After leaving the line, Will paused to look down at his tray fully inspecting the “food” on it. He didn’t get a good look at it as he was being rushed down the food line by the other students; it just ended up on his tray, whether he wanted it or not. When he had a bit more breathing room, and a few seconds to actually see what the disgruntled cafeteria slapped upon his tray, he regretted not saving some of the money his parents gave him over the weekend. Maybe Nathan was right; eating too much of this cafeteria food might kill him. He had to find an alternative to it, and he had to find it soon.

Will couldn’t dwell on the food he was going to risk the lining of his stomach on for too long. He continued walking towards the other end of the cafeteria to the table he sat at on the first day of school. It wasn’t his regular table yet; he’d only ate there once. But it was the table he was most comfortable with sitting at.

There was a huge part of him, however, that wanted to sit somewhere different. He wanted to sit at a table that was filled by other students. Not one of the larger tables where the older kids, the obviously popular kids, or athletes sat of course. But one of the smaller tables near where he sat before, occupied by small groups of kids; four-to-five at the most. He wanted to introduce himself to new people in an effort to become more open to his peers.

Will walked through the set of doors that separated both sections of the cafeteria. He paused in his tracks, yet again, to look around him for a table with a few students that he’d felt comfortable being around. As he inspected this part of the cafeteria, he became nervous. Beads of sweat ran down his face. As he looked to his left and right, his vision became blurry; the room was spinning a bit. The voices of the students around him were hard to understand as it were at first. But now they’d become garbled and distorted. The only words that were clear to him were:

“You haven’t forgotten, have you? You haven’t forgotten our promise?

About thirty seconds later, he snapped out of the trance he was in. He regained his senses and came to the conclusion that he wasn’t ready to sit with a group of random strangers just yet. He spotted the table that he sat at days before and breathed a sigh of relief that it was still unoccupied. That particular table looked like that it could seat at least five or six people, yet there were only three seats around it. Student’s must’ve taken the other seats to use at other tables.

He sat at one of the remaining chairs and placed his tray down on the table. He looked down at the tray to inspect its contents. But his mind wasn’t occupied on whatever was on the tray anymore.

Now he pondered as to why he couldn’t pick another table to sit at; to introduce himself to other kids. Why did he freeze up when the opportunity presented itself? He didn’t have a problem with walking across the street and introduce himself to Jessie and Vincent a few days prior. Was it because they were neighbors? Because he knew he wouldn’t have to see them almost every day? Was it because they weren’t part of a group at the time or around a larger group or people?

Will couldn’t dwell on it for long. His concentration was broken by the sound of another tray being slammed down next to him.

“Will! What it is homie?!”

It was Rob. He sat down right next to Will.

“What’s up, Rob?” Will asked in a more positive tone than he had when he normally conversed with him.

“Man, you already know what it is. I’m out here getting’ this money, feel me?” Rob turned his head to the right and signaled out to a random student. He stood up and pointed to his wristwatch and said out to the student, “yeah I got you. See me after sixth.” He put up six of his fingers to indicate sixth period. “Sixth Period, fool,” he repeated. “What you ain’t gettin’ about that?” He asked with a bit of frustration. Then he sat back down.

Up to this point, Will didn’t have an interest in whatever Rob was getting into. However, as part of his promise to be more open with people, and because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t escape Rob, he felt inclined to ask, “what are you selling him?”

“Why? You one time? Don’t worry ‘bout it!” Rob answered.

“uh...okay, never mind then.”

“Nah I’m just messin’ wit ya homie! It’s all good, I know Salem OGs don’t snitch! Check it out. He got this paper he gotta do for English, right? King Rear or some bull…”
            

“You mean King Lear?” Will corrected.

“Whatever! Point is, he ain’t tryin’ to write it. So ya boy got a connect, a junior who had the same teacher and assignment two years ago who just happened still had their essay stashed in their locker. So, I gave the older kid a few bucks for that paper, and Imma sell it to homie over there for triple, feel me?”

“You sell homework to people? That’s how you get your money?” Will asked.

“Nah, homie, not just homework? Ya boy Rob Dawg out here sellin’ anything he can get his hands on that help his fellow classmates get through, and to get this dough nahmean? If you need that term paper or answers to that test you aint study for, and you got enough of mommy and daddy’s money for me, then I got ya, nahmean?”

“uh…okay…”

Rob leaned in a bit closer to Will for the next part of his spiel; it was this part he didn’t want to say out loud.

“But uh if you ain’t feelin’ right and you…uh…need something to get you through, then put a couple bucks in ya boy’s hand and he’ll run up in the nurse’s office for ya, feel me?

Anxiously, Will answered, “well…uh…here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.”

“Shoot, you never know ‘round here. We only been here for a hot minute and some ol’ bull done already gone down. Give it some time, homie. And when that time comes, holla at ya boy.”

