Chapter 5

Foster crawls out of bed and looks at himself in the mirror. Bags under his eyes, pale, almost transparent, clammy skin, and red itchy scleras all point to a crappy day ahead of him. He takes a hot shower, dresses, and then grabs his bag. There is a knock at the door. He groans and answers it. Opening the door brightens his morning a bit. Claudia was there.

"Hey Foster, I just wanted to know if you wanted to walk to school with me." She states quietly. Of course, Foster heard every word.

"I would love to, but you could have just texted me, you didn't have to come all the way over here, I would have gone and got you." He says with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck and yawning.

"Well, I didn't want to wake you because it is still sort of early. I also don't think we exchanged numbers yesterday. I sat with your mom in the cafe for a while before she decided I could go see if you were awake," she meekly replies.

"Jeez. How early did you wake up?" He narks.

"Too early. It looks like you didn't sleep so well either Zombie boy," she jabs back at him. A few more fake insults later and they are already headed out the door of the café, school-bound. As they leave, Dawn throws a curious glance Foster's way. He doesn't even notice.

They arrive and split up to get to their lockers. Claudia struggles with her lock but eventually gets the darn thing to open. She empties the contents of her backpack and grabs her schedule to figure out first period. Because she arrived late yesterday, she still isn't completely aware of her school day routine. She grabs the appropriate learning materials and shuts her locker gasping when a figure appears to be standing directly behind her locker door.

"You take too long. I aged ten whole years while you were figuring out which book you need," Foster complains.

Claudia feigns a sigh after calming her body. She internally curses herself for being so easily frightened. It's not like the school would ever actually let a stalker or murderer inside. 'What a wimp,' she thinks. "I can tell. You went from zombie boy to decayed zombie boy in a matter of moments."

"Do you still need help finding your way? I wouldn't be so mean to your personal assistant if I were you. You might end up lost. Or worse, you may run into the hall-monitor goblins that parole these halls, looking for new victims. . . Ooga Booga!" Foster shouts followed by a wicked smile. Claudia shakes her head and they head to class together.

'What a dork,' she thinks to herself.

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The lunch bell rings, signaling the onset of hordes of starving teenagers. Scary. Claudia and Foster exit their foreign language class together, giggling about Spanish curse words. As they near the cafeteria Claudia sees the lunch line. Starting at the door, ending all the way past the vending machines by the bathrooms, this is going to take forever.

"That looks rough," Says wide-eyed Foster, "I've never actually gone to the cafeteria at lunch because I never buy. My mom always has something ready for me in the morning like the incredible woman that she is." Foster lifts his lunchbox, shaking it slightly for emphasis.

"I woke up early today. I should have packed my own lunch, but here I am ... Eyeing the ginormous lunch line, like a hungry idiot," Claudia huffs. She begins walking toward the end of the line and pulls out her phone to look at memes to pass the time. Their lunch is an hour so hopefully, she can get something before she has speech. God knows how hard it is to try and focus on a lecture when the demons of hunger are battling inside you.

"I will catch you at the library whenever you make it out ... if ever you make it out," Foster jokes. He turns to leave but stops and faces C before making it very far, "same place as yesterday?" he raises his eyebrows waiting for confirmation. C gives the thumbs up, and Foster turns back around, headed in the direction of the library, pre-made lunch in tow. Lucky bastard.

C looks back down at her phone. Screenshots of funny tweets and Tumblr posts flash by as she scrolls to find anything that piques her interest. She stops on a post with SpongeBob references and snorts before scrolling on. Over her shoulder behind her, someone watches along, making judgments of whatever posts C decides to stop and gander at for a moment longer. The person clears their throat to catch her attention, but she is too engrossed in her current meme that she doesn't notice it. The unknown stranger makes a second attempt, this time trying a different tactic, tapping her shoulder. This spooks C and she jumps a bit before turning around to see the taller girl from the day before. Today, she seems different. Her arms are crossed, her eyes are turned towards the ground and she has an expression that's hard to read.

"Hey, I just wanted to say sorry for yesterday. I was being a bitch. You caught me on a bad day. I shouldn't have called you a freak or made fun of your intro in speech yesterday. I just thought I should let you know that..." the girl trails off and looks back at the line with a sigh, "it looks like we are going to be stuck here for a while." C is taken aback by the sudden apology but shrugs off whatever anger she held towards this girl and nods. School can be rough for everyone and it isn't cool to judge someone without knowing anything about them. Who knows what other people go through in their personal time.

