Here's another chapter. Sorry if there's some tedious parts- I'm still introducing characters. That'll be out of the way soon. Please let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate it! :D
The cafeteria was bustling. Every table was occupied and the lunch line stretched nearly to the door.
"It's small." Claire said.
Jack gave her a baffled look, "What?"
"I said it's small." Claire repeated, "But if you'd like, I'll check again." she swept her unimpressed gaze over the cafeteria, "Yep. Small."
"Sorry we can't have as large a cafeteria as a city school." Jack muttered.
"Do I detect some disdain?" Claire asked, lifting an eyebrow at her cousin, "Because just in case you didn't already know, I'm a purebred city girl, and will happily kick your ass."
Jack rolled his eyes, "Let's just sit down."
"Sure." Claire said passively, swinging her paper bag lunch against her hip, "So why did you want to come to the cafeteria?"
Jack flushed, "No reason."
Before Claire could question him further, Jack took off into the cafeteria. Having no other choice, Claire followed him.
The cousins arrived at a table where two girls were sitting. One had short brown hair, while the other had wavy pink hair held back by a dark headband.
"Hello Jack." the brunette said with a smile.
This caught the attention of the pink haired girl, who beamed up at them- or more specifically, one of them, "Jack!"
"Hey Ellie," Jack said, blushing slightly as he said the second girl's name, "Popuri."
"Do you want to sit with us?" Popuri asked excitedly.
"Yeah, sure." Jack said. He was about to sit down when he remembered Claire.
"Oh yeah," he added, waving his hand in her direction, "This is my cousin, Claire."
Both Popuri and Ellie smiled at her. Ellie was the one who spoke, "Jack told us you'd be moving here. How are you finding out town?"
Though Claire was sick of these kinds of questions, Ellie seemed genuinely interested, "It's nice. Really different."
"You lived in the city before, right?" Popuri asked, eyes twinkling eagerly, "What's it like?"
Claire shrugged, "Bigger."
She heard Jack scoff, but it was two quiet for the others to notice. Her cousin sat at the table and Claire followed suit.
"What's the mall like?" Popuri asked.
Claire stared at her, "Which one?"
Popuri looked like she could faint. A moment later and she was tugging on Ellie's sleeve, giving the girl huge puppy dog eyes, that Claire couldn't help but admire. Very effective.
"We have to go to the city, Ellie!" Popuri begged, "Please! It'll be so fun!"
Ellie giggled as she gently detached Popuri from her arm, "I'm sorry, I'm sure it would be, but you know I can't go."
Popuri pouted at her, "You could take some time off work!"
Ellie gave her an apologetic smile, but didn't relent.
"Fine." Popuri said, crossing her arms. Suddenly, an idea seemed to hit her, because she dropped her arms and beamed across the table, "Jack! Will you come with me?"
Jack looked startled, "To the city?"
Popuri nodded excitedly, then turning to Claire, "You too, um..."
"Claire." Claire told her.
"Right!" Popuri carried on, undaunted, "Claire, you could come too and show us around! It would be wonderful!"
As Popuri chattered away about visiting the city, Claire noticed her cousin giving her an ungrateful look. It was like he was saying 'why do you have to come from the city?'. Claire gave him a brief scowl.
"So when-" Popuri started to say, when a shout interrupted her.
"Karen!"
Popuri broke off and turned in her seat, as did Ellie, to see what was going on behind her. Jack seemed interested too, so Claire followed his gaze.
A geeky looking boy with large glasses was calling after a girl with long brown hair, who was completely ignoring him. Neither party looked in the least bit pleased.
"Karen, would you stop-"
"Leave me alone!" the girl finally shouted, whirling around to glare at him, "Just go away Rick! This is none of your business!"
The boy, Rick, stood still for a moment, hands balled into angry fists at his sides. But when the girl, Karen, started trudging away, he didn't follow her. A moment later, and he too turned around, walking in the opposite direction.
To Claire's surprise, Karen headed straight for their table and dropped down next to Popuri.
