Field Trip

Chapter Eight: Carmen Ellis Faye

At lunchtime, the boys met up at their usual lunch table in the cafeteria. As they went in the lunch line to buy lunch, Adam suddenly saw her. It was a girl, with glasses and long strawberry blonde hair twisted into two perfect French braids, sitting by herself.

Adam asked his friends, "Why is that girl sitting by herself, and why haven't I seen her before?"

"Why, are you experiencing love-at-first-sight syndrome?" Ryan teased, making kissy lips.

"What? No! Guys! Why do you assume that, every time I talk about a girl, I have some weird crush on them?" Adam replied with disgust.

It was true. Adam did not develop weird and creepy feelings for her in the last two minutes. He just didn't like the fact that she was sitting by herself.

"I don't know, because you're a teenage boy?" Landon smirked.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm interested in dating!" Adam scoffed. "I just want to know why she's sitting there alone, and why I've never seen her before! No one should be sitting alone at lunch!"

"She's in seventh grade. Her name is... I can't remember, it's like Cara, or something like that? I'm pretty sure it started with the letter C... But that's not important. She usually sits on the lunch patio at a table by herself. For some reason, she's sitting in the lunchroom today." Mark said, then paused. He sighed, shaking his head. "This school is so big, someone you meet on the street could go to this school and you would never even know it."

"Well, we should go sit with her for lunch." Adam stated.

"Lunch with HER? A girl?!" Landon asked.

"Yeah! With her! A girl!" Adam replied confidently. "What do you guys think?"

"Oh, I don't know..." Ryan replied hesitantly, brushing his fingers through his blonde hair.

"Come on, guys! Let's be friendly, and polite!" Adam begged, making his green eyes look as convincing as possible.

Mark sighed before giving in. "Alright, fine. Let's go sit with her."

The group bought their lunch and headed over to the table. The girl did not see them coming, as she was busy typing on her laptop and writing information down in a notebook. When she saw the boys standing right next to her, she was startled.

"Oh my gosh!" she jumped, pushing her glasses back in her head with her finger. "You guys scared me!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Adam stated. "Anyways, hi!"

"Uh... hi?"

"My name is Adam, and these are my friends, Mark, Ryan, and Landon."

"Why are you suddenly talking to me? If this is your sick idea of a joke, then it isn't funny." she turned away.

"Oh no! No!" Adam quickly replied, waving his hands out in front of him. The girl turned back to face him, and he sat down next to her, and he looked straight into her blue eyes. "Listen... Cara, is it?"

"No, it's Carmen. Carmen Ellis Faye." She replied, pushing her glasses again.

"Carmen..." Adam began. "We're not the kind of kids that would sit next to someone who is sitting alone for one day just to make ourselves look good."

She looked up, surprised. "How... How do you know that people do that? I thought I was the only one that noticed that!"

"How do you think?" Adam replied. "Before I met Mark, Ryan, and Landon, I used to sit by myself at lunch. People, mostly popular kids, would always come over and sit with me for one day and then completely forget about me the next... It was just to make themselves look good towards their friends and peers, not actually to try to make a new friend. People are sick like that, you know?"

"I one-hundred percent agree with that." Carmen nodded.

"Well, I know that I would never sit with someone for just one day... That's messed up. Instead, if we're welcome, we would like to sit with you for lunch every day!"

"What?!" all of Adam's friends shouted in unison.

Adam, annoyed at their response, took a deep breath. "Guys, if you only want to look like good people and only sit with Carmen for today, that's fine. But if you want to BE good people, then you should really stick with us and try to make a new friend. Carmen seems like she's a nice girl and I would have no problem being her friend! I'm sitting with her, if she's okay with it, every day and being a good person AND friend!" Adam replied seriously.

"You don't have some weird, spontaneous crush on me, do you?" Carmen cringed, scooting away from Adam.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?!" Adam shook his head in disbelief. "No! That's creepy! I just want to be your friend, not your boyfriend! We just met!"

"Well that's the first time a guy didn't treat me like shit..." she mumbled to herself, then turned to face Adam again. "That's very gentleman-like of you. You and your friends are welcome to sit here any time. Thank you, Adam." She smiled, and Adam smiled back.

"Alright, we'll sit with you, Carmen." Mark stated.

"Really? You mean it?" she gasped.

"Yep!" Landon replied.

"You know you don't have to if you don't want to..." she stated.

"No, no! We want to! Adam's totally right, and he completely changed our minds!" Ryan replied.

"Great! Thanks guys!" she smiled.

"No problem!" they replied, smiling, in unison.

A/N: Hey everyone! I just found out that my story is #290 in Science Fiction! And yes, that's what the "texts" were if you were keeping up with the conversation in the comments of this chapter between me and Aurora...😂 Anyways, thank you all so much for this! I'm super thrilled and I never thought I would ever be able to do something like this, so thank you! Stay tuned for more chapters coming soon! I love you all!❤️