Our Place in the Food Chain: Part XVII
Ron waited, checking his watch once more. Perhaps a third of the lunch period had slipped away and Kim hadn't shown up at their lockers. It was her turn to bring lunch and he was getting hungry. Some time over the intervening two periods the Zita problem managed to get pushed back in his mind as other things overtook the sudden panic he felt. Then too, if she was going to be the problem he thought, she would have likely sought him out by now. It was no big secret where their lockers were so he was making a great big target of himself standing right here at his.
All thoughts of his one-time love interest were swept away as he stood there waiting for Kim. If it hadn't been for the cell-phone prohibition he would have activated his communicator and simply called her. This wasn't like her, at least not like her since they had been together. She never missed a chance to spend time with him, especially with school. He checked his watch again and tried to decide whether to go in search of her or go to the cafeteria to get something, anything to eat to carry him until the end of the day. Even then it would be a while before he could get away to eat anything, since they had the first active cheer practice session of the day.
He had been psyched about it at first, since Kim was planning to integrate his routine into the cheers themselves, taking advantage of his growing physical skills, as well as providing another opportunity to train him. That is, if she was able to hold onto her position as captain. Bonnie was certain to try and push for a vote as quickly as possible though he just couldn't see her overcoming the Kim/Hope/Tara/Ron voting block without winning over all the new members. That's why they would spend the week under the old administration, just to give the new girls a chance to learn the group dynamics.
Only there was nothing to stop Bonnie from calling for a vote today. All it would take was for her to convince one of the new girls to second that and there would at least be a vote on having the actual vote. Again that would require having all the newbies firmly in her camp.
The frightening thing was if she even had the nerve to call for such a vote, that meant she had confidence she had enough members in her corner to win the day. There were other factors to consider, but politics still made his head hurt. He had enough of that sixth period in his Political Science elective.
With one last check of his watch, his empty stomach overrode his curiosity of where Kim was. She must have been doing something important and hadn't had the opportunity to let him know ahead of time. He had classes with her the rest of the day so it wasn't like he wouldn't find out. Checking his pocket to make sure he had some cash, he started off towards the cafeteria. He made it about 10 feet before it dawned on him their lunch was likely in Kim's locker.
With a few twists of the dial he had it open. There was a sack sitting on the bottom but he didn't pay too much attention to it at that particular moment.
The locker was a jumbled mess. He saw her throw her books on the top shelf before class that morning, but otherwise the locker was as tidy as she ever kept it. Now it looked like everything had been pulled out and thrown back in at random. He also noted with some dismay that the two pictures had been ripped down, the corners still attached with strips of tape. He found the prom picture in the bottom, the photo defaced.
Somebody had burned through his face.
He did his best to straighten everything out. Eventually he found half of their beach picture, specifically Kim's half. There was a tiny bit of his sunburned shoulder showing but the other part was nowhere to be found.
Only Kim, Wade, several members of the faculty and himself could get into the locker, unless somebody knew how to bypass the lock. It was still a mechanical combination but it had tamper sensors installed. That gave him an idea. He pulled the keyboard out and hit the enter key.
Nothing happened.
It didn't take genius help to figure out why. The cord leading from the keyboard to the small processor had been cut. A quick look inside showed that every accessible cable had been damaged.
He closed and locked the door and headed toward the office, all thought of food or worry about where Kim was forgotten. His first thought was to find Mr. Barkin. Despite their differences he was the one faculty member he felt he could trust the most, especially since he had recently taken their side over the mission screening issue.
Then a thought hit him. The locker had been vandalized and it was clear Kim had been the target. That meant the possibility of the police being called in. He'd seen enough of the forensic evidence shows to realize he was now guilty of cleaning up the crime scene. While he'd done it at first thinking Kim made the mess by being in too big a hurry, his fingerprints would be all over everything, possibly corrupting or destroying any evidence of who had actually done it.
That stopped him short. If he brought in Barkin at this point things could likely go south really quickly. He changed course and headed back to the lockers.
"Are you sure you don't have any idea who did it?" Kim asked.
