A/N: Enjoy! And if you don't, please don't hesitate to make suggestions.

Chapter Four: Bake Sale

11:26 A.M.

"… the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and a second bomb on Nagasaki three days later. On August 14th, the Emperor surrendered unconditionally, ending the second World War." Mrs. Hardgrove removed her glasses and looked up from her notes. "Quiz on Monday over chapter 12." Without any further comments, she closed her notebook and walked back over to her desk, where she began organizing stacks of papers. Andy closed his notebook and started putting away his things.

"Hey."

Andy looked over at his best friend James, who was sitting across the aisle from him. "Yeah?"

"You busy tomorrow?"

Andy paused. "Uh, no."

"Wanna come over? We'll play a little one-on-one."

Andy shrugged. "Yeah, okay."

James nodded and leaned back in his seat. Andy finished putting his notebook away and slumped over onto the desk, burying his head in his arms.

"You okay, man?"

Andy looked up at his friend and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm just tired."

"6:30?" Andy nodded and James sighed. "I don't know how you do it, man. I'd be fallin' asleep in class if I had to get up that early."

Andy shot him a skeptical look. "You already fall asleep in class."

James grinned. "Touché ." He pushed his hands into his letter jacket and leaned forward. "You hear about Stubby's party?"

Andrew shook his head. "When is it?"

"Tomorrow night. His parents are in Europe."

"You goin'?"

"Probably. You?"

Andy shrugged. "What else am I gonna do? Sit at home and listen to my father moan when Kentucky beats the shit outta Illinois and gets into the Final Four?"

James frowned. "Illinois still has a chance."

Andy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right."

"They do! Good coaching, solid defense. They even-"

"They're gonna blow it. They always do."

James shook his head sadly. "Oh, ye of little faith."

Andy shrugged and yawned into his forearm. The bell rang and James stood up and grabbed his bag. Andy looked up at him and cocked an eyebrow.

"Get your ass up. I'm not carryin' you."

Andy flicked him off, but James was neither impressed nor intimidated. "Come on, man. I'll buy you a Coke."

"I've got milk."

"Milk has tryptophan, which will make you even more tired. You need caffeine."

Andy wrinkled his brow in confusion. "What? How the hell do you know?"

James lifted an eyebrow. "Uh, because I can read?" When Andy glared at him, he just smirked and kept going. "I mean, I know it's tough for you wrestlers since you go around choking one another and butting heads but-"

"Prick." Andy stood up and grabbed his backpack. "Just for that, I am gonna make you buy me that Coke."

11:29 A.M.

As soon as the bell rang dismissing her to lunch, Allison jumped up from her seat and practically ran from the classroom. She always hurried to the cafeteria at lunchtime because there was one table in particular that she liked to sit at and if she didn't get there early, it ended up being taken over by the band nerds, who occupied the rest of it. They ignored her for the most part, which she didn't really mind, but they didn't hesitate to move in on her territory if she didn't stake out her position ahead of time.

The table was empty when she arrived. She plopped down on the far edge of the bench and opened her knapsack, pulling out her lunch. As the first of the band nerds arrived, filling up the far side of the table and working their way towards her, she started eating, alternating between bites of sandwich and carrot sticks.

After a moment, Allison looked down at her sandwich. She hated ham and mayonnaise sandwiches, she really did. Maybe it was because she hated ham. She didn't think that she did, but it was a possibility. Then again, maybe it was just because she'd eaten the same thing everyday for the past ten years or so and she was tired of it. Allison wrinkled her nose and opened the sandwich, placing the pieces of bread side by side on the plastic bag. The first thing she did was remove the ham, which she decided that she did, in fact, hate, and threw it at the garbage bin a couple feet away. It hit the side and fell onto the floor, but she was too engrossed in her project to care.

The sandwich looked very plain without the ham, but Allison knew that she could fix that. She reached for the bag of carrot sticks and started arranging them on the bread, smearing the mayonnaise around as she worked. When she was finished, she leaned back and admired the finished project. It looked nice and it was certainly different, but she was pretty sure that it was going to taste just as bad as it did before.

