Chapter 12: Lunch Drama

Wednesday Morning- Jason

7:28 A.M

It was finally here. My first day of school at Roosevelt Academy. I was excited to be back in school for a little while, I was even more excited that I was actually going to be treated like a normal kid, and I was most excited to see Tamia again.

Ah, Tamia—wait, was I falling for her? I still haven't heard from Onise. I've tried contacting her, but no answer. Oh well.

I studied my self in the mirror. Ms. Rowe had gone to pick up our uniforms yesterday, so Caiden and I were already prepared. The school's colors are blue and white, so I was wearing plaid blue slacks, a white-collar shirt, and a blue sweater vest on top with the school's emblem on it.

Two minutes later, I heard a horn outside. That was our ride, ready to leave at 7:30 on the dot to get us to school before 8 A.M.

"You ready man?" asked Caiden, peeking into my room.

"Yeah," I said grabbing my backpack, and we headed outside.



Wednesday Morning- Tamia

7:47 A.M

Today was the day. Jason was coming! I don't know why, but I was super excited. Yesterday seemed to drag on for forever. I waited by my locker down the senior hall. Morrissa's locker was a few lockers down from mine, so I waved when I saw her heading my way.

"Is he here yet?" she whispered to me.

"I don't think so," I said. Out the corner of my eye I see Larry approaching. At first I thought he was coming towards me, but then I see that he stopped at Starr's locker. Good, I actually don't want him near me when Jason gets here. Not that I didn't want Jason to meet my boyfriend (wait, did I?), but as good as Jason was to me, I was still a little upset at the fact that Larry was spending so much time with Starr. I mean, he acts as if we're not dating at all... as if he's dating Starr.

"Wait, I think I see him!" Morrissa whispers excitedly. Without hesitation, she turns and waves him over to us.

Looking through the crowd of students, my eyes are immediately drawn towards him. Wow, I thought. He makes that uniform look good. Okay, okay I really need to stop! He walks excitedly over to Morrissa and me.

"Hey!" I say to him.

"Hi," he replies. Then he turns to Morrissa, "Hi Morrissa. I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Jason."

"Oh, I know who you are," she says, winking at me. "But it's still nice to meet my best friend's new best friend," she says, nudging me. "Well, I'll leave you two alone," she says heading off towards her homeroom class.

"Bye," Jason waves to her, then he turns back to me, "Sorry for not saying much to you, but I didn't want to rude to your friend. I know she's a big fan of me and my brothers, but I know from the way you describe her, she'd tear my head off if she thought that I was only interested in you for one thing."

I laughed, because that was true. Morrissa (and Vie) are super protective over me, and they wouldn't hesitate to cancel The Draper Brothers if anyone of them were up to no good when it came to me.

"It's okay," I say to him. I think you made a good impression on her."

"You think I'm on her good side?" he asked.

"Oh definitely," I reply. "I only told her good things about you— not that there's anything bad to say— and since you didn't completely ignore her when you came over, she know knows that you care about me and my friends."

"I can't wait to meet Vie," he said.

"She can't wait to meet Caiden," I laughed.

"Maybe she should wait," laughed Jason. "Caiden's a handful!"

Suddenly our laughter was interrupted by a small scream, from me. Someone had come up behind me and wrapped their arms around my waist. Larry. He pulled me close to him and gave me a peck on the cheek. Normally I would love that because he never displays affection for me publicly. He says that there's no need to, everyone already knows that we're together. But this was suspicious. Why was he all of a sudden displaying— Jason. Wait, was Larry... jealous?

"Hey baby, who's your friend?" he asks. Oh yeah, something's definitely up. He never calls me baby in public.

"Oh, this is Jason," I said. I almost say, 'We met at the mall,' but was that really necessary?

"Oh you're that singing dude!" Larry says with fake realization. Larry is into all types of music— not boybands particularly, but I know he knows who Jason Draper is.

"Nice to meet you," Jason says, extending his hand.

"I need to get to class," Larry says, ignoring Jason's gesture. He takes off towards his class, but not before lifting my chin up to plant a kiss on my lips. "Nice meeting you too, Jason," he says as he heads off to class. Wow. He is jealous. He hasn't kissed me in public for months! So I guess he made sure to "mark his territory" in front of Jason. Ugh.

"I'm guessing that was your boyfriend," Jason asked.

Wait, did he seem... upset? Well, it was very awkward of Larry to just kiss me out of nowhere like that.

"Yep, that was Larry," I said unenthusiastically.

"Does... does he always treat you like that?" asked Jason.

"Like what?" I asked, confused.

"Like you're his property," Jason says with an irritated tone.

"Oh, that," I say. "No, he hates public displays of affection. Honestly, I think he's jealous of you," I say, smiling.

"Really? Why?" asked Jason. "We're just friends, right?"

And there was the second slap of reality. Just friends. Yep, that's what we were— that's all we are. Larry is my boyfriend and Jason is my friend.

