"So, you're Jack McKinley. Born and raised in Indiana, sent to this school while your father works with his company around Asia, currently Indonesia. Fan of Sword Art Online."
"Stop that, you're going to freak him out."
"How do you even know all that?!"
We were sitting in the cafeteria, Aly, Cass, and I were. Cass had just introduced me to Aly.
"I'm very good at harnessing the powers of online search engines." She said. "Also your SAO fan page is quite… interesting."
"I made that when I was twelve." I said defensively.
"I know." Aly said, and laughed.
She made me a bit uneasy, but she seemed nice. Also Cass was right, she did have awesome hair. Actually she was really cute. There was no way I was going to tell her that anytime soon though.
"So, do you have any interests besides Sword Art Online? Or Fairy Tale, or Soul Eater, or Naruto, or Sailor Moon…" Aly grinned cheekily. She was teasing me.
"I collect rocks." I said.
Aly's grin faded. She looked surprised.
"Really? I do too. What kind of rocks?"
"Uhh, just ones I find. Usually in rivers when I'm on vacation. I have a lot of flat round ones that I used to paint, but I'm not that artistic so I stopped."
"You should start painting them again, that's really cool!" Aly exclaimed.
"Are you an artist?" I asked her.
"God no!" She said, and exchanged a glance with Cass. They laughed, probably about an inside joke. Suddenly I felt really lonely and left out.
"Remember… the green rhinoceros?" Cass said, trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard.
Aly burst out laughing again.
"Oh my god, that was terrible! Mrs. Pelloni probably hates me now!"
"You're lucky she retired." Cass said, taking a sip of his milk. "Hey, maybe you should send her a postcard. I think she lives in Miami now."
"Oh of course, that's exactly what I want to do." Aly rolled her eyes dramatically and she and Cass burst out laughing again.
"Who's Mrs. Pelloni?" I asked, trying to join the conversation.
"Oh, she was the art teacher last year, but she retired probably because of Aly's horrible taste in colours." Cass explained.
"Rude." Aly said, smacking Cass's shoulder playfully.
"Hey, where's Marco? Shouldn't he be here by now?" Aly said, looking around the cafeteria, or 'comestible' as the teachers called it.
"He offered to give Daria a tour of the school." Cass said through a large bite of food.
"Who's Daria?" Aly asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Exchange student. She's in my language classes." Cass explained.
"Oh, is she the one in PE with us? With the long black hair?"
"Yeah." Cass replied, swallowing. "That's her. I think Marco likes her." He said, raising his eyebrows.
Aly frowned but said nothing.
"Oh hey, speaking of Marco…" Cass pointed across the room. A tall guy with dark brown hair was just walking through the cafeteria doors, talking animatedly to a shorter girl wearing a yellow dress that stood out from all the students in their school uniforms.
"That's Marco." Cass whispered in my ear. "He's really awesome."
"Hey, Marco! Over here!" Aly stood up and waved him over to where we were sitting.
"Dude, let him grab a tray first." Cass said, leaning across the table and pulling her back into her seat.
Marco waved and went to stand in line with Daria. They continued chatting while Aly frowned at them from our table. What was up with her?
"So… do you guys have any other friends at this school?" I asked, trying to divert Aly's attention away from Marco and Daria.
"Well, there're the Rodda twins. And Marco's sister, Chloe." Cass offered.
"Oh yeah, Helena Rodda is cool. That's her over there with her brother, Anthony." Aly pointed to a girl and a boy sitting a couple tables over.
Helena had curly brown hair and dark skin that was almost the same colour. She was leaning over a sketch book, her dinner tray pushed to the side. Anthony was sitting next to her and drinking out of her milk glass. He had square glasses and short black hair and was maybe two or three inches taller than Helena.
"They're… twins?" I asked, confused.
"Their dad is black and their mom is Chinese." Aly clarified.
"But they don't look alike at all!" I exclaimed.
"They make up for it in personality, you'll see." Cass assured me. "Also they're both named after characters in Shakespeare's plays, same as me."
"Cass is a character in Shakespeare?" I asked.
"Cassius, yeah. I haven't actually read the play though, but my parents were Shakespeare fans."
"Were?" I questioned, and then I immediately regretted asking.
"I mean, they're not…" Cass's face hardened. "Never mind."
There was an awkward silence around us. I tried to avoid Cass and Aly's eyes. Aly stuck a huge spoonful of mashed potatoes in her mouth. Cass dropped his knife, which clattered on the floor.
"Hey, what's up bro and sis?" I looked up to see Marco with an overloaded tray, Daria looking around his shoulder.
