Remember When #featured #AllStars

Chapter 3

GOODFELLAS

The next day, I woke up earlier than usual. I had set my alarm to go off twenty minutes before my normal wakeup time so that I could piece together an appropriate job-hunting outfit to change into after school. Had I not procrastinated the night before (I couldn't put Catcher in the Rye down and passed out sometime during Holden's duck fixation), I could have lain something out ahead of time. As it was, I was determined to make the right first impression on any potential employers and I didn't think my uniform was going to cut it.

Once I was satisfied with the results of my closet foray, I grabbed a towel off the doorknob and started to head off into the bathroom. I took a quick peek out my window toward the front of our house... and right at that very second I saw Trip jogging by! My heart slammed into my stomach, but I immediately turned off my bedroom light and continued spying from behind the safety of my mini-blinds. I was just able to catch him as he turned off my street and made his way up Cedar Drive.

When Lisa picked me up an hour later, I was still feeling a little flustered. I slipped into the passenger seat, listening to her babble about lordonlyknows when I guess the look on my face made her stop mid-sentence to ask, "What's with you?"

I just turned to her and said. "You were right."

She crinkled up her nose and asked, "About what?"

I bit my bottom lip in anticipation of the reaction I was about to provoke and replied, "About Trip in a pair of shorts."

* * *

I spent my morning going about my usual routine, counting down the minutes until lunch. Sitting in World History and listening to Mr. Sasso drone on and on tried my patience more than usual as I watched the clock barely ticking away the time. Who could concentrate on Tiananmen Square when the promise of sharing a lunch table with Terrence C. Wilmington III was only minutes away?

After an eternity, the bell finally rang. I shoved my way through the throng of students rushing to their next class and ducked into the ladies' room for a quick hair check and lipstick application. I knew I was being ridiculous, but I also knew that my confidence always shot up a couple notches whenever I felt like I looked okay.

Inside the cafeteria, Lisa was already at our table. My shining red lips didn't escape her notice, but best friend that she is, she didn't call me out for it and merely smirked as I sat down. She patted my shoulder as she got up, explaining through a smile, "I'm going to grab us a couple sodas. Be right back."

I sat there and concentrated on trying to look cool and unaffected, hoping to strike just the right note of blasé for when Trip finally sat down.

Greg Rymer and Mike Sargento sidled down with their lunch trays completely piled with food as usual. Rymer ripped half the paper off his straw and blew the remaining wrapper off the end of it toward me, jolting me out of my trance. "What's up, Warren? Not eating today?"

Shit. I forgot about having to eat in front of Trip. I'm no Scarlett O'Hara or anything, but the thought of chewing like some common cow in front of the cute new guy was beyond horrifying. But sitting there sipping demurely on a Diet Coke like some salad-eating girly-girl was not the image I was hoping to portray either. Besides, the last thing I needed was for my stomach to start growling in the middle of English Lit. I resigned myself to the prospect of having to eat something as I joined Lisa in the lunch line.

Eyeing up the prospective meals offered in your average, high-school cafeteria is daunting enough. The menus aren't exactly being considered for worldwide culinary acclaim. But trying to find something edible and dainty was like navigating a minefield.