Cary was sitting beside her at the senior table, picking at what passed for meatloaf. He had come into class with only seconds to spare that morning, so all she had been able to tell him was that they had to have a serious talk. He just looked at her in confusion as the class bell rang and it wasn't until class was over she was able to give him the brief version of what had happened Friday night. That's when he suggested they meet during lunch period.
"No. All I saw was some of the guys on the football team drinking some beer and I didn't think they were getting out of hand."
"Cary, I don't think it was beer I was drinking with my Coke. I don't like the stuff and I would have noticed it. Somebody was putting something in my drink I couldn't taste."
"Man, I'm real sorry that happened. I just thought you and your boyfriend left to go someplace private. You two were sure going at it pretty hot and heavy for a while. All I could think of was what a lucky guy."
"I'm the lucky one to have him." She said, not quite sure if he was paying her a compliment or just being slightly lewd.
"He didn't try anything once he realized what happened, did he? I mean, he was all over you for a while."
Kim raised an eyebrow. "No, I was the one losing control there. When I got too far gone he called my Dad and they took me home."
"Ouch, I bet that didn't go over too well. Anyway, I think it's going to be a real long time before I do that again. You getting wasted was just one thing. My Mom got home Saturday afternoon and I was still cleaning up the mess. I'm grounded for two weeks and I've got come up with a way to pay for some professional cleaners. I didn't realize how big a mess you Middletoners could make."
"She was mad?"
"Yeah, she laid into me pretty good. A couple of the guys were helping me but she tossed them right out and yelled for a good hour. Then she went upstairs and got a good look at her bedroom."
"Oh God."
"No kidding. I invited maybe thirty people and I figured half of them would show up with dates, so I wasn't expecting to have my house trashed. I think she threw all the sheets away…"
"Ewwwwwwww. I'm glad I didn't do any exploring while I was there."
"Yeah, they got my room too. Maybe I should have blocked off the stairs. Say, your guy, you sure he wasn't really taking any advantage of the situation, at least until you started getting sick?"
"Why would you say that?"
"Well, if you were coming on to him and all, maybe he was enjoying you a little more than he normally would until you got too bad. Maybe he got scared and panicked."
"Cary, I'm going to say this once and I understand you don't know Ron very well. We've known each other since we were four and even though we've only been a couple since spring our feelings for each other go back a lot further. Even if we weren't dating we would be best friends and he would never take advantage of me that way. Besides that, though, we've gotten…very physically affectionate. When we get that way, it's both of us enjoying it, not him taking advantage of anything."
"Like I said. He's a really lucky guy. You're just so beautiful, any guy would be lucky to have you."
"You're sweet, Cary. Have you had any luck finding someone?"
"Nah. I've asked a couple girls out. Guess I'm just too new. I went out with this one girl but she was such a self-centered little thing I took her home before ten. I'm sure you know her, she's on the cheerleading squad. Bonnie Rockingham or something like that."
"Rockwaller." Kim said, pursing her lips.
Cary laughed slightly. "You knew who I was going to say, didn't you?"
She shook her head, blushing slightly at being caught thinking ill of the other girl. "Uh, well, Bonnie's, well, Bonnie."
"Goes without saying I'm not traveling that road again. So, did you get in big trouble?"
"Not too bad. They sat me down and had a long talk about things, but I think they're pretty much upset that somebody did that to me instead of me doing something wrong, though I'm probably going to have to give them a detailed itinerary of our next date."
"Sounds like your parents are pretty cool. Hey, I've got an idea. How about once I'm off restriction I talk my mother into having your family over for dinner. That way I can apologize to them and to you in front of them. That should smooth things over pretty good, don't you think?"
"That sounds spankin. You sure your mother won't mind?"
"Nah. She likes having people over. She's a bit vain about her house and by then we should finally have everything unpacked and in place. Oh, don't forget to bring Ron with you."
"I don't think he'd miss it…Oh crap!"
"What is it?"
"It was my turn to bring lunch. I should have gone and gotten Ron before I came here. Dammit, where is my mind?"
"Don't you have classes with him the rest of the day?"