"Hey, I'm sorry for running into you yesterday. I should have been more aware of my surroundings. What's your name by the way? I don't think I ever caught it," C looks back at the lunch line, inching forward a bit to keep up with the movements of the line.

"It's Micah."

"Well nice to meet you, Micah," C and Micah chat as the line shortens. They discuss topics like music, style, cute celebrities, etc. They have much more in common than C thought they would. They finally make it to the front of the line. C stares at the endless options in front of her. There is a salad bar, a yogurt bar, three different choices for the entrée, tons of drinks and other side options. She doesn't know what to get. Micah heads for the salad bar, gathering the ingredients she needs for what looks like a Caesar salad. C decides to follow behind her. Salad is supposed to be healthy anyway. It wouldn't hurt to throw a vegetable or two down my throat is what she thinks. Micah also grabs water from the fridge and a blueberry muffin from the bakery items. C decides to get the exact same thing because a blueberry muffin sounds incredible. Who would pass up something like that when they're starving? They head to the register to pay for their lunches and then nod as they separate. C heads towards the library, sneaking a look to see where Micah is headed. Micah ends up sitting at a table with some of the athletes. Looks like she fits in perfectly with that crowd. C opens the door to her new favorite room of the school building and heads towards her beanbag chair, wondering how on earth she is going to be able to eat a salad in a slouchy mass of beans without making some kind of a mess. As she approaches, she notices Foster isn't in his usual spot. She glances around and spots him at the tables and as she gets nearer, she decides to sit across from him.

"What happened to sitting at the other spot? and is that what your mom made for you? It looks to die for," C says, a small growl escapes her stomach.

"Sorry, I figured it'd be easier to eat at a table than with our food on our laps. And yeah, she made extra Reubens last night and so she packed one for me along with one of her famous, 'World Peace Cookies,'" he says, air quotes surrounding the dessert's name.

"World peace?" Claudia giggles inwardly at the silly name.

"Yeah, it's what looks like a chocolate chip cookie but if you look closer, the chocolate chips aren't chocolate chips at all. They are small pieces of brownie and sliced almonds. It's a new recipe she has been trying to perfect. She wants to add it to the menu and thinks if she can get it just right, it will be a big hit."

"I agree with her," C garbled, as she digs into her salad. They go on talking about books and homework assignments previously in the day. Before they know it, the lunch bell rings again. They clean up their messes and push in their chairs before heading for Mr. Rennet's class. They take their seats and pull out their notebooks right as Mr. Rennet stands to address the class.

"I hope you all had a great lunch. A good meal always leaves me in a chipper mood. Sorry to ruin that for you all but I am assigning pairs for a group project that's due next week. When you hear your name, raise your hand so your partner can see you," He looks down at his list and begins rambling off different pairs of students. C and Foster share a nervous look with each other, each hoping that the other will be their assigned partner.

"Miss Jones . . . and Miss Berry," C raises her hand and looks around the classroom to try and spot whoever her partner is. Micah's hand is also raised. They see each other and share a small smile before putting their hands back down. It isn't Foster but it might be nice to get to know Micah a bit better.

"Aww this sucks, I got assigned to do my assignment with Jack. That bumbling idiot doesn't know anything aside from football and barely the back of his hand," Foster grumbles. C snorts at Foster's comment before turning her attention back to Mr. Rennet. The rest of the class period is spent discussing the details of the project assignment with a small break to get your partner's information to be able to complete the assignment outside of class. Although there will be time in class to work on the project, it isn't going to be able to be completed only utilizing project time in class. That would be too easy wouldn't it.

The rest of the day cruises by smoothly. Foster and Claudia walk out of 8th period discussing their opinions of the opposing sides of WWII. Despite their collective lack of sleep, the discussion is boisterous, causing some passersby to send an annoyed look their way. They don't notice. They get closer to the library and Foster slows down a bit.

"Hey Foster, I don't think I can come to the library today. With the new assignment from Mr. Rennet, Micah and I decided to crank out as much of it as we can tonight because our schedules don't line up so well. I'm sorry," C apologizes.

Though disappointed, Foster smiles and waves her off, "No worries pal, I get it. Lucky for you, your partner actually seems like they are going to contribute to your project. Unfortunately for me, I don't think Jack has any clue what the assignment is about or what school, in general, is about," Foster sheepishly shrugs. "Maybe tomorrow?"

"Sure. Tomorrow." C walks off towards the main doors, leaving Foster at the library alone. A pit forms in Foster's stomach. He feels anxious about this assignment. He has a bad feeling that it isn't going to go well. Or maybe he is just worried about C being able to present in front of all the shitheads that made fun of her just the other day.