A/N: I'm just going on a whim here so please bear with me. And if you in any way wonder how sparatic I truly am, pay close attention to Leslie's manner of speaking. She is so totally like me!

Chapter 11: Lunch With the Girls

"Hey Al," Jenny called.

Allison was about to make her way out to the football bleachers when she saw Jenny waving her down. Reluctantly, Allison turned and followed Jenny's persistent smiles.

"Where have you been?" she asked in a serious tone. "I haven't seen you around in, like, forever. Come on, you're gonna have lunch with us." She grabbed a hold of Allison's elbow and led her to the cafeteria. Leslie was walking along with them but she hadn't said a word. In fact, if Allison hadn't known any better she would have guessed that the two girls had just been arguing.

Although Allison had no desire to go into the cafeteria, she was too tired to protest. So she allowed herself to be pulled towards their table. Looking around she quickly noticed that something was different. Claire's seat was still vacant.

"Where's Claire?" she asked Leslie. When she heard the name, Leslie's dark eyes lit up and it looked as though she was about to say something when Jenny cut in. "Oh, who cares? Let's eat," she said putting her stuff down and standing up.

A while later the girls had walked through the meal line. Allison had picked up a can of coke, both Leslie and Jenny opting for a school lunch which consisted of ham sandwiches and chips.

"Are you dieting?" asked Jenny as she looked down at Allison's empty hands.

"No I'm just not hungry," she said honestly. Allison had not eaten the whole day but she wasn't the least bit hungry. She supposed it had a little to do with her monthly visitor and her increasingly bad mood.

"I should go on a diet to," Jenny exclaimed as she patted her flat stomach. She clearly hadn't heard a word of what Allison had said. "What do you think, Leslie?"

"Oh, yeah," she answered with a laugh. "You're a fucking cow."

"I know right?" she agreed. "I'll just do what Al does. I'll live off caffeine." She picked up the can of Coke and began reading its contents.

"Huh?" Allison said a little confused. The girls chatter had turned into background noise as soon as she had spotted Andrew making his way across the cafeteria.

Leslie was about to repeat what had been said when she noticed Allison's expression. Following her gaze she saw Andrew.

"Andrew," she cried. "Hey!"

"Sit down," Jenny quickly added.

"Um, no thanks," he said mildly. He was staring at Allison but Allison wasn't looking at him. She pretended to be deeply interested in the plastic wrapping of the ham sandwich. "I actually need to talk to Allison."

Both Jenny and Leslie were staring at their newly acquired lunch guest. Allison fought back the urge to run from the table and hide in the girl's bathroom but instead she said, "I don't feel like talking to you just yet."

She still wasn't looking at Andrew but she heard him sigh heavily as he contemplated what she had said. Finally he managed something that sounded like, "Well, if I call you tonight will you at least answer the phone?" but Allison, already embarrassed by the way Jenny and Leslie were staring at her, simply responded, "Yeah sure, whatever," before he had a chance to finish the thought.

"Fine," Andrew said clearly defeated. He stood at the table and looked at Allison a while longer before he left.

Allison felt the heat rising in her face. She didn't want to be so hateful towards Andrew but she was still angry, and she certainly did not want to start a discussion in front of Claire's group.

The girls watched Andrew walk back to his table. With his hands in his pockets he seemed to sulk as the other's laughed around him. Jenny smiled widely as she looked from Andrew to Allison and said, "What was that all about?"

"Yes, tell?" Leslie said in a tone of childish curiosity.

"What, that?" Allison said while looking over at Andrew catching his eye, and looking back down again quickly. "It's nothing we just had a little fight."

"Little?" Jenny asked, unconvinced. "Andy looked positively dreadful! What did you do to him!" Although the question was riddled with concerned, Jenny wasn't. In fact, the way she was smiling about it, it seemed as though the blonde was enjoying Allison's spat of drama.

"Oh!" Leslie exclaimed. "Was it another guy?" She looked around the cafeteria, her light brown swinging in the process, as if trying to scope out Allison's potential fling.

"No," Allison said, laughing mildly. In light of the situation she couldn't resist the humor of Leslie's outrageous comments. "It's nothing."

"You little heartbreaker," Jenny said as Leslie nodded her head in agreement. "Who would have ever guessed?"

