Perks of being the newbie

He panicked.

Was he smelly? No.

Was his hair done? Kind of.

Was his outfit presumable? It was the school uniform, so obviously not.

Was his face seductive? Uh…

"Moorie! What happened to your face!?" Adrianne approached them so quickly Moore couldn't even finish his daily 'make sure you're presentable to see Adrianne' routine, so he just had to improvise.

"Oh, this?" He pointed to the red mark on his cheek while laughing "I just came back from fighting with a bear."

"A bear?" she raised a brow.

"Yeah, a big bear."

"In the middle of Kansas?" She crossed her arms.

"It was a lost bear."

"During a lightning storm?" She lifted her head.

"It was a wet bear."

Adrianne stopped to look at him, then she exploded in laugher. Moore smiled with the results.

"You were smashed by another girl, weren't you?"

"Yeah, pretty hard" Tobey answered before Moore could.

Adrianne giggled, and although spilling out the truth wasn't what he wanted, the mere sound of her laughter was enough to ease Moore's worries. So he smirked as Tobey showed Adrianne the pics he took and she laughed with that characteristic kindness of hers. He loved making Adrianne laugh.

His gaze darkened when it fell over Thomas, standing behind Adrianne with his hands inside his pockets. Thomas, on the other hand, smiled at him with an expression so creepy and so innocent Moore couldn't figure how was that even possible. He knew people were still watching, so he had to take care of his words and actions.

"Thomas."

"Doron."

But before Moore could realize, Thomas was already hugging him.

"Oh, Doron, I really missed you."

And of course, Moore wasn't happy.

"Da'hell man!? Get fucking lost!" He said under his breath due to the hard squeeze Thomas was giving him. He fought and pushed him back unsuccessfully, for Thomas was so damn strong. If it were not for the fact that it was illegal, Moore would've sworn Thomas was trying to kill him instead.

Thomas softened his grip and pulled back, clearly amused by Moore's expression, who was craving for air. Breathing heavily, he leaned on Thomas' shoulder.

"Geeze dude. That was so unnecessary."

But Thomas only laughed in return.

"So, Adri, will you gift us…" Moore hurried to inhale some more air before pushing Thomas away "…the luxury of accompanying you during your precious free ti--" But when he turned around, Adrianne and Tobey had already left them alone, and were advancing their places in the waiting line. They seemed to be having the time of their lives chit-chatting.

Moore growled. That little... he clenched his fist.

"So, Moorie" Moore turned to meet Thomas' mocking look once again "Will you gift me the luxury of accompanying you during your precious free time?"

"Shut up."

"Anytime, Moorie."

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Seven minutes -and an embarrassing dispute due to the lack of enough cafeteria coupons thanks to a certain someone- later, four food trays were settled over the table, and next to each tray their respective owner. Tobey, Moore, Adrianne, and Thomas. They ended up sitting together. But of course they would, since it was Thomas who had to pay for everyone's lunch.

Not that he complains though; in fact, he seemed to be really enjoying it. To see Moore shaming himself was surely something pleasant for him; and when minutes ago Tobey informed Moore they had run out of coupons to pay, right after Moore had offered himself to pay for Adrianne's lunch as well, Thomas really did a huge effort not to burst in laugh.

He had stepped before everyone and told the cashier he was going to pay, while behind him Moore tried to break Tobey's neck.

"Are you sure, Thommy?" Adrianne asked worriedly.

"It's alright. I was just wondering why the principal gave me this many coupons this morning anyway.��� He smiled "The perks of being the newbie, I guess."

And so, that's how they ended sitting one in front of the other, just the way Moore didn't want to. He had to be facing Thomas, while Tobey got the privilege to face Adrianne.

Moore was clenching his plastic fork so strongly Tobey feared it might give in soon.

"Then, Adri" Thomas began. He turned to see the girl on his left, resting his head on his hand and completely ignoring the two boys sitting in front of him. "You were telling me about your social service project. I think, this thing about accompanying orphan girls? it's quite touching, you totally got me hooked up!"

"Oh" Adrianne fixed her hair behind her ear. Thus far, Thomas had noticed it was out of a habit. "It's not just accompanying them, we try to teach them, mostly, common subjects. You know, like how to read… "

"…write and draw?" Thomas finished the sentence and grinned.

"Yes" Adrianne chuckled "In essence…you guessed it right.��

"Wow" Thomas added with his most flirtatious expression. "No, I think we only must be connected or something."

The cracking sound of plastic broke into scene. Moore's poor fork was now resting in peace, and Tobey had to take it out of Moore's hand and replace it with his own without Moore noticing. After all, Tobey had already finished eating.

"I didn't expect you to be into this kind of stuff…" Adrianne said shyly.

'Of course he's not. He's just pretending' Moore thought.

"…but it's good to know. It'd be nice to have some new members who may help us."

'Ha! As if he'd be of any help' Moore snorted.

"I think I'd love that." Thomas answered with a hint of fake disappointment "But I'm still in a polemic right now."

'You see? He's not interested. He's about to put up an excuse' Moore bit his chicken nugget angrily.

"It's just…I can't choose between the foster home for girls you mention" Thomas continued "or the charity program for homeless street dogs in abandonment."

'WHAT THE fukiljkjbv csas dfgh!!' Moore choked on his nugget.

"It's so cruel I can't just do both!"

"I get the feeling" Adrianne said softly "but you are not obliged to anything. Just do what you are passionate about."

"Yeah, yeah I guess" Thomas shrugged and met Adrianne's gaze "You are so wise, Adri dary."

'Okay, that's enough' Moore slammed his hand on the table and leaned over Tobey to whisper something while Adrianne and Thomas kept talking about foolish things.

"Emergency meeting. Now."

So they both crouched on their side of the table.

"What is it, boss? Is yo' lemon water not tasting like lemon again?"

"The W.C.S.O.S. is now in phase 4."

"What? I didn't know the W-C-S...trategical Operation Sistem had a phase 4."

"Well, it does now. And don't say the name completely, it makes us waste time."

"Sorry boss, I always forget the order of the acronyms."

Moore peeked towards Adrianne only to confirm she was still distracted by Thomas. Then he turned back to Tobey.

"Whatever. That's not what matters right now."

"Is it for that boy sitting with us?" Tobey asked as Moore nodded "Yeah, I already felt it was strange. He seems to be having trouble with his moral duty, tho'. Poor guy."

"What? He's not, he's just pretending."

"How do you know?"

"Because that's exactly what I would say if I'd be flirting with a girl!"

"Oh" Tobey turned to think for a moment before looking back at Moore "So, what is it that you want then, boss?"

" 'kay, listen up. Phase 4 consists of distraction."

"But I thought Phase 2 already consisted of distraction."

"Well, yeah, but no! This is another type of distraction. Is distracting the distraction. Distracting the subject from being in distraction."

But Tobey was playing with some strand on his sleeve.

"Tobey! Did you hear?"

"Sorry boss, I got distracted."

Moore rubbed his face. What was he going to do with this guy? But about more important matters, what was he going to do with that guy. Thomas was still coquetting with Adrianne right in front of his eyes, and all Moore was doing was weeping in silence like some useless loser. This was no time for self-pity, this was time for battle and strategy.

"Forget it. This is what we are going to do." he grabbed Tobey by both his shoulders "I'm counting on you, bud. If we fail, we'll be no better than bugs in the mud, copied?"

Tobey nodded in super serious affirmation "Alright, shoot."