Being The New Girl

19: Interpretive Cat Role-Play

Luke flinches. I turn my head to the door and find Martha the lunch lady staring back at me.

"Martha. Hey." I wave awkwardly. "What are you doing here so late?"

Her gaze sweeps over the two of us coldly. "I left something here and came back to get it. Not that it's any of your business. Now... I'm going to ask you again. What are you two doing in here?"

"W-well," I stutter, "you see, I— we—"

"Roxy waited up for me while I had football practice after volleyball ended for her, and after, we decided to go head to head in a game of each," Luke begins, taking over for me. "Long story short, I ended up giving her a black eye, and when we went to get ice from the nurse's office, the door was locked. This was the next best place." He brings the tub of ice cream away from my face and into her view. "Couldn't find any ice, but found this, which works even better."

I whip my head around to stare dumbfounded at Luke. He just admitted to us stealing food from the school—what is he thinking?

Martha falls silent, and I can see the gears turning in her head. "Well—"

I turn away, shutting my eyes when I can't watch any longer. I can't get in trouble. I can't—

"I guess that's fine."

"What?" I can't help myself. "You mean we're not in trouble? We're not getting detention or, worse—?" (A/N: expelled)

Luke places a hand over my mouth, shutting me up. "Don't give her any ideas."

Martha laughs, startling me. "It's okay. I understand. Just don't tell anyone about the ice cream—" she waves her finger at us, "—and clean up after yourselves, you hear?"

Luke salutes her. "We hear. Thanks, Martha."

She winks, before walking to the wall at the back of the room and grabbing the sole remaining bag on the hook on the wall. As she walks out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her, she shouts, "Go home and get some real ice on your eye! It's turning blue!"

I look at Luke. "Blue?"

He winces. "Blue...?" It's more of a question than a statement.

Blowing the hair out of my face, I push myself off the counter. "She's right. I need a real ice pack." I grab the tub from his hands. "But who says we can't eat this, too? She did say to clean up after ourselves, and the best way to hide the evidence is to eat it."

"I like that idea." He jumps to the ground. "I'll drive you home?"

After grabbing our backpacks from the football field, which we conveniently forgot and had to walk all the way back to get, we get in his car and he starts driving. A minute of silence passes.

"You know, we might as well get some more work on our science project done. I don't have work tonight, and if you're not busy...?"

"Now's great. Your house or my house?"

"Your house." I make a face. "My house is boring."

He glances at me, but doesn't question it, making the switch to turn left instead of right to head to his house. We pull in the driveway and open the door to find Matt playing video games in the living room.

Luke starts to call out to him but I shush him, slipping off my shoes silently and creeping my way over to the couch as undetectably as I can. When I get directly behind him, I make my move.

Jumping onto the couch directly next to him, I shout, "Whatcha doing, Matt?"

He drops the controller on the ground and jumps away from me with a shout. When he sees who it is, he glares at me, grabs the remote, and says, "Go away," before going back to his shooter game.