the truth might be out there, but it's not here. ( shyan )

ch. 3 ; lunch

The first day of school, Ryan thinks, has sure lived up to his reputation of hell on earth. He's fallen asleep in three out of the four classes he has before lunch, and he's gotten caught in each one. He has Saturday detention now, for four hours. Great.

There was one thing that made it all better, though; cute giant boy was in all four classes with him. Shane, who's name he had found out through Zach (who had texted Ashly and asked, then sent it to Kelsey, Ryan, and Jen in their group chat), had taken the seat next to him in english and calculus, prompting Ryan to go rigid and robot-like whenever he had to move or was called on. He could feel Shane staring at him for what seemed like the entire class period, and his eyes would flick over every few minutes or so to check if the boy was still staring -- and, of course, he was.

Ryan was tempted to turn around and ask Shane if there was something on his face, because why else would he be looking? But he figured that it would only scare the other boy away. Instead, he opted to keep his eyes on his paper or to the front of the classroom in a way that he hoped said, "I don't even know you're looking at me. This is effortless and extremely attractive." In reality, it just looked like he was jittery and kind of paranoid, given Shane could see Ryan's eyes flipping from his paper, the board, Shane himself, and back. It was predictable, like a pattern, in each class they were in.

The only exception was AP psych and AP bio, both of which Ryan decided to sit in the middle of the class. He turned every couple of minutes to talk to Zach and Kelsey, proceeded to flick his eyes to Shane (who sat in the back), and whipped his head back around. This caused Kelsey and Zach to look back to Shane with nasty side-eyes that basically said, Fuck you, new kid, for fucking up the whole dynamic in this class.

So, that's where Shane was with Ryan's friends, for the time being. He didn't mind it much, given he wasn't here to get close to them, but he soon realized that if Ryan's friends hated him, Ryan wouldn't be inclined to like him either.

Which brings us to the present, where Ryan, Kelsey, Jen, and Zach sit during lunch; at their respective table, of course. Not too close to the other groups, but not far enough that it'd outcast them.

Sara, Ashly, and Shane, on the other hand, are sitting far enough to outcast them into space, but still somehow just in the line of sight of other groups.

The food at Buzzfeed High School, Shane observes, is a mixture of terribly manufactured and delightfully homemade. Cornbread, mashed potatoes, some type of meat that tastes pretty good but no one knows exactly what's in it; it's like the weirdest mixture of public and private school food. He figures it's only half good because there's not many kids to feed.

"Okay, so, normally we just sit here and ignore everyone until lunch is over --" Sara begins, sipping on the straw that sticks out from her milk carton, "but you're new, and you're probably gonna need friends other than us, depending on how long you plan to stay here." He doesn't see it, but he knows Ashly's just subtly kicked Sara under the table. Sara jumps, looking down timidly to the fork she's using to play with her mashed potatoes, "Uh, sorry -- new people don't stay here long. One of our best friends, Safiya, left after like two and a half years, and she's one of the long ones. It's not meant to be mean, it's just...people aren't going to expect you to stay more than a year. All of us have been here since we were born, and it's rare to see new people. We're barely even on the map, we don't get much outside traffic as it is, and -- sorry, i'm rambling. Back to friends."

Shane takes notice that Sara sounds kind of off, and his eyebrows knit together for a second, trying to figure out why she got timid all of a sudden when talking about newcomers, and why Ashly seems to think they shouldn't talk about it at all. That's a question for later, he muses, shrugging it off. Shane doesn't want to make them more uncomfortable than they already seem to be. He kind of needs them to complete the mission, after all.