Mark

RINNNGGGGGG!!!

Finally! I thought, popping up out of my seat at the sound of the bell releasing us from Monotony City. Honestly, history has to be the most boring subject in the world. Of course, it might have something to do with Mr. Naset being the most boring *teacher* in the entire world, but I'm sure that all the stupid nitty-gritty dates and millions of kings and queens have something to do with it. But no matter now- it was time to ajourn and move on to my favorite class of the day. Lunch.

Upon leaving Mr. Naset's Classroom of Doom, I was soon swept up in the herd of students noisily making their way to their next destination. Twice I got my foot stepped on and once I almost got smashed against a water fountain, but thankfully I managed to reach my locker without getting too mutilated or running over too many sixth graders.

I quickly tossed my books into my locker, grabbed the ones I'd need after lunch (to avoid making an extra trip), and headed for the cafe. It was already noisy and filling up fast by the time I arrived and I made a beeline for the hot lunch line, absolutely famished. I thought maybe by the time I got out of the line, some of my friends, namely Randy Kirwan and/or Scott Daly, would have grabbed a table, but I didn't see either of them anywhere, so I took my tray over to an empty table near the middle of the room. I was pretty sure they'd be able to find me there. I was so intent on getting myself properly settled that I jumped with surprise when someone slid into the seat across from me. But I was even more surprised to see who it was.

"Jana!" I gasped, then quickly added, "I mean, hi."

Bizarre. This was the second time in two days that Jana had randomly come up to me, for what appeared to be for no apparent reason. I mean, Jana and I have been friends since we started school, but we don't converse on a regular basis. Which is probably for the best. I've had kind of a silent crush on her since 5th grade and- honest- I really don't like her like *that* now, especially since she goes steady with Randy, but there's still something about her that makes me nervous. A good nervous, except I can never think of anything intelligent to say and naturally come across as the biggest dork in the world.

"Hi, Mark," she replied cheerfully. "What's up?"

"The ceiling, I hope," I joked (see! dumb!) and she shook her head.

"Oh, man, you've heard that one before," I said, pretending (heheh) to be mortified, covering my eyes with the back of my hand.

"No, never," she giggled, rolling her eyes. I laughed, too, and poked a straw into my milk cartoon, peering at her through my eyelashes and wondering what was going on. It crossed my mind that maybe she was planning on eating lunch with Randy, something she did every so often, but I noticed that she hadn't brought any sort of lunch with her.

"Please don't tell me you're on a diet," I spoke up suddenly, and she gave me a surprised look.

"What?"

I motioned to the empty table space in front of her.

"You don't have a lunch," I explained. "So I thought maybe you were on a diet or something."

She gave me a pouty look. "Why, do you think I need to go on one?"

I felt my face flush and I quickly tried to back up. "No, no, you look great!" Oh, crap! "I mean, no way. 'No way' you need to go on a diet, I mean. That's why I, um, brought it up. Because I was worried."

She laughed. "Aw, you're too sweet," she teased, shooting me a smile. I quickly looked back down at my food so she wouldn't see how red my face was. Jana's been cute as long as I can remember, (well, of course, 'cute' ever since I've started seeing girls as human), but this past year she's really gotten gorgeous. That's why I'm thankful I really don't get to see her that much because I'd be blushing my head off every time she smiled at me. Heck, I don't know how Randy can act so normal around her all the time, the way the two of them never stop grinning at each other.

"Well, we don't want you going past the point of perfection, you know," I joked back, looking back up once I felt my face cool down.

She laughed again and shook her head.

"You're a nut," she giggled. "Hey, listen, I won't keep you from your food any longer, I just wanted to know if you were going to be at Bumpers today after school?"

I was sure the surprised showed on my face.

"Um, well, I have football practice right after school," I replied slowly, wondering where this was going.

She waved her hand. "Oh, yeah, I know that. I have cheerleading practice. I meant *after* that."

I raised my eyebrows and then shrugged.

"Well, I think so. Unless a meteor or something strikes me at some point during the day."

She giggled again. "You are *such* a weirdo," she said with a grin.

"Why, thank you."

She started laughing harder, until she finally stood up.

"I'm going to have to leave your presence before my stomach hurts too much to digest anything." Then she added quickly, "So you'll be at Bumpers today?"

"Sure," I replied with another shrug.

"Good," she said with a smile. "See you later. Oops, oh, hi, Scott."

"Hi, Jana," Scott Daly replied, stepping backwards to avoid colliding with Jana who had almost ran into him as she turned around. "Next time beep or something before you start backing up, huh?"

She stuck her tongue out at him and he stuck his out at her. Scott went steady with one of Jana's best friends, Melanie Edwards, for several months last year so he knows and is a lot more familiar with Jana than I am.

"Watch out for meteors, Mark," she called over her shoulder as she walked away, laughing.

I nodded and smiled back, than gave my head a quick shake. Weirdness.

"Meteors? What was that all about?" Scott asked as he sat down in the seat where Jana had been sitting a few minutes earlier.

"Don't ask," I replied, stabbing at the vegetable mixture on my plate. Scott shrugged and took a moment to unwrap his sandwich before speaking again.

"So, what did Jana want? Was she waiting for Randy or something?"

"I really have no idea," I answered honestly, trying to decide if it was beans or peas I had in front of me. It's so darn hard to tell when the cafeteria ladies mash them up like this.

Scott stared at me. "Ok, so Jana came over and sat down and then got up and left and you didn't even ask her what she wanted?"

"Um, not really."

He blinked several times and then heaved a sigh. "Oookkkaayy, so she didn't even say *anything*? You two just sat here and ignored each other?"

"Man, what is this, twenty questions?" I teased, reaching over and giving him a shove on the shoulder. He made a face at me and swiped back.

"Hey, it's just a very curious situation, that's all. I didn't realize you and Jana were so intent on ignoring one another."

"Ha ha," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "Look, we didn't *ignore* each other, we just... didn't talk about anything in particular." I paused a moment, then added, "She really only mentioned something about Bumpers after school."

Scott nodded, not looking up from his food. "Oh, yeah, well, that makes sense. She probably was planning on meeting Randy there or something later."

I nodded my head slowly, wishing I could be so easily convinced as Scott. Something was going on, and I wished I had any sort of clue about what it might be.