On a fundamental level, TJ understood that at 13, girls were something that should be taking a considerable amount of his attention. But knowing that didn't change him not seeing the appeal. They were just girls. Apparently that was enough for the guys to talk about them in the locker room. But there was a world of other topics to talk about.

That opinion didn't change when he got a hold of one of his older cousins Playboy magazines. Once the surprise wore off, he put the magazine back and didn't give it second thought.

ZZZ

True to her word, the kittens were all adopted by the end of the week.

TJ sat at his usual table during lunch, looking at the pictures Lisa, his coworker down at the shelter, had sent him. They were of the kittens and their new families before they were taken home, even the calico that scratched his arm.

Good.

"Are those kittens?"

He looked up. It was one of the girls that somehow thought his empty table was an invitation to join him. Sarah, he remembered was her name. TJ didn't dislike them, but he didn't like them either. They were just sort of there sometimes. They didn't bother him enough to ask them to leave and didn't come over often enough to put much thought into it past 'oh, they're coming over today, huh'.

"Yeah," he said, swiping to another picture.

"Are they yours?" She asked, taking a seat next to him.

Still, when they did come over, there was the question.

Why?

"No. I found them and took them to the shelter," he said. "These are pictures of them getting adopted."

"Aw, that's so sweet," said Sarah. "Casey, come over here and look at these kittens!"

It wasn't like he tried to get their attention. He was't interested in girls like the vast majority of teenage boys were, so that wasn't the case. Maybe they had a thing for quiet guys with a constant look of indifference. . .

This was one of those things he was never going to understand.

Less than five minutes later his table consisted of him and 5 girls who were passing this phone around to look at not only the pictures of the 5 rescues, but the other pictures he took of the animals there.

"You really like animals?" One of the girls, Daisy asked. She was super feminine, always wearing skirts and dresses and lace and flower prints and her hair always in an some sort of elaborate braid. Epitome of 'girly'. Her boyfriend texted him for advice for a present a while ago. . .

"Yeah."

"That's so cool. When most guys say they like animals, they just mean dogs. I wish more guys liked smaller animals."

A glance across the lunch room and TJ saw her boyfriend staring him down. If looks could kill, he'd be 12 feet under instead of 6. Oh well. He should listen to his girlfriend more.

ZZZ

They had to blink a couple of times to make sure their eyes weren't tricking them.

The same guy who didn't want to be bothered with friends, new or old, who apparently hated his old nickname, and only opened up when the conversation was about rescued animals was attracting a gaggle of girls at his table.

Without even trying.

"I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing," Gretchen spoke up, breaking the silence.

"It's a good thing. I think? I mean, us guys would kill for a bunch of girls to come up to us," said Vince. "Not me, though. I have a girlfriend."

"Speaking of, where is Spinelli, anyways?" Gus asked.

"She said she had to take a phone call," said Gretchen. "I am interested in what the conversation at that table, however."

"Can't you use Galileo so we can listen in?" asked Gus. Gretchen shook her head.

"Normally, yes. But it's a cafeteria; it's crowded. It'll be difficult to focus on that with so many conversations happening at once," she explained.

"Hey, guess what?" Spinelli ran up to the table. "I just got off the phone with my cousin, and shes gonna let me use her cabin up in the mountains!"

"You mean your crazy rich cousin with the huge cabin right next to a lake?" Vince asked.

"Yeah, that one. She said we can use on winter break," she said. "So don't make any other plans, we're spending a week up there. So, what's going on?"

"We're trying to figure out what going on over there." Gus gestured to the table across the lunch room where TJ sat at a table with a group of girls joining him. "They just walked over and now they're sitting with him."

". . .That's weird," said Spinelli. "He hasn't told them to fuck off, yet?"

"Doesn't look like it," Vince said. "So far it looks like he's not bothered by them."

"So he's fine with a group of girls he doesn't know coming up to him, but he acts like we're torturing him for wanting to have a conversation," she said, folding her arms. "And he won't even tell us why he hates us."

"I don't think he hates us, Spinelli," Mikey said. "I think he might be put off with how forward we're being, but I don't think he hates us. He doesn't have a reason to."

The conversation paused after Mikey's words. He was right. Besides trying to spend time with him, TJ didn't have much of a reason to hate them. It was hard enough to get him angry, and probably harder to make him hate. It's not like wanting to be left alone automatically meant that person hated you.

"How about we invite him up to your cousins cabin with us?" Mikey suggested.

"He's going to say no," she said. "I don't care; we'll drag him up there by his feet if we have to."

ZZZ