Lunch Stories Pt.1

In his iconic black hoodie trying to avoid everybody's judging eyes and biased hammers, Nathan walked awkwardly and quickly across the cafeteria.

He always felt as if all the other kids had a knife ready to cut apart his confidence.

Or maybe everyone was just waiting for that one microscopic mistake so that they could make a joke of him.

Paranoia made all of his fears indifferent.

However, to be fair it can be difficult for any of us to differentiate between our fears and paranoia.

When is fear really paranoia and when is paranoia actually fear?

Those are the types of questions which Nathan tried his best to ignore. Especially after what had happened last night, Nathan felt like the walking dead and wanted no part of such philosophical thinking.

In his haste,

suddenly...

The reflective rays of an unknown silver object had become trapped within Nathan's brown eyes. He shielded his hurting eyes with his forearm. But it didn't help as he was still completely blinded for a few seconds.

Just as his vision was clearing up...

"Oof..." ,

Nathan gasped as he took a trip to meet the ground.

Chase O'Neal had stuck his leg out for the unwary, weary Marquette. He flaunted a rather strange looking silver watch as he paced around Nathan's fallen body.

"So you're the new guy who wants a 'job' when he grows up? Well it looks like you've hit rock bottom before even getting a job.",

Chase chuckled at his own joke so that he could attract as much attention as possible.

He wanted everyone else to see his fine work.

As you know, a king has no power without a crowd.

Nathan started to lethargically pick himself up from the cafeteria floor, but the weight of another person's body had come crashing down on him.

"Don't let him up just yet.", Chase instructed one of his lackeys to keep Nathan on the floor .

With his arms pinned to the ground, Nathan watched helplessly as the many shoes circled the three of them.

The crowd cheered.

The crowd booed.

The crowd showed concern.

The crowd laughed.

It didn't matter what it was that they did, it only mattered that they reacted.

Anxieties of all sorts escaped from Nathan's skin and into the surface. He had no idea as to who had tripped him or why they were doing this.

He was no better than a helpless trapped animal.

However, today it seemed that Nathan had a friend.

Dressed up perfectly according to the school code of conduct, Aaron Williams came along in his neat yet wavy hair, complimented by a black tie and blazer.

He was on his way to lunch and had spotted Nathan through the crowd.

"Hey Chase, get off of him dude!",

yelled Aaron with his hands yanking at his black blazer collars as if he had just done some kind of work.

There were many kids at Waymaple High who respected, but also feared Aaron as he was the richest, smartest and most popular kid in school.

With accolades like that it was almost always never a good idea to go against Aaron. But Chase O'Neal was something of an exception. He felt a little less afraid and more annoyed with the power that Aaron had given himself.

By now most of the crowded pupils had dispersed and allowed Aaron to walk up to Chase.

"Why, you know this kid or something?", asked Chase with a smirk on his face.

"As a matter of fact, yes I do. That's my bro.", Affirmed Aaron.

The boy who was previously holding Nathan down got off of him and immediately apologized, "Sorry, but we had no idea that...that-uh he was associated with you."

"Don't be stupid Elliot!", Chase scoffed at Elliot.

Chase moved closer to Aaron and shot him with a scornful stare.

Aaron just stood there as calm and collected as ever, while Chase huffed a few angry breaths.

Everyone waited anxiously for something to happen and so did Aaron.

"So what now? You gonna do something, or.....are we like having a moment or something?...", Aaron paused and placed his hand on Chase's shoulder.

He continued, "No disrespect to homosexuals but as a man I don't feel comfortable staring this intently into another boy's eyes."

There was a roar of muffled laughs in the crowd.

But Chase didn't break his gaze from Aaron. He just dawned a slightly more unsure expression while still trying to look tough.

The one thing that really irritated Chase about Aaron was that any other kid would have avoided a fight with him, but Aaron didn't seem afraid at all.

Aaron whispered in a reassuring manner, "Look I get it, I'm really attractive and it's-uh normal for boys like you...but we can't keep doing this in public. Leave while you still have some dignity."

