The Breakfast Club - Monday Morning

Chapter 5

The following week plodded by pretty much the same. 

Andy stared at Allison from across the lunchroom, Brian braved a few minutes visiting the Popular Girl table, and Allison continued charming the Brains. They had entirely accepted her as one of their own. More than one of their own, actually. They idolized her in a way that wasn't extended even to Claire when she stopped by the table, and Allison relished in it.

"You're not the queen here," Brian joked one day. Claire huffed at him, but the thought pleased her in a warm and fuzzy way. She didn't understand why.

John stopped saying "Hey, Princess," every time her saw her, but she still saw him in the halls, and she felt his eye contact all the way down in her toes. Something a little more electric rather than warm and fuzzy.

And it turned out Andy had been right. As long as Claire acted like nothing was wrong with her new friendships and didn't try to intermingle them too much, her old friends were willing to forget that she occasionally touched the untouchables. It helped that Sheila's status was wavering now. She was accepted as a permanent fixture at the Popular Girl table, even Laurel and Samantha moved back to the lunch table without comment or drama. But she was integrating outside the lunchroom, too. When the weather shot into unheard of high temperatures for April in Illinois, the Popular Girls took every opportunity to sneak outside and sun on the school's athletic fields, and Sheila was always invited.

So Brian became Claire's only known quirk. That didn't seem too overwhelming.

By Friday, Claire wondered how far she could push her luck, and she went straight to The Brains to talk with Brian before going to sit at her usual table. Allison hadn't shown up yet, so when the Brain table turned into a mini food fight, she and Brian walked across the room and leaned against the empty cafeteria line railing.

"I thought that rowdy boy thing was something only Jocks did," she commented.

He snorted in nerdy way and shook his head at her. "God, Claire, no. Don't you watch anyone else at all? That rowdy boy thing is just a guy thing, not a Jock thing."

She shrugged and swept her gaze from the food covered Brain table to the pushing and shoving boys at Andy's Jock table. Aside from a few more muscles and a few less glasses, the Jock table acted exactly the same. "Boys will be boys," Brian muttered, almost to himself. Claire grinned at the thought.

"So why aren't you pestering Andy and John to sit with you?" she asked.

"I don't need to "pester" Andy if I'm already "pestering" Allison," he retorted with air quotes. "He'll come around soon enough."

"Whatever," she muttered under her breath.

He ignored her. "And you know why I don't bother John."

"Because you're scared of him."

"Damn straight. Also, I don't think he's in this lunch period. If he is, he always skips it."

She grinned at him then scanned the room to see if all the boys acted like Andy and Brian's friends. She felt a small rush at her new-found ability to notice people she'd never noticed before. The school was so much bigger than she'd realized, and contained such a variety of people.

"What's Andy's problem?" she wondered aloud when her gaze drifted back to him.

Brian looked at the Jock table, then glanced at his own table. "Huh. I don't know, Allison's not even here yet."