The Turing Test

Chapter 9

October

"I told you, I'm not sitting there," Jimmy shakes his head.

"Why not? Nobody at that table will mind. Seriously, I was just a random girl who they'd never talked to before, and they're fine with me sitting with them. I swear they'll like you," I insist.

"It's not a question of them liking me, it's about me liking them," Jimmy grumbles.

"What, you don't like them?"

"I'm fine with all of them except one, and I'd really rather not sit with him every day."

"Which one?"

"I don't want to say anything bad about him, I know you like all of those guys, so I don't want to be that person," Jimmy looks down and fidgets with his backpack straps.

"God Jimmy, don't be so nice and considerate all the time. Just tell me. I promise I'll work something out."

"Well," Jimmy adjusts his glasses, "There was just an incident with Kai a while back, and we're not really on speaking terms. It was my choice though, so it would be kind of weird to go and sit with him all of a sudden. You understand, right?"

His pleading eyes framed by those glasses make me sigh, "I know, I understand that. But it's your senior year, why not? Do you want to spend your last year of high school holed up in the library, or do you want to experience what high school is all about?"

"And when you mean experiencing what high school is all about, you mean the chaos of that cafeteria."

"Exactly! Come on, I was new, so I had much more of a reason to be scared."

"I told you, I'm not scared, I'm just...please don't make me."

"Too late, I already told Alex that you're coming to sit with us now," I grab his hood and drag him around the corner.

"Are you kidding me? Why did we even have that whole discussion-"

He stops complaining and protesting when we approach the table. Cole, as usual, is on his phone. Ben and Alex are throwing goldfish at the girls who sit adjacent to us, where Klara is. The two chairs I grab clatter as I pull them up to the table and make Jimmy sit down.

Kai and Jimmy immediately make eye contact across the table, and then look away. The tension is palpable. There's something unsaid hovering between our table, but nobody is in the mood to do anything more than acknowledge it. I pull out my lunch and start to eat, and I feel Jimmy start to tap his leg next to me.

"Hey Jimmy," Alex finally says. "Why didn't you try out for soccer this year? We have no half-backs anymore."

"I bet you guys are fine without me, I was never really that good. I just wanted to focus on college stuff this year, so..."

"That's smart, I wish I was that motivated," Alex says, and then throws a goldfish at Klara's table.

"I wish I cared enough," Ben laughs.

"Ben, are you even going to college?" Alex mocks.

Before Ben can retort, Klara is storming over to our table. "If one of you assholes throws another goldfish, I swear to god," she sees me, "Oh, hi Via! Hi Jimmy."

"Omigod, she got my name right," I murmur to Jimmy. In response to her greeting, Jimmy just nods curtly, because I think he's still terrified of her.

"Hey Klara," Kai looks up at her suddenly. "Sorry about the goldfish. We were trying to hit Sydney."

"Well, learn how to throw," Klara flicks her hair and goes back to her table.