Tall Tales.
After leaving the cafeteria Gordie ended up just wandering aimlessly around the school. For the first time in his life, he wished the lunch hour were shorter. He was sick of storming out of places and arguing with people. He found himself outside the building and was about to go back inside when he spotted Teddy and Vern disappearing around the corner of the far building with a group of other boys. Gordie followed after them, partly out of natural curiosity and partly to spite Chris and his father.
It turned out they weren't doing anything more interesting than smoking and complaining about teachers, classes and the other kids. Gordie approached them nervously; he wasn't exactly sure how his arrival would be received.
"Hey Teddy, Vern..." His voice tailed off when he realised they were the only two he recognised.
"Hey Gordie" Vern replied smiling.
Teddy kind of nodded and said something that sounded like "Lachance."
One of the other boys offered Gordie a cigarette, which he accepted gratefully. He was really stressed and probably smoking would help he reasoned. Teddy's 'greeting' seemed to give him some sort of acceptance within the group and they moved along to give him room against the wall. Gordie leaned back against it, happy to stay silent and just smoke.
Suddenly the conversation stopped and the others turned to look at Gordie.
"I was just telling the guys about the stories you used to tell" Vern explained. "Man, they were really boss. Sincerely, this guy's a fucking genius!"
Teddy nodded in agreement. "Why don't you tell us one Gordo, maybe one about Sgt. Steele or Le Dio." He paused, then "just for old times sake".
"I don't know" Gordie said warily. "I can't just make one up on the spot you know."
"Aw c'mon Gordie" Vern urged.
"Ah I don't know." Gordie took a drag on his cigarette and looked nervously around the group, face to expecting face.
"Just a short one." Teddy promised.
"Okay" Gordie said reluctantly. "Well the one I was thinking about is about these two soldiers who are best friends, they've been friends since birth. Anyway their names are um Nick Lewton and um Charlie Grant and they're living in some little town in Oregon called um Paige. They hear that war has broken out so they decide to join the army…"
As Gordie was telling his story, Chris was waiting in line to pay for his lunch. He scanned the cafeteria looking for somewhere to sit, it wasn't like Gordie was his only friend, he could find someone to sit with. He hoped. Finally he paid for his lunch then picked up his tray and started weaving his way across the lunchroom. The thing was you had to walk as if you had a purpose, a destination. That way no one would know that inside you were kind of nervous and unsure. Chris had perfected hiding his emotions, hell sometimes he could even fool himself. He found a seat on an empty table at the back and sat down. To be honest he wasn't really desperate to talk to someone, he needed a few minutes to himself just to think. Also he had a test in French class next period and he sure could use some time to look over his tenses. He remembered bitterly that earlier this week Gordie had promised to help him. Gordie seemed to find French pretty easy, but then Gordie found most classes easy. Chris was smart too, but he was more street-smart, more common sense smart than intellectual smart. Also Chris had pretty much wasted his first seven or eight school years and even now after years of hard work he was still trying to make up for all the lost time.
Chris had been sat for just a few minutes stirring his food around on his plate when he became aware that someone was standing right next to him. It was this girl Lily something from his English class. It wasn't that Chris couldn't remember Lily's second name, but it was just that he couldn't pronounce it. It was Russian or Hungarian or something. Generally he and the guys just referred to her as 'Alphabet'.
"Hey Alph…Lily" Chris said smiling in what he hoped was a friendly manner.
Lily nervously pushed her hair back behind her ears. "I um just wanted to say that your speech yesterday in English class was really good, I um liked it a lot actually. It sucks that you and Gordie got sent to Mr Bonds."
She had that kind of voice that made whatever she said sound like a question. Instead of coming out like 'your speech was really good' it would sound like 'your speech was really good?' Chris didn't take it personally; if Lily were stating the colour of her hair she would say, "it's brown?"
"Thanks." Chris replied.
Lily nodded to herself more than to him. "Just wanted you to know that…. bye I guess." She turned around and returned to the table where all her friends were. Chris saw that they all swivelled around to peer at him as she returned to her seat. Whatever, he had way more important things to think about.
