You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

40

After I announced to them that Nolan was joining us for lunch today, Melissa and Derek gawked openly at him. It was the exact reaction both Ashley and I had displayed when we first heard him, too.

"Nolan, this is Melissa, and this is Derek," I said, waving a hand at my friends. "Guys, this is Nolan."

"We know," Derek said, his mouth slightly agape.

Melissa just stared.

Cody and Ashley took this opportunity to set their trays down and sit opposite each other.

"Hi," Nolan said, nodding at them.

It seemed to snap them out of their daze. While Derek nodded back, Melissa waved at him.

"Hi," Derek said.

"Hey," Melissa said, flashing me a thumbs up.

I frowned in confusion as I stared at it. "Why?"

"Why what?" she said, spearing her salad with the fork she was holding.

When I sat down beside her, Nolan took the seat adjacent to mine.

"Why are you giving me a thumbs up?" I said.

"Oh, that." Leaning towards me with a gleeful smile, she whispered, "Good job, Chelsea. You brought him to our table!"

"He's not for entertainment!" I gave her a stern look, which seemed to have absolutely no effect on her at all.

As Melissa chewed, she continued staring at him like he was some kind of new scientific breakthrough she'd just discovered.

Sighing, I glanced over at Nolan to make sure that he wasn't feeling uncomfortable. He was slowly cutting up his grilled chicken into small pieces, looking completely unruffled by the holes Melissa was burning into him. If I had to be honest, I hadn't expected anything less from him. Nolan had never seemed bothered about what people said about him, and there was no reason for him to start now.

Relieved that my best friends weren't putting him off, I started on my own food.

"You're eating dessert first?" Nolan said, causing me to look up from my cake slice—strawberry shortcake only showed up once a month on the school menu—at him.

"Yes...?" I said. "What's wrong with that?"

"Interesting," he said, leaning his cheek on the back of his hand. "I didn't expect that."

"She switches it up depending on her mood," Derek said, swallowing the sushi roll he'd been chewing. "It's not like it makes a difference, though. She always finishes eating before any of us do."

"Sometimes I just feel like eating something sweet first, you know," I said. "It whets my appetite."

"I don't think it needs any whetting," Derek said. "It does just fine on its own."

"Hey!" I glared half-heartedly at him.

Nolan snickered. "Yeah, I think I can tell. You're almost halfway through that cake slice, and we've just sat down."

Derek stopped raising his eyebrows at me to goggle at him again.

"It's called having a healthy appetite," I said, pointing at Nolan with my fork. "I could never nap in the library every day during lunch like you. I'd be ravenous by the end of fifth period."

"Bears don't need to eat when they hibernate," he said, shrugging.

I drew my eyebrows together at his questionable statement. "Are you calling yourself a bear?"