Jealousy, Jealousy (Part 2)

18 - Lauren

"Wait," I piped up. "It could be Livi. She's been annoyed at me even before tryouts and then she was suddenly nice to me once I joined the team."

"Livi Fellthorne?"

My eyes widened slowly. "Yeah..."

"She definitely would be the one to know where his bat was. They dated for a month in ninth grade," Amelia stated. "I have an idea, Lauren." She explained how I could do one of the easier tasks and then she could keep a lookout to see who Kiki could possibly be.

"There aren't any easy ones" I said, as I flipped through the notebook. "Dump your lunch tray in the middle of the cafeteria and say the food is gross. I could never do that."

"Oh but that would be easy to fake as an accident. Plus, I can spot people easily in the caf."

"Fine. Tomorrow, my food will be accidentally spilled."

At lunch the next day, I picked up my tray and started walking towards the middle of the cafeteria. I saw Amelia give me a thumbs up from her table and a quick smile. I released a deep breath I didn't know I had been holding in. I let the tray slip from my fingers and crash onto the ground.

Clunk!

Every single head turned towards me and I suddenly became self conscious. I still had one last part to complete though.

"The food here is disgusting! Back where I'm from, the food is so good."

I had meant to say that loudly but I'm sure it came out as quiet as a mouse because nobody seemed to have heard. Amelia's eyes were wandering around the room. Was I just supposed to stand here?

Suddenly, Emmie rushed up from behind me. "Ohmygosh! Lauren! What happened? Are you okay?"

"Oh, um, yeah. It was an accident, I guess."

She crouched down and helped me scoop some of the food back onto the tray.

"Thanks so much," I said, picking up the utensils.

Emmie smiled kindly. "Don't worry about it. Accidents happen all the time. The worst one in the caf was when a senior last year slipped and fell on a banana peel. Classic."

"Lauren! Are you okay?" a voice behind me exclaimed. It was Spencer. He helped me up and I brushed some of the food off my jeans. I noticed Emmie watching us so I let go of his hand quickly.

"I'm fine. Thank you." I hugged Emmie and she walked off to her friends with a wave. I plunked myself down at Amelia's table.

"Did you see anything?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Livi barely even looked at you. Which might be because she knew it was going to happen?"

I sighed. "First, I don't have lunch and now we don't even have a lead. Should I just ask her?"

"Sure," Amelia shrugged. "You said she was being nice to you now. Maybe she'll even help us. Anyways, have this mac and cheese. I'm finished."

"Aww, thanks!"