So my sandwich did, in fact, get squished. I stared glumly at the ruined mess as I sat at my usual table. Lifting my head, I glanced at Dallas, who was sitting with Breton and his friends at their usual table. Three over, five down. Not a very long walk. Dallas could easily stand up and walk over, if he wanted to. Or, I guess I would be able to get up and walk to him.
Peter wasn’t anywhere to be seen today, not since this morning when his cousin had supposedly figured out who I was trying to avoid in the mornings. I glanced over at that table again. Dallas and I were friends, friends sit with each other at lunch. And I don’t think Hayley would mind. But did I want to risk it? What if Peter showed up just as I sat down over there? Even worse, what if I just stood at the table and no one let me sit down?
That’s what had happened to me the first week of sophomore year. No one would look at me, or acknowledge me. So I had been forced to sit down at the only completely empty table in the cafeteria, the table that had once been white, but had appeared black because of the stains and mold covering it. When I realized I would be sitting at that table for possibly the rest of my high school existence, I had come in to school on a Saturday armed with cleaning supplies. It took the whole day and half of the night, but by 1 o’clock early Sunday morning that table sparkled.
Smiling slightly, I brushed the pure white table top beneath my fingers. The janitor had been so amazed at how clean the table was. He came up to me during lunch period on Monday.
“Lass, this is the cleanest I have ever seen a table in this disgusting cafeteria. I have been trying to scrub and clean this table top since the day I started working here twenty years ago. And yet in one day you did what I had given up as impossible.” I had smiled at the kind old man, but he wasn’t finished. Standing on the bench next to me, he raised his voice louder than anyone had ever heard him speak before. “If any of you rotten kids get so much as a scratch on this beautiful table right here, I will make your lives miserable! Not one scratch, not a stain, nothing will be done to ruin this table. Do you hear me!” Everyone had nodded.
Even though the janitor retired two years ago, the legend of his threat still lives on and the students keep their food far away from my table. That’s one of the reasons I still sat here. The other reason is that still no one will let me sit with them.
So George, the research went pretty well. I found out that Breton has a lot of friends, that he likes a challenge, and that he’s basically the next Sherlock Holmes. According to Hayley he is grouchy when ‘other people’ are around. I’m not sure exactly what the definition of ‘other people’ is, but I’m assuming it’s people outside of his friend group. Still not sure what I’m saving him from. Also, Peter keeps showing up whenever I try to find something new about Breton. This could be a huge obstacle in Operation 45D, but what can I do?
“Why are you stalking me?” Breton asked as he glowered at me.
“I’m not stalking you,” I replied.
“You are. I see you watching me all the time, following me. You showed up at our secret hangout this morning. That wasn’t an accident. So I’ll ask it again. Why are you stalking me?”
“I’m not! I’m not stalking!” I protested. Breton wasn’t listening.
“Why? Who put you up to this? Why are you stalking me!” he yelled. Something dark loomed up behind him, but only I could see it.
In the corner of the room, Breton’s father stood, begging my to help, screaming to stop the darkness.
“I don’t know what to do!” I cried.
“Don’t to anything!” Breton growled. “Just STOP!”
That’s when I woke up.
I was standing at my window again, looking out. This was so much harder than I thought it would be. I figured all I would have to do is swat a mosquito on his arm to prevent malaria and my job would be done. But after four days, I’ve only spoken to Breton twice, and his attitude towards me wasn’t exactly friendly. Maybe I needed to move onto step 2 before I finished step 1. Establish a connection to learn more about him. That might work. Just maybe, I could get Dallas to help me. After two days, he and Breton were already friends. How does that work with people? It took me three years, but Dallas does it in two days. I need to be social if I’m going to save the bad boy. I guess in a way, this whole saving thing is helping me too. I’m stepping out of my comfort zones, gaining a new friend, trying to help someone, and now I’m thinking of being social.
Eventually, I left the window and fell back asleep, worried about what tomorrow could bring.
Friday started off just like all my other Fridays did.
“Bye mom, heading to school!” I called out as I ran into the kitchen.
“Do you have your lunch?” my mom replied from upstairs. She takes longer to get ready in the mornings, so we never sit down and have breakfast together.
“Yup, I got it!” I yelled to her as I grabbed it from the fridge.
