Shane
"T.G.F.L.!" Brad Cochran cried as he came up behind me in the lunchline. It was the first day of 8th grade and *finally* lunch period.
"Amen to that," I replied with a laugh as I scooted my tray down the steam tables. T.G.F.L. stood for 'Thank God For Lunch' and was something a bunch of us football players came up with last year. Creative, isn't it?
"How's your morning gone?" Brad asked, following me down the steam tables.
I shrugged. "Ok," I said, adding an identifiable casserole plate to my tray. "I mean, it's school, so naturally it's not *wonderful*, but it's going fine."
Brad nodded in agreement. "Same here. A definite plus being an upperclassman, though!" He added with a grin.
"Yeah, totally!" I said.
"You and Melanie still a thing?" Brad asked a moment later as we payed for our lunches and turned to find a table somewhere in the crowded cafeteria.
I couldn't help smiling at the mention of my girlfriend and nodded. "Yup, I've run into her a couple times today, too. Plus she's in my history class."
"Cool," Brad said with a laugh. "I knew you guys didn't see much of each other over the summer since she was at camp and everything."
I made a face. "Yeah, that really sucked." I motioned with my head towards a table near the back of the room. "There's some seats over there. Let's go."
Brad followed me over to the table where a bunch of our guy friends from football were sitting and we sat down to a chorus of greetings. The topic I soon found was primarily school, although football practice came up several times, too.
"I can't believe I got Mr. Waldrop for social studies again," Steve Hernandez was moaning. "His class is SUCH a snore!"
"You think HIS class is a snore," Don Petry countered, pointing his banana at Steve. "You should be in Mr. Naset's history course. Talk about a snoozer. It's like he WANTS us to dread coming to his class."
"I know," Steve muttered. "I had Mr. Naset last year. But Ms. Winslow isn't much better! She's really weird- it kinda freaks me out. "
"Kinda?! Totally! That lady- I swear- is from another planet!" David Boswell cried.
"Help- my teacher is an alien!" I mimicked in a high-pitched voice, causing everyone to break up.
"Has anyone run into any Grover kids yet?" Brad asked a minute later.
"Oh yeah, lots of times," Steve replied. "I have at least one Grover kid in everyone of my classes. I haven't talked to them all though. Or any of them really. Sorta one who sits near me, Butch or something."
"Butch?" David snorted, making a face. "Sounds about right."
"Do you know him?" I asked, turning to David.
David gave me a weird look. "Of course not. I just meant that sounds like a name a guy from Grover would have."
"Or a girl from there, for that matter," Brad snickered causing another round of laughter. I laughed, too, although I felt sorta mean. Grover kids had a bad rap, but I didn't know any of them enough to make any sort of assumption about them. And besides- not all of them were going to be the same. It wasn't really fair to judge them all and write them all off before we even KNEW them.
"Speaking of girls," Bill Kingman, another guy sitting at the table, said suddenly. "Anyone seen any notable new cute ones?"
Don laughed. "You flirt," he teased. "That's all you can talk about, huh? Girls!"
"Well, why not?" Bill asked with a fake innocent grin. "But seriously- anybody?"
Steve swollowed a bite of his sandwich before replying. "One girl from Grover I saw wasn't too bad. Dana or Daphne or something."
"Grover!" David scoffed. "Who cares about the girls from there? For all you know they might pull a gun on you the minute you're alone with one!"
"Dude, why are you so against the Grover kids?" I asked, unable to keep it back any longer.
"Why are you so for them?" David retorted.
I flushed slightly as I realized everyone at the table was staring at us. I shrugged.
"I just don't think it's fair to judge them all when you don't even know ANY of them," I replied calmly.
"Better safe than sorry," David snapped. I started to reply, then decided against it, and shrugged again. There was an uncomfortable silence for a second, then Steve spoke up.
"Well, I don't know about *new* girls, but I have seen some from last year that could be new girls for how different they look," he said.
"Like who?" I asked, curious. I had seen a bunch of girls I knew from last year and no one had looked that different to me. New hairstyles or tans or something, but definitely not unrecognizable.
"A couple, but first prize definitely goes to Jana Morgan," Steve stated.
"Oh my g**," Brad cried, thawking his empty milk carton down on the table. "I know! Wow, yeah! She's in my homeroom and I almost couldn't believe it when I saw her. I seriously did NOT even recognize her at first!"
"Me neither," David agreed, with a nod.
"Really?" Bill asked interestedly. "I haven't seen her yet. Is it a good different or bad different?" He peered around the cafeteria as if trying to get a glimpse of her.
The other guys swapped grins.
"Definitely *good* different," Steve laughed.
"And she was pretty last year," David remarked.
"Man, now I'm all curious!" Bill complained. "Guys, come on- look around and see if you can locate her in here."
Brad laughed. "Don't worry, man. You'll see her soon enough. You can't really miss her."
Bill raised his eyebrows. "Wow, that good, huh?"
Steve and Brad just looked at each and grinned again. I shook my head.