“Will do,” Will responded with sarcasm. He went back to poking and prodding his tray, searching for something, anything that could count as edible. It wouldn’t be long until Rob took his attention from the tray again.

“Oh snap! What’s goin’ on over there?” Rob asked. He pointed at a table that was once nearly empty; now it was not only full but there were several other students surrounding it. Will noticed that all of the surrounding students were all focused in one central direction; they’re eyes were fixed on one thing, or one person. Because of the crowd circulating the table, Will couldn’t see who or what that was.

Shortly after, a boy walked away with his head down looking highly dejected. His departure from the group left an opening allowing Will to see how was commanding the group’s attention. And there she was again. Leslie, the girl who made a grand entrance earlier in the morning sitting at the middle of the table with all eyes on her once again.  

Will couldn’t make out what Leslie and those around her were talking about. But he could see both the boys and girls looking at her with total admiration. They spoke to her with enthusiasm, and she responded with facial and body expressions of cockiness; as if she was already fully aware of the compliments being lobbed at her from all directions.

Another thing Will noticed about the group of Leslie’s admirers was that none of them were seniors or juniors, at least not in appearance anyway. To a certain point, it was like this earlier as well. Leslie looked like she had all the tools to climb to the highest rung of the Washington High social ladder. She had both top-notch looks and, from what he could tell thus far, a personality that’s won a lot of her peers over. Her only real flaw was that she was only a freshman.

In a way, Will was envious of Leslie. Whereas the mere thought of introducing himself to strangers still made him uneasy, she’d already had an entourage half way into her first day at Washington.

“Yooo,” Rob said to Will. “That Leslie Taylor! That girl got hella paper for real. I can get paid offa her, namsayin’?”

Hearing that made Will remember Rob’s failed attempt at hitting on Ashley during their escape of Freshman Friday, how the two knew each other before high school. “That’s right! You went to middle school with Ashley. Which means you was there with her and Leslie right?”

“Yeah, but what does that matter? We need to figure out how to get some of them stacks.”

“So, what’s up with those two? Why do they hate each other? I know that they’re completely different but…”

“You still on that? Ayo look, homie. All I know is that those two got beef. We talkin’ east coast/west coast beef. That kinda beef that gettin’ involved with can get you put up in a box, either iron or wooden, or both, namsayin’?”

“I highly doubt that getting in between two bickering teenage girls is going to get me locked up or killed,” Will responded. He stood up from the table and grabbed his tray. “Ashley’s probably in the library. I should check in on her.” He left the table to leave his tray at the bussing station. Then he headed towards the cafeteria’s exit.

“Speakin’ of Ashley, lemme get her number. I know you got it.” Rob shouted to Will as he left. Will heard him but he didn’t respond or even turn back to acknowledge him.

“Will! Don’t you act like you don’t hear me! Will!” Rob shouted. “Alright fine then! Don’t come seein’ me when you need them answers for the chemistry test! I know you don’t know that stuff! Will! Will!”

After leaving the cafeteria, Will took a look back at the quad area as he traversed the empty walkway towards the library. Once again, he noticed the various groups of other students conversing with each other. To him, walking away from that to go to a scarcely occupied library meant that he just wasn’t ready to be a part of a crowd. More importantly, it meant that once again, he was shutting himself out from other people, one of the things he promised April he’d stop doing.

Inside the library, Will spotted Nathan and Ashley sitting at the one of the tables. He found it a bit odd that Ashley wasn’t typing away at one of the computers. She was sitting at the table with a blank expression. Her stared at whatever was right in front of her, but her mind was elsewhere. It was clear as day that Leslie’s arrival had gotten to her in a bad way.

Will took a seat across from the two. He knew exactly why Ashley looked the way she did; he wanted to inquire further.

“Um…Ash? You okay over there?”

Ashley didn’t answer.

“Don’t bother, dude,” Nathan said to Will. “She’s been like that at least since second third period, probably earlier.”

“Hmm. That girl, Leslie Taylor. She really gets under Ashley’s skin, doesn’t she?”

“Dude, you have no idea.”

“But why?” Will asked. “Wait, she isn’t the friend you told me about at the park last week, is she?”

 “Okay, look dude. Ashley said she’d kill me if I told anyone else this. But since you’re close to us, and she’s in…another world right now. I guess it couldn’t hurt. Yeah, she’s the one I was talking about. See Ash and Leslie used to be friends, best friends even. We’re talking best friends to the end, dude. They were friends since, like I don’t know, the second grade. And, dude, they were inseparable! I mean play dates, slumber parties, birthdays, the whole nine, dude.”

“I get it.”

