A Cliche Teenage Story

Chapter 5

       And soon enough Kelly rushes in, a minute before class starts. I tactfully pretend to ignore her, but watch her out of the corner of my eye.

       She doesn't even look at me. Not once.

       She sits down in her assigned seat. And go figure. Its at my table.

       Kelly Shutterson is my table partner.

       You'd think it would be impossible for her not to look at her table partner. But no, of course its possible for Kelly. She sits there, twiddling her thumbs, which she does when she has nothing else to do. And apparently talking to me is now less entertaining then twiddling her thumbs. And that hurt. A lot.

       "You could at least talk to me." I surprise even myself, and I can tell shes surprised too. But she quickly is devoid of all emotions, hiding it all behind a curtain so even I can't peer in and find what shes thinking.

       "I know that I am capable of talking to you, Christine." She says this in a perfectly changed voice, so that still no emotion shows. She called me Christine again.

       Christine.

       Not Christy.

       Shes called me Christy since we first met, the first time she ever said my name. Even when we had our stupid fights(Although this falls under that category too) shes called me Christine.

       So she must be really, really upset.

       "I don't like what you said about me, Kelly." Having sudden insight in her emotions, I tack on another sentence. "And I think that you regret what you said, too."

       Her eyes fill with tears, proving me right. Wow, this fight sure didn't last very long.

       "Your right, I didn't actually mean them. Oh, Chrissy, I'm so sorry! Those things were so not true! Your always thinking of others, I was just jealous. I know how ridiculous that is, but I just saw Josh and was like, whoa, hes the one. I'm so sorry. Well you ever forgive me?" Kelly looks at me imploringly, and I can tell she really meant what she said.

       Should I forgive her? She was hurtful. But shes been my best friend for years. I weigh these options in my mind. I look around the room like that will give me an answer. I see Selena watching me.

       Selena mouths to me, asking if she apologized. I nod, and shrug my shoulders as if to say I didn't know if to accept it or not. She nods, motioning for me to go for it and forgive Kelly. I knod, deciding to heed her advice, and smile thankfully at her.

       I turn to Kelly and see shes been watching my exchange with Selena. She looks sad, as if knowing that Selena has taken her place. Because, she has, even though I've only known her since homeroom. I guess true friends can be like that, meant to be, so happening quickly and automatically.

       All this has happened in a minute, but a huge weight has settled upon me, knowing that Kelly was never meant to be my BFF.

       "I'm sorry." I whisper, and Kelly nods, no other words being needed. She knows I've forgiven her, but now were only really, really good friends, not the BFF's we were this morning.

*****

      45 minutes of unfathomable Spanish later, its lunch. Kelly, Selena and I all have 6th period lunch, and so we head to the cafeteria together. Its not hard to find, because of the gross smells wafting down the hallway, probably from today's main lunch, supposedly beef.

       I prefer to call it mystery meat, because its supposed to be the same lunch they served at elementary school, and that was anything but beef.

       Of course, once we get there, we turn towards some of the alternate options, weighing the options. Pizza or sandwich? Salad or hamburger?

       "Hamburger. I am so getting the hamburger." I choose the hamburger, wanting something hot, greasy and not shaped in a triangle.

       "Oh, ewww that is so fatty!" Kelly wrinkles her nose in disgust at the tantalizing patties. "I think I want salad."

       Selena is looking suspiciously at the pizza. "Ummm, I kinda want that 3 sided piece of awesomeness over there."

       I turn to look at both of them ,and see their uncertainty that probably mirrors my own. "Ummm, I guess we split up then? We could like meet back here I guess." I did not want to face the lunchroom alone on my first day, or even the food lines, but it seemed that I had no choice. The salad was served at the salad bar, and the burgers with the hot dogs and whatever else. Pizza had a thing to its self, being one of the most popular choices.

       "Um, yeah sure, ok." Kelly still looks worried, but is now facing towards the salad.

       "Yeah ok, meet you here in like, 3 minutes." Selena heads off, and I follow suit, leaving Kelly to make her way to the salad bar.

       I reach the hamburgers, and grab one along with some french fries. I pay after a minute of waiting behind the mass of teens, and head towards our meeting spot. I reach there just as Selena and Kelly do.

       "Ok, so its either sit down by ourselves, or at a random table, hoping to make some friends." Selena is scanning the lunchroom, to no avail. No empty seats anymore, just the occasional tables with one or 2 kids.

       "Or at one with some of your other friends, Christine." Kelly says this to me, as she didn't have as many friends as I did. Only me and a few others.

       "I vote Christine choosing the seat."

      "Second." Kelly looks at me expectantly.

       "What? Why me?"

        "Because," Selena says, "Your not new here, and has the most friends."

       "Fine." I agree, knowing they won't take no as an answer. So now its left for me to choose our torture.

       I scan the lunchroom, hoping an empty table will magically appear. No such luck.

       With a sudden burst of bravery, I head towards a table that I saw Josh at. "Come on, you guys. Don't you want to sit somewhere?"

       They follow me as I march determinedly to the table directly in the middle of the cafeteria. I reach it and sit down, not even asking if it was ok, not wanting to know the answer. Kelly and Selena linger where I am, not quite sure if they should sit.

       "Hey, Christine." I turn to my right, and see that Josh is sitting there. Of all the empty seats, I sit next to him? Great, just great, just watch me get ketchup on myself, or embarrass myself in some other way.

       "Who are your friends?"

        "Selena and Kelly. Kelly is the one you saw in the hall earlier." Kelly ducks her head, blushing, and slides into the seat next to Selena, who had sat down as soon as Josh had said hi.

      "So, who are these people?" I ask about the 5 other kids at the table.

       "Some friends from football. Blake, Aidan, Jake, Will, and Kyle." Josh goes around the table, eating his peperoni pizzas. As in more then one slice. How do boys eat so much? All around the table their eating their insane amount of food, and here we are with what I took to be a normal helping of food. Well, not at this table apparently. Normal now seems to be 2 or more servings of everything.

       A chorus of heys follows. I see one of them, Aidan I think, sneaking looks at Selena. I smile to myself. They would look so cute together! Aidan has brown hair, and green, soulful eyes, and for some reason, it goes perfectly with Selena's typical cheer-leading look.

       Not a second after the thought, I feel lukewarm, liquid running down my face, along with mashed potatoes and chunks of meat. "Oops, I'm so sorry!" I turn behind me to the fake, nauseating voice dripping with artificial repentance. There's the brunette, armed with 2 other sneering girls.

       I knew she was out to get me.