"You will regret this.", Chase managed to say it as confidently as his current state would allow him.

"Let's go Elliot, he won't be here to help his 'bro' forever.", said Chase as he turned his back to Aaron.

For just a moment Chase looked back down at the ground to where Nathan had been pinned, but he was seemingly gone.

Aaron stared at the ground, just as confused as Chase and everyone else in the crowd.

Nathan had disappeared without notice.

Had he just slipped by?

Was he actually that quick?

Aaron carefully analyzed the situation. It was a very real possibility that Nathan had slipped by as the crowd's attention was on Chase and him. Aaron examined the surrounding area, until his eyes had landed on a slippery hooded boy sitting discreetly at an empty table to the farside of the cafeteria.

"Okay shows over everybody.", announced Aaron as he made his way towards Nathan's location.

"Mind if I take a seat?", asked Aaron as he pulled up a green plastic chair from underneath the cafeteria table.

"No, it's okay.", replied Nathan in a muffled voice.

"So are you okay dude? How'd you get all the way here?

I just saw you lying on the floor a minute ago.", asked Aaron scratching his head.

"Yeah - I'm still alive. Just walked fast that's all. ",

Nathan said trying to shrug the matter away.

"Yeah sorry 'bout Chase man. You know what I say, better alive than breathing huh. "

"Better alive than breathing?

That makes no sense." ,

Nathan looked as confused as me at Aaron's phrase.

"Oh so young, you'll understand when you're older mate.

Now forget that, are you sure you're okay buddy?

I mean no disrespect but you look terrible man. "

A concerned Aaron looked at Nathan's dark eyes expecting an answer. But there was none.

"How did you sleep last night?", persisted Aaron.

"With my eyes open.", Nathan replied bluntly with a blank expression on his face.

"Look Aar-", Nathan paused waiting for Aaron to fill in his name because he had forgotten it himself.

"Aaron.", smiled Aaron.

Nathan looked flustered,

"Yes Aaron..."

He continued, "Uh - look Aaron I appreciate your help back there but you don't have to do this."

"Do what? Talk to you? Well okay, but would you like a quick tour of the school. So maybe next time you'd know where to never walk alone?", asked Aaron with complete disregard to Nathan's indirect "go away gesture''.

"Why are there specific areas where you should never walk alone? Are there ghosts or something?", asked Nathan with just a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

Aaron's face turned cold,

"Because there's people like Chase who will sell your kidneys for a cigarette."

Nathan went pale.

"Though a small percentage to be likely, I am kidding. Now let's go.", Aaron laughed.

So Nathan followed Aaron out of the cafeteria and into the school's hallways.

After walking a short distance past some lockers and closed classroom doors, the two boys arrived outside of the senior's bathrooms.

Aaron stopped just a few meters from a group of girls and slouched back against a locker as if casually loitering.

"This basically is like the school's gossip club. These girls know alot about things which you don't want them to know. If you ever need some dirt on somebody, this is the place to come. You can often find them spending most of their time outside of bathrooms and lockers, either doing their hair or nails.", explained Aaron.

Nathan tried to lean against the locker next to Aaron in a "cool" manner, but instead ended up standing in an awkward slant.

"But why stand outside bathrooms? Isn't that a little bit weird?", inquired Nathan.

"A little bit. But it's also a good place to hear rumors."

"Makes sense.", agreed Nathan.

"Now look over there.", Aaron gestured for Nathan to look into the direction of a blonde girl with pink polished nails.

She stood proudly in the centre of the group of girls drawing their attention to herself only.

"That is Layla Hall. She is something of the spoiled leader of this group of girls and also the second richest person in town. Her family owns the Hallway Bank.

I would avoid her if I were you, make one mistake and she'll make sure the whole school is laughing at you."

