Chance Encounters

Chapter 6

"We are not watching Pitch Perfect." 

"what do you have against Anna Kendrick?"

"We've watched it 6 times already," Ames deadpanned.

"So?"

"In the past month! I love it, but watching it 6 times in such a short time span would make anyone sick of the damn thing."

Megan pouted. "Fine. but then we're not watching Clueless either."

Ames gasped, "why the hell not?"

"If I can't watch Pitch Perfect then you can't watch Clueless!

"we haven't been watching Thor on repeat -"

"How about a completely new movie?" I chimed in, eager to stop their stupid argument.

"Like Spider-man?" Laila piped up. 

Ames and Megan looked at me and Laila for 30 seconds without blinking (I counted), before returning to attacking each other's favourite movies. Now, it was between Deadpool and Black Panther.

"I'm grabbing some napkins," I declared as I stood up from the table. I was shooed off with a wave of Amanda's hand as she continued to argue her case.

Pushing past all the freshmen still waiting in the cafeteria line - poor kids should know by now that you need to have friends hold spots so that you can butt in line - I made my way to the counter with the napkins. I grabbed a handful and turned around to head back.

"Hey," voiced someone suddenly from beside me. I jumped a little and turned to see James.

"Oh, hey," I smiled.

"No penis today?" He asked.

I blinked at him. What penis - "not yet, you can expect its reappearance sometime this afternoon though and wow that sounded...not how I meant for it to sound."

Oh my god, what is wrong with you Si? Have your brain and your mouth not met yet? Because I think it's about time they form a functional relationship.

"Well at least it's a reliable penis," he joked.

I smiled awkwardly and nodded. "So, are you going to wait in line?"

"I already got my food," he nodded to the poutine he was holding.

Idiot AND blind, Si.

"Right," I muttered.

"Do you sit in the caf?" 

"Yeah, most of the time," I replied, thankful for his change in conversation.

Although many kids sat in the cafeteria during lunch, there were also a lot that reserved other parts of the school as their lunch spot. You could always find a group of friends occupying a corner of the hallway, a classroom of a favourite teacher, the music room, in front of their lockers, outside, and the basement especially was packed with multiple groups. 

A silence fell between us as I racked my brain for something else to say. He walked beside me, looking at his poutine or at other people, or basically not at me. Yup. I had officially ran him off. He probably thought I didn't want to talk to him. A lot of people had told me that I seemed somewhat indifferent to them when we had first met because of my lack of conversation. In reality, I just didn't really know what to talk about with strangers I knew nothing about.

I pointed to my table which seemed in a different direction then the table I assumed he was sitting at, was. "That's where I sit, so," I trailed off.

He glanced at my table before throwing me a small smile, "ok then, see you in English?"

I nodded and was just about repy when Mme. Marseille interrupted. 

"Sierra, just the person I was looking for," she smiled widely at me before noticing James. "And James, it's been a while since I've seen you in a french class," she teased.

"How you doing Madame.?" James smiled in an effort to distract from the fact that he had dropped French as soon as it had stopped being a compulsory course, much like many other students.

"Tres bien," she smiled, "although I may need a favor."

Madame turned to me, "since the food drive is starting again in a few weeks I thought I'd get some of the freshmen members of the comittee to start on some posters and banners to get the word out. What do you think?"

"That'd be great, it'd save some time during the actual meetings," I agreed. 

"Great, so I need the supplies and last year's banners as examples and I would get them but I need to run an errand and I'm running late," she glanced at her watch, "so could you two grab them for me and just drop them off in my classroom?" 

"Sure, no problem," I smiled.

"Tres bien, here's the key, they're in the storage room in that old gym hallway, and there are some heavier boxes and large rolls of banner paper that I was hoping, you, James could help her with?"

"Of course."

Madame clapped her hands once, "thank you, kids, I know its an inconvenience during lunch but its a great help to me."

We bid goodbye and watched her scurry off. I turned to James, "sorry you got roped in but you really don't have to, I could grab someone else to help."

"Nah, it's no problem," he walked backwards then turned around and gestured to the doors, "come on."