Of Hotshots and High School

Chapter 2 - Lena!!!

The worst part by far of moving to a new school is lunch. During classes you can just pull the "I'm so studious that I wouldn't talk to friends even if I had them" card, but at lunch the only excuse for eating by yourself is that you have no friends. Which isn't necessarily true. Every once in a while a do-gooder will come along and look at you with pity and ask if you want to eat with them, but I'd rather eat by myself, thank you very much. I don't actually mind eating alone, it's just that it seems to classify you as a low-life. So yeah. I wasn't looking forward to it today.

I walked into the cafeteria and grabbed what looked to be the most edible. Pizza. Probably the safest bet. I've always been a little concerned about the mystery meat burgers and half-frozen salads they serve at schools. Seriously, you wouldn't think it could be so hard to make food that tasted good, but somehow every single school that I've been to can't seem to figure it out. 

"Hey Rory!" I turned around. It was Chase. Of course. He was smiling and beckoning me over to his table, which was full of jocks and cheerleaders. No thank you. I shook my head, and continued to the other side of the lunch room, scanning tables looking for someone who looked like they'd be nice. One girl caught my eye. She was tan with dark hair and big eyes that hid behind glasses. She was pretty in a quiet kind of way, but she looked nice enough. I decided to risk it. I sat down next to her. 

"Hi." I said. She looked up and smiled. 

"Hey you're Aurora, right?" 

"Yeah," I was a little dumbfounded she knew who I was and I'm sure my face showed it. 

"We have English and science together." 

"Oh. Sorry," awkward. I should've recognized her. 

"No worries! I'm sure there are way too many new faces running through your brain right now!" She said brightly. 

"Yeah," I chuckled. "It's been a little overwhelming to be honest." 

"Oh I'm sure," she sympathized. "I've only been here for 2 months and my first day was horrible. Seriously. You look like you're doing way better than me!" She seemed like a super energetic person. She also seemed friendly and nice. Maybe I could use a little more energy in my life. "I'm Lena, by the way," she said, offering me her hand. I shook it. 

"Well, I'm very glad to meet you, Lena." I said, and I meant it. Maybe I could actually have a friend here. She was relatively new herself, so she probably didn't have a bunch of super close friends I'd feel like I was intruding on.

"You shook her hand and not mine?" A whiny voice said from behind me. I turned. Him again. I turned back around, rolling my eyes. "Hey Lena," Chase said brightly, then getting a somber look on his face he turned to me. "Seriously girl, you've hurt me to the core." He faked wiping away tears. I crossed my arms. 

"If I shake your hand now will you leave me alone?" I said in mock frustration. He extended his hand, and I shook it. "There, are you happy now?" 

"Much better. But I'd be happier if you wouldn't ignore me." He slipped into the bench next to me. 

"Mmm but it's so much fun to ignore you," I teased. "So, Lena, you said you're pretty new here yourself. Where did you live before?" I asked, turning my back completely on Chase. Lena laughed and saw what I was doing. 

"Well, I grew up mostly in California, but the last 3 years we were in Milwaukee until I moved here two months ago." Chase tapped on my shoulder. I smiled and ignored him. 

"Do you miss it there? In Milwaukee?" 

"A little," she admitted. "But I like it here too. We're living with my Gran now and she's a riot!" Lena laughed. "Jefferson isn't too bad either once you get used to it." Chase tapped my shoulder again and this time I looked at him. 

"Look who can't keep their hands off me now," I said with a smug smile. He laughed. 

"Don't go telling my girlfriend," he said with a wink. Flirt. "But seriously, Rory, why don't you come eat with us?" He gestured back to his table. I snorted. Yes, I snorted. I know. In front of an attractive boy. No biggie. I'm super lady-like. Especially around boys. It's one of my best completely fake qualities. 

"Well, as you can tell, Lena and I are already practically best friends, and I'd much rather hang out with her than you and all of your friends and admirers." I wasn't going to go easy on him. That had been established since I walked through the door in English that morning. 

"Ouch." Chase cringed. "And Lena's always welcome too, she's awesome. " He flashed a smile at Lena. She and I looked at each other and smiled. 

"We'll think about it," we both said at the same time and laughed. 

"I'm already scared for you two." Chase shook his head. "You've only known each other for like ten minutes and you can already read each other's minds. I'm terrified to see what you could do in a week," he teased. Lena and I just smiled.

A beautiful, knock out blonde who looked like she's been cut out from a fashion magazine came up to our table. 

"Chase," she whined in a pretty little voice, "aren't you going to come talk to me?" She pouted just a little and it was actually super adorable somehow. Impressive. Whenever I tried that look my mother told me I looked like a guppy. Needless to say, pouting and I are not compadres. Chase stood up and brushed off his pants. Then he grabbed my untouched pizza from off my tray and took a bite. 

"Hey!" I protested. Chase just laughed.

"Duty calls!" And with a salute and a twinkle in his eyes he shimmied out of the bench and walked off holding the blonde's hand. I was a little sad to see him go. After all, he was one of the only people at Jefferson that I'd actually had a conversation with. And maybe I had judged him a little bit harshly from the start. He wasn't too bad. In fact, I thought that maybe we could actually be pretty good friends. He seemed like a fun guy.

"That's Adelaide." Lena's remark pulled me out from my thoughts and I blushed when I realized that I had been staring at Chase. "She's a cheerleader, of course, and she basically runs this school. All the teachers do whatever she wants because her dad makes like a huge donation to the school each year that pays for half the teacher's salaries." So a rich, pretty, and popular girl used to getting her way. She and Chase were perfect for each other. "Honestly I don't know why she and Chase are together." Lena continued, "I think they grew up together or something, but Chase has always been nice to me and Adelaide has always been a kind of snotty." So maybe not so perfect after all. 

"Hmm." I said. Super intelligent, I know. I do that sometimes. Lena got a little sparkle in her eyes. 

"I think he likes you though!"  Lena said with a little sparkle in her eyes.

"What?" I protested. No way did Chase have even a remote interest in me. After all, I had just seen his girlfriend. Definitely no competition there. Not that there was any competition to start with, of course. Obviously Lena was a little bit crazy when it came to the 'Interpreting Boys' department. "I've spoken a total of like five sentences to him, and in that time I have punched him twice and offended him at least ten times!" 

"Yeah, but only in teasing," Lena argued. 

"Besides, he is sooo not my type." I said. Lena gasped. 

"Ooh Rory! You have a type? Let's hear all about it!"

And so Lena and I spent the rest of the time talking about cute actors and favorite movies and Lena's crush Kyle who was friends with Chase, and Lena and I both had our first girl talk in a long time. We got each other's numbers and promised to meet after school and it was really great. Practically perfect. I guess I'd missed having a best friend more than I'd known, and Lena was one of those people who you met and just felt like you'd known them forever. So maybe Jefferson wouldn't be just not bad, but maybe it'd actually be really good as well.

A/N Yay!! So I'm done with this chapter finally! Let me know how you liked it, and if there is anything in particular you'd like to see happen be sure to comment and let me know! The next chapter will probably be from chase's point of view, so I'm really excited to write that one. I'll try to update as often as I can, but understand that life is crazy and I have a lot of school stuff to do.as always. Let me know if you liked it and be sure to share and review! Thanks so much!