Suddenly, Allison remembered the bag of cereal she'd stuffed into her skirt pocket that morning at breakfast. She pulled the carrot sticks off of the bread and tossed them into the garbage bin as well, not bothering to check and make sure that they all got in. She pulled out the bag of cereal and grabbed a handful of the crunchy little balls, pouring them onto her sandwich. A couple of them rolled off of the bread and onto the table, so she used the heel of her hand to crush the remaining pieces into the bread so that they wouldn't follow suit. Very carefully, Allison lifted the two pieces of bread and pressed them together. A couple pieces of cereal fell out from the bottom, but she didn't care, just lifted the sandwich to her mouth and took a giant bite.

The result was better than she'd expected. The cereal gave the sandwich a satisfying crunch and the mayonnaise added moisture, even if it did take away from the flavor a bit. It needed something else, she decided. Something sweet maybe, to balance out the mayonnaise. She'd look in the pantry when she got home to see what she could find.

Out of the corner of her eye, Allison could see a couple of the band nerds watching her. She turned and glared at them and they looked away, embarrassed and a bit disgusted. Allison grinned, mildly pleased that she'd managed to attract some attention for once.

She'd have to remember to pack cereal for lunch every day.

11:33 A.M.

The first thing Claire saw when she walked into the cafeteria was a large table up at the front of the room with half a dozen chairs set up behind it. The poster behind it read, 'Prep Club Bake Sale!' in huge blue letters and had little pictures of cupcakes and cookies along the border.

"Hey, Claire."

Claire walked up to the table. "Hey, Jenna."

"It looks so great, doesn't it?" Jenna, a tall girl with straight brown hair a big, friendly smile, pointed at the sign above her. "Mel and I got here early this morning to work on it. It took us forever."

Claire glanced at the sign again and nodded. "It looks really good." She walked around the edge of the table and claimed one of the chairs in the middle.

Jenna slid onto the one beside her. "Did you guys have fun after we left?"

Claire shrugged. "I guess. A couple of Anthony's friends showed up and hung out for a while, but I left early, so I don't know what they ended up doing afterward." She glanced over at Jenna. "What about you?"

Jenna shrugged. "Nate and I went back to his house to hang out."

Claire watched her carefully. "Did you two have fun?"

Jenna nodded quickly and tucked her hair behind her ears. Claire thought she looked a bit nervous and flushed, but decided not to comment on it. "That's good."

"Yeah." Jenna shot her an embarrassed smile, then started pulling packages of brownies out of a box near her foot. Claire looked behind her, where there were at least twenty small boxes stacked against the wall. She grabbed the one on top, which was filled with chocolate cupcakes, and started arranging them on the table.

By the time Charlotte and Heather showed up, the table was covered in portable, singly-wrapped desserts. Heather dumped a stack of books on the floor next to Claire and plopped down on the chair. "Oh, my God."

Claire glanced over at her. "What?"

Heather sighed and flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder. "Just took Franklin's midterm. That man…" She trailed of, shaking her head. "… is Satan himself."

Claire laughed. "Hard?"

"I'll say." Heather glanced over Claire's shoulder, then turned back to her friend and grabbed her arm. "Come with me. I have to talk to you about something."

Claire furrowed her brow in concern. "Is this about your car? Because I'm sure you can find-"

"No, it's not about the car." Heather grabbed Claire hand and stood up, dragging her from the seat. Claire rolled her eyes and stood up, glancing back at the others. Abby and Melanie had just showed up and were admiring the desserts. "We're going to the bathroom. We'll be right back," Heather called.

The four girls nodded and waved them away. Heather continued dragging Claire across the cafeteria until Claire stopped dead in her tracks and yanked her arm away. "Heather! Stop! What's going on?"

"I'll tell you in the bathroom."

"No, tell me now."

Heather smirked. "It's about Jack."

