Hey, you know, this could be something....

[Dani]

Sophie crept through the slow-moving crowd of strangers, pushing her mostly empty cafeteria tray down the rack as she passed. As she glanced over at the food, she found herself faced with making the difficult decision between fish sticks, mashed potatoes, and a mysterious brown substance that seemed to resemble meatloaf. She made a face and squinted her eyes in disgust at the possibility. Normally she would have brought her lunch to school, but her alarm clock had decided to malfunction this morning, giving her only a small window of time to get dressed and begin the long walk to school. In order to arrive on time, she was forced to give up the luxury of having a freshly packed bag lunch. Silently cursing her alarm clock, she sighed and allowed the lady with the hairnet to place the questionable fish sticks on her plate before moving forward in the line.

[Kelli-wa]

Vic was standing in line for his lunch, and was almost through, he was waiting for a girl in front of him to decide on what she wanted. He understood, it was a tough decision between disgusting crap and semi-alright crap. He looked at what she'd chosen and licked his lips. He'd decided to be more social this year, he just had no idea what he was going to say. He glanced up at her and smiled lightly, "Good choice," he said softly. "Typically the fish sticks aren't that bad." He smiled lightly at her, a very soft pink color rising to his cheeks, shocked that he'd actually spoken to her. He got the fish sticks as well, and looked down at his tray, trying to hide the fact that he was embarrassed.

[Dani]

Sophie giggled at the boy behind her and picked up her tray. "Thanks," she said with a smile. "I'm kind of new here, so that's really good to know." Kind of new was a understatement. She was very new, as new it could possibly get. In fact, Riverside was the third school that she had attended in three years. Despite her outgoing personality, she'd made very few friends at her previous schools. She rarely could think of anything to say that would start a reasonably long enough conversation. Plus, it was always so easy to tag along and hang out with her siblings instead of attempting to make small talk with a stranger. Perhaps now would be a good time to change all of that.

[Kelli-wa]

Vic nodded and glanced over at her, taking his own tray, "Yeah, no problem." He searched his mind for something to say, something funny that might make her laugh again, just so he could make some new friends, maybe ones that were his own age. "I mean, it's all shit, but the fish sticks are pretty much as good as shit can get..." He shrugged lightly and moved down, grabbing a fruit cup of pears and a banana along with a carton of white milk. "So, what's your name?"

[Dani]

Sophie burst out laughing, nearly dropping her tray in the process. "I wasn't aware that shit could ever be good," she said, unable to control her laughter. She couldn't help it; his statement was probably the funniest thing that she'd heard all day. She was about to tell him so, when more laughter came out followed by a very embarrassing snort. Completely mortified, she turned away from the boy and quickly placed a carton of chocolate milk on her tray. "I-I'm Sophie. It's nice to meet you." Trying to regain her composure, she grabbed a napkin and headed towards the exit.

[Kelli-wa]

Vic smiled as she laughed and he shrugged his broad shoulders, "Eh, well, some is better than others, but none of it is good per say. Just not as bad as other shit..." She was still laughing and he smiled lightly, and then a grin set place on his face as she snorted. Wow, she's pretty cute, he thought as he watched her blush. He smiled, "Vic," he said lightly. He paid for his food and started out with her, "Uhm, do you mind if I sit with you?" He really didn't want to ask her that, but seeing as his sister wasn't in this lunch period and he had no friends that went to school with him, he needed somewhere to sit.

[Dani]

Sophie carefully bit down on her lip in an attempt to keep from laughing again. "That's very interesting. I'm learning so much about shit today." She held in another huge laugh as she pictured her mom asking her over the dinner table about what she'd learned about in school today and her replying "shit". "Vic, huh? Is that short for something?" She headed out and glanced at the overcrowded lunchroom. "Sure, you can sit with me. If you can find a good place to sit...."

