Homeroom 23

Chapter Eight: Civil War

I forgot to return Daniel's hoodie. When I woke up, that was the first thought that occurred to me. I woke up late, it must've been past noon—not that it mattered anyways. If it was a normal day Ms. Liams would've come in much earlier to wake me up and get me ready for class, but it wasn't any other day. My room was deserted, with Samantha nowhere to be seen. After allowing myself to squirm in bed for a while I pulled myself out of bed and looked around.

Daniels hoodie was draped over the chair at my desk. I wondered if Samantha had noticed it when she woke up. If she did, I wonder what she thought of it. How she thought it got in our room. I wondered if she was planning on telling Victoria that me—her loser roommate—had Daniel Torres's signature red hoodie. I couldn't help but feel a little smug at the thought of Victoria's heartbroken face. I threw on whatever outfit I could piece together and then quickly made my way to the cafeteria. If it was a normal day breakfast would be long over and the homeroom would be deserted. Like I said, it wasn't a normal day.

What was going on in the cafeteria could not appropriately be described as breakfast. Everyone seemed to have finished breakfast hours ago, and instead of moving back to their rooms they had taken up camp on the various lunch tables throughout the room. The first thing I noticed while walking to pick up a tray was the fact that the usually very united popular kid side of the room had dispersed. There were four groups of kids in each corner of the room—not including Noah and Anthony, who were sitting smack dab in the center of the cafeteria. After grabbing my breakfast (that could now be considered lunch) I joined them at their table expecting no less than an explanation of what the hell was happening.

"Melissa!" They both yelled in unison the minute I sat down at the table. "Where were you?"

"Can a girl sleep in once in a while? I've just been in my room." Before I could even finish the sentence, Anthony was explaining to me the details of what had happened while I was asleep.

"When we woke up there were these pamphlet things in everyone's rooms. They said that the girls had been talking about how much they hated George the night before he died. Now all the boys are mad at the girls, and some of them even think they worked together to do it. There was a huge fight at the front table, and now they're all split up. In the front left corner are the girls who think they did nothing wrong, in the front right corner are the boys who are mad at the girls—you can see right now they're throwing plastic spoons at them."

Sure enough, the boys in the front right corner were shooting plastic utensils at the front left girls. I could see Daniel among them. He wasn't wearing his signature red hoodie, but it was still definitely him. He was standing on top of the table to get the best view of his targets as possible, and was meticulously aiming each spork and spoon for as much time as possible before eventually throwing them. Some of the girls were using the cardboard trays from breakfast as shields, and others were just covering their heads with their hands. Mellany was in this group, but she seemed to be the sole outlier who was ignoring the flying plasticware. A couple of them landed in her hair, but she continued sitting stoic while the other girls panicked about.

"In the back of the room they aren't as divided," Anthony continued, "but there still is some tension. The left corner is the boys who side with the girls, and the right corner is the girls who side with the boys. Top representatives for each include Xavier and Matt for the left, and Ava and Yasmin for the right."

I nodded at his brief, but ultimately helpful recap as I scanned the room figuring out everyone's positions in the civil war. In summary, the boys who didn't like the girls included Daniel, Max, and Brandon; the boys who still liked the girls included Xavier, Matt, Henry, and William; the girls who still liked themselves included Samantha, Victoria, Mellany, Ariel, and Briella; and the girls who didn't like themselves were Ava and Yasmin. Ava and Yasmin—being the most outnumbered group in the war—were staying out of any conflict as much as possible. The boys in the bottom right corner would occasionally shout insults at them, but they just ignored them and continued talking to each other.