The Wallflower [Andrew Clark]

Chapter 5

Bender starts to whistle a marching tune and everybody joins in. Vernon walks in. Bender begins to whistle Beethoven's 5th. "Alright girls, that's thirty minutes for lunch." Vernon says. "Here?" Andrew asks. "Here." Vernon says. "Well I think the cafeteria would be a more suitable place for us to eat lunch in, sir." Andrew says. "Well, I don't care what you think, Andrew!" Vernon says. That was uncalled for. "Uh, Dick? Excuse me, Rich...will milk be made available to us?" Bender asks. "We're extremely thirsty sir." Andrew says.

"I have a very low tolerance for dehydration." Claire says. "I've seen her dehydrate sir, it's pretty gross." Andrew says. Bender stands. "Relax, I'll get it!" Bender says standing.  "Ah, ah, ah grab some wood there, bub!" Vernon says. Bender grins. "What do you think, I was born yesterday? You think I'm gonna have you roaming these halls?" He says. He points at Andrew.

"You!" He says. He then points to me. "And you! Come on, on your feet missy! Let's go! This is no rest home! There's a soft drink machine in the teacher's lounge. Lets go!" Vernon says. I sigh and get up. I follow Andrew into the hallway. "So, what's your poison?" He asks me when we're outside the library. I stay silent and act like I didn't hear him. "What do you drink?" He tries again. I cross my arms and say quietly, "I don't drink." He  looks at me. "Never?" He asks. I shake my head.

"Never ever." I say. I look at him. He looks at me. "What?" He asks. "What? What do you mean 'what'?" I ask. He looks at me. "What?" I say. He laughs. "So, why are you here?" Andrew asks. I look at him. "Why are you here?" I ask quietly. We stop walking and Andrew leans against the wall.

"Um, I'm here today...because uh, because my coach and my father don't want me to blow my ride. See I get treated differently because uh, Coach thinks I'm a winner. So does my old man. I'm not a winner because I wanna be one... I'm a winner because I got strength and speed. Kinda like a race horse. That's about how involved I am in what's happening to me." He says. I nod and pretend to understand.

"So why are you here?" He asks. "I...um pulled a fire alarm." I say. "Why would you do that? I don't know you, but you don't seem like that type of person." He says. "Just...family problems." I say. "Oh." He mutters. "So...are you and Claire...a couple?" I ask trying to sound as if I don't care.

He looks at me. "Why do you want to know?" He asks, smiling. "I'm just wondering. That's all." I say. He nods. "No. We're not a couple." He says. I nod and look at him. He looks at me. We start walking again. When we get there, we get the Cokes and get out of there. I'm walking with three Cokes in my arms and Andrew has three in his.

I scream when I feel something cold touch my neck. I drop the cans and cover my mouth. I look to see a laughing Andrew. He pressed one of the ice cold cans to my neck and scared the hell out of me. I punch him in the chest. "You idiot!" I whisper-yell. I pick up the cans and we walk back into the library. We put the cans on the front table and I sit down with a brown paper bag.

Everyone has lunches now. Claire begins to take hers out of a small shopping bag. "What's in there?" I hear Bender ask Claire. "Guess, where's your lunch?" She says. "You're wearing it." Bender says. I laugh and shake my head. "You're nauseating." Claire says. Bender grabs a Coke and tosses it over to the girl in the back who catches it without even looking up.

Bender then watches Claire set up a sushi platter. "What's that?" He asks her. I observe carefully as I take out a sandwich. "Sushi." Claire says simply. "Sushi?" He asks in confusion. I wrinkle my nose. My cousin Phylis introduced me to sushi and I have to say, fish isn't food 'till you cook it. "Rice, uh, raw fish and seaweed." Claire says pointing to each thing.