Nathan recognized the blonde girl. She was the same girl from yesterday who had made fun of him for saying that he wanted a job when he grew up. {If you forgot then see chapter "IS THAT A GIRL WITH YOU?"}

"Yeah I think that we - uh already met.", said Nathan while remembering his embarrassing encounter with her.

He was definitely going to take Aaron's advice and avoid her.

"By the way, you said that she's the second richest? Then who's the first richest?", asked Nathan.

"That would be me.", Aaron said proudly.

"Now c'mon let's go.", Aaron woke up from the locker and waited as Nathan struggled to gain his upright posture again.

"Where we going next?", asked Nathan feeling a little embarrassed.

"Probably your worst nightmare."

With that said the two boys arrived outside of a wooden floored basketball court. The varnished floor was lined with white borders and circles, obviously allowing for games such as netball and basketball to be played.

There were also many orange cones, climbing ropes, netball nets and basketballs kept on the edges of the court.

Towards the end of the room there were small benches and stalls in which spectators could presumably watch participants suffer.

"Welcome to gym class.", announced Aaron.

Nathan didn't say a word, he just continued to marvel at the horrors which might occur in such a place.

"This is where most of the PE exercises take place. Besides the disembodied embarrassment of a million souls which occupy the voidless space it is also mostly occupied by them." , Aaron pointed to a girl and four boys who were smoking in the furthest corner of the room.

"I believe you've already met some of them. That guy in the 1980's baseball jacket is Chase O'Neal. He is the person who tripped you earlier. He is also something of the school bully or whatever you want to call it. That much older looking boy next to him is Elliot and also Chase's right hand man who pinned you for the three count earlier.", explained Aaron.

"Well why does Eliot look so much older and taller?", asked Nathan feeling just a little uneasy at the thoughts of what an older boy like Eliot could do to him if he was left alone again.

"Well Eliot has failed about four times over therefore he is the oldest student in the school and the strongest of the group.", said Aaron calmly.

"And those other dudes there, you don't have to worry about them, they're just there to look cool.", Aaron laughed a little.

"What about the girl? Who's she?", Nathan gestured to the Gothic looking black and purple-haired girl with the cigarette in her mouth.

"That's Elisa, the school's personal no care attitude goth. While many avoid her and she avoids many, I personally don't think there's anything wrong with her, she's just misunderstood. But don't take any romantic interest there because she is also Chase's girlfriend and Jade's ex-friend.", Aaron neatened his tie so that it sat straight on the mid-point of his shirt.

"Wait who's Jade?", Nathan was trying to make sense of all the information and relationships.

"Jade is my friend and I'm sure she'll be yours too. In fact we should go over to her now. She's probably waiting for me at the cafeteria."

Nathan remembered seeing a brown haired girl with whom Aaron offered to sit with yesterday. That girl had to be Jade, he thought.

Nathan began thinking of yet another excuse to avoid meeting her.

"Uh- I too have a friend waiting for me.", said Nathan with a slight stutter in his voice.

"Really? Who is it?", Inquired the always inquisitive Aaron.

Nathan felt slightly guilty that he had to dig back down into the same well and use his get out of jail free Pasquier card.

"Uh it's Martin ,Martin Pas - something." , Nathan still could not remember Martin's surname.

"Well I don't know his surname, but it's that kid Martin...you know-uh wears glasses, into conspiracies and stuff.", Nathan tugged onto his backpack straps so that it hugged onto his body just a bit tighter.

"You mean that dude from tenth grade, Martin Pasquier?", asked Aaron.

The name did sound right, and now Nathan knew Martin's surname once again.

"Yep that's the one.", affirmed Nathan.

"You must have not heard, while I personally compliment my dude Martin for being quite smart he has gotten himself suspended for a week for digging through the school's dumpster again. I don't know why he wastes his talents on something as ridiculous as 'finding magic'. I hope he grows out of it eventually.", explained Aaron with a slight bit of sympathy in his voice.

Nathan subtly kicked his brain as he heard that.

He knew that he was now completely out of viable excuses to avoid Aaron's good nature.