Gone

I plopped down my tray, and then my butt, at my lunch table, sitting opposite Manny. She was already eating a salad that she’d brought from home, dipping her fork into a tiny cup of raspberry vinaigrette, eliminating any extra calories she’d consume if she poured the thing over her container of lettuce, red onions, cucumbers, and slivers of carrots. Because she wasn’t an athletic person, she did everything she could to eat healthy, making it so she wouldn’t have to sweat, ever, to keep her thin figure. It made her kind of irritating and boring sometimes, like when I baked brownies, but I still respected her.

“I can’t believe you eat that,” she sighed, giving my slice of greasy school pizza a side-glance with her hazel eyes. “It’s a wonder you’re not five hundred pounds.”

“First off, there’s no way I’ll ever be five hundred pounds,” I reminded her. “Second, after you take off the extra grease with a napkin, it’s not even that bad.” To emphasize my statement, I picked up the napkin from the front of my tray and dabbed the top of the cheese, watching the fabric absorb the excess liquid like a dehydrated sponge sucking up water.

She grimaced at me, her skin almost taking on a green hue, and it looked like she was going to scold me for disgusting her as the all-too familiar voice of our assistant principal interrupted to give us the announcements.

“Good afternoon, students.” His voice boomed through the microphone, vibrating off the walls and making my head spin. I never understood why he didn’t take the hint that he should talk quieter when everyone in the room winced when he talked, but there were some things that would never change. “First off, I’d like to welcome you all back for another year at Wilson High School. This year is sure to be a great one.”

“They say that every year,” Manny grumbled, stabbing a piece of cucumber so violently with her fork that I was positive she was imagining it as Mr. Hudson’s face. “And every year sucks just as hard as the year before.”

“That’s optimistic,” I teased before turning back to Mr. Hudson’s ever-increasingly red face as he continued to read the announcements.

“The bathroom on the first floor is already out of order, so if you need to use the lavatory, use the one on the second floor or the one by the gyms.” He cleared his throat unpleasantly, and because he didn’t move his mouth far enough away from the microphone, the phlegmy sound echoed throughout the open cafeteria. “Sports tryouts start this week. Football will have a meeting after school today to discuss when the tryout will be. Cross-country tryouts will be Thursday after school.”

The short blonde secretary flushed as she ran up to the Mr. Hudson and whispered frantically in his ear. When she finished and retracted, he put the microphone back up to his mouth and declared, “I’ve just been informed that you do not need to try out for cross-country. That doesn’t make any sense to me, but I don’t make the sports rules.” He took a short breath. “The soccer team will meet tomorrow after school at the field. Please bring your balls.”

A wave of snickers passed through the cafeteria, but I was too busy getting pumped up for soccer. I’d been playing the sport since I was five on the town rec league, and I fell in love almost immediately. When I first got to the high school and realized it was too small to form two gender-separated teams, I got a little discouraged and thought I was going to be overwhelmed and have to quit. Soon enough, though, I realized that I could kick all the guys’ asses, and I started to enjoy soccer even more.

“Oh, God,” Manny snickered as Mr. Hudson finally put away the microphone. “I can just see the wheels going in your head. Already thinking about plays you can make this season?”

“Better than thinking of what color I’m going to paint my nails for the occasion,” I defended, finishing off the slice of pizza. “I wonder if we’re going to get any newbies this year, since three of our best players graduated last year.”

“Only one way to find out,” she responded with a shrug. “Which is waiting and seeing. Oh, on a totally different topic, did you hear about the new exchange student?”

“What?” I asked, taking a sip of my miniature water bottle. “Oh, um, no.”

“He’s English,” she expressed dramatically, getting a little smirk on her face. “And he’s the most gorgeous piece of man I’ve ever seen in my life. His lips are like…”

I cut her off before she could finish the analogy, saying, “Sounds really dreamy.”

“He is. Oh my God, you have to meet him. I hope he’s in one of your next classes because you will swoon.”

“Swoon? Like they do in those old movies?”

“Yes. Because he’s dreamy. I bet he kisses so well that my foot would pop, like Mia’s obsessed with in Princess Diaries?”

“What decade-old reference…?” I trailed off as I shook my head. “But whatever. If you want to see how he kisses, than maybe you should just corner him in the hallway, you know? Like a lioness or something. And just go in for it before he realizes that you’re one of those predatory sluts.”

She burst out laughing at the prospect and shook her head. “That might be coming on a little strong for him. He seems kind of shy. But he’s so cute. Like a little puppy dog.”

I almost pointed out how strange it was that she mentioned that she wanted to make out with him while also calling him a puppy dog within the same lunch period, but I had a feeling that would bring the conversation to uncomfortable places, so I just let it be.

“Oh, and did I mention that his accent is very nice? He talked for, like, ten minutes straight in stats, and everyone was just staring at him and hoping he’d say more. It’s that wonderful.”

I started to snicker a little bit. “Well, you moved on from Trevor pretty quickly, didn’t you?”

“Trevor was a summer thing. Maybe Liam’s a school year thing.”

“I’m sure he’d be honored.”

Manny didn’t seem to hear me, leaning forward on her elbow and resting her face in her hand as she mused, “And then he could go back to England and tell all his hot, English friends about how incredible I was. And I’d be fucking world-renowned.”

“Okay, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves,” I chuckled uncomfortably. “Have you even spoken to the poor victim yet?”

“No. But I will. And he’ll definitely fall under my spell. He looks like the impressionable type.”

“He has no idea what he’s about to get himself into.” Shaking my head and trying to hide my smirk, I stood up to throw out my tray, brushing the crumbs off my jeans as I went. Before Manny could start whimpering as a clue, I reached over and took her plastic fork and empty water bottle for her.

“You know,” Manny thought aloud as I retook my place at the table, dragging my backpack off the dirty linoleum floor underneath us, “I don’t think this lip gloss is the right color. If I’m going to get Liam, I’m going to need something that reads sweeter. I think he’d get scared by sultry.”

“Whatever you say.” I reached up and scratched the back of my neck, trying not to laugh out loud as I could in my best friend’s face as she rummaged through her purse, searching for a lighter shade of lip gloss. Only she would think that far ahead when it came to boys.