Freshman Year

Anger Management

Audrie, Emerson, Hadley and Brooke waited silently in line for food. Today was alfredo day. The yummiest day of the week. The thing was that if a student wanted the school provided lunch and didn't have money they used their school ID card. You simply swipe the card and your parents are billed for your lunch within the week. Plenty of kids got angry phone calls or letters from overly taxed parents. Basically the parents that weren't as rich as you would think didn't want to pay. That meant the child had to get a job. For some students that was easier than others. Most freshmen found this task impossible. Like Ellie many bummed money off of friends.

"Can I have a dollar please." Ellie ran up to Audrie. "Come on I know you have at least a dollar. I can only use my card twice a week which means I am eating vending machine food. Please?" She smiles and gives her friend puppy dog eyes.

"Fine here." Audrie pulls two dollars out of her wallet. With that Ellie runs off. "I don't even get a thank you these days." The three laugh. They continue to laugh until a new face appears.

"Hey, Audrie. I love your shoes. Oh my gosh and your short hair. I just cannot get over it. You look older now." Nicole says as sincere as she could.

This girl had this way of even tricking herself that she was some innocent princess. Some people could see right through it. While others may see it they choose to ignore this fact. Audrie, Emerson and Hadley knew that Nicole was mean. However Audrie was too sweet to ever be mean. Even if the girl tried to start crap about her.

"Bye Nicole." Hadley says. She pushes against Nicole's forehead. This forces Nicole to take a few steps backwards. "Back of the line. One fake apology will not get you in front of us."

"I did nothing wrong okay?" Nicole rolls her eyes and rushes off to the back of the line.

Audrie speaks up, "She did try to apologies!"

"There is no try. There is only do or do not." Emerson says.

"Please do not quote Yoda." Hadley laughs at Emerson. "Did you even say the quote right?"

"Do I care?" Emerson laughs. "Although what is the whole thing with shorter hair? Lauren's hair is shorter now as well. Almost makes me want to get my hair cut."

"How about no." Brooke says. She grabs a chunk of Emerson's hair. "It is too beautiful." Emerson rolls her eyes and motions for Brooke to move forward.

"How long do you think Nash has actually known his sister? I mean he acts like he doesn't know her and he was put up for adoption as a baby. Are they biological siblings?" Emerson asks. Her eyes never leave Thea. Nash's sister had gotten a job at Starbucks on the school property. This meant that she got to work during lunch and get out of her next class to eat.

"Hey, Brooke, can I get in front of you?" Carter puts his arm around her shoulders. He flashes her a bright smile. Within a moment she nods yes.

"Um... He can get in front of you but not me. I never agreed to this." Hadley says while shoving the two out of her way. "I'm hungry."

"We would be scared if you weren't." Emerson says. Hadley simply turns and smells the air. The air surely smelled delicious.

Margie comes up to talk to Hadley, "What is with Thea getting so close to Daelyn and Mackenzie?"

"I don't know." Hadley shrugs. She was more concerned with her hunger than anything else.

"Thea can be friends with whoever she wants. Right now Daelyn is the only one that could get her to talk." Ellie had finally returned from the vending machines. "I got doritos!" She holds up her chips and smiles.

"Did you get anything else to eat?" Brooke asks and Ellie shakes her head no. "Well I sure ain't giving you my food."

"Wow. I'm basking in your generosity." Ellie rolls her eyes. Slowly her eyes turn to Thea and Daelyn. "Besides on alfredo day Daelyn gets much more than she actually eats. So I will sweep in and take what is left."

"You have no shame in eating after others do you?" Emerson asks with a small laugh. They turn to watch Carter's disturbed expression. Out of everyone in their friend group he was the biggest germaphobe.

Ellie smirks at Carter before answering, "Nope." She pops the p.

"Well anyways Thea is rooming with me and Janice. I am glad I have someone else other than Janice. The only problem is that Thea doesn't talk." Margie complains.

"Sorry." Hadley replies. They were so close to the front of the line. This meant that Hadley had to be focused on one thing and one thing only. Food.

"Well I am going to go sit down and dig into this." Ellie says with a sarcastic smile. With that she skips off to the table.

After that the line falls nearly silent. Well them and their friends did. People around them were still in conversation. It stayed relatively quiet for about five minutes. Before long someone in the line decided it would be a good time to start a fight. Audrie was the first to realize who the angry person was.

"Oh my gosh. It is Justin." Audrie stares at the two fighting people. It was Justin and Kennedy. What ever they were arguing about made Justin get more and more mad. "I am going to try and break it up. I will be right back."

They watched Audrie walk towards the fight. Audrie began to contemplate what she was even gonna do. Get them to stop or calmly take Justin's side. Before she could reach them Ms. Heavensby came waddling over to them. She began trying to get to the bottom of things.

"Justin started it, Ms. Heavensby. I was just standing in line and he came up and started yelling at me. I swear that he is crazy." Kennedy says. She tries to act as disturbed as she possibly could.

"You are a horrible actor." Justin mumbles. "And a horrible person. No one should ever treat another person the way you do."

"Justin, just be quiet please." Audrie reaches out and grabs him keeping him from potentially attacking the teacher. She places herself in between them and places a hand on his chest. For a moment they just stand there and stare into each others eyes. "You need to take a breath." Her breath hitches when she realizes how close they were.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Audrie. Could you just leave me alone?" He says trying to shrug her off of him. He was very mad.

"Look I am sorry, but starting a fight with her will not solve a thing." Audrie tries to say calmly.

"Just shut up." Justin says staring straight into her eyes. He was very angry. This was so not like him.

"Mr. Tucker, I would suggest listening to your girlfriend unless you want to go to an anger management class." Ms. Heavensby says. She doesn't hesitate to write Justin a slip. "You have detention tomorrow after school."

"Ms. Heavensby, please don't." Justin says taking the slip from her hands. She begins to walk away. "Wait where is Kennedy's slip?" He asks in shock.

"She doesn't get one. She was the victim here." The teacher states. She begins walking away rather quick for someone with a fake hip... And fake knee. 

The whole cafeteria was quiet for the first time ever. All eyes finally rested on Justin, Audrie and Kennedy. The three of their faces turned a bright red. The awkward silence made Kennedy run back to her friends; Justin just stared at his slip while ignoring Audrie's gaze. Audrie was terrified to move until someone spoke again. A person walked up and grabbed Audrie by the hand. It just so happened to be Ellie.

"Your hero is here." She whispers to Audrie. Ellie faces the rest of the school. "Dang this is scary. Being starred at I mean." She raises her voice so that everyone could hear. "Return to your lunch please! In fact get lives! Gossiping can wait till college!"

"He got detention because of Kennedy." Audrie mumbles. Ellie mouthes I know while trying to get Audrie back to her place in line. At least the cafeteria was noisy again.