Lunch

Walking down the hall I see Bella looking around at the entrance of the cafeteria as she stood with another girl. This girl was slightly shorter than Bella and had very frizzy dark hair. Once Bella caught sight of me, (let's face it I kind of stood out so it wasn't hard.) she waved as if I hadn't seen her already. 

 "Hey Thomas, how's your day going so far?" 

 "It's good, looks like I will be able to reuse a lot of my essays from Phoenix here." I smiled knowing this would irritate her. "Who is this?" I pointed to the girl beside her. 

 Before Bella could say anything, "I'm Lauren, we have Spanish together and I invited her to sit with my group at our table. But she wanted to wait for you, and I was fine with that." She spoke very quickly and really emphasized the "I" in her introduction. I know it's shallow, but I already placed her in the self-centered category, but I wasn't above letting her work her way out of that group in my head. It depended on her at this point. 

 "Hello Lauren, I'm Thomas." I introduced myself. "Well let's get in there and see what passes as food in this school. I hope they ignored that hag Michelle Obama's sorry attempt at improving school lunches. How are they going to listen to a lady that has never let her daughters eat in a true school cafeteria much less eaten in one herself." 

 "He he, you're so funny Thomas." 

 Lauren had a high-pitched laugh that just grated on my nerves. But if she came with Bella, I would stay strong… For now! 

 I started looking around for the exits as soon as I walked in and gauged where the heaviest crowds would be, a normal habit of mine. I spotted a table in the back, that was completely empty and all the kids in the area avoided it. That's a perfect table for me I decided, close to the exit and out of the way. I could put my back to the wall and watch everyone that entered or came near me. Wondering why no one else was interested in that table I turned my attention to the food being served by the lunch ladies. Lauren's eyes got bigger and bigger as she saw the amount of food I was collecting on my tray. After paying for it I waited for Lauren and Bella to finish paying for their lunch. 

 Lauren points to a table that is in the middle of the room, "It's over there, those are my friends. They will be dying to talk to you too." I get antsy right away, but I was also trying to cope with my issues, so I was willing to try for today. Once we sat down, Lauren did some introductions. I started eating but kept my eyes towards whoever was talking and used their facial expressions as my queue to nod or shake my head to the comments I just didn't really want to listen. 

 I glance over at Bella and see her in the typical defensive posture she has when around a lot of people. Her shoulders were hunched and eyes down with her making quick glances through her hair at whoever was talking, but then looking away as if not wanting to be caught staring. She was definitely the one-on-one type of social girl and my trust issues with people often came off as stuck up. It was usually the 3rd or 4th interaction with people that they started to realize that I didn't care about what they were saying unless it was truly interesting to me. We made a true socially awkward pair. 

 Out of nowhere a strong burst of a sweet sugary smell overpowered my nose. The smell made me almost gag on the spoonful of chili-mac I was eating. It threw my taste buds off, smelling sweet but eating spicy. Looking around, the first thing I noticed was that everyone kind of froze for a second, like a herd of sheep with a wolf smell in the air. No one looked right away but everyone was aware that danger had approached, and they didn't want to draw attention to themselves, so they resumed their normal routine. 

 My senses told me exactly where the feeling of danger was coming from, and I tensed up more than was normal for me. I really didn't like the feeling because I knew that if you are too tense then it locks your movements down and makes them jerky and slow. 

 I started to analyze what I was seeing so I could get a handle on my nerves. First up was a true vision of beauty… No dummy, analyze the threat first! I told myself. Hovering over the woman I was trying to not stare at, was a figure that was just slightly taller than me, and his build was surprisingly bigger than mine as well. With short dark curly hair and a chubby boyish face with dimples any grandmother or aunt would want to squish between their fingers. The words devoted just began to describe the way he looked at the gorgeous being in front of him. I felt that if I built an altar and put a picture of this woman on it then he would be the first to kneel before it, when the real thing wasn't around that is. 

 Now on to the woman (Anyone calling her a girl would have to be blind.). She stands 5ft 9in with long wavey blond hair that fell past her shoulders to the middle of her back. She had a statuesque figure that would put any model to shame, even after they had been brushed up with Photoshop. She is astoundingly gorgeous. Her eyes and skin were the same color as Alice's to the point you had to wonder if they were natural or if their foster parents had a special skin care product. She moved like a queen entering her throne room, demanding everyone's adoration, and deeming it barely worthy of her acceptance. With a hint of "Do better next time you look at me!" coming across with the slight smirk on her lips. 

 This woman knew she was utterly without comparison, the top beauty in the room, and made sure every girl around her knew they would never be more than second place with her in the room. With these two leading the group it was hard to look past them. But once I did, I noticed the familiar figures of Jasper and Alice. Moving with the normal skip in her step Alice looked around and when she saw me, she gave me a little wave which I returned. She also looked at Bella and I could see an almost longing look in her eyes as if seeing a best friend after a long separation. Jasper had a look that was comparable to mine right now. His body tense as if he was trying to control himself and a look on his face like something was painful.

 "Did that freak just wave at us?" Lauren said looking around the table for support to her words. When she noticed me returning the wave, she had a dumbfounded look on her face and just said "Oh.". 

 "So, is it true that Jasper wants to fight you for talking to his girlfriend?" A tall black kid asked me. I remembered his name was Tyler, I think. 

 "Not at all, he was very pleasant when Alice introduced me to him. I have art with her, and we are partners." 

 Everyone looked at me suspiciously, but no one commented. Then I heard Bella ask, "Who are they?" When I looked at her, I saw her eyes glued on one of the two figures behind Jasper and Alice. He was shorter than all the other men in his family (That I had seen.) standing around 6ft 1in. To me, he looked skinny but the way he moved spoke of hidden strength and speed. He had short, messy hair that was a shade between brown and red. I thought copper was as close to a color as I could use to describe it.

 A girl at the table with long mousy blond hair and looking like a strong athletic type with her being taller than most girls at the table. Jessica, I believe was her name, answered Bella. 

 "Those are the Cullen's!" she said like a person getting ready to share some juicy gossip.

 As if she had yelled out loud to get his attention, I saw the one Bella was looking at turn his head towards the table we sat at. Looking him over again I had to go with my earlier thought. The Cullen's definitely have a skin care product that was unavailable to the rest of the world. No other way they could all have the same pale ivory almost marble-like skin tone. The guy looked at Jessica as if to ask why she called for him but said nothing and turned his eyes towards Bella. After a second or two his eyes had a puzzled look and his face creased slightly into a frown for just a brief second before he was nudged from behind. "Don't just stand there stupid! Move!" A melodious yet irritated voice said from behind him.