CHAPTER 3
The lunch room was located on the far west side of the school building near the football practice fields. When the weather is nice out you could be able to see the students that were in gym class outside through the large windows running around out on the grass playing flag football or running laps—giving a lot of the girls a chance to drool over the hot guys who weren't wearing their shirts. Ew!
Today was Heavenly Crispitos Day—the name my friends and I had adopted to call it—and it was the best food our school ever gave us. We couldn't possibly be happier.
I joined my big group of friends in the lunch line, all of them greeting me in their own special way. My best friend Jaz was the first one to say hi when I arrived by immediately embracing me in a tight hug. Much like Cass and Laura's friendship, Jaz was my close friend whom I shared everything with and we got along really well because our personalities were similar and didn't clash.
Becca Alexandria came up to playfully punch me in the arm by way of her own special greeting. Being the sporty soccer enthusiast and just the right height for a defender, she was just as tough as any of the football boys in the school, complete with an attitude to match. She was easily annoyed sometimes, and it was usually Jess or Dessi's fault. Those two were polar opposites of Becca, as in they were more girly than sporty and gossiped so much that it should probably be illegal.
They were all incredibly loud; between Jess, Becca, Amy and Dessi, all their bickering and shouting was going to end up making me deaf at an early age, talking my ears right off my head in the process—Amy included. Amy Barton was super smart and very snarky, and had a witty comeback for everything—so naturally, she was always the one to go head to head with Becca, Jess, and Dessi when they had any huge debates over something.
Lainey, however, was the antonym of loud; a bookworm like me, she preferred the silence of a library and a good book to wile away the time. Unfortunately, Jess and Dessi had the uncanny ability to cause any introvert to come out of their shell.
Once we all had our crispitos, we started making our way towards our usual table facing the big windows. That's when I spotted him, sitting by himself at our usual table. My feet still as my mind registered where he's at.
Behind me, Jessie stage-whispered aloud. "Hey! Is that the hot new kid everyone's been talking about? Damn, he is kind of hot—in that pissed-off, don't-look-at-me-wrong-or-I'll-kill-you kind of way..."
I swallowed before answering her. "Yeah. Coach paired us up in gym today so I could show him the ropes."
I think I heard gasps and exclamations around me but I didn't pay it any mind. Before my friends got the chance to hound me further with their questions, I found my feet moving of their own accord towards his table and my friends followed behind. I think they were whispering and giggling, but I barely noticed that, either.
Matthew sat forward in the plastic chair, arms on the grey tabletop, his cafeteria food on his tray seemingly untouched. Who in the world doesn't like Crispitos?
I was barely halfway to the table when his head swiveled around and his eyes met mine, noticing me walking towards him. His face didn't give anything away; gone was the humor and easy-going nature he had earlier, and his expression, for the most part, was impassive as the first time we'd met.
I attempted at a friendly smile, which didn't do much on his side. His dull expression really unnerved me. I don't think I had ever met someone so mysterious and closed off as Matthew Jenkins.
I stopped at the table, and all of my friends gathered behind me. No one made any move to sit down as if scared and unsure of his reception of them.
"Uh...hey Matthew! Didn't know you had this lunch... Uh, funny how that works."
Oh great, I sounded like a major creep. What a terrible impression to have!
He regarded me silently for a moment, doing nothing except looking at me with those intimidating, scary eyes of his. I had no damn clue what he was doing, or what might be going through his head, and it bothered me. Normally, I could care less about boys so I never really gave them a second thought—before today that is. This guy was something else entirely.
His demeanor now had completely done a complete 180 turn-around from how it had been back in gym class, and it threw me off a little. It was so strange... I mean, sure, everyone had mood swings, but his abrupt change of attitude seemed different than normal. However, I decided to write it off as him just being new here, around people he didn't know because I would be the same way.
I cleared my throat, as if the action might get rid of the awkward silence that hung between us like a suffocating fog. "So...uh, do—uh, do you mind if we sat with you? You've got the best table in the cafeteria." I tried unsuccessfully for a laugh to try and break the ice, but it didn't come out right; I was so nervous that I started choking by the end of it. Jeez, I felt like such an idiot!
After a moment, Matthew shrugged in the universal sign of "I guess," resuming his staring contest with the food on his tray.
I traded a look with my friends before we grabbed our seats. They all had various looks of confusion and loss on their faces, mystified as much as I was over the quiet new guy. We were used to talking; that's really all we'd ever do, and it normally took us forever to stop—at least until someone yelled at us at an ear-splitting volume to 'shut the hell up.' No joke.
People called us 'loud idiots' for a reason.
We sat down in the remaining chairs at the table and no one uttered a word for quite some time. We ate in awkward silence for a while until someone broke it and asked Matthew a question that they had apparently been burning to ask for some time.