"You won't accept a guys tongue in your mouth and you're gonna eat that?" I laugh at this. "Can I eat?" Claire asks him impatient. "I don't know...give it a try..." Bender jokes. I hear a crinkling sound and turn to Andrew and watch him take his lunch out of the large bag it was in. He takes out a couple sandwiches, a bag of potato chips, an apple, a banana, a bag of cookies and a carton of milk. My eyes widen as I look at my pitiful turkey sandwich.

I turn to the girl behind me as she opens her Coke and it fizzes over. I look at Andrew as he acknowledges it. He points at me and mouths "That was you". She loudly slurps it up off the table and her fingers. Andrew sees Bender looking at him. "What's your problem?" He says.

The girl opens her sandwich and and tosses the meat up. It lands on the sculpture above. I laugh and observe her. She opens some Pixie Stix and pours the sugar on the sandwich and then puts Cap'n Crunch on top of that. She crushes the sandwich together and loudly eats it.

I look at her. "Can I get in on that?" I ask. She tears off a piece of the sandwich, scattering Cap'n Crunch on the table, and hands it to me. I take a bite and it's extremely sugary. "Not bad." I say. "What's your name?" I ask quietly finishing the portion of the sandwich. "Allison." She says just as quietly. "I'm Kathleen." I say quietly again.

She nods and we go back to eating. Bender comes over and sits between me and Brian. He takes Brian's bag lunch. "What're we having?" He asks. "Uh, it's your standard, regular lunch I guess." Brian says. Bender reaches in the bag and pulls out a thermos. He sets it on the table and points at it. "Milk?" He asks. "Soup." Brian says. Bender goes in again and pulls out a juice box. Brian reaches toward the bag and Bender slaps his hand.

"That's apple juice..." Brian says quietly. "I can read! PB & J with the crusts cut off...Well Brian, this is a very nutritous lunch, all the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mr. Rogers?" Bender says. "Uh, no, Mr. Johnson..." Brian says, not getting the joke. "Ahhh..." Bender says.

Andrew and Claire smile at each other. Bender stands. Here's my impression of life at big Bri's house." He says. "Son!" He says in a booming father like voice. "Yeah Dad?" He says this high pitched. "How's your day, pal?" He says. "Great Dad, how's yours? Super, say son, how'd you like to go fishing this weekend? Great Dad, but I've got homework to do! That's alright son, you can do it, on the boat! Geee!!! Dear, isn't our son swell?" He says the next bit in a strange motherly like voice. "Yes Dear, isn't life swell?" I look at Brian who looks embarrassed.

Bender mimes mother kissing father and then father kissing mother and then father punching mother in the face. Suddenly it's not so funny anymore. "Alright, what about your family?" Andrew says. "Oh, mine? That's real easy!" Bender stands again and points forward. "Stupid, worthless, no good, God damned, freeloading, son of a bitch, retarded, bigmouth, know it all, asshole, jerk!" He says as his father.

"You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful." He says as his mother. Bender slams his hand back to slap his invisible mother. "Shut up bitch! Go fix me a turkey pot pie!" He says. I cringe. "What about you Dad?" He says as himself. He jumps back and forth between characters.

"Fuck you! No, Dad, what about you? Fuck you! No, Dad, what about you? Fuck you!" I feel sympathetic as he reaches out and pretends he's his father hitting him. "Is that for real?" Brian asks. "You wanna come over sometime?" Bender says to him.

I sigh. "That's bullshit. It's all part of your image, I don't believe a word of it." Andrew says, causing me to feel immense anger towards him. Bender actually looks hurt. "You don't believe me?" He asks. "No." Andrew says. "No?" Bender asks for assurance.

"Did I stutter?" Andrew says. I wanna walk right over and slap him. Bender comes over to Andrew and rolls up his right sleeve to reveal a circular shaped burn. "Do you believe this? Huh? It's about the size of a cigar...Do I stutter?" He says. "You see, this is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage." He says.

Bender begins to walk away. "See I don't think that I need to sit here with you fuckin' dildos anymore!" He says. Bender walks over to a map table and throws all the maps on the floor. He climbs up on top of the table and then up to the second floor balcony.