Fast Times At Regis High School

Chapter 2-Breakfast with Joey and Friends

I awoke around 6:30 am and I can't say I merely enjoyed getting up. Caroline still hadn't come back to the dormitory, maybe she'd gone down to the cafeteria earlier than I planned to. I hadn't know here very long but I still showed a little concern for where she could be.

As I put together my outfit for the day (striped sweater with mom jeans and converse), there was a confident and loud knock on the door. I opened the door and there stood Joey; I was speechless and decided not to say anything.

"So, me and my friends are going for breakfast, want to join us?"
"Sure. Sounds great. I'll be a minute."
"Awesome."
Just before Joey left the room I stopped him and asked,
"If you know where my room is, then where's yours? You know, if you know my room I must know where to find you."
He pathetically grinned and waited as I paired my sweater with a denim jacket. When I was ready to eat breakfast, he shut my door and I walked besides him as he showed me where his room was.
"Just this one. If ever in need of me, I'm always here. Or in the basement. You'll be told about that soon.", he said to me as I looked into his brown eyes, as we locked eye contact maybe for too long.

What a way to start a morning! I was greeted and invited to breakfast with Joey and I literally am across the hallway from his room, I love this school already.

Whilst me and Joey walked to the cafeteria to meet Billy, Snuffy and Ricardo, we had the conversation: what was our purpose for being at Regis.

"I was expelled. I don't like talking about it honestly, I'm pretty ashamed.", Joey said to me, determined to be dismissive and for me not to ask any questions.
"Well you could say I was excelling in all subject, I took pride in that. My school recognised me for my achievements however, I had the struggle of dealing with so much aggression and anger. They thought it'd be best to send me somewhere else where I didn't seem a distraction, you know. Somewhere I was completely independent. I guess my parents also made a joint decision to send me here. What can you do when literally the whole school views you as agressive with no friends? Or she has no friends because she's always angry. "
I meekly looked at Joey and looked down and my new, navy converse I'd bought myself for this year. Joey didn't say anything. He stopped us both before the doors of the cafeteria and gave me a hug; undeniably one of the best hugs I've ever received.

"Listen, we're all like you here. Kicked out of our schools for unexplainable reasons. But we've got to come to terms with it. If you ever need to talk, like even at three am or something, my room is down the corridor from yours. You understand?" Joey announced confidently.
I wiped away the dim of my vision and nodded with a smile. Joey was a nice guy. What could he have done to end up in a place like where we are?
Me and Joey walked into the cafeteria however, we made a short separation as I went to claim a stack of pancakes with syrup,  some orange juice and two pieces of fruit. I walked over to the table they were all sat at and luckily Joey saved a seat for me besides him. I placed down the pancakes, juice and fruit for us both as Snuffy and Ricardo fully examined me as I ate; Billy was yet to arrive.

"Snuffy, Ricardo, this is Chris. She will be our friend.", Joey stated as Ricardo's eyes were fixed to mine like super glue. I looked at them both staring at me and returned to eating my pancakes.
"Erm, hi. If this is your way of telling me to leave because of the incident yesterday, Snuffy I am truly sorry for barging past you.", I said empathetically, as if I had really bothered him.
"I'm not mad, you just look so nice in that sweater." he replied in the midst of a gaze. Ricardo glared at him just before elbowing him and that's when Snuffy came to realisation with what he's just said to me. 
Joey rolled his eyes and continued eating the food I brought over for him. There was a silence among us all, we didn't seem to talk much until Ricardo broke the silence.

"Hey Joey, where's Billy?"
"Copying up some homework he didn't do over summer," Joey looked straight towards me and told me, "Billy claimed to have had a busy summer. He probably spent most of the entirety of summer playing video games or creating some weird mechanism for sneaking out after curfew. Billy is one hell of a character, I'm sure you'll get along well."
"Yeah. Sounds pretty cool", I say taking a sip of my orange juice. "So do you guys sneak out somewhere after curfew? I feel like your group is that group that seems to be having the most fun. If so, I'm up for it!", I said studying my schedule, even though Joey offered to accompany me to all our classes.

"Cool, well I guess that's our original number 5.", Snuffy said as Ricardo looked at him, in pure shock. Snuffy lowered his head; he knew that he'd messed up as Hank was attending public school and their fifth member, and Phil was, well who knows where he went.

I felt like I was intruding slightly, however the girls weren't very friendly at this school and Joey was enthusiastic when it came to introducing me into the group.

"I might go take some breakfast up to my room, for Billy. Chris. Come with me please."
I looked up at Joey. He seemed like he'd had enough of Ricardo and Snuffy, who could blame Joey though? I took a few things off the breakfast cart, some juice and water, Joey and I went to his room, to find Billy.

"I'm sorry about Snuffy and Ricardo-"
"Honestly Joey, it's fine. I'm not bothered by it. I'm guessing being stuck in a school full of boys  and no girls for two years until now is pretty hard."
"I guess you could say that." Joey says just before we enter his room.

"Billy. Tepper." Joey says when he opens the door, baffled by the absence of Billy.
"We might have just missed him, he could have just gotten downstairs." I inquired. Joey gave me a discouraged look. I knew that he wasn't going to be downstairs, I'd been warned by Dean of Billy; he said he was a bad kid. But how could such a bad kid be friends with Joey?

"Well I'm not standing with you in this hallway with a plate full of food, we could get in a lot of trouble. Get in my room." Joey said as he yanked me like a rag doll through his door. He was obviously the cautious over-thinker in their group.

"What cassettes do you have in this collect?" I query as I read some of the obscure tapes. "Bob Marley?", I reached within the collect called 'Trotta Tracks' and held it up with a confused face. He took the tape from my hand and slipped it into my pocket.
"Please listen to it. You'll like it, I promise."
I smiled and nodded. I gazed down at my watch and classes were twenty minutes away from starting and all I could think about is listening to that tape.

"What time is it, Chris?" Joey said gathering his books into his backpack.
"8:10am."
"Don't want to be late on your first day do you?" He pathetically grinned at me.
He held the door open for me and closed the door right behind me, and we walked to the first lesson of the day: History.