What Happens at Lunch, Stays at Lunch

Chapter 1: Room of Strangers

Sophie's Point of View (POV)

Sitting to my left is my best friend Hope. She's brilliant and we are inseparable. Others gathered around the table filled to a maximum of eight, with many not making the cut of the day. That's what happens when you have a "big" group of friends. We were split into three tables of eight, spread across the lunch room. I continued eating my raspberry Chobani yogurt, listening to Hope's intense story. As I did this, I scanned the broad room. To the left of our table, sat a group of boys that I have not said a word to all year. To the right was the "popular" table filled with eight perfect girls, many of whom Hope and I were great friends with. I swiveled my circular seat to the table behind ours. There were a few girls that I didn't know their names. Turning back around to face the table, I stretched my neck to the ceiling to see over my great friends Natalie and Lindsay. I focused onto the table in front of ours. Eight boys filled the table, each one of them a class clown. One of our best guy friends sat there, and he was in Hope and my home room. He was hilarious. I continued listening to Hope, and I looked to the top right corner of this little 3 by 3 square of tables I was observing. It was the "popular" boys, with there quiffs reaching the roof, fluffed to perfection. Each one was perfect, laughing in unison at their jokes that anyone would laugh at. Wow. My mouth dropped slightly as I gawked. Hope knew I was staring, because she joined in, then commented.

"They are hot, Soph. I want one," she interjected.

"Me too, Hope. Me too," I responded, not breaking a gaze.

"Wow."

"What?"

"It's weird, isn't it."

"Isn't what?" As I asked this, Hope pulled my shoulder, spinning my chair to face her.

"Look around this room," she started, pointing in a circle following the edges of the room, "do you even know who over 25% of the people in this room are?"

"Barely. It's weird how in a room filled with people I've gone to school with for 9 years, all I see are strangers," I concluded. Hope nodded, continuing to gaze around the room. I looked back down at my yogurt, stirring the fruit stuck at the bottom into a perfect consistency. I felt bad about myself, barely knowing so many classmates. I slowly turned my head to the top left corner of the square and saw a table filled with people we were kind of friends with, and some we are/used to be best friends with. One upon a time, they would sit with us every single day, and had a seat reserved on a daily basis. I don't know what happened, maybe a mysterious fall out between other members. That happened a lot between the groups surrounding ours. One day, you were best friends, and the next, strangers. On the other side of the room, was Hope and my old best friend, but we all didn't talk much anymore. I wish we did, because I don't think I ever recovered from the silent falling out. I know Hope misses her too.

Lunch was coming to an end, and now I was eating from a plastic baggy filled with pretzels, which I adored. Hope was eating veggie straws, which I loved too. We always shared snacks, especially because my lunchbox was a bottomless refrigerator. I scanned the room again, my eyes once again landing on the popular boys table. Damn, they were dreamy. Some were super tall, tan, and played basketball or baseball and others were short, thin, and great at soccer or hockey. I have never talked to half of them, but I was pretty good friends with the other half. Suddenly, I felt a spoke on my shoulder.

"Soph, we're leaving," Hope told me. Shit, lunch was over. I was leaving the land of private thoughts to go to study hall, which I had with Hope. We skipped down the hall, laughing and making new inside jokes by the second. We the discussed our hard fought victory in gym. Yes, we were kind of the athletic, sporty girl group. Each of the 20+ of us had a main sport. Many were basketball, soccer, softball, and volleyball players. Hope focused on volleyball, and I focused on basketball. However, both of us could do the other sports we tried pretty well. Our chat continued.

"Capture the flag is definitely our best sport in gym," Hope exclaimed.

"Definitely. It's because we are faster. Also, we wanted it more," I responded.

"True. It was so intense." I giggled. Everything Hope said was hilarious. We walked down the beige, brick halls with posters planted on every square inch of every wall. Scanning the posters, I noticed a different one, which read,

Take One Compliment:

It was in a business number flier set up, if that makes sense. You would rip off a cute little phrase that just brightened up your day. Of course, Hope and I took one. How could we pass up the opportunity? Both of us smiled, and kept skipping. Our white, high top converse hit the grey and red carpet in unison as we finally made it to study hall, breathing slightly heavy. A slight glow of sweat aligned our faces, from the skipping. From behind us, I heard a quiet giggle. Hope and I turned quickly to see Stewart and David, who Hope and I called Stew and Dave. They are in our homeroom, and are very very funny. Also, they have a knack for getting our homeroom teacher angry.

"Stew! Dave!" Hope yelled, making me laugh.

"Hey Hope, wanna hear a joke?" Stew started.

"Sure!" She responded.

"Why do fish live in salt water?"

"Why?"

"Because they would sneezed if they lived in pepper water!" Stew started chuckling very loudly and abruptly in the hall. We followed his lead, giggling obnoxiously loud in the packed hall. Some turned heads, and some carried on with their day, barely noticing we were there. It's sad, that people hardly socialize or stand out. I hope this won't be the way it always will be. That would suck.

~~~

AUTHORS NOTE: new book omg ahh! Hannah and I are very excited for this one. we are still going to be writing The Perfect Person too, don't worry. Every week-ish, we will update at least one chapter in every book (probably more) so get pumped! This will be good, trust me. Or, at least we hope😂. Please like, comment, and vote because this is a new book and we need to spread the word😘 love you all!💗💗💗

ps; @sadieandhannah owns every character listed in this book. So far, that includes...

Sophie and Hope (obviously😂)
Natalie
Lindsay
Stewart (Stew)
David (Dave)

We will own more characters, but these are the only ones in the book so far. I hope you all enjoy it!!💓💓