A/N: Sorry about the delay. I had tons of end of the school year work, hope this chapter makes up for it.
Disclaimer: I do not own RFR....and probably never will with the allowence I'm on..
Where Am I: Chapter 10
"Ray, please, do us all a favor and chew with your mouth closed, like a regular human being." Lily pleaded as Ray stuffed his face with a whole assortment of foods that came from his tray. And yes, if you all are wondering, most of it was curly fries. Travis, Robbie, and I however were staring at Ray, while Lily was having a fit, in wonder of how a person could actually breath with all that food in their mouth. It was the next day, and we were all eating lunch at the small cafeteria table that the RFR gang ate at everyday.
"Boits toogid." Ray spoke through his mouth full of food. Lily put on a disgusted face as she backed away from him, fearing that bits of food would emerge from his mouth. Finally, Ray closed his mouth, chewed for a few moments, then swallowed to Lily's great relief. "But it's too good." He translated for us. "Yood, yummy and good, best of both worlds." Ray finished with a smile before taking another mouth full of food. Robbie rolled his eyes, and opened his paper bag for his own lunch.
"That doesn't give you an excuse to eat like a pig.." Lily muttered while handing him a napkin, to wipe off the speckles of food that made its way from the inside of Ray's mouth, to around his lips. I laughed silently to myself as pretended to be engrossed in looking at the green apple I had gotten from the school kitchens. Travis, seeing me stare at the apple, looking like some idiot I'm sure, reached his hand over. In his hand, he was holding a piece of sushi between two chopsticks. I eyed the piece of his lunch that he was offering me with a raised eyebrow.
"Here, want some?" Travis asked as he held the sushi near my face. He probably thought that I wasn't too pleased with the cafeteria food. I shook my head slowly as I took my two fingers and pushed his hand away.
"I know you hate me Travis," I began in a serious tone. Travis raised his eyebrow in confusion." ,but poising me will not make you feel any better." I ended my sentence with a smile as Travis just rolled his eyes and began dipping the sushi into the little dish of soy sauce he had. We had been getting along better since our talk the day before, which was a real relief.
"Travis, don't hope too much that someone else will eat sushi with you....without hurling." Robbie remarked while peeling the plastic wrap from his own lunch. I watched as he peeled the layers of shiny cleat wrap, revealing his lunch, or I thought it was supposed to be lunch. It looked like it was supposed to be a sandwich...or at least it was at some point. Along with peeling the plastic rap off, there was some peanut butter and jam that came off with it. Robbie looked down at it with his nostrils flaring in disgust. Travis leaned across the table and lifted the dirtied wrap with his chopstick, and seemed to be examining it.
"Well, at least sushi looks somewhat eatable." Travis said while his eyes wandered around the lump of white bread, jam and peanut butter. Ray grabbed a handful of his food from his tray with his two hands and held it in front of Robbie, offering it to him. Robbie sighed, and seeing he had not other choice, nodded and took the food from Ray.
"Yeah...I'm not a big fan of sushi," I admitted to them. "My parents eat it all the time....I don't know, there is something about raw fish that grosses me out." I wrinkled my nose as I watched Travis begin to eat his sushi again. Lily also wore the same face, but it seemed like she couldn't decide if she should have directed it to Travis, or Ray, who was still chewing with his mouth open.
"Anyway...how was your classes today?" Lily asked me, while trying to ignore the noises Ray was making with his unclosed mouth.
"It was okay, "I began, poking the meat I had on my tray using my fork, with no real intention of eating it. "The first class was interesting to listen too, because it was a high school class, but by second period.........the novelty had worn off." I muttered. Travis chuckled under his breath at my facial expression, which had changed to the face of pure boredom. It had changed just thinking about the classes I had to go through that morning.
"For me," Ray said wisely after finally swallowing. "It didn't last for the first two minutes....."
"Who would have guessed that?" Travis remarked sarcastically, while Lily gave out a snort. Ray gave them both dark looks, and then with a definite motion, he gripped the plastic fork in his hand. As savagely as he could, he dug the eating utensil into the pile of food on his tray. Without taking his glaring eyes away from Lily, he stuffed the food into his mouth, and purposely began to chew in a disgusting way. Lily rolled her eyes and turned her head away from him.