“Yes, I have it!” she called back. I made a face, even though she couldn’t see me. “Don’t you make faces at me! It’s important to have correct grammar.” My mom knows me too well. As I bustled around grabbing everything I needed she called down, “Did you eat breakfast?”
I peeled a banana away from its bunch and stole a cereal bar from the box in the cupboard. “Just grabbed some now!” I told her. Rushing to the front room, I picked up my English Lit. notebook and the few pages of homework I had. Nothing from my bullies. For a brief moment, I wondered how they were getting their schoolwork done, before I decided I didn’t care as long as I wasn’t doing it. I opened the front door and stepped out, before going right back in, grabbing my social studies book off the side table next to the door and stooping down to shove it in my bag.
“Sweetheart, slow down! You’re going to trip!” my mother laughed as she walked into the front room. Handing me my lunch bag, which I had left on the kitchen counter, she said, “Have a nice day. Try not to stress too much about school, it’s your senior year. It’s practically expected that you be irresponsible.”
“Normal mothers do not tell their children to be irresponsible towards school work. You have a nice day too, okay?” I said happily, kissing her cheek and walking out the door for the second time.
Once I arrived at school I checked my watch for the time. Ten minutes until school started, I was a little earlier than my usual schedule. I stood at my locker and placed my lunch bag inside, half-heartedly fiddling with the lock. Then I opened my backpack and checked on my books. They all seemed to be there, thank goodness. A few other students were starting to fill up the hallways, so I took my cue and walked to my first class of the day, with eight minutes left before the bell.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up and Breton’s group was sitting in the classroom, joking around and chatting with each other. Brogan, Brad, and York were huddled together in the far corner, talking about something serious, but secret judging from their intense whispers. Lucas and Frank were making paper airplanes as fast as they could, stacking them up on the desks they were sitting in. Jelly Bean, Hayley, and Donna were chatting away in the middle of the room, laughing and talking like only best friends can. Chris was sitting on the teacher’s desk with Dallas, heads together. Chris would shoot Brogan the occasional glance, and when he turned away she would look at him. The poor, clueless couple, bless their souls. Breton was leaning against the whiteboard in the front of the room, watching his friends talk, but he didn’t join in any of the conversations. Thankfully, Peter wasn’t there.
Since everyone else was talking to someone, I crept over towards Breton. No one had noticed me enter the room, so I guessed I had at least a minute to find out what was going on. Tugging cautiously on Breton’s sleeve, I waited for him to look at me. After a minute, I tugged again, harder.
“Breton!” I whispered. “Hey!” Startled, Breton turned to look at me. “What are you all doing here?” I asked, making sure to keep my voice down. He shrugged.
“It was Hayley’s idea. She thought you might be lonely, waiting in the classrooms until everyone else comes, so she said we should join you today. Dallas told us what your first class was and here we are.” Breton did not sound very happy about being here, so I didn’t say anything as he turned back to face the room again. I waited a minute, then spoke again. “Hey Breton?” He turned to face me. “Thanks.” I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I guess I didn’t really need to know. He sighed.
“You’re welcome.” Then he raised his voice. “Hey everyone! Georgie’s here!” My eyes widened in panic as everyone turned to face the two of us. Breton had a lazy grin spread across his face as he called out to Hayley, “Nice to see you were paying attention hen she walked in the door.”
“Oh boo-hoo,” Hayley replied. “So I might’ve been a little caught up in a conversation. That’s none of your concern. Sorry Georgie, I should have been paying attention.” I was stunned by the apology.
“That’s okay. Thanks for being here,” I told her with a grateful smile. “That was nice of you guys.”
“Hey, we’re your friends. That’s what friends do.”
The next few minutes I was pulled from table to table. York wanted to know if I liked his hair. (Yes, purple was a very daring color for a guy to pull off.) Lucas and Frank were wondering if I knew how to fold paper airplanes. (I surprised them when not only could I fold paper airplanes, but I knew eight different types of planes to fold, and all of mine flew better than theirs.)
“I have a lot of spare time,” I explained sheepishly. They didn’t care as long as I could teach them how to fold so many.
