I don't own the Breakfast Club
Enjoy!
11:30 was the time when Andrew was normally be sitting with his group of teammates during lunchtime. He looked at the rowdy table that was swarmed with his teammates. Andrew heard glimpses of their conversations that consisted of the coach's trainings, who was competing, and about Larry's free position on the team. During this time, Andrew had not caught sight of Larry anywhere and he didn't know when he would cross paths with his ex-teammate. Andrew kept his head low and passed by the table. This time, he was willing to try something different.
"Andrew!" Tony jumped up from his seat at the sight of Andrew, "yo Andrew! Come here!"
Andrew stopped in his tracks as he heard his name being called. If I go against my will, nothing will have changed he thought thinking back to Allison's words when she said that he couldn't think for himself. Why should he let other people make decisions for him? Why should he feel the pressure into doing something he didn't want to do? This…ends now Andrew thought. He took a deep breath and without giving his teammates a look, he walked away from the table.
The moment that Andrew made that decision, no matter how small it was, he felt a sense of freedom. He did his best to block out the noise that was directed towards him the moment that he took a seat at an empty lunch table. Sitting alone after so many years of sitting with his teammates felt awkward for Andrew. Was this how people outside of his social circle felt? Alone without any friends? To keep himself busy, he began to fish out his lunch items and spread them onto the lunch table.
"Hey." Andrew looked up when he heard someone calling over to him close by. He came face to face with Allison as she stood by his table. "Is this seat taken?" she asked and pointed to one of the empty spots.
Andrew felt a wave of relief wash over him when he saw Allison. "No," he shook his head to her with a smile upon his lips as he saw Allison take her seat next to him.
Allison sat down and then turned her head to look over her shoulder. "You're not seating with the other jocks," she pointed out to him.
Andrew shrugged his shoulder. "I thought I'd try something different today." He peeked over his shoulder and looked at the table where his teammates were sitting as it got louder by the second. He wondered what they were talking about. Were they talking about him sitting here alone? Were they gossiping about Allison sitting with him?
Allison paid no attention to the noise around her. She looked over at Andrew and could tell that he wanted to go and sit with his group, but he only resisted his desire to do it. Come on Allison thought stop letting others think for you. She then reached into her bag and pulled out her lunch, the usual buttered bread and Captain Crunch cereal with sugar sticks.
Andrew looked at her food choices and stopped her from proceeding in building her sandwich. "Here," he said and offered her one of his sandwiches. "I don't know how you can eat that."
"What?" Allison said and looked down at her food, "Captain Crunch sandwich is the best."
"I saw you eating that on Saturday," Andrew smiled at her, "try something different. Something that's even better."
Allison looked at the sandwich that Andrew offered. There was lettuce sticking out of it, tomatoes, cold cut meat, and mayonnaise. The aroma from the sandwich was good at least, but she felt that nothing could beat her Captain Crunch sandwich. She bit into the sandwich and chewed her food before swallowing. She had to admit, it was fresh and tasted good.
"It's good, right?" Andrew asked her and took a bite of his own sandwich. "Why do you eat this anyway?" he asked and motioned to her abandoned sandwich.
"I just take what's around the house," she answered him, "I don't have anyone to do it…or cares enough to do it for me."
Andrew looked at Allison with sympathy. "Even after detention they didn't talk to you?" he asked her.
"They only noticed the makeover that Claire gave me," Allison told him, "it was just for a few seconds before things went to the way they were."
So nothing changes Andrew thought. Even with his father the only that changed about him was that he become stricter with Andrew when it came to his trainings. If nothing changed in their homes, at least he came out a slightly different person after Saturday detention.
"I don't know about you," Andrew then spoke up as he looked at Allison, "but I don't think I can do this anymore."
Shock glazed over Allison's eyes as she looked at Andrew. She felt her stomach drop upon his words. "Why?" she immediately asked him. I'm not good enough for him! her mind screamed at her.
Just then, Andrew reached over and took a hold of her hand. He felt her flinching under his touch until she relaxed.
"What are you doing?" she whispered under breath.
One person had seen him earlier today, why not the whole school? Now was the perfect opportunity! "Allison," he spoke up, "after Saturday detention, I couldn't stop thinking about you during the remainder of the weekend. God, I even had Susan's drawing of you next to me."
Allison felt heat rushing to her cheeks when Andrew said that. The last time she had ever blushes like that was when Andrew had kissed her on Saturday before they left.
"I don't want to lose something that I could have had in my life," Andrew said. His grip tightened around her hand and this time; she didn't flinch.
Suddenly, the sound of perfectly synchronized sound of high heels approached the empty table that was next to them. Andrew shut his eyes at that sound. He didn't need to see who it was; the high heels were evident enough.
"Andrew Clark!" he heard Katie's voice ringing to his ears. Her voice sounded angry with a mix of desperation.
Whatever you do Andrew told him don't make eye contact.
Allison, however, looked over at the table. She saw the usual group of preps, only one of them was missing and unsurprisingly, Claire was with them. Allison had hoped that her words to Claire would get through to her, but there was no success.
Claire looked between Katie and Andrew and she could feel that Katie was about to lose it. "Let's sit somewhere else," she suggested, trying to diffuse the situation.
Katie flung her arm out in front of Andrew and Allison. "This is who you're taking to prom? Are you kidding me?"
"Katie," came Claire's voice, almost like a warning, "let's get another table."
"Shut up Claire," Katie ordered, her eyes not peeling away from Andrew and Allison. "Out of all the girls in this freaking school and you have to go for the basket-case? Am I not good enough for you?"
The amount of desperation that seeped through Katie was embarrassing. Claire let out a gentle sight and placed the tips of her fingers on her forehead.
