Broken Bottles

Broken Bottles: chapter 10

I walked into computer class Monday morning expecting to fool around on my desktop while the teacher talked about our next assignment. I didn't expect a girl to drop her book bag down beside mine and sit at the computer right next to me.

"Hey, Paxton." The girl greeted me.

I looked over, confused, but grinned when I realized who it was, "Oh, hey, Ava. I didn't know you were in this class."

"Yeah, I always sit by myself at that computer over there, but now that we know each other I figured we could sit together." She pointed to a different computer across the classroom.

"Do you know how photoshop works?" I asked.

"I know the basics." She shrugged.

"Then as long as you help me figure it out, you can sit next to me." I said.

She giggled, "Fair trade."

We spent the rest of class making small talk as Ava worked on the assignment and I played computer games. I worked on the assignment for the first half of class, but soon got bored and quit.

"Do you have lunch next period?" Ava asked as she saved her work and shut off her computer.

"Yeah, I do." I replied. I normally just did class work at a table by myself during lunch to make sitting alone a little more bearable.

"You should sit with my friends and me. It's just everyone you met on Saturday at the lake. Oh, but you probably have your own friends you sit with, duh."

"No, I'd love to sit with you guys. As long as it's okay with everyone." I accepted her offer.

"Paxton, everyone loved hanging out with you on Saturday. They'll be cool with it." She said.

"Okay." We had to wait a few minutes before the bell rang. We then walked out of the classroom and towards the cafeteria. As we got closer, the loud chatter of students and the smell of gross school lunches filled my senses. Ava led me to a table on the side where Kathrine and Hudson were sitting.

"Hi, Ava. Oh, hi, Paxton." Kathrine greeted.

"Paxton's in my computer class, so I invited him to sit with us at lunch." Ava explained.

"Cool." Hudson said as he took a big bite out of his sandwich. 

"You can sit next to me." Ava said as she set her stuff down. She took the seat to the left of Kathrine, so I took the one left of her.

Danny and the brothers then came walking towards the table. Anthony and Brian sat down next to each other beside Hudson. Danny then took the seat next to Anthony, across from me.

"Hey, Paxton." Danny greeted me as he sat down.

"Hey." I replied.

"We have the same computer class before this period and I invited him to sit with us." Ava explained once again. The three just nodded in understanding and started digging into their lunches.

"Oh, I have your swim trunks." I said to Danny and pulled the light blue shorts out of my book bag.

"Thanks." He said as he grabbed them from my hands and put the trunks in his own book bag.

The group of friends started making conservation with one another, but I couldn't find myself able to participate. I also didn't bring a lunch today, because I'm normally not hungry enough for it. I ended up pulling out my science book and notebook to get a head start on my vocabulary definitions.

"Do you not have a lunch?" Danny asked after I pulled out my schoolwork.

"No, I don't usually bring one." I answered.