Claire grabbed Heather's hand and dragged her the rest of the way to the bathroom.

11:39 A.M.

Bender was on his way out to the bleachers when a sign posted by the entrance to the cafeteria caught his eye. It was an advertisement for a bake sale sponsored by the Prep Club and was covered in little picture of cookies and other kinds of dessert. Just in case no one knew what a bake sale was.

Bender pushed open the door to the cafeteria and looked around. The bake sale table was set up along the far wall and was being manned by four girls who were talking amongst themselves. Bender strode down the center aisle, his boots thumping loudly against the linoleum.

"… so then she said, 'Charlotte, you're grounded!' and I was, like, 'Mom, it's only five minutes past!' and she said…" The speaker, a really beautiful girl with curly blonde hair and clear blue eyes, stopped in the middle of her sentence to look up at Bender. "Yes?"

Bender smirked. This was going to be so easy. "Good morning."

The blonde girl lifted her eyebrow skeptically. "Good morning."

Bender glanced over at the other three girls, who were watching him, some curiously and some with more than a touch of loathing. "Morning, ladies."

"Good morning." A friendly looking girl with brown hair smiled at him. "All of our desserts are homemade and they're really good. These cupcakes over here are-"

"He knows they're homemade, Jenna." The blonde girl glared at her friend, then looked back at Bender. "Well?"

Bender arched an eyebrow, then looked back at the brunette. "I'm sorry, what were you saying about the cupcakes?"

The girl shifted uncomfortably and glanced over at her friend, who looked extremely pissed off. "Well, um, they're really good." She offered him a timid smile. "I baked them last night."

"Hmmm…" Bender picked up one of the cupcakes in question and looked over at the blonde girl, who was staring at him, waiting for him to make a decision. "Hey… Barbie…" The girl's eyes narrowed and Bender grinned suggestively. "… what did you bake last night?"

The girl didn't look away, just kept staring at him for a good five or six seconds before answering. "Brownies," she said finally.

Bender nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. "Which ones?"

The girl clenched her jaw and pointed to a group of brownies a couple of feet away. Bender picked one up and brought it up to his nose, taking a long whiff. He pulled it away and looked back at the blonde, whose nose was wrinkled in disgust. "Smells funny."

"Oh, really?"

Bender nodded. "Smells like maybe there's something else in there." He paused. "Some kind of chemical… or herb maybe."

The blonde girl wasn't impressed. "Actually, you're right. I put something extra special in it."

Bender lifted an eyebrow. "Is that right."

"Yeah, just for burners like you."

The term 'burner' amused Bender. "Oh, yeah? And what would that be?"

The girl smirked. "Arsenic."

Bender nodded, secretly impressed that she even knew the word. "Really? Arsenic?"

"Yep."

"Just for burners like me?"

"You know it."

Bender took one more sniff and put the cupcake and the brownie on the table so that he could pull out his wallet. "You know, I happen to love arsenic."

The blonde girl accepted the dollar bill he handed her and opened the box of money to make change. "Is that so?"

He nodded. "Take a little in my coffee every morning. Good for the liver." The blonde rolled her eyes and put the dollar bill into the box.

Bender moved his gaze over to the other three girls. "Ladies," he said, pretending to tip his hat. The cheerful brunette gave him a hesitant smile, but the other two just sneered at him. He shrugged and looked over at the blonde, who was holding out his change. Bender put up his hand and smiled knowingly. "Keep it… there's more where that came from." Before she could say anything, Bender winked, picked up his desserts, and walked away from the table.

A/N: Sorry this wasn't a total plot-mover (read: filler), but the next couple of chapters will be.

And, just because I'm sure you're DYING to know, Andy was right about the NCAA basketball tournament. Illinois lost to Kentucky, who in turn lost to Georgetown, who went on to beat Houston (sniff) in the Final Four Championship game. I found this info at hickoksports dot com, just to be fair (after writing about eight million papers as a college student, you learn to start citing sources).