"Your stupid goddamn brother." Karen muttered, burying her head in her arms, "Shit..."
"What happened?" Popuri asked, looking worried.
Karen was quiet. A few seconds later she mumbled something into her arms.
"None of us can hear you." Jack informed her.
Karen glanced up, looking surprised, "Oh, hey Jack. Didn't see you there."
Jack grunted.
Karen's bright green eyes sidled over to Claire. For a moment, she looked curious, "Who are you?"
So there was someone who didn't know. Claire felt a little relieved knowing that.
"I'm Jack's cousin." Claire said, "Claire."
"Oh." Karen said, "Yeah, Rick told me about you."
Claire was crestfallen.
"I'm Karen." Karen went on to say, resting her chin on her arms, "But I guess you know that, thanks to a certain loudmouth..." Karen glanced at Popuri, "No offence to you, of course."
Popuri nodded, "That's fine. I agree."
Karen gave her a half-hearted grin, then went back to hiding her face, "You guys just go on with whatever you were talking about. Pretend I'm not even here."
Though Jack and Popuri seemed to accept this command willingly enough, Ellie didn't look very happy, "Are you alright, Karen?"
"Yeah." Karen mumbled, "I just have a headache."
This seemed to further Ellie's worry. She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Karen interjected.
"Rick induced." she said, "Not drink induced."
Though this comment didn't seem to startle anyone else at the table, it certainly startled Claire.
"You drink?" Claire asked, before she could stop herself.
The others stared at her.
Ok, maybe it wasn't Jack's fault when she put her foot in her mouth.
At least not all the time.
Karen slowly lifted her head to regard Claire curiously, "Yeah." she said, "Do you?"
Claire shook her head, "Nope."
"Oh." Karen said, still looking at Claire, "You should try it sometime. Just don't let your possessive, neurotic childhood friend catch you."
"Don't have one." Claire said.
Karen sighed, "Lucky you."
"Do you want me to talk to Rick?" Popuri asked gently.
Karen shook her head, "Since when has that ever worked? He's too stubborn." Karen paused, smiling sadly, "He says I'm the stubborn one all the time."
"You are." Jack said.
"Jack!" Popuri exclaimed, giving him an audacious look.
"What?" Jack asked, holding up his hands in defence, "Rick's stubborn too."
"It's fine." Karen said, waving it off. A moment later she pushed herself back from the table, "I should get going."
"You sure?" Popuri asked, "You can sit with us. We were talking about taking a trip to the city." suddenly, Popuri's eyes lit up, "Why don't you come with us?"
Karen stroked her chin thoughtfully, "The city huh?" she grinned, "Yeah, that might be fun."
Popuri beamed.
Karen ruffled the girl's hair with sisterly affection, "I'll think about it, ok? See you guys later." she gave Claire a grin, "Nice to meet you."
"You too." Claire said before Karen walked off.
"So the city," Popuri started again, "Maybe if we got enough people we could even rent a hotel room and stay out there the whole weekend!"
Ellie gave Popuri a surprised look, "Not this weekend!"
Popuri tapped her cheek thoughtfully, "I don't really know when yet."
Ellie sighed in relief, "Seeing as it's the first week of school, I don't think that would have been very wise..."
"Exactly!" Popuri said, clapping her hands together, "That's why we'll do it next weekend!"
Ellie looked torn between objecting and letting Popuri continue on. In the end, she just sighed.
"Hey, can I ask you two a question." Claire suddenly said, to which Ellie gave a surprised nod and Popuri said: "Ok."
"Do you find these skirts itchy?"
Jack groaned.
...
Kurt entered the cafeteria around ten minutes after the bell.
It wasn't often he came to the cafeteria; he usually just wandered around at lunch. He didn't really care what he did with his free hour.
The only reason Kurt was coming to the cafeteria today was because his brother had told him too. Joe said, since it was his and Gwen's last year, he wanted to start off the first lunch of the first day with everyone.
Kurt had no idea who this 'everyone' was.
He did when he reached the cafeteria.