"Is it true that you used to be in a gang back in your hometown?"
The whole table turned their wide-eyed gazes to the twig-like, brown haired girl who had the audacity to ask such an outrageously personal question. We all looked at Jess as if she had suddenly warped into an alien with a freaky bug-eyes. Cassie, who sat on her left, slapped her on the arm. "Jessica! What an insensitive thing to ask."
Big, innocent eyes darting around at all the incredulous looks she was getting, Jess ducked her head in shame when she realized how abrupt she'd been. "Well sorry! I've heard some really crazy rumors today and I wanted to know if any of them were true. Sorry, I didn't think!" She squeaked at the end, reminding me of a baby mouse.
"You never do." This accusation came from Becca, directly from her brain through her mouth. She was never afraid to speak her mind.
I myself couldn't believe the stupidity of everyone who had started these rumors, with their crazy imaginations, always stirring up trouble.
Dessi spoke up to defend her partner in gossip. "I've heard it, too, among other crazy things. And that ain't the worst of it, let me tell you..."
Matthew didn't show any signs that said he was the least bit offended by the question. He shook his head, not looking directly at anyone. "No, I've never been in a gang, nor do I plan to."
Well, alrighty then... I didn't know how to respond to any of that. He didn't leave any room for further comment anyway. Maybe that was his plan; to deflect and stop any conversation with him in its tracks. It was an effective tactic, I'll give him that.
"So...why'd you move down here to Little Town, Kansas? I've heard that you got into so much trouble so many times that your grandparents had to send you down here to straighten you out...I doubt it that's true, and if it's not, we can totally help you by squashing that rumor so nobody gets the wrong idea about you. I know I would hate it if it were me." Cassie made a non-committal sound in her throat as her mouth turned up in disgust.
"Yeah, majority of the school actually believes that you're here on the road to becoming a reformed bad boy with major attitude issues. That's the most substantial rumor I've been hearing lately." Amy chimed in.
Dessi screwed up her nose in puzzlement, almost as if she just smelled rotten egg from someone's lunch box passing by. "What does reformed even mean?"
Becca eyes rolled around in their sockets. "Haven't you been paying even an inkling of your small attention span on what Mr. Hugh just went over in history class? Does Martin Luther, "Catholic church" and "taxes" ring any bells in that pretty little head of yours?"
Dessi's blue-eyed gaze went out of focus for a bit to think about her words. "Oh, right. But that term still isn't familiar to me. It wasn't a bolded vocabulary word in our textbook so I didn't think I had to worry about remembering it. When in the hell are we ever going to want to use it in a sentence? It doesn't even apply to shopping, so why should it matter?"
Becca smacked a hand to her face while majority of the table groaned in response.
Jess, however, reached around Cassie for a high five. "That's what I say!" She cheered in agreement.
Jess's bold question seemed to have thawed everyone else out of their awkward stupor, and soon everyone was bombarding the new guy with question after question.
But then the questions started getting beyond ridiculous.
"What terrible thing did you do to get you sent down here to live with your cousins? Did you prank your crazy religious principle—or was it because people found out that you're really not a mute?"
What the hell kind of question was that?
"How can you stand needles? Did it hurt really bad when the artist did that little swirly design that's on your upper arm?"
I wasn't sure if it was my eyes playing tricks on me or what, but it looked like Matthew was about to throttle someone. I barely caught a hint of apparent frustration at all the probing questions being thrown at him.
Goodness, I was starting to feel sorry for the douchebag who almost ran me over with his bike this morning. My friends could be so pushy if they wanted to, which was majority of the time.
I was just about to intervene and break up the interrogation, but Matthew managed to beat me to it. "You guys sure talk a lot. Nobody can find any peace when everyone is talking over each other."
That managed to shut everyone up real quick. He didn't sound snarky or rude when he said it, but they were in fact being nosey. It's just how they were; admittedly, they really needed to learn to master the art of When to Know to Mind Your Own Business.
When my voice was able to work again, I automatically went to his defense. "Alright you guys, quit pressuring him." I sounded like a scolding mother, but maybe they would listen to me that way. "He's only just got here. Give the guy a breather, alright?"
"Sorry." Cass apologized, resembling like a sad puppy dog getting a scolded by its master. Everyone mumbled their own apologies, falling silent for the first time in U.S. history.
Catching Matthew's gaze, I rolled my eyes. Pain in the butts...
Was I really coming to his defense after he had almost killed me that morning? Actually, now that I was thinking about it, he had been totally reckless, and had deserved to be yelled at and told off for it. But now that I had accepted his apology earlier, they guy deserved his space.
