The next day seemed about the same for Lance. Only this time, he would have to spend time with the "dreadful" group know as the Plastics. Although, he wasn't sure what Pidge and Hunk were talking about. They actually seemed like a nice group of people to be around.
After grabbing some lunch from the cafeteria line with Nyma and Shay, the three sat down at their property table, waiting for Allura to be right in the middle. Lance also was wearing the required pink shirt, provided by Hunk, of course. It was a bit on the bigger side, but he managed to pull it off. Having lunch with the Plastics was like leaving the actual world and entering some type of "girl world" despite Lance being a boy and all. They just seemed to have a lot of....Rules.
"We only wear jeans and track pants on Fridays. You can't wear a tank top two days in a row. You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week. And if you break any of these rules, you can't sit with us for lunch. I mean, not just you, but any of us. Like, if I was wearing jeans right now, I would be sitting over there with the creative freaks over there," Nyma said, pointing over to a nearby table in the corner.
Lance noticed that Pidge and Hunk were over there, having a contest to see who could stick the most popsicles in their mouths. It seemed fun and hilarious, but Lance had to bite his tongue to refrain from laughing at the sight.
"We always vote before we ask someone to eat lunch with us, because you have to be considerate of the rest of the group. I mean, you wouldn't buy a shirt without asking your friends first if it looks good on you," Nyma added.
"I...wouldn't?" Lance asked.
"Right. It's the same with you guys, too. You may think you like someone, but you could be wrong," Nyma finished as Shay spoke up.
"So, Lance. Have you seen anyone you think is cute yet?" She asked.
"Well uh..." Lance started as Nyma and Shay seemed to have inched closer to him, wanting to know more. He blushed slightly as they gasped in delight, knowing that he did have a crush on someone. "If it's really that important...There's this guy in my Calculus class...Never mind, it's stupid anyways-"
"Who is it?" Shay interrupted.
"It's a senior?" Nyma added.
"No, no. A junior like us. His name is Keith Kogane-" Lance started before Nyma and Shay gasped again, this time in a shocking manner.
"No, no, no," Shay said as Nyma shook her head in agreement.
"No. You can't like Keith Kogane, let alone speak about him here on this table. He's Allura's ex boyfriend," Nyma said.
"They went out for a year," Shay added. "And then he broke up with her for no reason. Actually, I heard he may have cheated on her."
"No, that wasn't it. Keith said that he wasn't interested in the female population anymore. I guess he got bored and moved onto guys. Typical," Nyma replied as Shay shrugged. "Regardless, ex-boyfriends are off-limits to friends. Don't worry though. We won't tell Allura what you told us. It'll be our little secret.."
Luckily the conversation ended right when Allura appeared at their table, sitting down with her tray. It looked like all she had were some cheese fries and a can of Diet Coke.
Even though Lance was a bit disheartened that he couldn't even ask out Keith to hang out together, he could still look at him in secret. Right?
**********************************
Later on in the day during Calculus class, Lance couldn't help but admire Keith's features. Even though he was sitting in front of him, Lance could just picture his front side. His mysterious (almost) purple eyes, his long jet black hair, and even his dark red fingerless gloves he would wear on his hands.
The moment ended when the bell rang, singling that the class period was over. Lance mentally groaned in his head as he began to pack up his things. Just like yesterday, he happened to bump right into Keith again.
"S-Sorry," Lance mumbled as he once again helped Keith to his feet.
"We really have to stop meeting up like this," Keith said with a small chuckle as Lance chuckled nervously in response.
"I know. I'm pretty clumsy when it comes to nice-looking-" Lance cut himself off as his cheeks burned up a bit in embarrassment. "I-I mean I just wasn't paying attention, is all!"
"Oh. Well uh...You should work on that next time," Keith said with a small smile as he grabbed his bag and started to head out. Lance mentally slapped himself at the utter embarrassment he caused on both of them. Before he could properly apologize, he was stopped by a small robot.
"Hey, you're the new guy, right?" It spoke as Lance cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah...?" He answered with a confused tone. Why was he being approached by everyone these days?
"I happen to be the captain of the Mathletes. We participate in math challenges against other high schools around the state. We can get more funding if we had another member to join. You should think about joining us. My name is Beezer," the robot said as it outstretched a metal hand towards Lance. Lance awkwardly shook its hand before it recoiled back.