They'd pushed two tables together, and were by far the largest group in the room. He saw his brother on one side of the table, next to Katie, who was trying to keep his attention on the lunch she'd made for him- like usual.
Katie was the same age as Kurt, but she and Joe got along far better. They weren't an official couple, but everyone knew they were together, and would be as long as Katie could help it.
It wasn't that Joe didn't like Katie. Kurt was sure he did. It was that everything paled in comparison to fishing with Joe, who was pretty flippant to begin with. But Katie put up with him and, with her short temper, could handle him better than anyone else.
Besides Joe and Katie, there was Carl- the blonde curly haired boy who was showing the lunch he'd made to Louis and Parsley, trying to convince them to try a bite. It didn't take much convincing.
Then there was Gwen, sitting across from Katie. Lyla was beside her. And behind Gwen, talking and laughing with her was...
Bob.
Kurt went rigid. Bob. Gwen's ex-boyfriend. Gwen was talking to her ex-boyfriend, getting along with him, like she had when they were dating.
It wasn't that long ago they'd broken up. The end of last year. And- as far as Kurt knew- they hadn't seen each other much over the summer.
Then again, Bob worked at the stables, and Gwen often went there riding. They'd probably spoken a lot. But were they just friends now, or were they...
"Kurt!"
Kurt was snapped out of his thoughts at the call. Glancing up, he found Gwen waving at him, grinning.
"Come sit with us!"
Kurt flushed and hurried over to the table before Gwen could draw more attention. Half of their group was already focussed on him, not to mention a good percentage of the cafeteria.
By the time he reached the table, most everyone had gone back to their business. Joe had turned around to grin at his brother.
"I thought you weren't gonna show up, bro!"
Kurt just looked at his brother, wishing he'd left before Gwen had noticed him. There were too many people here. Too many... Bobs.
One was too many, in Kurt's opinion.
Kurt noticed Katie looking at him. A cool look, though not entirely unkind. The look two business partners responsible for the same task might give each other.
The task being Joe.
"Hi Kurt." Katie said, in a tone to match her look.
"Hi." Kurt replied. Katie seemed content enough with this reply and turned back to Joe, trying to catch his attention with the lunch again.
"Don't just stand there!" Gwen called to Kurt, patting the seat next to her, "Sit down!"
Kurt glanced unsurely at the spot, then Bob. Why wasn't he sitting there? He still liked Gwen, didn't he?
"Go on, kid." Bob said with a smile, "I've gotta go in a few minutes. I'm just stopping by."
Kurt bristled quietly, walking around to take the seat nonetheless. Bob was just a year older than him. What right did he have to call him a kid?
But Bob had always treated him like that when he'd been dating Gwen. Kind of like a little brother. It had been demeaning, though Kurt didn't think Bob had realized.
Little brother. Just thinking that made Kurt angrier. He wasn't Gwen's little brother.
"Don't look so stiff." Gwen ordered, grinning as she shook Kurt's shoulder, "Relax, it's lunch. The worst of the day is over."
Kurt didn't say anything, just waited for Gwen to release him. She was soon back to talking to Bob again, about the stables.
Kurt sat there quietly for several minutes, listening to the conversations. Mostly Bob and Gwen's. Apparently, Gwen was going to go riding on the weekend. Again.
"Aren't you going to eat something?" Katie demanded at one point. It took Kurt a minute to realize she was speaking to him, since she'd been saying similar things to his brother all lunch.
"Uh," Kurt started, uncomfortable under her cross look. He had money to buy something, but he didn't feel particularly hungry.
Katie made an irritated noise, clearly fed up, "You two are obviously related. I don't know what you have against food!"
Kurt had the feeling her words were more for Joe's benefit than his, but his brother was thoroughly enthralled in his conversation about rare types of fish with Louis. He didn't hear Katie at all.
"Try some of mine!" Carl exclaimed, shoving his lunch box towards the brothers. Mindlessly, Joe reached out with the fork Katie had managed to stick in his hand earlier and scooped up some of Carl's rice.
