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Some of the tension seemed to leave him when I said my name and I frowned. The entire situation was odd and as the guy stepped closer, I felt myself step back once again.
He was huge.
It wasn’t enough he had to be brushing 6’7 or 6’8, but he wasn’t one of those tall, lanky guys. Noooo, he was broad shouldered and there was a definite possibility his bicep was bigger than my head. My mind immediately jumped to steroid use and the likelihood of him going after me in a roid rage when he lifted his arm, but he only flicked his wrist toward the door on the right.
“412,” he muttered before turning and disappearing down the hall. I let out a shaky sigh, not moving until he was out of sight. I wasn’t sure if it was his enormous size or his instant dislike that had me on edge, but I could only hope we didn’t run into each other again anytime soon.
The rest of the morning flowed smoothly as I accepted textbooks from teachers and ran the gauntlet of curious stares. There were a few friendly overtures but for the most part people left me alone. I couldn’t decide if this was a normal reaction to new students or I was special somehow. I’d gone to the same private school my entire life and the few new students we’d had were the main source of gossip for weeks.
If anybody here was gossiping about me, they were doing a great job of hiding it. When the bell rang for lunch, I followed the crowd of students to the cafeteria, glad this was one place I didn’t have to hunt for. When I entered, I saw there were four serving stations set up, each in a corner of the room with tables in the center. I defaulted to the salad bar since that was all I ever ate at my old school. The quest to be skinnier than the girl next to you had been ingrained inside of me. I was surprised to find a wide variety on the salad bar and without anyone there to judge me, I took more than normal even going so far as to get regular salad dressing instead of light.
After I’d filled my plate I glanced around, wondering where to sit. Past experience told me most people divided up into specific groups, and at the moment I belonged nowhere.
“Jess, right?” A friendly voice asked and I spun around to see an adorable guy smiling at me. The first thing I noticed were his bright blue eyes and open expression.
“Yes,” I managed, remembering he had asked my name. “Are you in one of my classes?” I didn’t think I’d seen him yet and it wasn’t like the classes were huge.
He shook his head, an easy smile on his lips. “No, I’m a junior. We wouldn’t have any classes together. Would you like to sit with us?” He gestured to two tables shoved together where an eclectic group of students sat. There was freshman mixed with seniors, one girl in a cheerleading outfit and another with a ring through her nose. Two guys had a chess board set up between them and I noticed the guy talking to me had a football jersey on.
Now, I came from a private school, where common interests generally divided groups, and as I scanned the rest of the cafeteria, I could see the clearly defined clusters of students here as well. This guy’s group had the unusual distinction of spanning the spectrum of all of them, but I also noticed his table resembled an island in the large cafeteria.
“No, Caleb,” another voice piped up next to me as a girl from one of my morning classes hooked her arm through mine. “You are not stealing the new girl.”
His eyes flickered to her quickly before settling back on me.
“It’s not stealing if she already belongs,” he replied cryptically and my forehead wrinkled in confusion. He backed away, giving a slight wave as he said, “Later.”
The arm looped through mine gave a tug, steering me to another table of girls I did recognize from my classes. It wasn’t a large senior class so most of us wound up shuffling from one class to another together.
“I’m Leah,” she introduced herself and I responded automatically, “Jess.”
“Short for Jessica?”
“Unfortunately,” I replied to her confusion, but didn’t bother to explain the origins of my name. I was caught by the fact that she hadn’t known my name and we had at least one class together, but the guy – Caleb I reminded myself – had known my name and he was a junior. “What’s the deal with them?” I asked my curiosity spiked. She didn’t even need to turn her head to know who I was talking about.
