Hearing My plea

8

Lunch was waiting with Willis in line to get pizza and me grabbing a diet soda. We were ten minuets late for lunch and even though it wasn't that late, the cafeteria was already full with students talking about what they were going to do over the weekend after their Friday classes. We sat down at the end of the middle table like usual with Todd, who has already sat down. A second later Toni and Chip join us, a Were girl with dark red hair in tow.   

"Hey Babe," Toni said, putting his tray down and sitting next to me. I reply with a simple hello and try to ignore the fact that he just called me Babe. Chip sat next to Willis, but his attention was saved for the red head on his left, who was practically sitting in his lap and twirling her hair around her finger. Willis went stiff and kept her eyes down on her plate, pretending not to be bothered, but given the secret she had told me less that an hour ago about really liking him, I know shes really bothered.    Todd started up a conversation with his brother and I was left to sit and sip my soda.   

"The new teachers ok, but I still have my eyes on that hot Healer guy in room 208," Todd said and took a bite of his pizza.   

Toni nodded and ate his own food. Then he laughed and elbowed me in the ribs, getting my attention. "I still say Peyton here is way batter looking, right Willis?" he asked. She just shrugged her shoulders and picked off a piece of pepperoni, inspecting it before throwing it on her plate.   

I sat my diet coke down and sighed. This lunch was a little too intense for me to handle. Chip kept sneaking glances at Willis to see how she was dealing with the new girl (who had nothing important to say) because he obviously liked her, but Willis was too busy being gloomy about it to notice. The guys were ok, save for the fact that Toni was calling me 'babe' and 'good looking'.   

And then, it got even weirder.    "So uh, Peyton," Toni said, taking a sip of his Coke and putting his pizza down. "I was wondering if you were busy tomorrow?"  

I stared at him and blinked. My mind new what he was doing, but it seemed it was focused on everything but the fact that I knew what was coming. I could hear some girls at the healer table laughing, the clatter of trays at the food line from kids who were late to lunch, and someone getting up at the Were wolf table behind us. "What do you mean?" I asked.   

Toni laughed and put his napkin down. Todd and Willis tried to start a conversation on school to give us a little space because they knew what was going on too. Chip was too busy trying to make Willis jealous by pretending to be interested in talking to Air Head sitting next to him. "Come on Peyton," Toni said. "You're really gonna make me spell  it out for you? I'm trying to ask you out. Maybe we could go see a movie or go out to eat or something."  

"Oh. Well..." Quick, Peyton! Think of an excuse fast! "I eat food..." Wow, Peyton. Not an excuse, and not helping either, but ok... way to go. Not! "Uh, what I meant was... I'm actually going to pick up my car from home tomorrow."  

"Maybe I could drive you? You live in Georgia, right? That's a long trip. I could help you drive if you want. It's a tiring job."  

I opened my mouth to say thanks but no thanks, when someone behind me answered for me.

"Sorry, that job's taken."   

I jumped and turned around to see Aspen with, giving Toni a glaring look. His arms were crossed and he wouldn't even look at me. I blushed, remembering how mad at me he was earlier this morning. Toni, on the other hand, was not intimidated in the slightest. "Oh? You're going to drive her?"  

"Peyton, would you accompany me outside for a moment?" Aspen asked through gritted teeth, and even though he was talking to me, his eyes never left Toni. I didn't get up right away. I didn't want to go outside just to hear more about how much aspen was pissed at me, but the fact that Toni just asked me out and there was now a rift between him and Aspen left me more unsettled, so I slowly got up, muttered a quick apology to Toni who gave a slight nod and said, "No problem Babe, I'll see ya later," and followed Aspen outside.