***James is the equivalent as Twig, just saying
"Mr. Callahan," Mrs. Orem called out to a zoned out Oliver. "What is an example of an ancient Chinese invention?" Oliver cleared his throat scrambling to remember at least one invention the Chinese invented. "Well you see Mrs. Orem, the ancient Chinese invented many things such as," Oliver pauses to clear his throat, now remembering something he had read in a book, "such as silk." Mrs. Orem's scowl cleared up as she smiled at a sheepish Oliver, "Very good Oliver, thank goodness you were actually paying attention, because for a second there I thought you were thinking about Ms. Scott behind you, instead of paying attention to the lesson!" Oliver blushed as that had been what he really had been thinking about. Bridget, who had being listening intently to Mrs. Orem, even though she had already learned about ancient China, last year while she was still being homeschooled, blushed slightly. Bridget's palms became slightly sweaty with her growing nervousness. The mention of a boy even looking at her, much less thinking about her, sent Bridget into a nearly frenzied state of nervous happiness. She closed her eyes, and began to slowly inhale and exhale to try to calm her racing heart and frazzled nerves like her copy of The Guide to Beating Social Anxiety instructed her to do. Mrs. Orem started her lesson up again after calling on a few more people, namely Mike O'Malley, and Nicole Addams. The latter having very severe social anxiety, which lead to her sweating nervously and slightly shaking after her turn was up, and she had answered the question. Oliver sighed, his moment of embarrassment had passed, and now he was ready to discuss to Bridget about joining his circle of friends. Just then, the bell rang, allowing the students to file out. As Bridget was packing up, a pre-packed Oliver stood up, and turned around to face her. "It's Bridget right?" Oliver asked, just trying to find an excuse to talk to her. "Um," Bridget said as she grabbed her last book, standing up to come face to face with Oliver. "Yeah it's Bridget, you're Oliver right?" she said quietly, as their eyes locked for a second before she looked back down again. "Yeah it is. Well uh Bridget," Oliver said, clearing his throat, "Mike and I were wondering if you'd come and join us and our friends at lunch. There's Nicole Addams, RosettaMatthews , Stella Stone to keep you company if you aren't a huge fan of surrounding yourself with just boys." Bridget smiled at this act of kindness. "I'd be happy to join all of you at lunch, what table should I look for?" Bridget asked, as she looked up at Oliver's face. "We usually sit at the farthest table from the doors you go in, but you'll probably see us anyway, since we all take up most of a table." Bridget nodded and said goodbye to Oliver, as she headed to her locker, opening it a bit faster than she had earlier, and grabbing her science binder before heading to homeroom, which was right after world history. The classes whizzed by that day as Bridget grew increasingly nervous as lunch began to approach. "At least I know Rosetta already," Bridget thought to herself in her art class as she drew a couple in a tree in her sketchbook. Then lunch came around. It was time for Bridget to endure what would be one of the best but also one of the worst lunchtimes in her school year at Joshua L. Meridian Middle School.
Oliver waited anxiously in the lunch line as everyone got their food before him. It was Questionable Meat Monday as everyone called it. Monday was the day the lunch ladies did their best to put the most questionable "meat" substances out for the students to eat. It was fun to try to identify what kind of animal the meat was, as the possibilities were endless to guess, because the "meat" in question was a hard, brown-green, chunk with bits of yellow and red embedded in it. Oliver fake-gagged at the sight of the "meat" as he put one on his tray, despite its smallness, the unidentifiable meat weighed down his tray a lot. Luckily though, the lunch ladies were kind enough to make edible green beans, rolls, and peach cobbler. Oliver sped through the line as fast as he could so he could save a seat for Bridget. He had all of his core classes with her, and he had spent every minute of each class thinking of ways he could get to know her better. Oliver was a determined person, and when he became obsessed with something, you couldn't possibly tear him away from it before he reached his goal. Bridget's friendship and trust was his goal, and now there was no stopping him. Oliver quickly paid for his lunch, and sat down in his usual seat. He placed a hand on the seat to his right in order to save it for Bridget. Just then, Bridget came racing down the hallway, lunch in hand, and quickly walked through the doors, scanning the mass of students packed into the lunchroom trying to find Oliver. Bridget spotted him at the table he told her they'd all be at. He waved at her as she walked closer. She saw the others in the lunch line, and sped up her pace in order to get to the table before anyone else sat down. Oliver motioned for her to sit in the seat to his right. She promptly sat down, and set her lunchbox up on the table, and looked over at Oliver's lunch. "What is that?" Bridget asked, pointing at the still unidentified meat on Oliver's tray. "I don't know," he murmured his eyes fixed on Bridget's face, "maybe ostrich?" Bridget smiled, "maybe it's antelope," she mused as she inspected the possible ostrich/antelope hunk. Just then, Rosetta, Nicole, Mike, Stella, and James Evans sat down around them both. "Oliver, is this your newest girlfriend?" James asked, as he speared a green bean, and lifted it into his mouth. "No James," Oliver said with great gusto, "this is Bridget, she's new here, and I just thought she needed to join our group because she looked like she needed a friend." "Oliver it looks like you filled that quota and then some already," Mike said as he tore open his roll and, pointing towards Bridget's beet red cheeks. "She's under your spell," Mike added as he thoughtfully chewed on his roll, which he had carefully buttered just milliseconds before. "Am not," declared Bridget indignantly as she roughly unzipped her lunchbox and pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich her mom had packed her earlier that morning. She bit into it just as Oscar and Morris Delancey appeared behind Mike and James. Bridget's eyes widened as Morris began to speak. Oscar's steel gray eyes bored into hers as she felt a sense of fear creep up into her mouth and nose, filling it with its bitter evil taste. This was only the beginning of terror Bridget would feel when she locked eyes with Oscar Delancey. She had good reason too, but this was only the beginning of a troubling love triangle.