E.C.H.O.

Stage 21 "Suspicion"

Lucas swallowed a mouthful of orange juice while in thought.

I already blew Nathan off once before... he thought. Besides...if I went with him I might be able to see Amber... The thought trailed off as an image of Nathan's sister appeared in his mind. He saw her disembarking from the bus, hair flipping.

"Hello?" a hand waving in front of his face brought him back.

Surprised at himself, Lucas put the orange juice down. The cup hit the table with a loud bang and juice sloshed out. Curious glances were shot his way.

"Ahh..." Lucas began.

Nathan had already snagged a napkin from his other neighbor and dabbed up the juice before it could trickle off the table and cause any more harm.

"So, what do you say?" Banster didn't seem to have noticed the near disaster as he waited for a reply.

Lucas cleared his throat. "Nathan already asked if I would go with him to town..."

"Town?" Banster's eyebrows rose. "Seriously dude?"

Lucas shrugged.

"But the ice, man," Banster tried to convince him.

"Sorry."

"Wow..." Whatever Banster was going to say never came to be as a napkin, wet with orange juice, his him splat in the face. There was a moment of silence as it slowly slid off to reveal Banter's shocked expression. Orange juice dripped off his eyebrows.

"Goal!" Nathan sprang in the air with two arms raised as all around the table broke into cheers and high fives were exchanged.

It took Banster precisely two seconds to make a lunge for the culprit. Seeing it coming, Lucas pushed off from the table. He managed to rescue his bowel of cereal and slide his chair back just in time as Banster charged past.

Half the hockey team was upon the scene in moments to back up their captain and chaos broke out. Lucas watched while sitting comfortably and munching on his cereal from a safe distance. The fighting wasn't serious, more like play, and yet when chairs toppled and food spilled, the staff was quickly there to break it up.

"Boys!" an adult voice yelled.

Having finished his breakfast, Lucas calmly got up. His eyes locked with Nathan's only to see his roommate was currently pinned underneath Banister who was twice as large.

"Help?" Nathan reached out a hand.

Lucas responded with a lopsided grin and a salute before going to put his dishes away.

"That's cold!" He heard Nathan yell after him as teachers began to pull the boys off each other.

Lucas didn't bother to reply as he headed to class. Soon after minutes turned into hours and hours into days. The weekend was upon everyone almost sooner than they had expected.

Saturday morning Lucas and Nathan went to football practice. When it was over they headed to their room to get ready for their trip. Lucas stood before his closet, staring at the interior. Now that he didn't have to put on a uniform he was kind of stumped. Usually he would just throw something on, but somehow he had the urge to wear something...nicer.

Nathan's head popped out from the bathroom. Having just taken a shower he was busy drying his hair with a towel. "Just grab something already," he said before disappearing again.

Brian looked over from where he was sitting in front of his computer. As always, he looked to be lost in his studies. "You going on a date or something?" he asked.