The Freshman Crush [[On Hold]]

Chapter 5

    Dana Rannelli sat at lunch with Cassie, Maya, Maci, and Brittany. Their lunch table was on the far opposite side of the cafeteria from mine, where I sat with Ben and several other guys. The five girls were the only people at their table, as though they had been exiled to the far corner by themselves. My table by far had more students than any other in the cafeteria. There was not even enough room for every person to eat with their trays on the table. The table was a mixture of guys from each grade, seniors dominating the table. Most of the guys at the table I had never met until Ben and I chose that table as our table. We often had our own sub conversation between just the two of us while the other guys stirred whatever conversations they felt like having.

    I constantly looked over at Cassie and Maya. As they talked and laughed with their friends, I felt uneasy snake its way throughout my body. I wanted to know what they were saying; who they were talking about. Dana Rannelli noticed my constant staring and she wasn’t in the least afraid to let me know that she noticed me. The first time she caught me staring, her eyes blazed right into me and forced me to quickly look away. Dana didn’t stop staring at me though. She knew I wouldn’t stare back, wouldn’t risk making eye contact with her, so she stood guard. Constantly, I had to glance over to see if she was still watching me. She smirked each time she saw me. A devilish grin that was more wicked than any smile I had ever seen on a girl adorned her face. She so badly wanted in my head and she knew she was getting there. Finally, I stopped glancing back because I knew she was still there. Every time I saw her vigilant eyes from across the room, I felt whispering chills run down my spine.

    I saw Dana get up from her chair from the corner of my eye. She walked over to the soda machine. My eyes followed her as though a magnetic force pulled me towards her as she walked gracefully in her black heeled shoes. Her checkered skirt was rolled till it didn’t cover everything it was meant to cover. As my eyes followed her, her eyes followed me. Not for a second did she lose that wicked smile.

    “Matt, hello?” Ben’s voice broke into the trance that I realized Dana had put me in. I looked over at Ben and realized that he wasn’t the only person who noticed that I had completely spaced out because of Dana. A few of the other boys that occasionally talked with Ben and I were staring at me.

    “What are you looking at?” one boy named Jon asked, craning his neck to find what it was that I had been staring at. All at once Ben and the other boys looked over across the cafeteria. Their eyes scattered in different directions, trying to find what I had been focused on.

    Dana blended in with the crowd; however she couldn’t have been any more conspicuous to me. Her hair was pulled into a thick ponytail as it twirled down her back and past her waist. A small, dark blue flower bow was clipped around the ponytail holder. With her skirt pulled up so high, everyone noticed her and definitely made an opinion of her. The natural sun kissed skin that she had attracted the eyes, along with legs that seemed a mile long in her lacey black heels. It was almost impossible not to notice her as she went by; Dana was magical. I followed Ben’s eyes as he scanned the crowd for whoever was holding my attention. Dana had just nearly blended in with everybody else. She no longer was looking at me or even in my direction. Her devilish grin had gone away as she traveled back to her table with a Diet Pepsi in her hands. I had never seen a girl so sneaky.

    “What are you looking at?” Ben inquired, taking his turn to ask.

    “Nothing, nobody,” I responded. “I was just thinking about some things.”

    Everybody returned to whatever they were doing before they noticed that I was staring, almost everybody that is. Ben continued to study me as he drank from his Pepsi bottle while I returned the stare. He wasn’t the one I wanted to look at though.