Living High School to the Fullest (Completed)

Chapter 18: Lunch with the Cheerleaders

This chapter is dedicated to the lovely KiaRoxUrSox! She always leaves such wonderful comments and she is amazingly dedicated to this story. Maybe even more than I am! Right now, she's working on a cast. And she's also the one you guys have to thank for the chapter titles. Thank you so much for everything, Kira!

Chapter 18

During third period I was so busy getting vital information about the latest developments in the social aspects of our high school community – just Dinah’s fancy way of avoiding the term ‘gossip’ – that afterwards I hadn’t even had the slightest clue what our teacher had tried to teach us for almost an hour. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes there are more pressing matters at hand than… whatever it was he tried to teach us. Okay, maybe I should pay more attention to him next time.

Thanks to Dinah, I was up to speed with Jefferson High’s rumor mill again. Sadly, the performance of our little trio during lunch last Friday was long forgotten. Dan Kingsley punching the guts out of his buddy TJ took the top spot with ease. Although Dinah was a bit misinformed. According to her sources, the football players had been fighting about a girl. I was glad that I could set the record straight, for once. I told her everything I had learned about that incident from a much more credible source, namely Josh. Then I continued on with Fluffy’s little surprise visit.

My friend was eating it all up, her eyes shining with excitement. I swear, new gossip is like fuel to her energy levels. Before we knew it, the lesson was over and we had to part ways again.


Lunch time came around pretty soon. I hesitated only for a second before I entered the cafeteria. If Dan really was on a war path headed straight towards poor, innocent me, I seriously doubted that he would try anything during lunch. Even he wasn’t that stupid. Plus I knew that I could count on Josh, Nick and hopefully the rest of the football players as well that they would hold their teammate at bay.

I was just standing in the lunch line and trying to figure out which of the offered menu choices were in fact leftovers in disguise when someone nudged me in the ribs and a familiar voice warned me: “Hands off the chili wraps!”

Right, we had chili con carne on Friday. Bye, bye, chili. Hello, chicken!

“Where’s your food?” I asked Aaron, seeing that he was empty-handed. “I won’t let you abuse my tray again.”

“Oh, I’ve already bought mine. I just came over her to warn you,” he said in a hushed tone, getting a bit closer to me.

So even Aaron had heard about Dan Kingsley’s intentions of revenge?

“Go find somewhere else to sit today,” my so-called friend told me.

“Excuse me?!”

Wow, that statement caught me off guard. Was he really telling me to stay away from our lunch table?

“It’s for your own good,” Aaron replied. “Don’t look, but we have a surprise guest.”

I turned my head and glanced at our table. Sure enough, three familiar figures were sitting there. Two of them were Brian and Dinah, the latter with a very pained look on her face. More than understandable given who that surprise guest turned out to be.

I huffed. “What’s he doing there?”

Aaron grinned at me and shook his head amused. “You know, you never do as you’re told to. I bet if you were in a room with a red button and a sign saying ‘Don’t press the red button’, you would be pressing it right away. No matter the consequences.”

So not true! I slapped my annoying friend, grabbed a water bottle and moved forward in the line. “Answer my question.”

“Well, James is the winter ball committee president. And since you girls were volunteered by Mrs. Harris –“

“Say no more,” I interrupted him with a groan, trying to fight the sudden urge to bang my head against the nearest wall. Better yet, the urge to bang James’ head against the nearest wall. Now there’s an idea. “You have to come sit with me somewhere else,” I begged Aaron.