Your Chance (On Hold)

Chapter III

The day was dragging on, and it was only lunch.

As I made my way to pay for my lunch in the cafeteria, I silently said a prayer that the math test I just had taken would somehow get mixed up with someone else's, and I would get an A. Because I knew I wasn't going to get one on my test, but on a test that wasn't mine? Well, let's just say the odds were a little higher.

When I finally reached the checkout, the two boys in line in front of me turned around to head back into the cafe. Thinking nothing of it, I started to pull out my money before the lunch lady interrupted me. "There is a pay it forward going, the kids in front of you paid for your meal. Do you want to keep it going?"

I thought that was nice of them, and shrugged my shoulders. "Sure, why not I said," and handed her a ten. I began to walk forward, but then decided against it and turned around to see who was behind me. It was the two boys that had been in line in front of me, the same two that had been at the diner on Friday night.

"Really?" I asked them, annoyance seeping through my teeth.

Jacob only grinned at me, and the brown-haired boy shrugged casually, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips. "Really," he replied.

I shook my head at them and sat down at the table with Megan and our new friend Rylin. Rylin was a junior just like us, and just so happened to be in three classes Megan and I shared at this point in the second quarter. She hated our first hour math teacher just as much as we did, and we had decided she fit right in. They were currently in a debate about whether pineapple belonged on pizza, an argument I had no desire to take any part of, so I sat down quietly next to Megan and began to eat my lunch. A hand ruffled my hair, and I looked up to see Braydon standing over me, beckoning me to move over on the bench with his eyes. His friend sat across the table from me, and I scooted over to make room for Braydon at the end of the table before alerting him to the situation at hand. "They're in the middle of a heated argument about whether pineapples belong on a pizza."

Braydon had been friends with Megan and I since grade school, and did not look the least bit surprised to hear this as he shrugged in response. His gaze slid over to Rylin though, and I bumped his shoulder hard. "Ask her out already," I said, waiting for him to take the bait.

His attention snapped to me as he furrowed his brow. "Ask who out already?"

I threw my head back in laughter. "Don't act stupid. I can see the way you look at Rylin," I stated, my voice dropping so the girls wouldn't hear me.

"Don't be ridiculous," he scoffed. "She's just a friend of a friend to me."

"Who said she wasn't?" I asked him, a smirk dancing across my face as I saw he was struggling to come up with something to retort back.

Finally, though, he hung his head, looking at me from behind his bleach blonde hair with a defeated look. "Look, just don't say anything. I'm not completely positive that I feel that way about her yet. Okay, V?"

I nodded in agreement, "Of course."

"Vienna!" Megan cried loudly from beside me. I placed my head in my hands and let out a loud groan, sticking a tongue out at Braydon as he chuckled, and smiled at her sweetly.

"Yes, my dearest friend?"

"Confirm to this dimwit sitting across from me the fact that pineapple is in a food group."

I frowned, utterly confused, at her. "Uh, pineapple is in a food group," I stated.

"Yes, go on. What food group is it in and why?"

"Um," I stumbled to put words together and come up with an answer to her ridiculous question. "It's in the fruits food group because it's a fruit?"

"Exactly. Now, the food groups mix, correct?" She acted the way a kindergarten teacher acted when questioning a kindergartener, choosing her words carefully and saying them slowly.

"Yeah," I replied, shaking my head in confusion at her.

"Exactly!" She yelled, slamming her hand down hard on the table, and pointing an accusing finger across the table at Rylin. "If the food groups can mix together, then what is so wrong about putting pineapple on a-"

Needless to say, my day dragged on a lot more slowly from there.