Brace For It

Chapter 2

I walked slowly towards the cafeteria, dragging my feet, dreading the cafeteria. I thought crossed my mind. What if I eat lunch in the library, or somewhere else, like the bathroom? The characters in books always do that…. No. I can’t. I can’t be a wallflower just yet. I’ll try this out and see what happens. Maybe I’ll make some friends? No, probably not. I know that there’s a very small chance that I’ll make any friends today because, well, I’m just too awkward, but that little shard of hope just won’t stop screaming.

I take a deep breath and walk into the cafeteria. It’s a rather large room with about 10 to 15 medium square tables with about 8 chairs per table. The worst part of was that each table was occupied; some of them were full while others had a few empty seats. That means I couldn’t sit alone. Lunch in the bathroom was looking better and better now, but I promised myself I wouldn’t.

I sighed and carefully examined each table in hopes of finding potential friends. I know it’s wrong to judge a book by its cover, but what choice do I have at the moment? I examine each table and make a sort of map in my mind. In the very center row sit three tables, which seem to hold the popular people, like the jocks, players, and the popular crew. How can I tell, because there are what, like two pairs of people? Just straight up making out in those three tables. A table in the back row looks like the gamers table, since they all have their laptops and electronics out. I consider heading there for a moment, but quickly realize there are no girls there. Maybe because these are the sexist bastard gamers that objectify and criticize women every time they try to play a videogame. I decide to test the waters. I walk across the cafeteria and look over the shoulder of one of them. I’m pretty sure he’s playing GMOD, but I ask him anyways. “Hey, what game is that?” He snickers a moment before answering. “GMOD, not like you would know.” He smirks and the entire table laughs. Yup, just as I suspected, they have a terrible case of VSMB (Very Small Miniscule Balls). “Isn’t it rather dangerous to use one’s entire vocabulary in one sentence?” I retort. “Also, if you created that server then the CSS and API are really bad, you should fix those.” I say. I watch with amusement as their mouths drop at what I just said. I actually don’t play GMOD. I have almost no idea what I just said. You see, I’m not the most “intense” gamer, but I am a gamer nonetheless. I might not know a lot about gaming, but where am I supposed to get my knowledge from? It’s not like it’s passed down from gamer to gamer.

As I turn around, I immediately bump into Bennett. Hmm. I wonder what he was doing in this area. My mental cafeteria map told me that his table sat in the left corner, two tables across from this “gamer” table full of narrow-minded cabbages. “Hey, I saw you needed a place to have lunch. Why don’t you come over to my table?” he asks. “Oh, yeah, sure, thanks.” I say. I try my best to not look like a flustered turkey as he leads me to his table. “That was awesome how you stood up to those idiots back there.” Wow. I was… not expecting that. “Oh, ummm, thanks.” I reply as I blush. It’s not every day that a cute guy compliments your feminism. Wait. Did I just call Bennett cute? No, no, no, no, no, no! This CANNOT be happening. I know EXCATLY what this leads to. I’m not going down that path.