Chapter Three: Lunch Time

Wednesday, March 03

If it was at all possible, Claire thought Wednesdays might be even worse than Mondays. Sighing, she walked up to her lunch table eyeing her friends who were sitting there looking at here.

"So, Claire?" Sandra said. "What's been up with you? You seem like you're on the edge lately."

"Brenda says it's a guy," Kelly, one of the senior girls at her table said. "I say you're PMSing."

Claire shook her head in disbelief. "Sorry," She said quietly, searching for an answer in her head. "I'm just having a lot of family problems. It's shit I really don't need to deal with at this point in my life."

All at once she was dismissed for talk about the prom. "So Kel, are you running for prom queen? I know you'd get it!" Brenda said.

"I don't know you guys, I have got a lot of studying to do and the campaigning is just too much, especially if I want to get into Harvard."

Claire idolized Kelly. She was a girl that stuck up for herself and worked really hard to get what she wanted. Kelly could always pull off good grades without much of a thought and it was her top priority, but still she found ways to fit in fun and friends at the same time. Kelly was very understanding. So much that, for a second, Claire considered discussing her guy troubles with the older girl.

"Claire!" Sandra shouted. "Are you even paying attention"

Missing the point of the conversation, Claire just nodded.

"So can we do our campaign at your house"

"Sure... whatever"

This all seemed childish and trivial, but it was her high school life. Claire looked over a few tables at Brian. Noticing Allison sitting by him, Claire's eyebrows rose.

"Larry," Brian said as he sat down at the table, "Max, Travis, this is Allison"

They all said hi to her. She simply nodded in return, focusing on Larry. Is this butt tape Larry? She saw him wince slightly as he adjusted in the seat to focus on her. Definitely butt tape Larry, she thought with an outward smirk she couldn't contain.

"Is this your girlfriend, Brian?" Travis asked, leaning in close to hear the response.

Brian just shook his head. "She's just a friend. One of the girls I met at detention"

Allison wished she had just taken her lunch into the bathroom like she often did. She hated meeting new people, and these people weren't just new... they were weird. Who wasn't weird in their own way, though?

Brian sat to the right of Allison. Larry who sat on her right nudged her and winked like he might have something inappropriate to say, "What's going to be your major in college?" His question caught her off guard. The barrage that preceded this caught her off guard more so. "Have you picked out a college? What's your class rank? GPA?" All the questions were enough to make her want to slap him.

Once again she was totally out of place. Either she was the peasant to a prince like Andrew or she was a flunky to a bunch of nerds.

Instead of answering Larry, Allison let her eyes drift over to the jock's table. There sat Andrew who was too absorbed in his world of wrestling and popular kids to even notice her.

Andrew had the sudden feeling of being watched. When he looked up and around he saw Allison's eyes on him for a brief second. She turned away right as he looked at her.

He looked down at the wrestling coat that sat on the table, at the empty spot on the arm where his championship patch used to be. He wondered if she still had it and if it still meant anything to her. He couldn't blame her if it didn't.

"There's a dinner at my house on Friday," Andrew said, suddenly popping out of his thoughts. "It's like a last dinner before the states." Digging into his bag he grabbed a stack of fluorescent papers and handed one to each person at the table. "My mom and dad are all about it. Now it's hosted by my family, so no monkey business."

Recently, their team had made it to states for the second year in a row. This was mostly thanks to Andrew's own hard work. Now the hard work seemed almost trivial to everything else that was happening.

Andrew gazed across the cafeteria. His eyes landed on Bender. He was joking with his friends and tossing food at them.

After getting to know him on Saturday, he didn't seem like such a bad guy. What does Claire see in him though, Andy asked himself. He shook he head, clearing his thoughts and getting back to more pressing issues. The state championship.

"I have another to add to the list," Jeff suddenly said, a piece of lettuce hanging from his hair.

"Yeah right," Sal, another one of Bender's friends said. "That would be... 12 this month."

"Her name is Tess Holly,"

"I don't know any Tess Holly," Sal commented.

"She goes to Greenwall High,"

"Then that hardly counts. All those girls will sleep with anything that has a pulse!"

John Bender leaned back, crossing his arms across his chest and giving a little chuckle at Sal's comment. He relaxed his eyes feeling a sudden wave of tiredness wash over him. Today was going to be a day cut very short.

"Tess Holly," Peter Jacobs said from down the table. He was part jock, part nerd. One of the few who could actually blend into both groups without paying hell for it. "I know Tess Holly!" Nobody had invited him into the conversation yet, no one ever did and he always found a way in.

"You serious Jacobs?" Jeff asked.

"Yeah,"

"That's funny, 'cause I made her up!"

Everyone started laughing except for John who was nearly asleep. After a while the laughter died down and the boys started talking about something else, something that caused Bender to open his eyes and listen.

"They think they are so hot," Jeff motioned towards the table of popular girls, where Claire sat, looking anything but pleased.

"Give them a real man like me and I will whip them into shape," Sal promised.

"You couldn't whip a sandwich into shape, Sal," Bender commented, he looked over at the table, watching Claire roll her eyes at something someone said and then smile.

She is beautiful, he thought almost bitterly

"That redhead is nice,"

Bender looked over at Sal, giving him a look that told him to shut up. Sal was too caught up to notice and proceeded to stare. Bender gave up and looked back over at Claire. His stomach tightened and his heart quickened as she looked towards him and smiled a half smile.

"Did you see her smile at me?" Sal nearly shouted. The guys at the table went into a deeper conversation about the girls as Claire poked at her food with a fork.

John turned back to his friends, a wave of victory washed over him.