[Kelli-wa]

"Yeah, well," Vic started with a shrug, "We don't learn about much else around here." He looked at her again at her question about his name and shook his head. "Nope, its just Vic. My dad claims it's short for Victor, but it's not, it says Vic on my birth certificate." He smiled lightly at her and shrugged, glancing around the room. "Damn," he whispered to himself. He'd thought for sure that there'd be an empty table somewhere, there typically was as soon as he sat down somewhere anyway, typically the table cleared out, although he didn't get why. He didn't think he was that bad at making friends.

[Dani]

Sophie nodded her head and smiled. "Well, I guess I won't have any trouble passing the 10th grade then." Passing on to the next grade was actually a legitimate concern for her. Since she was homeschooled by her father for most of her life, she felt at such a disadvantage compared to the other kids. Her eyes grew as big as saucers at his explanation about his name. "Wow! That's just like my twin brother Cori! My mom swears his real name's Cornelius, but my dad claims that his birth certificate just says Cori." She looked around the room, trying to find an empty table. "Where do you normally sit?"

[Kelli-wa]

Vic smiled at her with her comment and nodded, but he didn't really laugh at her small joke. He walked with her and laughed lightly at her reaction to his story about his name. "It's not a big deal, my mom just doesn't like the name Victor because it reminds her of some stupid soap opera, and honestly, I'm not fond of it either." He glanced around the cafeteria and shook his head. "Wherever I can find a seat, typically. Usually an empty table. I'm not exactly what you would call popular."

[Dani]

"Don't worry, I'll never call you Victor. It sounds kind of like an old guy's name anyways." Sophie looked up at him in confusion after he mentioned that he wasn't popular. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't be; he seemed like a really nice guy to her. Before she could ask him more about his popularity, she spotted an empty table out of the corner of her eye. "Yes! A free table!" She began to walk faster and gestured for Vic to follow her.

[Kelli-wa]

Vic smirked, "Awesome, and that's exactly what I thought, which is why I'm definitely glad it's just Vic." He licked his lips and glanced at her again as she said she saw a table. He knew what she was thinking. It was probably something like 'I can't believe this kid is going to sit with me, how can I ditch him as soon as possible without hurting his feelings?' He knew how this stuff worked, the only girls that liked him were the band sluts who only wanted to talk to him to get into his friends' pants, who were all older than him and definitely more experienced. "Looks good to me," he said with a smile as he followed her to the table and sat.

[Dani]

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Sophie put down her tray and sat down at the table with him. "Thank goodness. I was starting to think that we'd have to eat standing up or something." She laughed and bravely sampled a fish stick. "Wow, you're right; these aren't too bad. I might be able to eat them, but I wouldn't feed them to my dogs." After washing the strange taste out of her mouth with a few sips of chocolate milk, she remained silent for a few seconds. It was great to have a new friend to talk to, but she didn't want to ruin a potential friendship by babbling too much.

[Kelli-wa]

Vic smiled and looked at her as she sat down. He laughed lightly at her statement and shook his head. "Nah, I'd find some table to sit at. They'd probably clear out as soon as I sat down, but that's alright." He shrugged lightly and grinned at her before he took a bite of his own fish sticks. "Uhm, okay, this is the kind of food that I would give to my dog so I could clear my plate and go straight to dessert." He shook his head and took a drink of his own milk and shook his head again. "God, that's so nasty. Is it legal to feed us something that tastes like poison?"

[Dani]

Sophie raised an eyebrow at Vic in confusion. "Why would they clear out?" she asked. "Are you some type of a bully or something?" The thought didn't make any sense at all to her. He was much too kind and friendly to be considered a bully. She took another bite out of her fish stick, silently cursing herself for not getting a fruit cup. "Well, Dwight's a really picky eater," she said, speaking of her family's German Shepherd. "One of my brothers tried to feed him spinach once and he just sniffed it and walked away." She finished off the fish stick and made a face. "I'm never buying food from here again. It's just not worth it."