"Yeah, right" Allison answered. Wanting to be out of the spotlight, at least for the time being, she searched desperately for a way of changing the subject. She went with the first thing that came into her mind.

"So?" she asked. "What exactly is up with Claire?"

Leslie looked over at Jenny, who apparently out of energy now that Allison's drama was put to rest, merely shrugged. Taking it as a sign to proceed, Leslie leaned in close to Allison and looked around quickly as if making sure no one was listening.

"Well," she began. "You aren't going to believe it. See we have been getting totally bad vibes from her for a while now. It's been like that since, I don't know?"

"Since the day of that detention," Jenny offered.

"Yeah," continued Leslie. "Well since that detention she had been acting all weird you know? Like distant and stuff. And we were like 'what's going on', right? But she kept saying it was nothing. And then the day of Grace's party she like disappeared and all, and than on Monday Gracetold us that shehad seen her talking to that Bender freak! So, Jenny and I decided to confront her about it and she totally denied it!She was like 'you guys don't understand' and stuff like that. Well, so then she wouldn't talk to us. And," she looked over at Jenny as if wondering whether or not to continue. When she didn't protest, Leslie went on, "Well, Grace's mom who works in the same office as Claire's dad said that they filed for divorce a couple of days ago and we haven't seen her since."

The rumor mill at Shermer High was working overtime with this piece of information and Allison, as out of the loop as she was, had only caught on until today. It did nothing more than discomfort her, she had been trying all week to get in a good talk with Claire but had failed miserably. Now, she felt guilty for not being able to offer Claire support when she needed it the most.

Noticing the grim expression that had crossed Allison's face Jenny leaned in and spoke, "Look, we all feel bad about what happened. But Claire's going about it the wrong way," she sat back and threw her half eaten sandwich back onto her tray. She looked offended. "I mean we're her fucking best friends."

"Yeah, Allison," Leslie added. "What can that Bender freak do for her?"

Avoiding the glances the girls were now giving her, Allison thought back to the time at the library. Claire had said a lot about herself during that detention, more so, Allison supposed, than she had told her best friends. And it would take a complete idiot not to notice the obvious sparks that flew between her and Bender. It was possible, that aside from a physical connection, the unlikely pair had formed an emotional bond. A bond that would ease the pain current events had caused Claire. Something, Allison knew, her current lunch mates would not understand.

And in light of everything that she knew, Allison merely said, "I don't know." She sat quietly as Jenny and Leslie started discussing a random topic involving toothpicks and peacocks. Her heart felt heavy with burden. First it had been her mother and Andrew, and now it was Claire. The bell finally shrieked and she was shaken from her moody thoughts.

"I'll see you guys later," she called. But turning back she noticed Leslie running a brush absentmindedly through her hair, and Jenny giggling with Alan Micheal. Shrugging Allison made her way to her next class.

In study hall, Allison felt a sudden urge to draw. Taking out a piece of notebook she began swiping her pencil smoothly across the page enjoying the effect of the dark lead adding color to the otherwise gleaming white background. Instead of a landscape, as she so often drew, she drew a circular lunch table. She wasn't a portrait maker, so instead of people, there was only clutter on the table. There were empty milk cartons, half eating sandwiches, and crumbled bags of chips. It could have been any of the lunch tables at her school, that she was drawing, except for the few items placed strategically across that gave a hint as to the table's occupants. There was a small plastic brush with long brown hairs tangled in it, a pink purse, and a lonely diamond stud. The picture didn't make much sense, as a piece of art, but Allison couldn't help but feel sad as she looked down at it.

When the bell rang, she folded the drawing carefully and put it into her pocket. As therapeutic as drawing had always been for her, she still felt noticeably depressed.

When the school day ended, Allison depression worsened as she thought about her inevitable ride on the school bus. She walked quickly in an attempt to avoid Andrew but as her bus came into view she stopped. The days she had spent in freedom of the metal cage had been pure bliss, and now she was faced with the sudden urge to walk, to escape its wretched claws. She queued up with the rest of the loners and was about to get on when she heard her name being called.

Unaware of whom it was, or if it had truly been a rescue mission, she stepped eagerly out of line and looked around. Relief swept over her as she noticed Jenny's red convertible a few feet away. Thanking her silently under her breath, Allison made her way over to her.

"Get in," she yelled. "I've got something to tell you."

A/N: i am so lonely, please please please review! Thanks