Katie stared at him, appalled as he shoved it in his mouth and swallowed.
"It's good!" Joe said to Carl, breaking off from his conversation with Louis, "Is there tuna in it?"
Carl winked at Joe, "Spot on."
Katie seethed, "Why won't you eat my cooking?"
Joe blinked at Katie in surprise, "Didn't I?"
"No!"
Kurt, realizing he was no longer a factor in the conversation (probably never had been) settled back in his seat for the painful wait till the bell.
"Did you have a good summer, Kurt?"
Surprised, Kurt glanced up to see Lyla leaning past Gwen, smiling at him. Kurt nodded.
"Give more detail than that!" Gwen told him, suddenly turned around in her seat. Glancing quickly behind her, Kurt was relieved to see that Bob had left.
"He worked most of the summer." Gwen said to Lyla, rolling her eyes, "I don't know how that can be good. I mean, he's not even getting paid."
Kurt thought he should say something. Since he was being trained, it was more custom that Woody should be getting paid. Kurt was happy to work, since Woody was training them- and giving them lodgings- for free.
But before he could formulate a sentence, Gwen went on, "We did go to the beach though. But that was only once, at the beginning of the summer." Gwen turned to grin at Kurt, elbowing him in the stomach, "That was the highlight of your summer, right? Seeing me in a swimsuit."
Kurt felt his face grow hot, but Gwen was back to talking to Lyla and didn't seem to notice. Lyla did, and she gave Kurt a small smile before facing Gwen.
The day they'd gone to the beach, over the summer, Joe and Katie had been supposed to come, but Joe had gotten sick at the last minute. Katie had stayed back with him, of course, leaving Gwen and Kurt to either go alone or cancel.
Gwen had refused to cancel. She'd bought a new swimsuit. A bikini.
Kurt blushed again. Yeah, the beach had been the highlight of his summer.
...
Eve didn't like to run, but here she was, running.
She was late for the first day of school. Three hours late.
It was her own fault, Eve knew. She shouldn't have taken that late shift the night before. But one of her co-workers hadn't been able to make it, and they didn't have anyone else to fill in.
Not that this was any excuse, especially since Eve worked at a bar in the city, having gotten her job using a fake ID. The bar payed better than anywhere in town, and her and her grandfather needed the money.
Eve was so consumed in her worried thoughts, she didn't realize there was someone walking in front of her and bumped into them.
Eve- too surprised to catch herself- fell on the ground with a thud.
The guy in front of her turned around, shocked, "Are you ok?"
Eve blinked stupidly for a minute. When she finally grasped what had happened, she glanced up at the boy. He looked familiar. From one of her classes last year. His name was... Cliff?
Then Eve noticed the blush on his face and realized why. Blushing herself, she quickly yanked down her skirt and jumped to her feet.
"S-sorry." Cliff mumbled, averting his eyes.
"It was my fault." Eve said, looking away as well, "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"That's not what I-" he started, but cut himself off. Cliff glanced at her nervously and asked again, "Are you ok?"
Eve nodded, brushing off the back of her skirt.
"Cliff!"
Eve and Cliff glanced up at the voice. Behind Cliff there was a girl running towards them, and a boy farther away, following with an irritated expression.
"Cliff!" the girl said again, coming to a halting stop. Spotting Eve, she stared for a very long time. Eve didn't feel comfortable in the least.
The other boy reached them. He glanced at her, but didn't seem overtly interested and focussed on Cliff, "Did you find your wallet?"
"Uh, yeah." Cliff said distantly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the mentioned item, "It was on the counter. The cashier found it."
"Did you check that everything's still there?"
"Gray!" the other girl exclaimed, "How can you think something like that?"
Gray shrugged, "I was just asking." before the girl could say anything else he checked his watch, "We're going to be late."
The girl, Ann (Eve was pretty sure that was her name) glowered at him but didn't argue as he started walking away.
"Come on Cliff." Ann said, turning to him and trying not to look at Eve.
Cliff nodded, then glancing over, "Are you sure you're alright?"