Hayley, Jelly Bean, Donna were discussing boys. Unfortunately, I had no experience talking about boys with other girls, and so the conversation lagged. Hayley promised that I would get used to talking about it eventually. Although I wanted to join the conversation, I kind of doubted that I would ever get used to talking about something like that. I didn’t talk to Chris or Dallas, but I thanked them with a smile from across the room.
All too soon, the bell rang and Breton’s friends had to go. I waved goodbye to them as some of my classmates started filing through the door.
“Hey Georgie, sit with at at lunch?” Hayley invited as she tried to resist being tugged out the door.
“Y-yeah sure!” I replied. Someone outside the door pulled on Hayley’s arm. “You better go before you’re late for your class,” I told her. She nodded. “See you at lunch!” I called. Then she was out the door.
I think my sparkling white table will be deserted today. Smiling, I thought about Hayley’s invitation. I was going to sit with Breton’s friends. But maybe they were my friends too. I must be getting better at this friend thing. I’ve more friends now, and it’s only been two days.
Lunch was, to say the least, awkward. Peter was staring me down from one end of the table and on the other end, Breton was staring me down. I sat across from Donna, who seemed to notice what exactly was happening at the ends of the table, and next to Dallas, who was oblivious to anyone except for Chris, who was next to him. Similarly, on the other side of me, Hayley was talking to Jelly Bean next to her and Brogan across from her, who was next to Donna. Next to Jelly Bean was Frank, and across from Frank was Lucas. York say across from Chris, and Brad sat next to York, close to Peter. No one was paying me any attention except Peter, Breton, and Donna, but that wasn’t necessarily wanted attention. Yikes. Also, I was kind of squished, and my arms were stuck at my sides because Hayley and Dallas were pressed to closely against me. This meant that I couldn’t reach my lunch on the table right in front of me, unless I wanted to press my face forward and try eating without hands or arms.
Sighing, I started wiggling, trying to get off the bench. “I think I’ll just go back to sitting at my table,” I muttered to Hayley’s back. She didn’t hear me. Eventually, I got one arm free and used it to grab my lunch bag. Then I twisted my body so that I was sitting on the bench sideways, and thanks to the lack of ability to move my legs in this position, I had no choice but to push myself off of the bench with my arm. So I braced myself, and pushed. I hit the floor with a dull thud.
“Oww,” I moaned quietly. I picked my lunch bag off the floor from where it landed by my head, then looked up at the table. Everyone was looking down at me with the strangest expressions on their faces. “What?” I grumpily questioned them.
“Georgie, you just fell off the table! Are you all right?” Dallas asked.
“Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine, sorry. I’m kind of used to getting bumped or falling off of things, I’m so clumsy. I didn’t think anyone was paying attention, didn’t mean to bother you. I was just going to go get some chocolate milk from the lunch lady!” I said. The chocolate milk is the only thing edible in the lunch line. Seriously.
“You’re used to getting bumped or falling off of things?” Breton asked. I nodded. “As in, that happens to you a lot?” I nodded again.
“I know what you mean! The school hallways can be vicious! Yesterday I nearly got shoved into a locker! How horrible,” Hayley babbled. I gave her a look, like ‘What-are-you-talking-about?’ sort of. At least, that’s what it was meant to be. I probably looked constipated. “I swear, we need body guards in this school!”
Body guards. Ha, I wish. I could use a body guard or two. But alas, there is no one in the school who would be a body guard for me. So there goes that brilliant idea.
“Well, I should be off. That chocolate milk won’t drink itself!” I told everyone cheerfully. They said goodbye as I stood up and brushed myself off. I waved and turned to walk away, but Peter foiled my plan.
“Hey wait up Georgie, I’ll come with you,” he called. “I love chocolate milk.”
Squeezing my eyes closed, I replied, “Sure. That would be fine with me. Let’s just hope there is still chocolate milk left!” Peter got up and walked over to me.
“Yeah, it goes pretty fast since it’s the only edible thing the school provides us,” he agreed, slinging his arm around my shoulders. I had braced myself, but I still cringed a little as the weight of his arm settled across my back.
“Bye everyone! See you tomorrow. Bye Dallas, see you later!” I called, hoping that for once someone would catch on that I didn’t want to be alone with Peter and that I was bullied. Sadly, Dallas, and maybe Breton, were the only two people who knew I was being bullied. Well, and Donna of course, but she doesn’t count in this situation, because she actually knows who my bullies are. Actually, Dallas does know who my bullies are. But I was rambling and I don’t exactly think he heard me.