"Really, stop it Ray. We get it." Robbie said, but Ray still continued chewing away. "Ray, come on, that's disgusting-"Suddenly there was a animal roar that blasted through the speakers, cutting Robbie off. I could hear the groans of students around in the cafeteria as a reaction. Looking around at the RFR gangs faces, they didn't look so pleased either.
"Yo and hello! This Kim Carlile, and I would like to inform you that Principal Waller has announced that there will be a locker check during after school hours...."
I glanced at each of the gang's faces, for some kind of answer for this weird announcement. But they all wore the same puzzled look that I was feeling. Still very confused, I listened intently to the rest of Kim's announcement.
"This locker check will be for anyone suspicious of mingling with RFR affairs," Kim continued with her snobbish toned voice, that you could just picture her smirking while she read the words of the paper. "Is meant to find any evidence that some students may have that will inform us the identities of the four Radio Free Roscoe DJs known as Question Mark, Pronto, Shady Lane, and Smog. Let me remind you that this radio station is illegal, and is against school rules. And as always, we urge you to speak up if you have any information about these four. Thank you and have a nice day." Kim ended, not really caring if you had a nice day or not.
With another Cougar roar played through the speakers, Kim's announcement ended. The chatter volume level had raised back to its normal level in the cafeteria as students carried on with their conversations. I looked around at the other four, but they did not seem shaken by the radio announcement, instead Travis simply shook his with a look of pity for Waller on his face.
"He never stops trying, does he?" Travis commented casually, as if talking about the weather.
"Nope." Lily said. "But what's with the locker check? What would someone have in their locker? It's not like the RFR DJs will be hiding there." Lily glanced around at the busy cafeteria before dropping her voice, to whisper. "What would be evidence of who we are, especially inside of someone's locker?"
"Who knows..." Ray said while shrugging his shoulders. I silently agreed with him. I mean, that was a sort of strange announcement that Waller had Kim do just a few minutes ago.
"Speaking about RFR....." Robbie said while reaching into his back pack that was leaning against the leg of the table. We watched curiously as Robbie dug through it, apparently looking for something. After several moments, Robbie pulled out a battered notebook along with a pencil. "We have to think of a topic for the show today...."
"Decided to act fashionably late today, hey Robbie?" Ray teased with a laugh. Robbie rolled his eyes as he opened the notebook to a fresh, but slightly crinkled page.
"No, I was busy yesterday, alright? Anyway..." Robbie glanced up at Lily and Travis. "Do you two have any ideas?" Lily shook her head, not having any available. I couldn't really think of anything off the top of my head either, at least non that were creative, interesting, or that would be worth listening to on the radio. Travis, on the other hand, began to trace his finger across his chin thoughtfully, before putting on his crooked smile.
"How about a segment on alternate universes?" he said with a mysterious flicker in his gray eyes directed towards me. I gave out a laugh and gave him a light slap on his arm.
"Yeah, like people need to think now that you have turned all superstitious on them...." I teased while pushing a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. Travis just shrugged.
"Well, it isn't really superstition if it's real...." He added. "Especially in your case..." I leaned back on my cafeteria chair and crossed my arms. Robbie was listening, and tapping the pencil thoughtfully on the notebook paper, as if thinking of the possibilities of the subject. I personally thought if they did do that topic, most listeners would think they were off their rocker. Looking at Lily's face, it seemed like she was thinking along the same lines as me. Ray had now stopped eating, and was looking around at us with a very confused look on his face.
"Alternate universes?" Ray repeated, dumfounded. "Travis, I know you usually say stuff out of the blue...that may I say doesn't make sense..." Travis shot Ray an annoyed glare. "But alternate universes, where did that....."
Ray stopped talking as his gaze landed on my face, with a sharp intake of breath. While he had been speaking, he had been looking at us each in turn. With the last words, and with one look at me, a dawning of new understanding filled his facial expression. His eyes were rounded as they started at me in slight horror. Lily gave him the usual punch in the arm
"Omigsoh, Ray....how could you not remember anything we were talking about yesterday...." Lily asked with disbelief, but Ray wasn't listening and hadn't flinched when she punched him.