Eve, realizing he was talking to her again, gave him a small, reassuring smile, "I'm fine."
Although Cliff looked relieved, Ann looked the complete opposite.
"Cliff." Ann said, between gritted teeth, "You heard Gray. We're going to be late. That's no good on the first day."
This comment made Eve feel a lot better.
Cliff didn't seem to notice Ann's annoyance, and continued speaking to Eve, albeit unsurely, "You're on your way back to school too, right?"
Not quite back, but still... "Yeah." Eve said, playing with her loose ponytail awkwardly.
Cliff looked as awkward as she felt, "Why don't you walk with us?"
Ann bristled.
Eve was startled by the offer. It made sense though; they were all going the same way.
She opened her mouth to make a reply, not entirely sure what that reply would be, when a car pulled up beside them.
...
Muffy sat back, letting the wind blow through her blonde curls, and smiled.
"Last night was great." she said dreamily.
"Why?" Nami asked, next to her at the wheel of her red sports care. They had the top down, "What happened last night."
Muffy beamed at her, "No idea!"
Nami rolled her eyes.
They were an unlikely pair, Nami and Muffy. Muffy, a slut, who knew it and didn't see a point in trying to change, and Nami, an aloof girl that somehow inspired respect.
But differences aside, the two were friends.
Nami slowed the car as a tune came from her pocket.
"I'll check it!" Muffy offered. Nami, eyes still glued on the road, extracted her phone and held it out to Muffy.
"It's Gustafa!" Muffy exclaimed, "Ah, what's this? He wants to meet up tonight and-"
Nami snatched back her phone. Though her frown was stern, she was blushing faintly, "Stop that."
"Stop what?" Muffy asked innocently, "I was just reading the message."
Nami didn't say anything, simply stuffed her phone into her trouser's pocket.
That was something else about Nami. She refused- absolutely, outright refused- to wear the girls uniform. Aka the skirt.
Nami vs Thomas. In the end, Nami won.
Admittedly, their principal was kind of a push over.
"He wants to meet up tonight for dinner, by the way." Muffy said, "And play his new song for you."
Again, Nami made no reply, but she blushed again. A happy blush.
Gustafa was Nami's boyfriend. He was a year older than all of them, but still in highschool. A fourth year.
It wasn't that he wasn't smart. It was that he was, kind of, a hippie. He was more focussed on his music than anything else, and didn't take school too seriously.
Nami, diligent with her schoolwork and rather the opposite, seemed to like Gustafa's carefree attitude.
They balanced each other out, in a way. Muffy wished she had someone like that.
"Hey!" Muffy suddenly exclaimed, spotting a group of people ahead, "Pull over!"
Nami gave Muffy a curious glance, but followed the order. The car came to a stop in front of a trio of startled level twos.
"Eve!" Muffy called to the younger girl, "Thanks for last night! Sorry it was so short notice! Need a lift?"
"Um... sure." Eve said, still looking surprised.
Muffy grinned. She liked Eve. She was kind of like a mini her, except more... innocent. She'd helped Eve get her job, and supplied her with the fake ID. Muffy had kind of taken Eve under her wing.
"Hop in!" Muffy said, sitting back in her seat.
Eve didn't hop in, but rather opened the car door hesitantly. She glanced back at the boy on the sidewalk for a moment, but before she could say anything (if she was going to) Muffy smirked at the level twos and said, "You guys better hurry up! You're gonna be late!"
They didn't make a reply, which made sense since Nami started up the car again and drove away.
"You're one to talk, you know." Nami reminded her. Both of them had skipped the morning.
Muffy ignored Nami and turned around, leaning her arm over the seat to smile at Eve, "I'll cover for you next time, kay?"
Eve nodded hesitantly, looking stiff.
"Relax." Muffy ordered, "It's not like anything unsavoury goes on back there."
"Muffy!" Nami exclaimed.
"Nah," Muffy continued, grinning at Eve, "Gustafa and Nami prefer using the front."
"MUFFY!"