"Hi." She said nervously. She looked like a small child hiding behind her parent/bodyguard.
"Hey, who's this?" He asked Aly, pointing at me.
"I'm Jack." I said at the same time that Aly said "He's Jack."
"Oooo-kay. So that's Jack." Marco said. He took a seat next to Aly and started eating her leftover salad.
"Hey, I wasn't finished with that!" Aly said, smacking his arm away with a smile.
"Losers weepers." Marco said, scooping up her mashed potatoes as well.
"Don't you have enough food?" Cass asked exasperatedly.
"Bro, no food is ever enough for this machine." Marco said, taking a break from eating to flex his muscles. "Oh, and this is Daria by the way. You've probably seen her in class. Daria, these are the friends I was telling you about, Alyssa and Cassius."
"Don't call me Cassius." Cass said, flinging a bean at Marco's face. It flew over his shoulder and hit another kid in the back.
"Behave." Aly said, waving her finger jokingly at both of them.
"Anyway, what's your full name? Jack must be short for something. Is your name Jacques? Jacqueline maybe?" Marco said, pointing his fork at me.
"Definitely not Jacqueline." I said.
"Jacques it is then." Marco exclaimed.
"Just ignore him." Cass whispered while rolling his eyes. "Once he gets like this it's hard to get him to stop.
"Oh, I know! Jackson." He said triumphantly.
"My name isn't Jackson." I replied.
"Jackie?"
Aly snickered.
"I'll call you Jackie." Marco decided, and went back to eating his surplus of mashed potatoes.
"They need to get some better food in here." Cass sighed as he dumped the rest of his beans onto Marco's tray. Marco immediately started devouring them. Daria and Aly were watching him as if in a trance.
"You know, I never understood why Fritz didn't just cook everything. That would be so much better"
"Doctor Fritz." Aly corrected, mimicking his accent.
Cass rolled his eyes at her.
"And it's because he has classes to teach. He doesn't have time to cook for the whole school." Aly explained. "And they'd have to pay double as well."
"But they're already paying the kitchen staff, so it's not like they'd be losing money." Cass argued.
"They would be though, because Fritz has a PhD, so they have to pay him more otherwise he won't work for them." Aly argued back.
"Does it… really… matter?" Marco said between bites of food. "As long as we get to eat, I don't care."
"Yeah, but healthier food means healthier minds." Cass said.
"Food is fuel. It doesn't matter what it is as long as we fill our tanks with it." Marco countered.
"Can we stop debating this?" Aly asked. "No matter what points you come up with the school isn't going to change anything. The budget plan is already failing, just so you know."
"Oh great," I said sarcastically. "A failing budget plan. Just so horrible for such an immaculate and prestigious school. However will they get the funds to pay for the upkeep of the no less than seven running water fountains I have seen on school grounds so far? It must be so rough no longer being part of the 1%."
There was a pause in conversation around me after I finished. Aly was staring at me like I was crazy, which I didn't like at all. Even Marco was looking at me like I was a bit of a jerk.
"The Lambda School for Gifted Youth is actually drastically underfunded for the potential of the student body." Aly stated. "We barely have much more than a regular public school, though granted we do have significantly less students. And this isn't a matter of being fiscally responsible either; we just don't have enough parents enrolling their children in boarding schools anymore. More families are choosing to keep their kids in public schools, opting out regular classes for AP and Honours classes. This is a problem because most of the school's money comes from the students' families; money from the government is only meant as a supplement when enrolment levels are low… like now." Aly paused.
"My aunt is on the board of trustees." She explained.
I was a bit dumbfounded, but luckily I didn't have to reply because just then a teacher came over to our table, interrupting the conversation.
"We're cleaning the comestible and closing it for the day in five minutes, please leave quickly." She said, staring pointedly at Marco's large helping of food that he hadn't finished yet.
"Don't worry Mrs. Massa; we'll be out before you start cleaning! By the way, is that a new skirt? It looks lovely on you." Marco said.
"Sucking up won't help you finish your meal." Mrs. Massa replied, although she did look pleased.
"Hey Marco, I think I'm going to go back to my dorm. I have some grammar to catch up with for Foreign Languages, I hope you don't mind." Cass said, standing up.
Marco mumbled something incoherent while stuffing the rest of his beans in his mouth.
"Cool, see you later. Hey, Jack, you gonna come with me?" Cass asked.
"Yeah, sure." I said, getting up. I didn't really want to be left alone with Marco, Daria, and Aly, all of whom I had only just met. Not that I've known Cass for much longer, but I'd like to consider him my friend, maybe, hopefully.
I turned and waved to Aly, before heading off after Cass back to our room.