The Disney Book

Chapter Five - Friend Like Me

Wednesday is surprisingly awkward. I suppose I should have known - on Monday, Ellis and I hiked Yellowstone. On Tuesday, we played in my Grandma's backyard. Today feels rather anticlimactic. During first hour, he tries to sit next to me, but we are assigned seating charts and he ends up across the room. The trend continues in second hour, third hour, and fourth hour (which we have together, somehow), and I don't really try to talk to him in the first place, so I guess by the time lunch rolls around, he doesn't want to attempt to sit by me.

I make my way quickly to the cafeteria, hoping to find Lee and talk to her before her boyfriend arrives. It's not that I dislike Shane, it's more that I don't want him overhearing me confess the events of the past two days to my best friend. "Lee!" I call to get her attention as I approach the circular lunch table she sits at. She looks up from her Vera Bradley lunch box and waves as she sees me in the crowd. "You'll never guess what I did yesterday," I say as I sit down next to her.

"Oh really?" she says doubtfully. I'm typically a pretty predictable person. ""Let me see, did your dad leave you in charge of the Ranger Station?"

I laugh, "That's never going to happen. And no, you're not even close."

"You saw another bear?"

"Nope, I'm just gonna tell you," I say, too excited to let her continue. She rolls her eyes at me and opens a Tupperware of pomegranate seeds, which she pops into her mouth like candy. "I invited a boy over to Grandma's house and I actually really enjoyed it." Her jaw drops open. 

"Wow, I'm proud of you."

"Ya, anyways..." I proceed to give her a run down of the past two days; first the hike, which I hadn't told her about, and then the creek at Grandma's, and watching Pocahontas.

"So he likes Disney?"

"Nearly as much as I do."

"He sounds like he walked out of your dreams -"

"If he was from my dreams, he'd look a whole lot more like Flynn Rider."

"So what does he look like?"

"Um," I scan the cafeteria, "there he is! See, in he lunch line for spaghetti, with the blond hair." Just as I point him out, he gets his food and walks towards a half-filled table, accompanied by two boys I don't know too well.

"Ooh, well he's not bad Ryann," Lee follows him with her eyes as he gets nearer to us. "Nice choice."

He soon reaches the table and is within ear shot, and I hear him conversing with the other boys.

"Whoa, say that again!" One of the two boys says eagerly.

"It's always cloudy in London," Ellis says slowly, irritation thick in his voice.

"Dude, you sound so British!" the second boy says.

"I am British."

I wince, pitying him for what looks like a very painful lunch hour to come. Turning, I see Lee wincing too. "Invite him to sit with us!" she whispers in my ear.

"No! I'm awful at, you know, being social and stuff."

She shakes her head in mild disappointment. "Why didn't you tell me about him before today?"

"Shane was here, and I didn't want him to overhear private conversation -"

I cut myself off as Shane approaches us. "Hi Shane!" Lee says happily.

"Hey Natalie," he sits down and gives her a kiss on the cheek. I'm not sure why he calls her Natalie; I know for a fact he is aware that everyone else calls her Lee. "I got you something," he says with a smile as he leans down to open his dirty black backpack.