“Yeah well fast forward to the eighth grade. Skipping all that awkwardness with puberty and our developing bodies, Leslie found herself hanging with a different, more popular crowd. It didn’t really bother Ash at first. She knew deep down that day would come, where our peers would learn just who Leslie exactly was. And she knew they’d do anything to get on her good side once they did. You don’t get to be the daughter and sole heir to the TaylorCorp throne and live an ordinary life for long. People are going to latch on to you just for your name alone. I mean her dad is constantly surrounded by career yes-men, and it got to the point where the fruit didn’t fall far from the tree for her.”

“Hmmm,” Will mumbled.

“Then that day happened. Leslie was given an ultimatum by the populars. They told her that her name and financial status wasn’t enough. If she was really going to be one of them, she had to cut any and all ties she had with any ‘undesirables.’ So, at lunch time, in front of damn near the entire school, Leslie walked to where Ashley was sitting with a tray of spaghetti in her hands. And without saying a word, she…”

“…DUMPED THE ENTIRE TRAY OVER MY HEAD!” Ashley snapped out of her stupor to continue Nathan’s story. “And on top of that, she also poured her milk on me afterward. I was drowned in a carton of strawberry milk and the laughs of damn near an entire school.  Ohhh, but it didn’t end there. That was only just the beginning of humiliation. ________

“That’s harsh.”

Ashley continued, “it all came to a head at the Crystal Ball dance. I didn’t go. I really wanted to too; Shawn and Marissa were in the middle of one of their break ups and he asked if I was going to be there. But, I knew Leslie would be there too, and I couldn’t take any more humiliation from her.”

“I went,” Nathan said. “And rather than flirt with all the girls who went stag, like I’ve been planning to do for weeks, I was going to confront Leslie.”

“I told him not to,” Ashley added. “I knew what he was going to do. And I asked him not to; just to let it go. But he went anyway.”

Nathan continued, “and she was there alright, sitting at a table surrounded by the school’s most popular kids including the more muscular members of the sports teams; mere moments from being unanimously crowned queen of the Crystal Ball. I was nervous as hell, dude. But I had to do it. I approached her table and was immediately stopped by the jocks before I got too close to her.

She motioned to the guys to let me pass. That’s when I asked her what the deal was with Ashley. I asked why she’d throw away years of friendship away like that. And what she said, dude, those words stick with me to this day.

‘Ugh, is that who you came over here to bother me about? Look, Ashley had to learn her place. For far too long, she held me back from being where I was truly meant to be; at the top. My new friends helped me realize something that I should’ve a long time ago. I need to surround myself with better people because I’m better; better than the likes of you two because I was born better than people like you.

 Now as far as you’re concerned, Nathan, I like you. I mean, you’re nowhere near the cutest guy around, but you’ve got potential. And I’d hate to see you end up like that piece of trash Ashley. So, I’m offering you a choice right here and now; a choice that a lot of people aren’t going to get. Ditch Ashley Baker like I did, and be a part of our clique. I don’t think I have to stress the benefits of doing so, or the consequences of refusing.’

Gotta admit, dude, at the time I thought it was a pretty tempting offer. I mean if you saw those hotties sitting next to Leslie, you would’ve thought about selling out too. And when I saw those jocks cracking their knuckles and giving me some real intimidating looks, I could’ve pissed myself right there.

But I had to be brave, dude. I had to remember that I was standing up for my best friend Ashley. So, I said to Leslie and her whole clique, ‘You all can just screw right off. I don’t want jack to do with you or your horde of posers.’ Oh, dude! When I said that, I felt like the most powerful person in the world, for about the two minutes it took for them to drag me outside to the back of the gym and kick the living crap outta me! I couldn’t feel my face for days after that!”

As she listened to Nathan’s recollection, she couldn’t understand how he could tell an awful story like that so casually. Ashley desperately tried to roll back the few tears coming down her face; but it was to no avail.  Remembering all the awful things Leslie did was too much for her to bear. “She was my friend, my best friend, one of my only friends,” she cried. “And she threw it all away, without a problem; as if what we had meant nothing to her. And for what? The approval of bunch of skanks and jerks who wouldn’t even talk to her until they realized who her dad was!”

Ashley grabbed her backpack from behind the chair and rose from her chair. She walked off towards the library’s exit, using her left arm to dry her tears and cover her face as she left.

“Ashley!” Will said out to her.

“Let it go, dude,” Nathan said to him. “She’s going to be fine. She just needs some time to process all this.” Nathan leaned back in his chair and tilted his head towards the ceiling.

“Man, I thought we were done with all of this crap, dude. I just don’t get it.”

“Get what?” Will asked.

“I don’t get why she’s not at Perryhill Prep? Why come back to public school if you’re super loaded? And of all the schools, why this one? There’s like four or five other high schools between her fancy mansion in the hills and here.”

“You don’t think she came here to screw with you guys some more do you?”

“Nah, dude. I know we got history, but we’re small fries to her. There’s gotta be more to it than that.”

Next Chapter: 6: A Lesson In Animosity