be let off with a warning this time."
"What is the warning for?" Eadni asked, smiling. "He's hardly done anything worth trouble."
"He threw himself at the cooks, claiming that some of the servers spat in the mon- Ceres children's food."
"And he needs a warning for that?" Eadni lifted his eyebrows in surprise, but his eyes were stone cold.
"I…Ye… No, I guess not."
Eadni's face lit up with a broad grin. "Of course not. Come, let us enjoy our meal," and Eadni slipped between the teachers back to the faculty room. "Good day, boys and girls."
"Later, guys." Amon gave them the peace sign.
"You ain't half bad, Blondie," Riki said to Raoul.
"It was nothing."
"You shoulda busted some heads while you were at it." Riki laughed.
"I should have done what now?"
"Beat them up."
"Then who will serve our food?"
Riki rolled his eyes, elbowing Guy in the ribs. Guy did the same.
Time passed and towards the end of the hour, a clipboard with several sheets stuck under the metal came across their table. It was handed to Iason first, and he glanced at it, narrowed his eyes, and passed it along. Raoul, seeing that the papers annoyed Iason, gave it to Xian without a single look. Xian read it, and said aloud, "Oh, come on."
"What it got on it?" Riki asked curiously.
"It's a petition 'to restore the sanctity and integrity of the school with the exclusion of undesirable persons, who will be determined by the majority of the population, and dealt with accordingly'."
"In other words…?"
"To make the school how it used to be, without Ceres and Midas joining us."
"I don't even think they want to exclude those from Midas," Iason said, and then the bell rang for class.
"It already has a hundred seventy signatures," Xian said over the din of the students getting up. None bothered to clear their dishes, as that was the servers' job.
"Don't worry about that, Xian. The ones in charge here already have good reason to integrate the school," Iason said assuredly.
"You hope so," Guy muttered.