Teen For Hire

All Work And All Play

Reece scrunched his eyebrows. "No."

The girl pouted, "Why not? Please, just try-"

"No, I mean, it's not Frank Sinatra that was in 'Singing In The Rain'. It was Gene Kelly."

"See!? You already know so much about this musical things!"

"Knowing simple trivia does not mean I can act, Mara. And wait a minute, is the play you're working on a musical!?"

Mara snickered. "Did I forget to tell you?"

Reece shook his head. "Hell no, I am not going to join that thing."

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"Hey guys," Reece greeted as he approached the usual table, taking a seat beside Claire who was scrutinizing her slice of pizza on the tray. The lunch today wasn't that bad: the apple looked fresh, the tater tots were warm and the milk actually had 2 days before the expiring date. But the pizza just looked too good to be true. "Anybody actually ate the pizza yet?"

Eddie shook his head, lifting the slice up in his right hand. "It's still warm. Suspicious." He wore an olive cardigan over a blue sweater, which was odd because it was hot in here. But by now, everybody already got used to his questionable choices anyways.

"The pepperoni smells legit." Allen sniffed the pizza, hesitating for a moment or two. "Are they trying to trick us or something?"

"It's reasonable. I may have pulled one too many pranks this year," Toby said, a guy that Reece had barely seen ever since school started. Usually, he's either out causing trouble or in the school halls causing trouble. "Mrs. Wyatt is not happy with me."

"The lunch lady?" Allen asked, looking confused.

"Exactly."

Reece shook his head, mentally preparing himself as he took hold of the pizza. It was the same for him: suspiciously appetising. A lot of possibilities came into mind but even if he got diarrhea, at least he got to eat pizza. "I'm just going to eat this," he announced, making everyone at the table to turn to him.

With every eye on him, the boy took a deep breath and braced himself. Then he took a bite.

"So? The verdict?" From beside Allen, Mara looked tiny so Reece didn't even notice her until she spoke up.

Reece kept chewing, a bit taken aback by the taste of slightly sour tomato paste and sticky cheese, but otherwise, it wasn't bad! He held a thumbs up and everybody immediately looked like they just got negative results for a chronic disease.

They continued eating for a while, enjoying the lunch as it was. Because let's be honest here, any food was something to savour, so people should just shut up and eat.

After a few moments, Eddie spoke up with his mouth still chewing on the last of his tater tot. "So Reece, did you join a club yesterday?"

"Um, yeah." Reece frowned as he tried to think. Yesterday was complicated. "I mean, Mara," he called out and the girl with bright red hair turned to him, "Am I technically in the Theatre's Club?"

She nodded, a satisfied smile blooming on her face. "Since you're in the play, yes."

"Wait, what?" Allen frowned at her. "He's in the play? I was going to ask him to go for the tryouts!"

Reece cleared his throat. "Say what now?"

"The baseball tryouts! We're getting ready for the Homecoming game, it's only a month away."

"Oh... I'm not too sure about that." Reece was never a big fan of sports. He enjoyed taking a sprint but playing in a team full of sweaty, grimy people getting mad at each other over some balls, that doesn't seem appealing. And he can't even remember the last time he played baseball or even watched the sport.