Inferno Part 2

~32~ Parenting Celebration

Ellie's POV

As I'm walking to lunch I hear two girls talking in front of me.

"Have you noticed Luke Preston lately?" The blonde girl asks.

"Yeah. He's been nice. He's a completely different person. I wonder what happened." The brunette says in awe.

"I heard that the girl who was tutoring him, Kelly, got him in big trouble for being mean to her."

"Any details?" The brunette asks, excited for her friend to spill the tea.

"No. Kelly won't say anything. Luke is great now, though. Makes me want to go up and talk to him."

"You totally should at lunch. Who knows, maybe he would even let you sit at his table."

"OMG could you imagine?!?! Sitting at Luke Preston and Trace Greene's table? What a way to end senior year" the blonde chuckles as they walk into the lunchroom.

I look up at Lance and roll my eyes. My kid is beautiful, yes, but the way these girls drool over him is so weird to me. Awkward, is probably the right word.

Lance snorts and shoves me playfully. He heard it all too. I told him about how much we had punished Luke last week. He told me he's noticed a huge improvement too. I'm just mad it took Taylor and I so long to knock some sense into the boy.

We get our food and sit down at the table. Mason is already there, chatting with Nick. He smiles big and hands me a cupcake when I sit down.

"What's this for?" I ask, getting super-duper excited.

"I had to stop and get gas this morning. They had the cupcakes you like." He shrugs nonchalantly.

I stand up and kiss his cheek. "Tell no one, but you're officially my favorite" I tease as I do a jig. Cupcakes always make me happy.

Lance, Nick, and Lana chuckle as they watch me be a doofus.

"Sorry Ellie, I may have to tell Liam. He tried to
one-up me the other day with the cheesecake" Mason jokes.

Liam always teases Mason about him becoming the favorite son. I'm ok with it, if it means I get presents all the time. I'm not above being bought with food. I may gain 50 pounds, but at least I'll be well-fed.

I snort as I take a huge bite of my white cupcake with white frosting.

"Don't you want your lunch first?" Lance asks, raising his eyebrows.

"Of course not!" I say, shocked he's questioning my methods.

"Why?"

"Boss, don'tcha' know anything? What if the fire alarm went off right now? I wouldn't get to eat the cupcake!"

Lance snorts. "You could take the cupcake with you, ya ding-dong."

Hmmm. He's right.... "why you picking on me, boss?" I ask as I take another bite.

Everyone at the table laughs at me like I said something funny. I was being serious. What kind of a world do we live in that people think it's important to eat your food before dessert? Craziness!

I glance over at Luke, and I see the blonde girl trying to get the nerve to walk up to him. I tap Lance's arm, and he follows my gaze.

"Think he will be nice?" He whispers.

"He better be" I say darkly.

She finally gets up the nerve and she taps on his arm. He turns, and immediately flashes his crooked smile that goes into his right eye. "Oh my gosh he's going to be nice" I whisper in awe.