Only Once

Chapter Four: Unexpected Gifts and Surprises

Chapter Four: Unexpected Gifts and Surprises

Meanwhile, seated far away from Erika's table that was located in the centre of the cafeteria, Spencer and his friends were at a table in the back corner, consisting of only them and a few loners who had nowhere else to sit.

Their table was nice and isolated and Spencer loved it. Right behind their table was the cafeteria windows that let in light and it was quieter there as the rest of the students were seated farther away.

Spencer contentedly took a bite from the peanut and jelly sandwich his mother had made for him and let savoured the gooey goodness it. Although Spencer was one of those people who eat to live rather than live to eat, he couldn’t help but enjoy his lunch. Peanuts were, luckily, one of those few things he wasn’t allergic to.    

"Yeah, I just love school and learning." Russell passionately said.

Spencer looked over at his friend to find him enthusiastically talking to the pretty blonde that was sitting right beside him, Abbey Morrison. Abbey was new to the school and so far had only made friends with them. She had at least one class with each of them and had resorted to spending her lunches with them. Spencer, however, suspected that sooner or later she would find some better people to hang out with and would ditch them. Although Abbey was nice and all, she was simply not their type. She came from a middleclass family and it evident that she tried very hard in school. The calculus textbook that was placed on the table right by her lunch for later doing was proof.

Further, Russell clearly had a thing for the girl as he continuously flirted with her and was even lying about himself to impress her. If Abbey wasn’t going to run away from their rather destitute lifestyle, she would certainly escape from Russell.

Abbey eagerly nodded her head. "Yeah, me too," she agreed.

"I mean, it's like whenever I go to class, I just feel a passion and want to pay attention and learn." Russell said dramatically.

Clay and Spencer exchanged looks. The irony in all this was that Russell was actually a year older than all of them since he had failed almost all his courses in freshman year and had to redo everything. Furthermore, Russell had a habit of cutting all his classes and never doing homework and assignments. Abbey, however, having only recently moved there, actually believed all the bullshit Russell was feeding her about loving to learn and being smart.

"Wow Russell, we have so much in common," Abbey commented, with a big smile.

"We do!" Russell agreed, nodding his head enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I mean we both love history and just learning in general, we're both huge fans of Cole Porter, we both love watching the discovery channel and eat our French fries with ketchup and mayonnaise!" Abbey listed only some of the things they had in common with each other.

"Yes I know it's like...it's like we're soul mates or something! I've never met anyone before who likes Cole Porter!" Russell exclaimed.

Spencer rolled his eyes and Clay stifled back a laugh. It was rather amusing watching their friend (unsuccessfully) try to get a girl.

"Oh, um, right," Abbey laughed, looking baffled. She glanced over at the other two boys, trying to see their intake on all this. "Well I'm going to go buy a bottle of water. I'll be right back."

With a goofy smile plastered across his face, Russell admiringly watched her as she walked away. He had his chin cupped in his hand as he longingly stared at her retreating figure.

“Gee, could you be any less obvious when you check her out?” Clay sighed in disgust. “I mean, what if she was to suddenly look back?”

“What? She has a nice ass!” Russell defended himself. “I can’t help it if I want to look at it!”