"You seriously have a memory span of a goldfish..." Robbie said with an exasperated sigh. Travis started to chuckle quietly at the lasting expression on Ray's face. I didn't move, but just slightly raised my eyebrows, wondering how long Ray would keep his shocked eyes fixed on me. I felt sort of bad that we had mentioned the subject, since Ray was really not taking it well at all yesterday....him claiming he was the one and only Ray...
"How about...I go and get us some sodas..." Ray said, quite shaky. I watched with slight pity for him as he got up from the table and headed for the soda machine near the cafeteria kitchens. Lily saw me watching him and looked on also.
"Do you think, I mean, how is he...." I began softly, watching Ray put a couple of coins into the machine.
"Don't worry about it..." Lily said with a wave of her hand, as if to push away my worries away. "He'll be fine....at least he won't be totally scarred for life.." She added as she saw Ray open a garbage can and put his head in, no doubt looking for cameras. Convinced there was no recording or taping devices inside, Ray lifted his head out, not noticing all the curious looks he was getting from onlooker students.
"Here, five sodas for all my friends." Ray said in a cheerful tone when he had reached our table, to cover up his almost nervous fit before. He placed a soda in front of all of us and we all nodded in thanks. I opened my own can of soda with a click, and light fix started to emerge from the top. I took a sideway glance at Ray, who was taking small sips of his soda, and his eyes were moving quickly back and forth, continuing his search of hidden cameras. I leaned across the table, willing to distract him.
"Here, watch." I placed my soda in front of him, as my fingers grasped the metal ring of the can, that assisted in opening it. I then started to move it back and forth, silently counting to myself. Ray, and the rest of the gang watched curiously as I continued to do this, until the metal ring detached itself from the can.
"It came off on an even number." I told them as I held it up. "That means whatever wish I made before will come true." Travis opened his mouth to say something, probably to state that wishes from soda cans were way over the top on superstitions, but he stopped when Lily gave him a cold look. I smiled to myself as I watched Ray eagerly to this to his own soda can, his lips moving as he counted to himself.
"What did you wish for?" Robbie said with a smirk on his face. I shook my head with a silly grin on.
"I can't tell you..." I teased. I grabbed my can of soda and took a swig from it without another word. Actually, I hadn't really wished for anything. It was just some sort of thing I did when I was little with my friends. I thought it would be a cute thing to show Ray, and distract him from his hidden camera fears, at least for a few minutes.
"Danielle, give me your hand." Ray said, breaking me away from my thoughts. I cocked my head to the side as I obeyed, and held my opened hand out to him. He held his closed fist above mine, before opening it up and having something small and lightweight land in my palm. With curiosity, I brought my hand closer to my face. When I saw what it was, I gave him a small smile.
"I made a wish," Ray said grinning from ear to ear as I gazed down at the soda can ring resting in the middle of my palm. "That you will get home safely...but at the same time..." I glanced up at his trusting face with his last words. He took a deep breath before continuing. "That you gave a great time while you're here, and that you'll always remember us." Ray finished with childlike hopeful tone of voice.
I felt my eyes brim with small tears as I took a glance at each of their smiling faces as they watched fro my reaction towards Ray's action. I rubbed my thumb against the small metal piece in my hand, trying to prevent the tears that were threatening to fall. I was truly touched by Ray's gesture, and the almost tears proved it.
"Of course I'll remember you," I said to Ray in a hoarse whisper, before turning to them all. "I'll remember all of you....."
We all sat there, silently for a few moments. The four if them were staring at me, I guessed they were waiting for me to totally burst out in tears. I started to laugh at myself and wipe my eyes from the brim tears. "Come on," I said grinning. "Let's take some pictures for me to remember you by..." I then grabbed my back pack and dug through it, searching for my camera. They all laughed in somewhat relief that I didn't get all emotional, and also that Ray was now trying out some funny poises for the pictures.
As I sat there, laughing with them and taking pictures, for the first time since I had gotten their, I wished it wasn't a dream.
A/N: Know what I really wished for......no?...Okay, I'll tell you...I wished for reviews from you to make my day!