I walked into the cafeteria and went through the line, getting my usual lunch, two pieces of pizza, fries, and a blue Gatorade. I paid for my food and waltzed over to my table, where my friend, Rian, was already waiting there for me. I sat down across from him and instantly started stuffing my face.
Rian chuckled at me and stole one of my fries and ate it in one bite. "Where were you, dude? You're later than usual." He stole a few more of my fries and shoved them into his mouth.
I took a break between bites and looked at him. "Well," I said with a half-full mouth, "You remember that chick from the party last weekend?"
Rian thought for a second and then nodded. "Blonde one with the big boobs? What was her name... Chelsea?" He took a bite of his burger and nodded again. "What about her?"
I set down my piece of pizza and laced my fingers together and set them down on the table in front of me. "Yeah, well, she stopped me in the hallway and told me that she had a great time at the party, and then she asked me if I would ever be interested in being more than just friends."
Rian pulled his eyebrows together. "I didn't even know you guys were friends."
I shrugged and took another big bite of my pizza. "Neither did I."
Rian chuckled again. "So, what did you tell her?"
I shook my head. "I told her that I was sorry, but I'm not looking for a relationship right now. She started to pout, so I told her that she was really pretty and told her that she could find someone better than me. Then, I just walked away and headed down here." I finished off my first piece of pizza and started on my second.
Rian took another one of my fries and pointed it at me. "Well played, dude. Well played." He smiled and ate a few more of my fries before I smacked his hand away.
"Get your own God damn fries." I quickly finished off my second piece of pizza and began inhaling my fries before Rian could get his grubby fingers on any more of them. I got up from my spot and headed over to the trash cans to dump my tray. I dumped the trash into one of the bins and set my tray on the already-tall stack and headed back to my table. I sat back down in my seat in front of Rian and chatted with him until the bell rang to go to fifth hour, which, for me, was Music. I nodded to Rian before heading out the double doors of the cafeteria and through the hallways to my class. I walked into the room and sat down in one of the chairs set out in the front of the room. I slid down into the chair and crossed my arms and rested one of my legs on my other knee. I just sat there, careless as could be, as the other students filed in. I recognized all the people in my class. Well, almost all of them. There was a boy who I had never seen before. He had light brown hair and his jeans seemed even tighter than mine, which didn't happen often. He seemed scared, like a deer in the headlights.
I shrugged and faced the front of the class again as the teacher separated out some papers and started class right as the bell rang.
"Welcome to your first day of Music," he said, handing a student a stack of papers, "Please take one and pass on the stack to the next person. This is just a list of supplies you will need for this class, along with the rules that apply in this classroom." He returned to his desk and sat down in his chair and looked at a piece of paper on his desk and began taking roll. Once he was done with that, he stood up and walked around his desk and leaned against it as he looked us all over. "Okay, so, I don't really feel like it would be right to give you an assignment on your first day, so, this hour will consist of you all talking among yourselves and getting to know each other. We will be doing some group projects in this class, and one of the first steps of working well with someone is to know a little bit about them." He paused for a second to look us over once more and returned to his seat behind his desk and started typing something on his laptop.
I smirked to myself. Sweet. Free period. I looked to my right to see a girl with curly, caramel-colored hair. And she was smiling at me. I winked at her and she giggled.
She held her hand out to me. "Hi. I'm Natalie." She bit her lip and continued to smile at me.
I took her hand and kissed the back of it lightly. "Jack."
Her cheeks turned a light pink as she took her hand back, giggling.
I chuckled. "So, you play any instruments?"
Her smile faltered. "No. I'm just taking this class because I need the credit in order to graduate." She crossed her legs and faced her body towards me. "What about you? Do you play anything?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I play guitar."
We sat there awkwardly for a moment before she turned away and started talking to someone else. I continued socializing with a few random people for the rest of the hour before the bell rang to go to seventh hour. I stood up and picked my books up and headed out the door. I walked out into the hallway to see a few jocks ganging up on the brown-haired boy from class. I bit my lip and continued down the hall.
I know what you're thinking: Go save him, Jack!
But, the way I see it, everyone goes through that at one point or another. What good would it be if I stopped it from happening? It's the circle of life. It's just how things go in this school. They'll get tired of him eventually and move on to the next victim. He'll survive.

Notes

So, Jack is kind of an ass in this chapter...
Sorry. Don't hate me, please! :o
-Ryan