I couldn’t wait for Ethan any longer. Maybe he’d already been sent to the cafeteria. That would explain why he hadn’t met me. I closed my locker and followed the crowd. I hadn’t seen the cafeteria yet, so I didn’t know how to get there on my own. For once, it felt nice to feel like I was part of the crowd, blending in, even if just on the outside.
We headed to a stairwell on the back side of the school—nowhere near the stairwell where… The hall monitors had those stairs blocked off. We were like cattle being herded. I stepped down the last stair when someone shoved me from behind. I fell forward, grabbing on to the backpack of the guy in front of me to avoid falling on my face.
“Hey.” He whirled around.
“Sorry.” I regained my composure, and a girl stepped in front of me, blocking my path. I recognized her as the one who’d tripped me in Mr. Ryan’s class. Not what I needed right now.
She looked me up and down and scoffed. “You know, Mr. Ryan was only being nice to you because he felt sorry for you. He can tell a loser when he sees one.”
“I bet he’s glad you sit by the door then, so he can get rid of you sooner at the end of class.” I’d had enough. I wasn’t letting this girl walk all over me.
She let out a guttural grunt and lunged at me, shoving me hard in the chest. I fell backward, hitting my tailbone on the bottom stair. Chants of “Fight, fight, fight!” rang out. I’d thought we were among the last people in the stairwell, but apparently news of a chick fight spreads quickly. Suddenly it seemed like half the school was there.
“Hey!” someone yelled, and most of the kids scattered. I figured it was the principal or something. A trip to the office would make my horrific day pretty much complete. “Ms. Tilby, report to Mr. Snyder’s office. Now.”
I looked up to see Mr. Ryan standing two stairs behind me. Oh, this wasn’t going to ease things between me and the ultimate fighter chick over here.
“But, Mr. Ryan, she—”
“I saw the whole thing, Ms. Tilby, and I’ll be having a discussion with Mr. Snyder as well. You better make sure our stories match, or you’ll find yourself suspended for a week instead of three days.”
Suspended? I closed my eyes and sighed. This girl was going to kill me the next time she saw me.
“Ugh!”
“Shannon,” Mr. Ryan said. She calmed down at the sound of her name, and I wondered if Mr. Ryan had called her by her first name on purpose. From what I’d seen, he always addressed people by last name.
Shannon glared at me one last time before heading for the office. I used the railing to lift myself up. I never knew you could have a pulse in your tailbone, but mine was throbbing.
“Are you okay?” Mr. Ryan reached out a hand, like he was getting ready to catch me if I stumbled.
“Seems like you’ve had to ask me that a lot today. You must think I’m the weakest girl on the planet.”
“Not at all. Like I told Ms. Tilby. I saw what happened between the two of you. I also heard what you both said.”
Ugh, he’d heard me talking smack. I wondered how many days suspension that would get me. Maybe Gloria would let me work an extra shift on those days. We could use the money.
“Normally I don’t encourage students to talk to each other in that manner, but seeing as you’re having a rough first day, I think you handled yourself rather well. Most girls your age would’ve pushed her back after she shoved you, but you kept your cool.”
That was me. Cool as a corpse.
“I think you should get to the cafeteria now. I have a meeting to get to. Actually, now I have two meetings to get to.” He shook his head.
“Sorry about that.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
I nodded and walked through the doors. “Um, do you think you could tell the principal it was just a misunderstanding? If Shannon hates me, she’ll make my life miserable.”
“I can’t lie.” Mr. Ryan sighed. “But I’ll let the principal know you would rather handle this yourself. He might go easier on her.”
“Thanks. Could you tell me where the cafeteria is?”
“Turn right and go about halfway down the hall. It’ll be on your right. You can’t miss it. You’ll hear it well before you get there. It gets pretty noisy, and with the extra crowd in there at once today, I’m sure it will be eardrum-shattering.”
“Thanks again.” I headed the rest of the way to the cafeteria on my own.
Mr. Ryan was right. The noise coming from the cafeteria was intense. And without even stepping inside, I knew what everyone was talking about. The alarm, what could have caused it, who was to blame. Who knew I’d become so popular on the first day of school?
I pulled the door open and was met by the stern stare of a teacher. “What took you so long?” she asked.
“Um, I’m new.” I hoped that would work. “I didn’t know where the cafeteria was and then there was—”
“Was what?” she prodded.
“A problem in the hallway, but Mr. Ryan took care of it for me.”
“Mr. Ryan? And what’s your name, so I can verify this with him later?”
“Sam. I mean, Samantha Smith.”
She took a pen out of her pocket and jotted my name down on a small slip of paper on the table next to her. “Very well. Go find a seat.”
I moved away from her, not wanting to be within sight of her glaring eyes. I didn’t see Ethan anywhere, and the longer I roamed around, the more attention I drew. Finally, I decided to get on the lunch line. I had a little money on me from my tips yesterday. Most of it was in a shoebox in my closet, but I brought some in case lunch wasn’t too disgusting. The line was winding down at this point. That was one perk to being late. I grabbed a red plastic tray and some plasticware. I saw they had salad, so at least something was edible. I took a big serving in case the hot food item was meatloaf or something equally rubbery and inedible.
When I got to the hot food station, I was glad I’d taken the extra salad. The woman behind the counter stood there with her ladle in one hand and a glove on the other. “Meatloaf and hot biscuits?”
“No, thank you. I’m fine with a salad.” I grabbed an apple sitting in a fruit bowl by the register, but that didn’t appease her either. “I guess I’ll take a biscuit, too.”
“$2.50,” the cashier said.
I gave her the money and followed the line back into the cafeteria. Now I had to find Ethan because I wasn’t sitting alone to eat my pathetic lunch.
I decided to walk around the edge of the cafeteria, thinking Ethan would be at the end of a table, since he didn’t know anyone either. I passed six rows of tables and still no Ethan. I turned the corner and walked up the side rows. Finally, I heard my name. I turned around and saw Ethan walking toward me.
“Hey, where have you been? I tried to stop by your locker, but they wouldn’t let us go down the hall. They sent us straight here. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” He took me by the arm and led me to a table in the middle of the cafeteria.
I wasn’t sure if I should tell him about the incident with Shannon and Mr. Ryan, but I didn’t get the chance to because I was assaulted with a chorus of “hello” from a bunch of kids sitting at Ethan’s table.
“This is Sam,” Ethan said.
How had he made this many friends already? And wasn’t he in honors classes? These kids didn’t look like your typical brainy honor student types.
“I met these guys in Sculpture & Design.”
I had a hard time not choking on my salad. Ethan was the least artistic person I knew. He’d never pass a sculpture class.
I smiled at everyone and leaned toward Ethan. “How do you plan on pulling that off?” I whispered.