Lunch

Arnold stared at James deeply, seemingly unconvinced. In order to test the boastful person in front of him, he asked, "Then have you memorized the Grade 6 textbook in English?"

James nodded and replied, "Everything I see, I remember." Arnold thought that James sounded quite arrogant when he said that and furrowed his brows.

"Recite it for me." Arnold said.

James did not seem to mind dispelling Arnold's suspicions and started reciting the entire English textbook. After reading aloud from memory a few sentences, Arnold asked James to stop.

"Now do you believe me?" James gave Arnold a smug face, causing him to roll his eyes.

Arnold simply ignored him and walked out of his classroom, heading towards the staircase.

"Hey! Wait for me!" James chased from behind, catching up to Arnold in no time.

*

The dormitory building wasn't the only place that contained a canteen. In fact, within the school campus, there are many places where food is served. However, these places do not have the same variety of foods offered as there were in the canteen of the dorm.

Behind the B Building, close to the advanced obstacle course that was prepared to train upper-year class students, there stood a rather chic house that looked like it had teleported directly from 18th century France.

The building itself contained only one floor, consisting entirely of the Franch cafe. The cafe faced towards the greenhouse behind the confines of the military academy. Although it was nothing compared to a garden from the olden days, it's the best view of nature one can get within the subterranean level of the base.

The cafe had both indoor seating and outdoor seating. Of course, large beach umbrellas were placed on top of each table of the outdoor seating place in order to create a certain atmosphere. Of course, some would say that the umbrellas were a waste of precious materials as there was no rain or sunshine underground. However, the umbrellas did add to the calming view of the cafe, which contrasted the violent imagery of the multiple military courses right next to the cafe.

The cafe itself seemed to be quite popular, especially with women. As a result, many men would also congregate in this area in order to try to seduce one of the women and become partners with them. Of course, as all of the women within the military academy were well-trained and disciplined army soldiers, the men did not dare to do anything harmful against the women, as any man who even tried to touch a woman without permission would get beaten up by all the other women together.

It was the first time in ages that Arnold had seen women this closely other than his mother. As the dormitories within the military academy and most of the military classes were separated by gender, Arnold did not get a chance to get along with women much. Even before he came to the military academy, as the only interaction he had were with mercenaries, who were mostly male, he did not get a chance to interact with women before either. Therefore, the last time he saw women in droves were when he graduated from middle school a few years ago.

Arnold was quite indifferent when he saw the many beautiful women that sat within the cafe. Although he was a teenager and would sometimes get sexually frustrated, his family's situation forced him to spend all his time looking after his family, so he did not even have the chance to chase after women. The situation is different right now, but Arnold would still not directly approach those women as he had too many secrets within him. Also, Arnold thought that he would need to grow much stronger and richer in order to support his family before he could even think about something as trivial as dating, in his opinion.

James, who was standing next to Arnold, did not have the same indifferent reaction. To Arnold's surprise, however, the emotions that James was exhibiting right now was not lust by nervousness. As Arnold took a glance in James' direction, he noticed that James' fists were clenched and his forehead was already starting to sweat. He followed the direction that James was staring at but noticed that he actually wasn't looking at anyone in particular. Therefore, Arnold simply conjectured that James had an irrational fear of women. Of course, he had a sense of propriety and would not ask such a personal question to James.

*

Arnold and James sat on a table at the corner of the restaurant indoors. The table was just hidden behind the bar, so people from outside would not be able to see them when they looked in from outside. When asked what drinks to order, James asked for a cappuccino while Arnold first asked what was included as part of the student meal plan from their drinks. The wiater said, "tea or coffee."

Arnold simply nodded and ordered a decaffeinated black coffee before taking a look at the food menu.

Since this cafe was a higher-end restaurant within the military academy, most of the food within the menu required people to pay extra money. The only food that were included within the meal plan were the appetizers, which were either the soup of the day or a side salad. Disappointed, Arnold simply ordered a soup while James ordered a sandwich. It seemed that James have a particular fondness of sandwiches, as he had just had one this morning.

After both boys finished ordering, James, who was facing towards the outside, seemed quite embarassed and asked, "Um... Arnold, can we change seats? The air-conditioner here is blowing way too hard."

Arnold instantly knew that he was lying, as there wasn't any air conditioners within the cafe at all! Noticing the sweat drops on James' face, it seemed that since he was sitting facing the front, he was forced to see all the girls that was sitting behing Arnold, causing him not know where to place his eyes.

Arnold thought to himself, "This kid have a lot of problems!" Although he wanted to complain, he wasn't one to pry into another person's business and decided to change seats with him without raising a fuzz.

As the drinks arrived, James immediately took a few gulps of his cappuccino, not caring if it's hot or not. It seemed that his nervousness has caused his whole mouth to dry. It was then that James gave Arnold a slight smile while still feeling nauseated, saying, "I'm sorry. I don't feel too well."

"Do you need to go to the infirmary?" Arnold asked, feigning worry.

James shook his head. "No, I'll be fine after a while."

Arnold simply shrugged and left James alone. James, who was still quite embarassed about his own complexion, decided to tell Arnold more about himself even though Arnold never asked for it. "I'm sorry, I have a gynophobia -- a fear of women."

Arnold simply nodded without saying anything. Seeing that Arnold did not seem to have a great reaction, James took a sigh of relief, thinking that it was quite lucky that the first friend he made did not think that he was weird. Arnold, however, was simply indifferent.

*

The food arrived quite quickly. Arnold slowly drank his soup while listening to James talk. After getting over the fact that most of the people within the cafe were women, he seemed to have returned to his lively self, much to Arnold's dismay.

"So, how was your first day of school?" James asked enthusiastically.

"It was fine." Arnold answered as swiftly as possible.

"Oh! Our chemistry teacher is just great, I tell you! Most of the materials that he taught us was never taught in high school..." As James blabbered on about the various topics related to school, Arnold simply continued to sip his soup without saying anything. Meanwhile, James would alternate between eating and talking, which caused Arnold to become slightly irritated. James, however, did not notice anything odd about Arnold and simply continued blabbering on non-stop, almost causing veins to pop out from Arnold's forehead.

James finally stopped speaking when he finished his own food, which took much longer than usual as he was speaking most of the time. Seemingly content with the food, James asked Arnold, "So? How was the food?"

"It was fine." Arnold replied politely. However, inwardly, he cursed the restaurant for being so cheap that they made all the dishes within the menu expensive. He did not get why people would go to a restaurant simply because the food is of higher quality and the restaurant had an ambient atmosphere. For him, it doesn't matter what he eat as all the nutrients get within your body one way or the other. Also, raising the price simply because of reputation made Arnold completely annoyed about the shamelessness of the restaurant owners.

James, on the other hand, thought the lunch was quite good and the price was actually not that bad. Although since his family background was completely different than that of Arnold, it was no wonder that they would think in completely opposite end of the spectrum.