"Yes, but it was my turn to bring lunch. He's probably standing at our lockers wondering where I am." She reached for her backpack, which was sitting on the table in front of her.
Cary put his hand on top of hers. The touch stopped her cold. She wasn't used to that kind of contact from other people and a strange mix of emotions rolled through her head. His hand was warm and oddly enough, just slightly rough but the memory of when she first saw him roared back into the forefront of her mind.
She stayed that way for a long moment before she realized how uncomfortable it made her. She pulled her hand away, shouldering her backpack to leave.
Ron was getting frustrated. Half the lunch period was gone and he still couldn't find Kim. He went back to the lockers and not finding her there he started toward the office. Maybe Barkin had gotten a call from Wade and she went there to get permission to leave. That could mean a mission or their friend was trying to get in touch with them to tell them what had happened to the locker. Certainly he had some kind of sensor thingy that knew it had been damaged. He found himself second-guessing his course of action again. Maybe the police did need to be brought in. Barkin would know he wasn't to blame for what happened to her things.
He was just about to leave Senior hall when Monique walked in, heading for her locker.
"Monique, have you seen Kim?"
"Uh, I think she was headed to the cafeteria?" She pointed back over her shoulder. "Dude, you are so going to have to tell me what went down at that party. I'm hearing things in the rumor mill that just can't be right."
"Well, things didn't go real good. I just wish you had come."
"How, I wasn't invited."
"You weren't? I thought all the popular people were there?"
"Ron, did you happen to notice anything about that party, about who was there and all?" She looked at him skeptically.
"Uh, it looked like a who's who in the Senior class."
"Ron, sometimes you are so naïve." She sighed. "I don't like to play it this way because I don't want to think certain things but did you notice who else wasn't there?"
"Uh, Bonnie wasn't."
"No, that's not what I'm getting at. Bonnie didn't go because they went out and he pissed her off. I'm pretty sure she was invited. It's another thing. You probably didn't notice because you don't think like that either."
"I'm not sure what you're getting at."
"Ron…I'm black, or as some like to say, African-American. Everybody that got invited was white, just like you and Kim."
"Huh? Wait, Hope was there. She's Asian."
"Hope went with Tara. She didn't get invited either. I may be misreading some things, especially since there aren't as many black kids here as my old school, but it really seemed odd to me and I'm not the only one who noticed. Some of the others are pretty up in arms about it."
Ron stood there with his mouth open. There were one or two students of other races there, but he had no way of knowing who was there on an official invitation and who had come as a date or crashed the party. "Wow, Monique…that never occurred to me. I'm sorry I didn't see it."
"It's okay. That's not how you think. You and Kim haven't mentioned my race once the whole time you've known me. It just plain doesn't matter to you two and it shouldn't. Now, I want the details of what went on Friday night."
"After school, I promise you but right now I really have to find Kim. She was in the Caf?"
"I saw her headed in the door just a little bit ago. Maybe you can catch her."
"Sure, thanks!" He started off that way.
"Don't forget, I want the dirt!" She hollered at him as he left.
Why didn't he look in there for her? Was it simply because the two of them hadn't eaten the food there yet this year? Why would she go there anyway when they were eating food they brought? Still, if Monique had seen her there, that's where she would be, at least if he got there in time.
Things were still hopping in the crowded lunch room. A few stragglers were still in line but the staff were winding things down. Several women were still working behind the counter, mostly pulling empty pans from the hot-line. He saw something that, for a moment, made him forget his mission to find Kim.
"Master Lunch-Lady?" He whispered to no one, spying the Asian woman with the checkered head-cloth once more. He blinked and she was gone, only the regular staff visible. He took a couple more moments scanning the room, trying to spot the woman who had served the food at Yamanuchi. She was nowhere to be seen, making him wonder if he was seeing things due to hunger.
Then he spotted Kim sitting at the senior table with Cary.
They were holding hands.
A/N - Sorry to those of you looking for a chapter Tuesday night - I took a break and headed out of town with my wife and spent (gasp!) a whole 24 hours away from any kind of computer!
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