"What's in there?" asked Bender as he peered over Claire's shoulder.
"Guess…" she said as she pulled out a small wooden board. "Where's your lunch?"
"You're wearing it," said Bender.
"You're nauseating," said Caire turning back to her lunch.
Bender reached past her and grabbed one of the soda cans. He turned just enough to look over his shoulder before tossing it through the air. Allison stuck her hand up just in time to catch the flying can. Bender grabbed a second can and turned to Angela. She wasn't looking at him so he whistled. When she glanced up at him he shook the can. She nodded her head as he tossed it through the air at her. Once she had the can she set it down next to her lunch bag and turned back to her notepad.
"What's that?" asked Bender, turning his attention back to Claire.
"Sushi," she said with a confused look on her face.
"Sushi?" asked Bender.
"Uh,yeah….," said Claire with a small chuckle. "Rice, raw fish, and seaweed."
Andy and Bender traded slightly disgusted looks before Bender spoke again. "You wont accept a guy's tongue in your mouth, and you're gonna eat that?"
"Can I eat?" asked Claire, rolling her eyes.
"I don't know. Give it a try," said Bender seriously.
Angela had looked up when Andy started unpacking his bag. Claire, Bender and, she all watched him pull out three sandwiches, a family size bag of potato chips, a bag of chocolate chip cookies, a carton of milk, a banana and an apple before he settled to eat his lunch.
"What's your problem?" he said looking between the three of them.
Angela just chuckled and shook her head. Allison slurping on her soda drew her's and Brian's attention. THey watched as she pulled the lunch meat off her sandwich and fling it into the air behind her. Angela had to stop herself from laughing when the deli meat hit the top of the statue behind them. Her giggles are what drew Bender's attention. They watched Allison dump Pixie Sticks on to the bread from her sandwich. By the time she started adding Captain Crunch Cereal to the sandwich everyone was watching her. She smashed the two pieces together and picked it up. She was struggling to keep everything between the pieces of bread. As she went to take a bite and looked around and saw everyone staring at her before she took a large bite of the sandwich. Angela shook her head while everyone else turned away from Allison.
Bender took that opportunity to walk over to Brian and sit down next to him. As he did so, he took Brian's lunch bag and replaced it with a Coke.
"What are we having?" asked Bender as he placed the bag just out of reach of Brian.
"Uh, it's your standard, regular, lunch, I guess," stuttered Brian.
Bender reached into the bag and pulled out a thermos, "Milk?"
"Uh, soup," said Brian.
Bender reached into the bag again. Brian reached for the bag and Bender smacked his hand, as he pulled a small carton of apple juice out.
"Uh, that's apple juice," said Brian.
"I can read," said Bender looking over at him. "PB&J with the crusts cut off. Well, Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch. All the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mr. Rogers?" Bender said sarcastically.
"No, Mr. Johnson," replied Brian.
"Hah," Bender fake chuckled.
Claire and Andy shared a chuckle at Brian's response.
"Here's my impression of life at big Bri's house," said Bender standing up.
Angela glanced up at him as he mimicked what he thought Brian's mom and dad. Occasionally Claire and Andy would smile. Bender ended his skip by fake punching Mrs. Johnson. Angela closed her eyes before she turned her attention back to her notepad.
"All right, what about your family?" asked Andy after seeing Brian's reaction to the whole thing.
"Who, mine? It's real easy," said Bender. He stood up and walked back over to the statue and started to act out his home life. Angela laid her head on the desk as she listened to the dramatic reenactment of Bender's home life. She tried to tune him out as best she could, but she would still catch a few snippets.
"Is that for real?" asked Brian.
"You want to come over sometime?" said Bender aggressively.
"THat's bullshit. It's all part of your image," said Andy. "I don't believe a word of it.
"You don't believe me?" questioned Bender.
"No."
"No?"
"Did I stutter?" said Andy.
Bender slowly walked over to Andy and pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, "Do you believe this? Huh?"
Andy and Claire both looked away when they saw the old burn mark on Bender's arm.
"It's about the size of a cigar. Do I stutter?" said Bender pointing at the burn mark. "See, this is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage. See, I don't think that I need to sit with you fucking dildos anymore," he said walking away from the group.
As he walked away he shoved all the books off one of those large card catalog carts and started yelling Angela glared at Andy before she stood up and walked over to him.
"Bender," she said trying to get his attention. "Bender….Bender…listen to….damn it, JOHN!"
Bender just kept yelling before he climbed on the cart and pulled himself on the landing of the stairs leading to the second floor. Angela sighed and turned to walk up the stairs. She was good at climbing, but that was pushing it. As she reached the landing he was on, he had already sat down with his head leaning on the railing. She took a breath and sat down next to him, legs dangling off the side like him. Bender was breathing hard as she settled beside him. She could hear Claire and Andy talking. She tuned them out as she looked at Bender.
"Wanna talk about it?" she asked, bumping her shoulder into his.
"Go away," he said, not looking at her.
"Look, I don't know everything about your home life, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here who is gonna have any kind of clue what it's like to live like that," she said.
"I highly doubt your old man beats you," said John.
"You're right, my old man doesn't beat me," she said nodding her head. "He's dead. My step-dad on the other hand…" she said but didn't finish her sentence.
John turned and looked at her. She just shrugged her shoulders and gave a small, sad, smile.
"Come on, we need a change of pace," he said suddenly as he stood up and ran down the stairs.
"Where are you going?" she asked as she followed at a slower pace.
John smiled as he grabbed his jean jacket and crept over to the library door. Everyone else started asking the same question. He shushed them a few times before he cracked the door open slightly. He turned his head back to all of them and smiled before quickly stepping through the door and out into the hallway.
"Come on, hoodlum, let's have some fun," he said with another smile.
Angela shook her head and grabbed her jacket as well and followed him out of the library.
A/N: I have finally gotten the next chapter up! Sorry it has taken me so long! I'm gonna start on chapter 6 once this goes up, and hopefully I'll have it posted by tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest. Please enjoy and review and let me know what you think. Not sure how many more chapters i'm gonna do, but always be on the look out! Much love, Kat.
