The Only Exception

Chapter 3

"Who's the guy?" Jazz asks me as we carry our matching blue trays to sit down for lunch. The only real difference is that hers is piled up with pizza and chips, whereas mine is just a turkey sandwich sitting next to a salad.

"What guy?" I reply, whipping my head around as we sit next to Jennifer, Garrett, and Mack.

"The one staring at you like a creep," Mack says in a deadpan voice, not even looking up from her plate. Her curled bleach blonde hair is jammed under a black beanie, dyed a neon blue at the tips. Her black lipstick matches her skin tight black dress and high black boots. If you know her, you know that she rarely wears any other color.

"Yeah!" Jen pipes up, brushing her curly red hair from her face. Her gray eyes light up. "He's kinda cute, actually."

"Really?" Garrett starts looks up from his spaghetti. His eyes land on something behind me and he squints. "Oh, I see what you mean. He's not cute, he's more endearing. He looks like the kind of guy who would kidnap you, fall in love with you, then kill you."

"What?" I whirl around to lock eyes with Mr. Peppers, who's leaning against the wall on the other side of the cafeteria.

"Oh geez," I wjisper. "He is staring at me."

"Congratulations," Mack says. "You have your own personal stalker."

"Aw," Garrett pouts, his caramel brown hair falling over his puppy dog brown eyes. "I wish I had a stalker."

"Guys, he's not my stalker. He's my homeroom teacher, Mr. Peppers."

"We'll that's too bad. He's kinda hot." Jazz bites her lip, still staring at Mr. Peppers.

"Jazz..." I say in a warning tone.

She blinks back into focus and smiles apologetically at me. "But I won't go after him next week, just in case he has a major thing for you, Izzy."

She smiles and starts to stuff her food into her mouth.

"You eat like a pig. A hot pig." That guy from earlier waltzes over to our table and kisses her on the cheek.

I hear a voice and whirl around.

"Hey, sorry about earlier. I'm not really people person." The cute blonde guy from earlier comes over and sits next to me.

"Hello there," Garrett winks. "Who might you be, you cutie patootie?"

"I'm Jacob," The boy with the spiked hair says, turning to Garrett. "And I'm straight." Jen bursts into laughter and Mack smirks.

"You can't blame a guy for trying," he mumbles, looking down at his plate.

"Yeah... Anyway, I'm Jacob Kingsland." He looks over at me. "Hope we can be friends," he says shaking my hand.

When I don't reply, he just stares at his food, which consists of an apple and a few carrot sticks.

"Are you going to eat? Or are you one of those gets-food-but-doesn't-eat-it because -they-are-insecure-and-starve themselves'-people?" Mack says flatly, blinking her eyes surrounded by black eyeliner.

"Um..." Jacob looks around wildly. "I-I gotta go," he says and runs out of the cafeteria.

"Way to go, Mack," Garrett says with a scowl. "You're scaring all the cuties off."

"He left his backpack," Mack says, ignoring Garrett and pointing at the black backpack sitting next to me.

"Izz, are you going after him?" Jazz asks, finishing her food.

"Duh, she is, now go, Izzy!" Jen says shooing me.

"Geez, you sound like a peppy cheerleader." I stand up and ignore her glare. "Okay, I'm going. See you guys later," I say. I grab the backpack and run after Jacob.