"It's fine, I don't blame you for being so curious. I don't think I'm ready to tell you my entire life story just yet, if you don't mind..." His words sounded stiff when he said them, as if speaking on a daily basis wasn't a normal thing for him. Imagine that!
For majority of lunch, the entire table avoided Matthew like he was an unstable psychopath and might burst into a violent tandem at any moment; some tried to start a conversation a few times, only to have it eventually dwindle out, until we were back to silence again.
For example, one of the lame attempts at conversation went a little something like this:
"Wow, we're all so quiet; that never happens!" Becca exclaimed a bit too loudly. "Talk about awkward..."
"A first," my twin joked. She tried to laugh but it sounded too forced.
"Yes, it definitely is." Lainey agreed, forcing out a dry chuckle.
Yeah. Forced...
"Now, that would be a first for Amy, here." I tried to joke as well—I know, I was failing at it miserably—gesturing over to my other talkative friend.
Amy rounded on me, causing her frizzy bobbed hair to bounce around her head. "Hey, I wouldn't be talking, Laura Marie Daniels! I wouldn't be talking!" Amy warned me in that infamously loud voice of hers.
She was a great actress, I swear she could make it in Hollywood if she ever wanted to. Instantly, her little threat kind of reminded me then of that creepy-ass lady in the movie, Monsters Inc. that warned Mike Wazowski that she was "always watching."
"I wouldn't be talking either, Amelia Joy Barton! You talk a lot, too!" My twin retorted in my defense. Another upside to having a twin.
"Hey, you're not helping!" Amy said, rounding on Lauren to point at her instead.
A few small snickers rang out at our little faux confrontation.
No doubt Matthew thought we were freaks by now, but oh well. It wasn't as though I cared what he thought; that was his problem.
After more of a prolonged awkward silence, yet another friend joined the table.
"Hello my people! What's with the awkward tension? I almost thought you guys weren't here, it's so quiet. You didn't have to wait to start the party on my account."
Mr. Comedian, also known as Rylan Underland, was very obnoxious with an awfully filthy mouth; always cracking dirty redneck jokes, he went out of his way to tease all of us constantly. It was just Rylan's way of showing affection I guess. We had a strange, weird friendship one could say.
Rylan's gaze landed on the new addition to our table, and his manic grin seemed to get even wider. "And do I see that we have a new recruit into our Geek Cult? Hello fellow Earthling! I'm Rylan, and I'm guessing that you're the new hot guy every slut in this school wants in their bed by the end of tonight? My advice to you, though, if you'd like to avoid any unnecessary warts, is to stay as far away as inhumanly possible and sleep with a knife under your pillow. Just in case." Ending the sentence with a conspiratorial wink, he plopped down between Jaz and Cassie across the table from the new kid, picking up his crispito.
Those dark eyes giving nothing away, Matthew nodded as if it had been sound advice. "Duly noted." He replied in his deep voice.
This guy was a Rubix cube. I honestly didn't know what to think of him, and for the life of me it was difficult to figure him out. When I felt his unnerving eyes on me, it just made it more awkward, if that were possible. I didn't dare look up. To be honest, now he was just plain scary. Where did my gym partner go? Did he have a bipolar disorder or something?
Lauren turned her body in her chair to look at me with excitement in her eyes, momentarily distracting me. "Hey, guess what! There's a spring dance in April."
"Really? Where did you hear this?" I refrained from grimacing at the news and tried to look interested; I wasn't a huge fan of dancing, but Lauren was, and I didn't want to offend her.
"The notice board outside the front office, duh!" She gave me a weird look. Oh, right! I guess I had forgotten a few things over winter break...
Jess perked up at the mention of a dance. "Yeah I saw it, too. I have the best dress picked out already, I can't wait to wear it! You all will love it." She insisted.
"I'm sure we won't," Rylan snarked with a roll of his eyes.
"I hope they bring the chocolate fountain back; my God, do I love chocolate!" Jess let out a soft gust of air, staring dreamily off into space. She had her head in her hand and her elbow propped up on the table.
"What's even better is the dancing part!" Lauren sighed right along with her, smiling to herself.
"Especially slow dancing," I added, nudging my twin playfully beside me.
And let the teasing commence...
"Especially when it's with Justin..." Dessi continued, catching my oh-so subtle drift.
Lauren's cheeks abruptly went scarlet, looking none too happy at where the conversation was headed.
Matthew made a sound in his throat. It seemed as if we had finally sparked his interest. "Justin—who?"
"Your cousin, Justin Crowley." I replied, which earned me a meaningful glare from my twin sister.
Another expression besides boredom flickered across his face. "So you're the girl he danced with at the Valentine's dance last year?" I could've sworn he seemed almost amused by this piece of information.
Lauren's face completely paled. "You know about that?" She sounded almost frightened at the thought.
