Figuring Out Foster

Chapter 8

On Monday, Jess excitedly shook a pack of papers at me catching my attention. Though, before I could question her Ms. Romero turned around from the whiteboard. Jess quickly shoved them under her Economics textbook. To Ms. Romero's liking, Jess pretended to read from the text but occasionally glanced in my direction, which told me analyzing market trends was the last thing from her mind.

"What are those?" I whispered to her as soon as Ms. Romero turned around to write on the board about something that loosely mattered to me at the moment.

"I looked up last night the medicine—" She whispered quickly back. Straightening once more as Ms. Romero glanced in our directions, Jess and I quickly faked note-taking as the teacher sneered at us.

Ms. Romero, satisfied with our cooperation, faced the white board again, but not a second later Jess was leaning back towards me.

"—it's a mood stabilizer," she finished her sentence from earlier.

Processing that information, I looked at the students around us, some were listening to Ms. Romero but some were focused on us. I guessed we were just so much more interesting. Though, I didn't want gossip to start about Foster. So I got closer to Jess, not forgoing a glare at some of the spying ones.

"What does that mean?" I questioned.

"I didn't know, so I found things it treated."

"Let's talk about it at lunch." I told to her when Ms. Romero once again glanced in our direction. Quickly I "helped" Jess find the page we were going over in the textbook, smiling at the teacher as she eyed me suspiciously. Without more trouble from us, she turned back the board and continued to lecture.

Yeah, she despised me.

After fifteen more minutes of non-stop lecture on the theory of market trends, we were released for lunch. As soon as the bell rang, I tossed my bag over my shoulder and Jess immediately looped her arm through mine.

We walked down the hallway on our way to the cafeteria, but someone caught my attention. Matt had just rounded the corner and was walking towards us. He kept his head down as he walked briskly away from where people usually went during lunch. I called out to him before he could move passed us without knowing it.

He looked up, startled. As he closed the distance between us, he surveyed the people walking around us, "Where's Foster?" he asked me suddenly, and I glanced around me, too, before shrugging.

"I don't know. I never see him at lunch," I told him honestly. Matt visibly calmed down at the mention of an absent Foster.

"Good. That's good."

"Why, what's up?" I asked, and then nodded towards the cafeteria, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"No. Um... You know since I ran into I'll tell you..."

"Tell me what?" I side-glanced at Jess, who looked extremely intrigued as she gazed at Matt. Jess and her detective mind were probably latched onto Matt's every word.

I saw him contemplate actually telling me anything, but before he could back out I stepped forward.

"Is it about Vincent?" I asked, trying to lead the conversation forward.

"Yeah, but not... I didn't get to ask him about why he doesn't like Foster. Maggie, Vincent got benched at the game last night, he was pissed. Still is pissed. The coach says it's because his attitude has been shitty and him getting detention didn't help," he rubbed the back of his neck, visibly apprehensive.

"He's looking for Foster?" I mused and Matt confirmed my suspicions as he nodded.

"Yeah... although, none of his friends are backing him up on this. They don't want to get benched either. Vincent's losing it slightly." Matt adjusted his backpack strap higher on his shoulder, "Anyway I was going to eat lunch in the library today. If Foster shows up, make sure Vincent doesn't get near him. I don't really want Vincent getting kicked off, and a fight is the last thing he should be doing right now. We kind of need him on the team for the finals," Matt casted his eyes away from me, and then shot me a serious look, before he left.