Dagger Pushed the doors to the Central City High Cafateria open. The seene was as per usual: lots of noise, lots of people, not a lot of space, and lots of uneaten food. Dagger looked around for a minute. This was one of the worst parts of the day. Listening to hundreds of conversations unfolding at the same time and being stuck between a bunch of bodies. “Hey, Dagger!” came a voice from across the room. Dagger’s eyes darted over and fell on Raelyn’s friends. He frowned. They were probably the worst part. If there were hundreds of conversations, half of them came from them. If others got too close, they got closer. And they didn’t even let him eat, which was the whole point of lunch. They just rained down questions and took turns making attempts to get him to admit to liking one of them. Dagger shook his head. There was no way he could go through with that again. He needed to take a break. He looked around the room again. Every seat was taken except the one they always kept for him. He let out a long sigh and headed towards their table. Just before he reached the table, a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him aside. He looked and saw a sheep in front of him. “Hey, can I talk to you?” he asked. “Uh, sure!” Dagger replied, eager for a way to get out of seeing the girls. “What do you want to talk about?” He gestured to an empty spot on a bench that Dagger hadn’t noticed before. Dagger sat down and received some out-stretched hands from the guys. After a moment, he realized they wanted high fives and he put his hand in theirs all around. “So,” the sheep said, “where’d you learn to play football?” “And you are? “Conor.” “Honestly, I hadn’t played football before coming here. I guess I just got some great natural tallent.” “A good throw is talent, but aim takes practice. You didn’t throw a single innacurate pass the whole period! You can’t expect us to believe that you’ve never practiced.” “If you think that’s crazy, you probably wouldn’t believe most of my life.” Conor smirked. “Try me.” “Well, I’m a clone—” Conor laughed. “Alright, wise guy. I didn’t know you were a jokster.” “Told ya.” A cry of Dagger’s name caught Conora dnd Dagger’s attention. They glanced over and saw the girls getting up and looking for him at each table. Dagger let out a long sigh. They were interrogating people and calling his name more frequently. Dagger slouched down in order to be harder to see. “That’s another thing,” The chameleon from the football game said. “How’d you get into that group of girls? I’ve been trying for at least a month to even get their attention, and you get them your first day.” Dagger shrugged. “If I could explain it, I would. They tried to get me and Raelyn together—” “Raelyn?! She’s the best of the group! She liked you?” “No, they thought that since I saved her the day before I started we were meant to be. She didn’t feel that way, and they made it awkward. I tried to leave, and as you might remember, they tried to force me to stay. After that, I told them I didn’t like her, and now they’re… stalking me.” “Dang. You’re the luckiest guy I know, and you don’t even appreciate it.” “The other night I was staying with one of them, and the other 6 tried to break in just to see me.” The table erupted with laughter, catching the girls’ attention. They started towards the table from all sides. Dagger let out a long sigh. “Explain why that’s funny.” “It isn’t, it’s just that it was so unexpected. That, and you make it sound like a bad thing.” “I was injured.” “Couldn’t be that bad if you’re here today.” (Continue to N&C)
Harper came up behind Dagger and leaned over him. “There you are. You just disappeared before.” “Hey. Harper.” Dagger said without much enthusiasm. “I’m guessing you’re here to capture— I mean, ‘retieve’ me?” “Yep.” Dagger stood up. “Well, I’ll catch you guys around.” With that, he started towards the table. From the table, he noticed Raelyn looking at him with pity. He felt his cheeks begin to flush, then hid his face by looking at the ground. He sat down at the opposite side of the table as her and lifted his head. The other girls came and fought over the unoccupied spot to his left. Dagger sighed and leaned over the table. He let his head rest on it and took a look around and saw that the guys from the other table were watching him. His gaze then fell on Raelyn, who was trying to get her friends to get over it and just sit down. “Is it really that important?” Raelny reasoned. “Yep,” they replied in unison. Raelyn sighed. “Well if you can’t come to an agreement, I’ll just sit there.” A bable of protest came from the girls as Raelyn moved to the other side of the table and took the seat next to Dagger. Dagger looked over and hid his face so she wouldn’t see him blushing again. He didn’t understand why, but ever since he’d seen Serenity yesterday, he’d gained a crush on her. After thinking it over, he decided he did appreciate that she wasn’t crazy for him like the others, and that she was actually sensible. At the same time, he knew that she didn’t like him, so it didn’t really matter. Once Dagger felt his cheeks return to normal, he brought his head up and saw that the others had moved past seating and taken their places around the table. They were all looking at him, which made it obvious that they’d noticed he was hiding his face. “Any reason you had your head on the table?” Zoey asked. “No,” Dagger said a little quickly. “Well, actually, I am a bit tired after yesterday.” “Yep, yesterday,” Grace said sourly. “When you ran off with Avery and left the girl that got you a place to stay when you were injured.” “Unlike you, she was willing to let me leave.” “Wait,” Lucy cut in, “you went out with Avery? She’s, like, 24 years old!” “25,” Grace corrected. “We didn’t ‘go out’. I was interested in the mountain where I got my injury, and she decided to sneek me out so I could go there. It was just so I could see if there was anything special there. That’s all.” “Ok, cool.” Aurora said. “Are you going to see us later then?” “Uh, sure. I don’t have anything else to do.” The bell rang and the cafeteria started to empty out. “Alright, see you then.” With that, the girls began to leave. Dagger got up and jogged for the door. He sighed, knowing some things would never change. To Be Continued... Song is Apotos Night from Sonic Unleashed
