Sixth Grade Beginnings

Chapter 25

"Nope."

"Not uh.."

"Sorry, Arnold."

Those were most of the answers Arnold had gotten from his classmates that day. The moment he had arrived in his classroom, Arnold had made it a point to ask each of them if they knew anything about Brainy. When it got towards lunchtime, he felt absolutely defeated.

"Why are you so interested in Brainy all of a sudden?" Gerald asked after swallowing a mouth full of food.

Arnold sat with his elbow propped up on top of the table, with his large head resting on the palm of his hand. He hadn't so much as touched his taco salad and had no real appetite to. "Don't you think it's strange?" He started, moving the food around with the tip of his fork. "We've all grown up with him, Gerald. He's been in every single one of our classes. He's played with us since we were little. He's been at all of our birthday parties and even some of the sleepovers and... what do we know?"

"The kid's a mystery, so?" Gerald replied before taking another full sized bite. "Everybody has to have their secrets and it's not like any of us have felt the need to ask him about his life. The kid barely says a word!"

At this point, Arnold had already made up his mind. He knew the only way to know more about Brainy was to just talk to him directly. It would be strange to just go up to a kid who didn't talk and try to strike up a meaningful conversation but if he could do it with strangers on the street such as Stoop Kid and Vincent the pigeon man, why not Brainy? After all, Brainy wasn't a stranger at all.

"I'm gonna do it." Arnold said at last, pushing his food tray away. He stood up and looked around the cafeteria for the spiky haired boy.

Gerald began to cough at the sudden statement. "What?" He managed to say before swallowing his food and washing it down with a gulp of chocolate milk.

"I'm gonna just go talk to him. How hard could it be?" Arnold replied, turning back to his friend. "He's one of us, after all."

"One of us?" Gerald copied, definitely confused. "Arnold, do you hear yourself? How can someone be one of us if you know absolutely nothing about them? Sure he's always been around but that's like throwing a... a..." Gerald looked around for something to explain his thoughts. He peered at his taco salad and got an idea. "It's like throwing a banana into a taco salad and calling it a fruit salad. You can't do it! It makes no sense and besides," He grimaced, "It would be nasty."

Arnold ignored his friend's comparison and continued to look around. There were so many faces and so many of the students had grown taller over summer vacation that it wasn't easy to look around them, even with them sitting. "Well I gotta do something."

"No, you don't." Gerald replied, "You just feel like you gotta do something. You always feel like you gotta do something even when no one asked you to." The boy could feel himself growing a little annoyed but he pushed the feelings away. This is always how his best friend had been, and there was no changing that. It was one of those situations where he knew he either had to be in or out and now was the time to make that decision. Gerald let out a loud groan and pushed his empty plate of food to the side. "Fine... what's the plan?"

Arnold smiled. "I was going to just sit with him for the rest of lunch and maybe spark up some conversation or invite him to hang out but... I can't seem to find him anywhere." He admitted, feeling defeated.

Gerald gave a helpless shrug, "That's that then, huh?"

"I'll just ask him after school if he wants to hang out with us." Arnold decided as he turned to his friend with a smile.

"Of course you will." Gerald sighed heavily, knowing it was too good to be true. Truthfully, Gerald really had no real interest in the boy in question but a good mystery was always fun to solve.