Just as Peter and I turned to walk away, Breton stood up and said he’d go with us too.
“I’m a bit thirsty. Peanut butter sandwiches go better with chocolate milk,” he explained. I nodded in agreement. That was so true. You could eat them with lemonade or soda or even just plain milk. But they always tasted better with chocolate milk.
“Let’s go, shall we?” Breton slung his arm over my other shoulder, effectively sandwiching me between the two scariest people in the school. I could feel the stares of pity from everyone in the cafeteria, they burned into my back. But as per usual, no one stood up to do anything. Besides, I felt slightly safer with Breton here too. He didn’t seem like the type to bully someone just because his cousin was doing it. I hoped.
We reached the lunch line in an amazingly small amount of time. I guess being stuck between two people with very long legs can be an advantage, but my legs do kind of hurt from stretching to keep up. Grabbing three chocolate milk cartons, Breton passed one to Peter and one to me and kept the third for himself. I didn’t want to open mine right then, but the boys were staring at me so I awkwardly struggled to peel apart the flaps on the mini carton. I was ready to throw the stupid carton at the ground in frustration and stomp on it until the milk leaked out onto the floor, but a hand grabbed it and angrily ripped it open.
“It’s not that hard,” Peter ground out in frustration, handing my milk back. I said nothing, but stared at him with wide eyes. He just helped me! That’s against the bully code! Or something like that. “What?” he snapped.
“Nothing!” I squeaked. “Thanks!” I then proceeded to chug the milk, every last drop, before tossing it in the nearest garbage can, maybe four feet away. “We should go back to the table! I left my bag there. Need to get going if I’m gonna beat the crowd!” I chirped nervously, fidgeting under the stares of the Joel cousins.
“You just threw that milk carton into a garbage can four feet away without even touching the sides of the can,” Breton said slowly.
“Lots of spare time,” I replied, and ran back to the table, trying to ignore the cousins who are turning my life upside down, not necessarily in a good way.
I saw Peter exactly four times after lunch. Not once did he glare at me, and when Jay approached me to ask if I was going to leave my sandwich in my locker tomorrow, Peter told him to back off.
“This is strange. Very strange. I don’t know if I like it,” I mumbled, watching Peter walk away from me, talking to Jay about not touching my lunch anymore. “On the bright side, it’s been a couple of days. I think I’m due for someone to give me their homework load.” When that becomes the bright side, you know your life is sad. But I like having something to do over the weekend, other than sitting and being lonely in my room. So when Donna came up to me, I was bouncing on my heels with expectation.
“Hey Donna, how are you? How was your lunch?” I asked politely, really just wanting her to hand over her homework folder so I could browse her subjects and figure out what to do first.
“I’m fine Georgie. My lunch was great, how was yours?” she inquired. I faltered.
“I-I don’t think I ate my lunch. I’m so used to just throwing it away you know. I didn’t even think about being able to eat it,” I looked down for a moment, sad at the loss of my sandwich. Then I brightened. “But I did get chocolate milk! So it was a good day.”
Donna smiled sadly. “Well I’m just here to apologize for everything I’ve done to you in the last three years. You didn’t deserve it and I want you to know I’m stopping.”
“Stopping? You-you’re not going to bully me any more?” Donna shook her head. “Thank you! Thanks thanks thank you!” I cried, wrapping my arms around her in an awkward hug.
“Why are you thanking me?” she asked. “I’ve been mean to you all this time and you’re giving me a hug? Why?” I shrugged, and danced off down the hallway as the bell rang.
~~
Hey-llo again! What's new with ya'll? Did anyone spend 8 hours on November 23rd watching five idiots do their thing? AND also make time to watch The Day of the Doctor? BECAUSE I SURE DID, AND IT WAS WORTH EVERY SECOND!
Um, I suppose I should also mention: Please give me your thoughts on this chapter, I'm not sure how I feel about it.
VOTE! Because Georgie wants you too!
Comment, because Hayley needs someone to gossip with!
FaN! If you're awesome! (Or because I'm awesome! Whichever you're more comfortable with.)