At that moment, Andrew couldn't ignore the insult that Katie had thrown at Allison. He turned around and faced the prep. "Yeah, what's it to you?" he asked her.
"You were supposed to ask me!" Katie yelled at him. "I had everything planned out from the dress to the hair, to the song, to the corsage! I'm the nominee for prom queen and you're the prom king!"
Allison couldn't help but smile when Katie said that. Andrew up there wearing a plastic crown praying to God that it ends quickly so he could save himself from the embarrassment. It was both endearing and comical.
Claire raised an eyebrow at Katie's words. First, she was not aware that she was runner up for prom queen; second, she had her whole outfit planned for Andrew to the very last atom of the prom event; and third, how did she know that Andrew was nominated for prom king?
Katie seethed through her teeth and looked at Allison. "I can't believe this. Taking a—"
"Katie!" Claire shouted, catching the other girl's attention. Claire couldn't believe that she was doing this. If Jennifer found out that Claire had yelled at Katie, there would be repercussions. Repercussions be damned! Claire fully faced Katie. "Leave them alone."
"Don't tell me you're supporting this freak show Claire," Katie told her.
"I can support what I want," she told Katie, "leave."
Katie reeled back as if she had been slapped. "What?"
"You heard me," Claire said to her, "go. Leave them alone."
Katie recovered from her shock and scoffed. "Jennifer is not going to like this."
"You and Jennifer can both go to hell," Claire said. She kept her stance in case Katie was going to lash out of them. It wasn't long until Katie gave Claire one last look and then headed away from them. Claire looked after Katie and saw her figure getting smaller and smaller until she disappeared into the hallway. Jennifer was going to hear about it, and she was going to give Claire hell…and Claire was not going to care. Taking a deep breath, Claire sat on the empty seat next to Allison.
Both Allison and Andrew stared in shock. Andrew was more shocked than Allison. After what Claire had said on Saturday, he didn't think that she'd break her word or act so quickly on it. "I can't believe it," Andrew finally found the words to speak, "Claire, are you serious?"
Claire looked at Andrew. "Why not?" she asked him, "it was time someone knocked Katie down a peg or two."
That wasn't the only motive for Claire. The more she thought about it, the more concerned she became for her future at Shermer. She had found out this morning that Christina had been kicked out of the group over the weekend. Someone in the social circle had told Katie about it and Jennifer, being as ruthless as she was, wouldn't allow Christina to hang out with them. Being kicked out of the group wasn't one of the concerns. It was about the gossip and how right Allison had been during their conversation this morning. Claire didn't want to be ridiculed in her group, whether they made it known or not, nor did she want to get into a fight with anyone.
Allison silently looked over at Claire. The girl had a look of contemplation in her eyes, wondering if she did the right thing for herself. "Remember what we talked about?" Allison asked Claire, making the redhead look towards her. "They're all fake."
Andrew chuckled with a shake of his head. "Now watch Katie ask the first guy at the jock's table."
Even if they were trying to make her feel better, Claire thought that she had lost a part of her identity. If she wanted to go back, she was going to have to beg for it and she was not going to put herself in that position.
"What's this?" a voice suddenly came up behind Allison and Claire. Andrew looked up to see John Bender standing behind them. "Have I walked into a social rebellion?" However, two missing members were not overlooked. "Where Picasso and the Nerd?"
Allison was not at all fazed by John's comment about her. It was a label that she proudly wore and didn't care what others thought of her. "Come join us. Add the criminal to the group."
John sucked the air through his teeth and bought his hand to the back of his neck, slightly flinching at the touch. "I don't know," he said with a touch of playfulness, "what would my buddies say about this?"
Andrew rose an eyebrow at that. "You can tell your buddies to screw off if they don't approve."
He had been close to doing that this early morning, especially the comment that Mitch made about Claire. Speaking of, his eyes fell over to Claire and he looked up at Andrew, "what's Queenie doing here?"
Andrew looked at Claire and noticed her jaw tightening upon John's comment. "Easy with the nicknames there Bender, she just went through a breakup."
John was shocked to hear that. Was there a secret boyfriend that he didn't know about? Had her comment about believing in one boy and one girl been a lie? "Ohh," he said with sympathy, sarcasm evident in his voice as he took the liberty and sat down next to Claire, "who was the unlucky guy?"
Claire didn't answer and kept her eyes on a spot at the table.
"Anyone I know of?" he asked her, "did you leave him with a broken heart?"
Allison could sense the teasing from John and the discomfort from Claire. "John," she gently said to him, "don't do that to her. She's out of her group."
Now that was news to John. However, he wanted to hear it from Claire's mouth. "How about it, princess," he said to her, "did you leave on your own terms or did they kick you out?"
She wanted to ask, what do you think, John? but couldn't find the right words for it. She suddenly looked up when she heard laughter passing by their table.
"Look," Susan said and pointed to the table and smiled at Brian, "everyone is here."
"We saved you two seats," Andrew patted the empty spot next to him as both Brian and Susan sat down at the table.
Brian looked around the table from one person to the other. "I didn't expect to see everyone here…at lunch…in front of everybody." For Brian's group, all of them were too busy with their studies to even care about the people around them. As for Brian, he tried to find that balance between his studies and hanging out with his newfound friends. He then looked over at Claire who was keeping herself quiet yet sitting at the table with them…the last person that he expected to see. Maybe she wasn't as conceited as he thought she was.
With the six of them sitting on that table, it was a heterogenous mixture of what no one in high school suspected. All of them, as Andrew had stated, were bizarre in their own way. "Think we're gonna keep this up for the rest of the week?" Andrew asked the table.
Susan held her arm up with her pencil in the air. "I'm up for it."
"Me too," Brian said and then looked over at Claire. "Glad to see you're with us Claire," he said to the redhead who managed to give him a subtle smile.