Hours later, it was time for lunch.
"Oh boy, lunch!" Owen exclaimed. "I'm famished!"
"You ate a three-foot club sandwich literally twenty minutes ago," a British-accented girl with red hair in a bun pointed out.
"For someone of your IQ, you're surprisingly unfamiliar with Owen's metabolism," Noah retorted.
Scarlett conceded Noah was right, and they and the rest of the school marched into the cafeteria. Except for Owen, that is, who was held back by three campus aides.
"But I need it," Owen sobbed.
"So does the rest of the school," one of the aides reminded him. "You can go in once everyone else gets their food."
Owen sighed. The campus aides put up a divider in front of him, then left.
"Psst!"
Owen turned and saw a ninth-grade Chinese girl with two ponytails approach him. "Hey, the cafeteria workers gave me two sandwiches by mistake. You can have the other one."
"Oh, thank you!" Owen said happily. The girl tossed him the sandwich. "Say, I don't remember seeing you in town," he said whilst eating.
"Yeah, my family just moved here," the girl smiled. She put out her hand. "Kitsune. Kitty for short. I know I'm Chinese and not Japanese, but my parents liked the name, and whoops, I'm rambling again."
Owen laughed and shook her hand. "Owen. It's so nice to meet you. Have you figured out where to go yet?"
"What do you mean?"
"He's talking about the way our groups work," came a voice. Kitty turned to see a blonde girl in a purple tank top and black shorts. "We have a lot of cliques here, so it's best if you got a run-down. See that group over there?"
"The one with that couple in pink?"
"Yeah, that's Jacques and Josee's group. Theirs is the most powerful in our grade. But some other people want that power." The girl pointed to Heather, who was arguing with a tanned brunette. "That's Heather. Head of one of the most aggressive cliques in school. And over there is her sworn enemy, Taylor, who has her own clique as well. That table of guys is led by Alejandro and is next in the pecking order. Then we have the Athletes–"
She pointed to a table filled with muscular boys and girls, plus a short Amerindian,
"–the Geeks–" she pointed to a table where Cody, Harold, and some others were talking about quantum physics,
"–the Crew–" she pointed to where Leshawna and some other African-Canadian girls were hanging out,
"–the Goths–" she pointed to a gloomy table where Gwen and some others stared moodlessly into the world,
"–some other ones too small to even mention–" she gestured at various places in the cafeteria,
"–and last of all, there's the Misfits." She pointed to a table in the back of the cafeteria. Tyler was going to take a seat when he tripped over an errant backpack, knocking over identical twin boys who had a lot of bandages covering their bodies. Eva sighed and began to untangle them.
"Misfits?" Kitty asked.
"It's a catch-all," Owen explained. "Anyone the cliques don't want, like me, end up there. Everyone starts there, really, the cliques just...pick you up later."
"Not all the time, though," the blonde girl reminded him. "I've never been asked to sit with the other groups. It's really sad, too, because that means I can't sit with Devin..."
"Friend of yours?"
"Yeah," the blonde sighed dreamily. "My best friend." She looked forlornly at a Korean boy talking with Jacques, the latter easily identifiable by his massive pompadour.
"Well...thanks anyways," Kitty said finally. "You're going to be a big help for me and my sister. What's your name?"
"Carrie."
"Okay, Carrie, I'll catch you later. Ooh, wait before we go–" she pulled out her phone and grabbed Owen and Carrie. "Selfie!" The flash went off.
Carrie left, and eventually Owen was let into the cafeteria. Kitty chuckled while Owen mobbed what food remained.
"Kitty!" Kitty saw her sister, the girl Noah had seen earlier, march towards her. "Where were you?!"
"Just talking to Carrie and Owen," Kitty replied. "Come on, Emma, lighten up. Make some new friends already."
"Kitty, we can't afford to make friends," Emma growled. "Remember what happened the last time we made 'friends'?!"
"You were dumped by Jake in front of everyone, yes, I was there too," Kitty deadpanned. "But cutting yourself off from everyone isn't good for you. You know that."
Emma sighed. "Okay. So who do we sit with? Not everyone's willing to start new friendships outside their established ones."
"Well," Kitty said, eying the back of the cafeteria, "we can always start with the Misfits..."