"Right," I reply confidently. "Just friends and nothing more." Changing the subject, I decided to ask him about his classes. I already figured that we didn't have homeroom together, since they divide us up by last name. He's Draper and I'm Wayne. "So what's your schedule looking like?" I asked him.

"Oh yeah!" he said, pulling his schedule out of his bookbag. "First period I have History. You?"

"Calculus," I replied.

"Oh. Well second period I have English."

"That's when I have History," I said.

Jason sighed. "Okay well third period, I have Calculus."

"And I'm in band then."

"Fourth period I have my foreign language class," Jason continued.

"So do I!" I exclaimed. "Are you taking Spanish?"

"No, French," Jason replied.

I sighed. "Okay so what's your last two classes?" I asked.

"Physics, then art," he replied.

"I have English, then Physics," I said, sighing again.

"Well at least we'll have lunch together!" Jason said cheerfully.

"Yeah, that's true," I said.

The bell rang and we headed off to our respective classes.



Wednesday Morning- Jason

8:42 A.M

I was now sitting in my first period class. History. I love History, but I couldn't focus. The image of Larry kissing Tamia kept replaying in my head. I'll admit, I was jealous. But why? That's her boyfriend. Maybe I wouldn't be jealous if Onise were responding to my calls? I don't know..

12:31 P.M.

I thought about Tamia all day, and I haven't seen her since this morning. It was now time for lunch. I knew I would see her there. Now if I could just find the cafeteria..

My thoughts were interrupted by a light tap on my shoulder. I knew it was the hand of a girl, so I turned around with a huge smile on my face. My smile soon faded when I saw that it was not Tamia. I would've even been happy if it were one of her friends. But no, I had no idea who this girl was.

"You're new here, right? Need help finding the cafeteria?" she asked me.

"Uh, yeah, could you help me?" asked politely. Maybe if I'm nice to her, I could ask her if she knew Tamia and if she could help me find her, Morrissa, or Vie. "I'm Jason, by the way," I continued, introducing myself.

"I'm Lanna," said the girl, "and I know who you are, Jason Draper.." She said with a wink. Was she flirting with me? I mean, she was a beautiful girl. She looked like she was part Asian and she had beautiful curly hair like Tamia, and she was about the same size as Tamia— not that I'd been checking her out... but I love Tamia's small frame. She's so easy to hug.

Now that formalities were out of the way and things were starting to get awkward, I decided that now was my chance to ask: "I'm also looking for my friend. Do you know Tamia Wayne?"

Her flirty look turned into one of distaste. "Uh, no, not really," she replied. By now she'd attached herself to my arm. "I'm actually new here, like you."

Something about this girl was off. If she was new here, how does she know where the cafeteria is? And how does she know that I'm new here too?

"Oh Jason, there you are!" I hear a familiar voice say. It was Morrissa. Thank God!

"Oh hey Morrissa," I said leaving Lanna standing by herself.

"Tamia, Vie, and Caiden are already in the cafeteria," said Morrissa. "C'mon!"

"Uh, no, he's sitting with me," said Lanna, pulling me back to her.

"Um, no he's not Lanna," argued Morrissa.

How does Morrissa know Lanna?

"And what are you doing back at Roosevelt?" Morrissa continued.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lanna replied.

Then she turns around and walks off.

"What's was that all about?" I asked Morrissa.

"That was Lanna Jonas," Morrissa replied. "She uh... she used to go here, then transferred to another school. I guess she's back now."

Well I guess that explains why she said she was "new" here and why she knew where the cafeteria was. But I couldn't help but notice some hesitation in Morrissa's voice... maybe it was nothing.

When we made it to the cafeteria, I saw Tamia, Vie, Caiden, and another girl that looked almost exactly like Tamia sitting at a table. Hmm, that must be her sister Tiera. We walked over and joined them. Caiden immediately gets up to greet me.

"Bruh, Tamia's friend is so hot!" he says quietly to me.

I'm guessing that he was referring to Vie. Although I've already seen pictures of her (and Morrissa) I glance over at her. She was gorgeous, and definitely a tomboy like Tamia said. I didn't even know Caiden liked the tomboy types.

"Her name is Vie, and she told me that I'm her celebrity crush!" he said excitedly.

"Shh," I reminded him, "we're not supposed to be celebrities here."

"Man whatever," he replied.

I look over at Tamia pulling her sandwich out of here lunch bag. She hasn't looked over at me yet. I noticed that Vie was sitting next to her on one side, and Morrissa had deliberately skipped the other seat next to her, because she kept motioning with her head for me to come sit by her. Morrissa is not subtle, at all.

I walk over to the round table and sit next to her. "Hi," I say. She looks up at me in mid-bite of her sandwich. She then grabs a napkin looking embarrassed. I laughed. "It's okay," I say. "I'm gonna grab some lunch, and I'll be right back."

"I'll show you guys where to go," Vie says, smiling at Caiden.