Scott
Odd. Very, very odd. I bit my lip in thought as I paused in front of the water fountain and stared down the hall at Jana Morgan and Mark Peters who were laughing and talking together in front of Mark's locker.
This was the *third* time since yesterday at lunch that I'd seen them together. It's not like Jana and Mark *avoid* each other normally, but I never see them talking. Not just the two of them anyway. But yesterday they were talking in the cafeteria, then at Bumpers after school, I saw Mark sitting at a table with Jana and one of her friends, Funny Hawthorne. And now here they were again. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Maybe nothing... but it still looked suspicious. And not in a good way, as Jana is Randy Kirwan's girlfriend- Randy being my best friend, *and* Mark's. Surely Mark wouldn't...
"Hey, are you going to get a drink or what? Look, man, the bell's going ring any minute."
I jumped at the sound of an exasperated voice behind me. I turned to see a guy I didn't know very well standing there, frowning.
"Oh, sorry," I apologized quickly, stepping out of the way. He shook his head at me and leaned forward to take a drink. I glanced back down the hall and noticed that both Mark and Jana were gone. Geez, where did they disappear to so fast? I wondered, looking up and down the hall. But it was really too difficult to try and spot them now through all the kids hurrying to their next class. I remembered I still had to get all the way down the hall for math and decided to think more about the Mark and Jana mystery later.
***
By lunchtime, I'd decided to just casually ask Mark about it. I figured that was the best way- find out what was going on right up front. Couldn't hurt anyway. Maybe it was really nothing. Maybe Jana was helping Mark with some homework or something, or vice versa.
But when I reached the cafeteria, Mark was no where in sight. I looked all over the cafeteria for him, but didn't see him anywhere.
"That's strange," I muttered, glancing around the room once more. Mark *always* ate in the cafeteria.
"Hey, are you talking to yourself?"
I turned around to see Randy standing behind me with a grin on his face.
"Wow, you must be delirious with hunger," he laughed.
I laughed too. "No, I was just... um, thinking out loud."
"Well, let's let you think out loud sitting down somewhere, k? I've almost been run into twice already."
"Sure," I agreed, heading for a table where some of our friends were sitting. We were soon settled and talking with the guys, and I forgot about the weird situation with Mark and Jana... until Tony Calcaterra mentioned that he needed to talk to Katie, and asked if anyone knew where The Fabulous Five was sitting.
Brad Eisenhauer pointed over to a table near the front of the room.
"They're over there. Well," he said with a shrug. "Most of them."
I glanced over without really seeing, then suddenly my eyes came into focus. Most of them! But not all of them... there were only four girls at their table. Beth, Katie, Christie... and Melanie. But no Jana. No Jana, no Mark. I felt my stomach twist a little. I laid down my almost eaten sandwich, and ran my tongue over my bottom lip. Finally, I turned to Randy.
"Hey... hey, Randy," I said quickly.
He looked up from his food.
"Yeah?"
I paused a moment. He continued to stare at me.
"Yeah?" He repeated.
"Um," I continued. "I just wanted to know if you'd talked to Jana at all today."
He shrugged. "Not really. I haven't really seen her- just once before the bell rang this morning." He gave me a puzzled look. "Why?"
I just shook my head and smiled weakly.
"No reason, I just wondered."
He gave me a weird look, then shrugged again.
I chewed nervously on the inside of my cheeks.
Surely not