"Oh, the Mathletes, huh?" Their teacher Adam said as he was cleaning up the whiteboard. "You would be perfect for it, Lance. With the performance you've shown in your math assignments alone, you have potential."
"I'll uh...Think about," Lance said with a small smile. Before he was about to leave the classroom, he thought about hopefully finding Keith to apologize about the mishap. Unfortunately, when Lance finally got to the hallway, Keith was already gone.
***********************************
He figured he had to be at soccer practice. Luckily, school was over, so Lance made his way over to the soccer field. By his luck, Keith was there doing some drills with his team. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Lance and waved at him. With a small blush, Lance waved back, and he definitely blushed more as Keith ran over to him.
"Hey there, Mr. Clumsy," Keith joked as Lance frowned. "Sorry, I'm bad at openings with jokes."
"Speaking of being bad, I wanted to apologize for embarrassing the both of us back there in class. I didn't mean to blap that out," Lance said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Hey, it's no biggie. In fact, uh," Keith said as he looked away for a moment. "I was going to ask you something back there, but it felt like you wanted to hide from me."
"You were going to ask me something?" Lance asked, his eyes widening a little in surprise. Was he really going to...?
"Yeah. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to-"
A car honking caused the two to jump in surprise. They both looked at where the sound came from, finding the plastics in a silver cruiser. Allura had pushed the horn.
"Get in, loser. We're going shopping," She said as Nyma and Shay waved at him. Lance gulped and sighed, slightly grasping his backpack sleeve a bit tighter.
"I'm coming," He mumbled as Keith caught his shoulder softly. Lance looked back at him, surprised at the gesture.
"I'll just ask you next week. Okay?" Keith said with a small, reassuring smile.
"Oh. Okay," Lance said, returning his smile with a small one. Keith let him go and Lance jogged on over to Allura's car, jumping right in. He got to share one last glance at the captain before he turned and returned to his team. However, he could feel a sense of dread radiating from Allura's gaze. Even Nyma and Shay seemed a bit nervous.
However, even after all that, Lance was invited to Allura's house. He figured they liked having him as a "pet", because honestly, he didn't feel like he fit in at all. They were still making a pit stop to the mall. It was quite busy, full of both adults shopping and teenagers from their school hanging out.
"So, how has your first week been so far?"
"Huh?" Lance said as he was brought out of his daydream.
"I said how has your first week been so far?" Shay asked.
"Oh. It's good. I've been thinking of joining the Mathletes," Lance said as all three of them groaned in protest. "What?"
"You cannot do that. That's social suicide. You're so lucky to have us to guide you around," Allura said with confidence as Nyma gasped.
"Oh, my god. There's Rolo!" She said, pointing over to the familiar boy Lance had trouble with before. He was walking around with another girl Lance had never seen before. "He's with Romelle it seems."
"Well, Rolo isn't going out with Romelle. He can't just blow you off like that. He's such a little skeez," Allura noted before sticking out her hand. "Give me your phone."
"You're not going to call him, right?" Nyma said as she handed her phone to her.
"I'm not an idiot, Nyma. Let me handle this," She said as she began dialing a number in. The phone rang for a bit before someone answered on the other side. Allura cleared her throat before talking in a mature voice. "Hello, may I speak to Romelle?"
"This is her brother, Bandor. She isn't home yet. Who's this?" The voice asked.
"This is Susan at Planned Parenthood. I have her test results. If you could let her know that we called, that would be great. It's urgent. Thank you," Allura said in a cheerful voice before hanging up the phone. The girls all laughed in delight as Lance could only stare in disbelief. "Oh, she won't be going out with anyone tonight."
The girls began to walk away and right when Lance was about to follow, he heard Romelle speaking frantically on a phone call. It was probably her brother calling her after that matter. At this point, Lance was heavily reconsidering his life choices at the moment.
After the mall, they arrived to Allura's house. Lance was surprised at how big the estate was. Pidge and Hunk weren't kidding that she was loaded with money.
"Your house is really nice, Allura," Lance said as Allura smiled.
"I know, right? Wish it was a bit bigger though," She said as everyone walked inside.
"Make sure you don't stare too long at her mom's boob job," Nyma whispered to him.
"Oh, okay," He whispered back before realizing what she said.
Wait...What?