Unspoken Rules

Part 4

I looked out over the canteen. It was loud and full of talking students, just like you imagine a school canteen to be. The division of the students between the tables was very evident. You could see that the people sitting by the same table belonged together by their clothes, style and such things. The canteen at our school was in fact quite big, since the school had a lot of students, but despite this, it was always hard to find somewhere to sit. Mostly, there were many avalible places, but no free tables and it was against an unspoken rule to sit down by a table with people you didn't know or fitted in with. It's stupid, I know, but it's how it is. Caitlin, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about this, popssibly because she had lost the memory of this rule, along with the rest of her memories. She walked straight up to a table with five boys sitting by it. I didn't know their names, but I was almost certain they were basketball players and neither Caitlin nor I were anywhere near athletic, so we definitely did not fit in amongst them. She sat down, but I hesitated, trying my best to show her that we couldn't sit here, not under any circumstances. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to get the hint and just gestured for me to join her by the table, so I did. The four basketball players exchanged glances and it was clear that they were wondering why on earth two girls whom they had never seen before had just decided to join them for lunch.

"Hi, what's up?" Caitlin asked the boys casually. No, please don't talk to them, it will only make this even more awkward, I begged silently.

"Uh, nothing.." answered one of the basketball players and it was obvious that he wanted to talk to Caitlin just as much as I wanted them to talk.

"Well, I just had an English lesson and it was so interesting! We got to read a chapter out of this book, what was it called? Oh, right, The Great Gatsby! It was truly amazing! Is school always this much fun?" Caitlin kept talking, even though it was clear to everybody by the table, except her, that we all wanted her shut up. Wait, what had she said? That school was fun? That was so unlike her. Although, I had always suspected that she secretly liked school, because she was so good at everything. I had just thought that she was afraid to say it because the people who liked school were called nerds and who wanted to be a nerd? Why couldn't I start liking school too? Imagine how much more fun life would be if you didn't have to suffer during the bigger part of your day. One of the boys by the table mumbled something, which I guessed was a response to what Caitlin had said, but he spoke too quiet for me to hear.

"Excuse me? I didn't hear you, what did you say?" Caitlin asked the boy. No! She wasn't supposed to ask that! If someone mumbled something, it meant that they don't want to talk to you, but they don't want to seem rude and not respond to what you said either. Caitlin's awkward conversation with the basketball boys continued during the rest of the lunch and by the end of it I was pretty sure she had broken about every unspoken rule that existed in the teenage society.