She gathered all her books and stowed them away in her backpack before standing, smiling at me on last time, and walking out of room. I decided quickly before I could chicken out to catch up to her and ask if I could walk her to her next class.
As soon as I walked out I was completely prepared for her to be almost all the way down the hall, but instead she was maybe 10 steps from the door just standing in the hall looking up at the room numbers with her eyes wide open like a child's just looking around, what was extremely odd to me was that no one seemed to see her; they just walked right passed her.
"Alison?" I said as I came right up behind her, she turned around and smiled, I scratched the back of my neck nervous about how to ask her, "Uhm would it be okay if I walked you to your next class?" she nodded smiling a little wider, still not showing teeth, and pulled out a piece of paper from her back pocket, unfolding it she handed it to me. "Oh you have lunch next, do you want to sit with my friends and I?" she nodded enthusiastically smiling again; I took that as a good sign and led her into the cafeteria. She walked slightly behind me the whole time and she walked so quietly I felt the need to keep checking if she was still there.
The closer we got to the table the dumber I felt about telling her we would be sitting with my friends, but once I saw Leah and Kim where there today I calmed considerably. "Hey everyone, this is Alison, she's new and she's going to be sitting with us today, Alison this is Quil, Jared, Embery, Jacob, Seth, Kim and Leah." I pointed them each out as I said their name. From where she stood, which was slightly behind me, she gave a wave and a small smile. I silently thanked god that Leah was feeling sociable that day when she patted the chair next to her smiling saying "Here Alison you can sit next to me." She smiled thankfully at Leah and sat down; I took the empty seat across from her.
At about the same time all the boys reached into their bags and basically pulled out trash bag full's worth of food. Alison stared eyes wide as we pulled out these mountains of food and dug in, Leah and Kim laughed at her expression and said "Yes they eat like pigs, its okay, you get used to it; you have to, look at the size of them." It was true we were all over 6 foot other than Seth, the smallest of us all that was a lowly 5'7 as a freshman. Kim Spoke for the first time since we got there, "So I'm guessing you didn't bring lunch," she shook her head no, "Neither did we, come with us, we'll show you the ropes." She said grabbing her shoulders and standing her up, "Wait Kim will you buy me some French fries?" Alison looked skeptical for a second eying the food already in front of me, "FINE," she responded with slight annoyance, but didn't say anything more before taking the money I held out to her and leading Alison across the cafeteria towards the food lines which had dissipated slightly in the few minutes since the period started.
Jacob was the first to speak after they were out of ear shot without looking up, "Finally happened?" I didn't look up either picking up my apple and examining it, "Yep." It was silent for a moment before they all tackled me and gave me noogies and stuff. With a chorus of good for you man and nice Paul's I laughed and waited for them to calm down.
We all quickly straitened up as the girls returned and it smiled and blushed slightly as I noticed Alison seemed to barely be restraining herself from laughing as she saw us. Kim handed me my fries and change as I thanked her and I started eating quickly trying not to think about the extremely pretty girl sitting across from me. I heard a slight whisper out of Leah causing me to look up.
Alison had gotten this mischievous little grin on in a way that said 'watch this' and quickly whipped her hand out and then back in, I almost didn't catch what she did until I noticed the French fry she held in her fingers, she waited to catch my attention before she quietly ate it in 3 bites. I reached forward to grab one of her carrots to eat in revenge when I realized it was no longer in my hand but in hers and she had the little cup in her other hand held close to her body as she ate the one she stole back from me, silently snickering all the while.
The girls didn't bother to hold in their laughter as they watched what was happening, when the boys heard this they took their faces out of their plates long enough to ask what they were laughing about. When Leah told them, they laughed too and Jacob just elbowed me in the ribs and raised his eyebrows before snickering and going back to his food. He knew once I had my food no one else got a finger on it without losing it. When I looked back at Alison she did this little happy dance in her chair looking very triumphant.
The bell rang and once again Alison pulled out her trusty piece of paper and eyed it with a grimace, Leah quickly snatched it out of her hand and read it quickly "OOO you have gym with us come one! We'll walk you there!" I opened my mouth to say that I could walk her; I had gym too but Kim shot that down with a quick glare and marched her away. "What just happened?" I asked to no one in particular, Seth answered "Dude they stole her, good luck prying her away from them, do you know how long it's been since they had a new female friend?" I grimaced slightly and marched along after them, Jake caught up with me and we walked in silence before he finally said "Sooo….she's not much of a talker is she?" I had to think about it, she really hadn't spoken in all the time I'd known her which was only about 2 hours, but still. "I hadn't really noticed." He made a funny face before saying "Seriously? I didn't hear her say a word the entire period, but she still got her point across just fine." I shrugged and just walked into the locker room to change quickly, I silently prayed that we would do something that allowed me to talk to Alison more.