Strings Attached

Chapter Two

"I have to go to lunch, too."

"Really?" I asked.

I did not know whether to feel annoyed or relieved that I was not going to sit alone. I decided to feel relieved. Theodore had not done anything bad to me, so I had to stop being so bitchy.

"Yes," he said.

"Do you know where the cafeteria is?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Follow me," I simply said, trying to act as though I did not care.

I started walking, and Theodore walked right behind me. We made our way to the cafeteria, and it was almost empty, which made me wonder if there was some event that I did not know about. Perhaps it was just a stupid soccer game. I hated watching them, so I did not really mind missing this particular game.

We grabbed our food and sat down at an empty table. A few girls from the other side of the room stared at Theodore. One of them muttered something about him to the others, and they giggled. I wondered if they were making fun of him or complimenting his looks. Whatever it was, it annoyed me. I hated calling attention to myself, and if being with Theodore made me get more attention, then it would be a very long week.

"Do you like it here?" I asked him as I took a sip of juice.

Theodore nodded and swallowed the food that was currently in his mouth. "It's very nice. They don't have a robotics club, but it's still a cool school."

"I hate it," I said.

"Why?" he asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"It's fake," I said. "It's shallow."

"The school or the people?" he asked.

"The people." I sighed. "They act as though they know everything about you, but they really don't. They put a label on you and then toss you in the trash. They think they have you all figured out, but they don't. They don't know a thing about you, yet they think that they know everything there is to know."

Theodore took a sip of juice and stared at me thoughtfully, as though considering what I was telling him. He placed his bottle of juice on the table and sighed.

"You don't know that," he finally said. "Not all of them are the same."

"Most of them are," I said.

"You don't know that, either." Theodore turned to see the girls who had been giggling and talking about him a few minutes before and pointed at the one in the middle. "What if she is different from her other two friends? What if she writes poetry or enjoys going to the theatre in her spare time?"

I scoffed. "I don't think she even knows what a theatre is."

"Do you realize that you are just stereotyping?" he asked.

"I am not! They are the ones who judge every single word you say and every single move you take!" I exclaimed, growing defensive.

"Now you are generalizing," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I so am not," I said.

"You so are," said Theodore.

I shook my head. How could he tell me that I was the bad one when those girls took pride in gossiping about those around them? How could he tell me that they were the victims when they loved to criticize those who did not dress or look like them?

"Chris," he said. "I don't mean to contradict you, but you need to understand that you are also putting labels on them. They are not the only ones who are wrong."

"Christina!" I exclaimed. "My fucking name is Christina!"

Theodore sighed. "Calm down."

Whenever someone told me to calm down, something inside me made me want to explode. I hated to be told what to do, especially when it had anything to do with calming down or shutting up.

"Shut up, Theodore!" I exclaimed. "You don't know anything about them! You don't know anything about me!"

"Chris," he said. "I didn't want to make you mad. I'm sorry."

"Too late, Theodore," I spat.

He gritted his teeth. "I asked you to please don't call me that."

"It's your name, isn't it? You can deny whatever you want to deny, but you can never deny who you truly are."

I got up from the table and walked out the cafeteria. I walked down the halls, where I saw the boys in the soccer team making their way to the cafeteria. The cheerleaders walked right behind them, and I sighed.

I stared at the cheerleaders with their perfect uniforms and their perfect hair, and one of them looked at me with repulsion, as though I were the ugliest thing on Earth. I glared at her and walked past the rest of the cheerleaders, thinking about how much I hated Theodore for telling me that not all of them were the same. But also thinking about how much I hated him because maybe he was right.