"Have you seen her, Shane?" Bill asked, noticing me shaking my head.
"Yeah, I saw her before school started. When she got back from the beach," I replied without much interest. It kind of bugged me to hear the guys talking about Jana like they were- don't get me wrong, she was as pretty as they said, but she was also still going steady with one of my best friends- Randy Kirwan. I don't like it when guys talk about other guys' girlfriends. I certainly wouldn't want them talking about Melanie like that.
"So that's where she hid out all summer," Bill remarked. "And why I didn't see her at all."
"Yeah, I saw her before school started, too," Brad added. "And before she went to the beach. It was there that I think she really changed. Or at least her being gone so long made it more noticable."
"It?" Bill laughed.
"Guys!" I broke in, exasperated. "Come on! Knock it off."
"Whoa!" Don said, raising his eyebrows at me.
David, who was obviously still miffed with me, gave me a look. "What is your *problem* today, Arrington? Talk about people changing over the summer. What happened to you? You used to be a lot more fun. Now you're like a goody-two shoes grandma."
"Yeah, Shane," Brad muttered. "You don't have to bite our heads off. We were just having some fun."
"Sorry," I said evenly, "but in case you aren't aware, maybe I should remind you that Jana is still Randy's girlfriend, and I kinda doubt he'd appreciate everything you guys are saying about her."
Steve laughed. "Like I'd say stuff about her around him!"
I fought the impulse to roll my eyes. Hello! They were totally missing the point.
"Forget it," I muttered, piling my lunch refuse onto my tray and standing up. "I was just giving my opinion, that's all. I'll talk to you guys later, ok?"
"Later, man," Brad said, giving me a chin up, and Don raised his right hand in a slight wave. I sighed as I made my way over to the tray return. I was just getting ready to leave the cafeteria when I heard someone call my name. I looked around and saw some of my other guy friends motioning from a table near the door. I headed over.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" I asked, sliding into an empty space.
"Not much," Mark Peters replied. "Did you finish eating already?"
I nodded and grinned. "Yeah, I was starved. Nothing makes you hungrier then sitting through the first morning back to school."
"Amen to that," Randy Kirwan laughed, raising his milk carton in a salute. "We're almost done," he added. "If you can wait a minute, we can all go outside together. Maybe shoot some hoops or something before the bell."
"Ok," I agreed happily, feeling my good mood returning. Even though I had orginially gone to Riverfield Elemantary and Randy and his best friends to Mark Twain, I had really hit it off with them last year. Especially Randy, since Jana and Melanie were best friends and as we had hung out with our girlfriends a lot last year, besides sports functions... well, we got to know each other pretty well.
"Cool," Scott Daly, another guy previously Mark Twain-ian said. "I feel like I haven't talked to you forever, Shane."
"I know," I replied making a face. "I don't think we have any classes together in the morning."
He shook his head, then grinned. "Maybe we'll luck out this afternoon though."
"Yeah," I laughed, giving him a thumbs up sign. "Here's hoping."
"Math is going to be my least favorite class again this year," Randy groaned, pointing a finger down his throat. "I can tell already. Algebra is the pits."
"I'm there with you, Randy," Mark agreed. Than laughed, "But hey, I know this one girl who is pretty good in algebra and even likes it! Jana Morgan or something... I bet she'd be willing to tutor you. I think you should check it out."
"Hey, yeah," Randy grinned, playing along as we all started laughing. "Check it out or her check her out."
"Either or both," Scott snickered.
I stopped laughing as I recalled the conversation I'd had not too long ago with the other guys.
"Speaking of checking Jana out..." I frowned.
Randy gave me a puzzled look, raising one eyebrow. "What?"
I paused a minute, trying to decide if I should say anything. "Well," I said slowly. "Nothing really... I guess. I don't know," I sighed. "I guess I just think you should know that, um, a lot of guys are talking about her this year, saying stuff."
Randy looked concerned. "Stuff? Good stuff or bad stuff?"
"Oh, good," I said quickly, than made a face. "Well, I guess good. Compliments, anyway. They aren't saying anything mean about her, that's for sure."
"Well, yeah!" Scott broke in. "She's hot!"
When Randy gave him a look, Scott grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm allowed to say that, Randy- I'm one of your best friends!"
Randy rolled his eyes than looked back at me. "I appreciate your concern, Shane. You're a good friend." He started collecting his trash. "I figured a lot of people- guys, whatever- were going to talk about her a lot. It's ok, I guess. I know how Jana and I stand, and I'm not really worried." Then he grinned at us. "As long as they don't try anything funny."
I laughed and shook my head. "You're cooler about it then I would be." I stood up and changed the subject. "Hey, let's go outside. I have a feeling today is going to be my day on the court."
"Oh yeah?" Mark challenged with a smile. "We'll see about that. Me and Randy against you and Shane."
"Cool," Scott agreed. "We can be Stupendous 'S's!"
"How about The Weirdos?" Randy said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. "Come on, guys. Let's go settle this outside."
"You're on!" I laughed.