Growing Pains

Chapter 12 - I believe you had something to tell me

D A I S Y

I placed my tray of food on one of the empty tables of the cafeteria and announced at last that I had something important to tell Zoey, really important.

She opened her eyes wide, and started before I could, already excited, "You finally decided to watch –"

I knew what she was going to say before she said it, so I stopped her right away, "You know I can't do anime."

"It's not anime!" We'd had this conversation before, too many times already, but Zoey was insane, and so was I, and so things like this were meant to happen every other day. "It's its own form."

"Right, I'm still not watching it," I said, looking at the meatloaf Mrs. Abebe had put together for today's lunch. I was always on the lookout for the next big case of food poisoning, but so far nothing. I didn't think that was very on-brand for Mrs. Abebe but apparently, she didn't care for what I thought. She had told me so. Had I been hurt? Yes, very much so.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to try, does it?" Zoey said, her eyes on the meatloaf too. She looked up in prayer, as she usually did, a ritual that had been keeping cafeteria-food-induced-diarrhea at a distance, "May the force be –"

"Equal to mass times acceleration," Luke said, appearing out of nowhere with his own tray of food.

"Diarrhea it is then," I said. Luke frowned but sat down next to us all the same. I frowned too, "Who said you could sit with us?"

"Daisy, come on," Zoey said next to me. This meant, be nice. It was an unreasonable request, especially after what happened at the hospital, but I decided I would comply. I did still have something important to tell her and I wanted her in a good mood for it.

"Yeah, no one likes a Regina George," Luke said, taking a bite of his food. I wouldn't mind if he choked on it. Just a little. Just for fun.

"Well, she's a misunderstood character, so joke's on you."

"How? She's one of the biggest villains in tv history," Luke said, after swallowing that first bite. It had taken him a while to chew it, but he had managed in the end. Oh well.

"Wow, Luke, just wow!"

"What, it's true!"

"Right, as much as I would like to hear you dissect Mean Girls right now," Zoey started, stabbing her meatloaf to get our attention. She turned to me, "I believe you had something to tell me."

"Yes," I said, sitting up straight. I hadn't wanted Luke here for this, but now I had no choice. I had been sitting on it for a while. I needed to let it out. "I was thinking about joining the school's music club. What do you think?"

"Like the glee club?" Luke asked with a frown. I ignored him. I had asked Zoey, not him.

She was already smiling, "I think that's a really good idea! I mean, yes, fucking yes, please yes! When are the auditions?"

I let out a sigh of relief. I had expected her to be more possessive of me, but it turned out we actually had a very healthy thing going on here, which was refreshing, if anything.

"Right, they said I should be in the auditorium no later than three, but please don't go watch, cause I'll throw up on stage if you do."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, I guess you're the love of my life and I'm scared of making a fool of myself in front of you."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Luke said and I sent him a look. It shouldn't sound like anything to him. He shouldn't even be here.