Matthew shrugged, schooling his face back to it's earlier blank expression. "My cousins constantly give him a hard time about it."
Lauren groaned, slapping a palm to her forehead. "Well that's just great. I didn't expect practically everyone to know about that!"
I couldn't help but laugh. "Hate to break it to you, Twin, but usually when you dance with someone on the dance floor during a school dance, everyone sees it. You're not entirely invisible."
She furrowed her eyebrows, directing her resenting glare at me. "Shut it, you wouldn't know about slow dancing with a cute boy anyway."
Well then... I guess I deserved that.
Instead of feeling embarrassed, I shrugged and acted as though it didn't effect me. "True."
Most of the time, I stayed clear from boys, since most of them were idiots to begin with. I have never dated, let alone kissed a boy, and I wasn't planning on it anytime soon. I still had to figure what I wanted to do with my life first before doing anything else.
"Ooo, she thinks he's cute!" Rylan cooed, pitching his voice high on the octave scale to sound like an overdramatic fangirl.
"Shut up, Rylan!" My twin sister rounded on Matthew, leaning slightly across me to face him directly. "Please don't tell any of your brothers I said anything. Please!"
Matthew was quiet for a moment as he contemplated it, pursing his lips together. Was that amusement on his face? It felt as though it was all just part of my imagination; my eyes playing tricks on me. "I'll try," was his noncommittal reply. He immediately went back to scraping his fork across his tray, cleaning up what remained of the food and putting it to his mouth. His movements were so fluid...weird.
Lauren's brows met together over the bridge of her nose. "That didn't sound very promising..." she pointed out.
"I know if I were him, I'd so tell everyone I came across." Rylan said, crossing his arms in a smug gesture. He was definitely riling her up now.
"I don't remember asking you Rylan!" She spat, glaring his way.
I decided that was a good a time as any to change the subject before they started really going at it and throwing food at each other. Trust me, it's happened before.
Another thought randomly popped into my head, making me grin. "So... guys, I'm guessing you've all heard about Mizzou's recent catastrophic loss against the best team in the league, huh? Just putting it out there: KU rocks!" I grinned from ear to ear, momentarily
"Yeah, yeah... Brag all you like, girl. Just you wait until Baylor gets ahold of them." Amy spoke. If it was a threat, I wasn't scared in the least.
"We'd annihilate you, too, Miss Baylor Proud." I retorted. I felt pretty sure of the fact.
We were a group divided, to simply put it.
"Whatever, Terrible Twin Number One. KU just got lucky this time. K-State will whoop both yo' asses!" Rylan hooted, cocky as hell. He was always cocky as hell.
"In your dreams, bud. I don't want to hear your excuses." My twin piped up. She seemed to be past her earlier humiliation. Now she just looked angry, ready to pummel anyone who spoke up against her beloved team.
When Rylan further insulted KU, she got even angrier and they started throwing insults back and forth.
"I might not know exactly where you sleep at night, Under Dog, but I could certainly find out!" She threatened in warning.
That made Rylan scoff as if she'd told a bad joke. "And how do you suppose you'd do that? The internet?"
I couldn't help but laugh a little at that. I admit, that was a good one, and everyone else did too.
The whole table was listening and watching the two bicker intensely, as if it were a drama on TV. Becca's brown eyes had a crazy glint to them as she mindlessly ate her potato chips without looking away from the bickering pair. Too bad there wasn't any popcorn...
Lauren frowned and her upper lip rose in a striking resemblance to a snarl. "No!" She retorted. "I'll figure it out, just you wait..."
Her threat fell on deaf ears. Rylan rolled his eyes and wiggled his fingers, pretending he was scared stiff. "Ooooh, I'm so scared!" He turned his gaze to the rest of the table. "She's gonna cut m heart out with a spoon, guys!"
We all busted out laughing, while Lauren crossed her arms and pouted, defeated for the moment.
It took a while for the laughing fits to calm. Feeling guilty that I had enjoyed their little Bicker Exchange and sorry for her at the same time, I patted her on the shoulder. "It's all right, Twin. You're just so fun to pick on!" Once those words were out of my mouth, I instantly regretted them. Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say. I tried to make her feel better but failed miserably.
"You're so not helping!" She exclaimed, looking at me as though I had stabbed her repeatedly in the back. Everyone around us giggled. I knew she was only partly joking, but she still was embarrassed after admitting her crush on Justin; I could tell by looking in her eyes. We were connected emotionally, what with being twins and all, so we were able to feel what the other person was feeling.
I grimaced. "I know, I know. Sorry Twin..."
"Whatever." Playfully, she purposefully turned her body away from me and stuck up her nose, studiously ignoring my presence.
I know, I was such a terrible sister—sue me!
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