The Lunch Line

The Café

Wednesday, September 1

11:15 a.m.

Gwen felt lost.

Not like I don't know where my mommy is lost, but more like the world is overwhelming and I'm not sure how to fit in lost.

But wait a sec. Gwen was an alpha. And alphas have to know the social order. No, not just know. They have to be in charge of it.

Taking a big breath, Gwen tried to drone out the dizzying chatter of students in the lunch line. She had came to the café a little late, and now the lunch line was super long and took forev-ah. Earlier, Ripple had texted Gwen to find a lunch table and save all the seats until she came. But it looked like all the tables in the best places were already claimed by the blonde cheerleaders of the school's cheerleading squad The Briarwood Babes who cheer for BOCD's boys' soccer team The Briarwood Tomahawks. The hawtest boys and the two prettiest cheerleaders sat at the table where the sunlight from the window hit them perfectly like a spotlight from heaven while the not-as-attractive cheerleaders and the normal soccer boys sat at tables around the "spotlight". One of the two cheerleaders that sat at The Table was Jennifer while the other was her beta best friend Pandora. Everyone knew that Jennifer was the captain of the Briarwood Babes and that Pandora was her second in command.

Gwen remembered Jennifer from her elementary school times. The teachers loved Jennifer ever since she walked through the doors of kindergarten and has kissed her butt ever since. Gwen also remembered that all the boys had fallen heads over heels for Jennifer when they were in fourth grade and has continued to do that to present times. One bat of her thick, long eyelashes could fool a teacher and free her from punishment. Because adults can't stand looking at Jennifer's innocent pastel robin egg blue eyes. But Gwen knew better. That innocence was faked in front of adults. In the blink on an eye, those innocent eyes could change into a seductive glance.

And one toss of her wavy light blonde hair could steal a boy who has dated his girlfriend for two years. Really. Gwen saw that actually happen with her own eyes last year when Jennifer stole Leonard, the Briarwood Boys' star player, from Laurie Young. It wasn't that Laurie was ugly. In fact, the contrast of the girl's olive eyes from her thin, glossy, layered brown hair was stunningly beautiful. And the girl wasn't fat either. She was clearly a size four just like Gwen.

But Laurie was still no competition for Jennifer.

Gwen relieved the scene in her mind. Laurie was hugging Leonard after the Briarwood Boys won a game. Jennifer walked up to the couple with Pandora following close behind. The couple separated their hug when they saw the two blondes, but still held each other's hands. "C'mon, Leonard. If you don't come quick, we're going to be late for the celebratory party," Jennifer said. "Go without me," Leonard had said, "I already promised Laurie a date." Then Jennifer shot a poisonous glance at Laurie which Leonard missed but Gwen and Laurie hadn't and replied, "Are you really going to choose your girlfriend over us?" There was a second off hesitation, and then Leonard said to Laurie, "Laurie, wanna come to the party with us?" Laurie had looked disappointed, but said yes. "Sor-ree, It's for players or cheerleaders only! I don't remember her being on the team, do you, Pandora?" Like a good beta, Pandora shook her head. "So, coming or not?" Jennifer asked Leonard. "No thanks," the boy replied. "Your loss. It's your life," Jennifer said, then turned on the heels of her pure white cheer shoes, tossed her luscious hair, then started walking away with Pandora. Suddenly, Leonard shouted, "Wait up! I changed my mind!" and ran after Jennifer without even giving an apologetic glance at Laurie.

Gwen also remembered guiltily that she was kind of relieved that it was Laurie and not her.

The second best tables were all already claimed by wannabe cliques. Even all the C-lister tables were mostly full. No matter how desperate Gwen needed a table, she would ne-vuh give away her dignity by sitting at a table with normal people that weren't LBRs yet, but isn't exactly on the B-list, aka the losers not yet beyond repair. Alphas lead glamorous lives, nawt boring regular ones.

One glance at the D-lister tables made Gwen shudder. Those were the dirty chairs and tables that were in inconvenient spots like in front of the trash can and next to where the loud and bossy cafeteria monitor stood. Just think of the horror her perfect complexion will have to face when she has to fake smile and listen to some LBR rant about something whatevs while being pelted by the spit coming from the loser's mouth with braces. That would be a direct ticket to all things spelled LBR.

A voice interrupted her thoughts and pulled Gwen back to the cafeteria of doom.

"Hey, are you okay?"

The voice came from behind her back. Gwen turned around and saw that is was the girl from before.

She was walking towards Gwen. When Verity got closer, she cut a bunch of kids in line and squeezed into the spot behind Gwen. Instead of telling her to "shove it", the students behind just backed up to make space for Miss I'm-so-perfect-and-you're-not.

Half out of surprise and half out of gratitude (thank goodness no one else saw her while she was in her own little world or else her chance for alpha would be gone), Gwen quickly set her face into a normal expression and replied, "Yeah, but you don't have to point it out so the whole world will know."

"You should thank me for helping you, not blame me, you know," the girl fired back, "The whole world would have known if you kept on spacing off without me pointing it out."

It was actually a great comeback, using what the other said to shoot back at them, but Gwen would nev-uh admit that she was once placed in an uncomfortable position by another girl. So all she did was arch her eyebrows and said, "Are you sure?"

Verity gave a little smirk. "You think anyone without owl ears can hear me in this deaf zone?"

Gwen had to laugh a little at this one. Verity gave a little giggle too. Gwen took that as a good sign that they were equal.

Even though Ripple had told Gwen that they would compare their lists for potential betas before anyone got recruited, Gwen pushed the thought aside. Ripple had went behind her back many times before, so why not start now? Perfect chances don't come as easily as chipped manicures.

"Wanna sit together over there?" Gwen asked, pointing at a table near the door. Verity glanced around at the lunchroom and stopped where Gwen was pointing. "It's not like we have many choices," she replied.

"Great," Gwen said with a little smile, but inside, she thought, "Step one: complete." Now for step two. Become best friends with Verity to replace Ripple.