No Strings Attached

2

I walked into the cafeteria, and headed straight for the lunch line, hoping to get some food to quiet my growling stomach. It had made a particularly loud noise during fourth period, and when someone had pointed it out, I blushed bright red. I cursed myself for skipping breakfast on my first day.

After grabbing some mac and cheese, some fruit and a drink, I paid for my meal and turned around, holding my tray as I surveyed my options for a safe place to sit. I needed a group of people who would accept me when I sat down with them, but not ask too many questions. I looked around at the groups of people, who had congregated in a fairly typical high school manner. Tables were filled with jock-y type guys, giggling girls, nerdy twigs, dark-clothed, dark-haired teens, and a group of exchange-looking students who were all speaking different languages.

I was contemplating between sitting with the children of death or exchange kids when I suddenly heard a voice calling my name. I looked around, then to my right, where in the back corner, I could pick out Naomi waving excitedly to me from a table filled with girls and guys. "Lucy! Come over here!" She shouted across the cafeteria, drawing weird looks. She didn't seem to care.

I chuckled slightly at her actions, but cursed her for inviting me. Now, I was doomed to spend my lunch, and probably future ones, being interrogated by her and who I assumed were her friends.

I walked slowly over and took a seat at the table reluctantly, in between a guy and a girl. "Hey, meet my friends!" She smiled. "Guys, this is Lucy, the girl who saved me and got the bus driver to let me on this morning," she said, venerating me like I was a war veteran.

"Lenard the bus driver is a dick," the guy to the left of Naomi commented, and she nodded vigorously. I thought her head was going to pop off of her shoulders.

"Yes. Very dickish," she said solemnly before continuing. "So, Lucy, this is Elliot," she pointed to the guy next to her, who gave me a small wave, then continued around the table, "Jane, Parker," she said, and they smiled and waved. "And Aiden," she said, indicating to the last guy at the table, who mockingly saluted before pulling on his hoodie. I stifled a laugh. "So, how's your first day going? Do you like your classes? Who are your teachers? Wait, don't you-" A flood of questions, like an inquisitive tsunami flowed out of her mouth, unstopping and rapid-fire. My eyes widened and I blinked, stunned.

"Naomi," Aiden cut in loudly, popping a french fry in his mouth. "Chill. You're gonna scare her away, this isn't an interrogation," he laughed, and Parker laughed too.

"Yeah, calm down, can't you see her face?" he said to them. Then he turned to me. "Man, you should see your face." I blushed red, but tried to hide it by ducking my head down slightly.

"Don't embarrass her guys," Elliot said kindly, and I looked at him gratefully, not wanting to speak. He gave me a soft smile back.

"Guys, calm down," Jane said quickly, before speaking directly to me. "Sorry, they're not always like that. They're just happy to see each other again, and they're going kind of crazy right now."

Parker wrinkled his nose. "Ew, what? No way, I hate Elliot and Aiden. They're disgusting." Elliot threw a grape at him. "What the hell, man?" He flicked it back at him, and seconds later, grapes were flying through the air, and their laughter was filling the room.

I sat quietly, trying not to get too involved, and instead surveyed the table. Even Naomi and Jane were getting into it, tossing a couple at Elliot and Parker and snorting while he continued to be pelted with them. I caught Aiden's eye as I looked around, and he simply raised his eyebrows and leaned back in his chair, taking a sip from his can of diet coke and chuckling to himself, as if to half-apologize for their behavior. I raised my eyebrows.

If this was a daily occurrence, I wasn't sure how content I would be with sitting with them all the time. Maybe the exchange student table wasn't too bad of an idea. It helped that they couldn't speak English. At least I wouldn't have to answer any more questions like I was on a game show. Besides, it wasn't like there was much to tell about me anyway.

Minutes later, I was snapped out of my train of thought when their grape war had died down and they were sitting there. They were still chuckling to themselves as they resumed eating like World War 3: Grape Edition had not broken out moments ago. "Sorry about that," Naomi apologized.

"I'm not, you should get used to it if you plan on sitting here," Parker said, and I frowned slightly at his comment, though I tried not to let them see.

"So, tell us about yourself," Jane said, taking a sip of her water. At this point, I attempted to shove mac and cheese into my mouth to avoid answering her, but instead, all everyone did was wait for me to swallow.

I shrugged after a moment of awkward silence. "I came here from Pennsylvania."

"Cool," Elliot said, before breaking out into a story about his grandparents, who were apparently from Pennsylvania as well, which made everyone laugh, except me and Aiden, who was sitting and seeming to measure my reactions. I turned away from him. I felt like he was reading me like I was a book.

Later, the bell rang and I stood up, throwing everything away and starting to head to my next class, following the map I had been given. "So, what class do you have?" I heard a familiar voice ask, and I turned to my left to see Aiden casually standing there, matching my pace and grasping one of the straps of his backpack with his hand.

"Uh, physics," I said, after checking my schedule to be sure.

"Oh, cool. Me too," he said. I didn't say anything in response as we rounded a corner and started to go up some stairs. "Hey, do you have history third period?" he asked me, and furrowed my eyebrows.

"What?"

"History," he said again. "Did you have history third period?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"Oh, cool," he said. "I thought I saw you in my class this morning, but I wasn't sure. I guess we have two classes together. Again, I didn't say anything, but thankfully, he didn't seem to take it too personally as we entered the physics classroom.

I sat down at a desk and he sat at the one next to me, dropping his backpack without a word. I did the same, and pulled out a notebook, hoping that he would drop whatever conversation he was trying to have with me. The feeling of ignoring someone was weird to me. I had never had to do this before; in the past at schools, I had been able to fade into the background. It made it easier to leave when we moved again, which was inevitably going to happen. Again, I cursed myself for letting Naomi onto the bus.

"Welcome to science for your junior year, physics," the teacher said as he strode into the classroom. "Settle down, let's get right into it with demo," he said as he started to set something up, and I focused on him to keep myself from looking over at Aiden next to me. I could feel him leaning over randomly, as if he was going to say something, before sitting back up and keeping to himself.

I massaged my temples as I felt him looking over at me, trying to relieve a little bit of my stress and wake myself up. I was tired.

Finally, he spoke. "Are you okay?" he asked, and I looked at him for a second before turning back to the front of the classroom, ignoring his question.