Survival Of The Fittest

(Jennifer Perez continued from Phantasmagoria)

It was another lunchtime at Bayview Secondary School, and Jennifer was bored. It had been a few days since her meeting with Melissa, which was still the most interesting thing that had happened to Jennifer recently.

Jennifer was standing in line to purchase some of the school's mediocre food. She had arrived at the lunch room slightly later than she usually did, and was thus at the back of the line, which stretched far from the food counter. Jennifer could not see any of her friends in line, which was too bad. She wouldn't mind having someone to talk to, even if it was one of her less mature underclassman friends.

Jennifer shrugged her backpack, trying to adjust it into a more comfortable position. The straps were cutting into her shoulders.

I knew I should have left all my books at my locker, she thought, but no, I had to rush to get a good spot in line. A lot of fucking good it did me.

Jennifer sighed, and prepared for a long wait.

Slow was the term for the day as far as Geoffrey was concerned. He had maths, science and finally Gym before breaking for lunch and all in all, he was looking forward to filling his stomach with even the slop they served here. After getting changed from his gym outfit, he made his way to the cafeteria, only to see the long line in front of him "Oh ye Gods..." He muttered in an exasperated tone before starting to getting into line, noticing who was in front of him.

"Now who's this again?" Geoffrey thought, his mind trying to place which girl this was. Making sure no one was looking, he pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and skimmed through the pages where notes of pretty much every other student resided "Hispanic, spiky hair, slim... Ah, Jennifer Perez." From experience Geoffrey knew she was not one he'd usually be interested in her, Jennifer's own aversion to arguments getting in the way of his own dealing with the students. But, pleasant enough in her way.

Stepping up behind her, Geoffrey cleared his throat and said "Hi Jennifer, how're you?"

Jennifer jumped at the voice behind her. She turned around, hoping it was one of her friends, and then paused. Behind her stood a short boy with a dirty blond ponytail and green eyes.

Jennifer had seen him around school, and knew that he was in her grade, but could not remember his name. She thought it started with a J, maybe.

Is it Jeremy? she wondered, then decided not to guess. Calling someone the wrong name was worse than not using one at all. She decided to just talk to him without using his name, and ask one of her other friends about him later.

Hoping he hadn't noticed her momentary discomposure, Jennifer said, "Hi. I'm, um, doing pretty well, only the lunch line is about a mile long. Um, how are you?"

Just a moment of uncertainty, but Geoffery noticed it, unsurprised. He couldn't have much fun with creating conflict with Jennifer so he didn't really interact with her. The only reason he remembered her was because of what he had written in his notebook. Giving her a warm smile, he says "I'm fine thanks. Shame about the line really." He looks over to the end of the people near the food desk and humphs in annoyance "Ah well, can't be helped. I suppose we'll have to kill time. Anything new with you?"

The first thing that Leona Christopher noticed when she entered the cafeteria was the relative emptiness of the tables- excellent. The food here was subpar at best, but getting there early meant that one at least got the best of the worst. Still, while the tables were empty, the main line was quite long. Leona let out an annoyed huff and pulled her canvas purse back up her shoulder. This might take a while.

As she approached the line, Leona spotted one person that she knew on a friendly basis. "Jennifer." she called, nearing the back of the line. Jennifer and some guy were at the tail-end, so Leona knew that asking to cut in front of her friend wouldn't make much of a difference. "Hey girl. Why your bag so big?" she asked, examining Jennifer's rather tense shoulders. With a knowing smirk, Leona held out a hand. "Gimme one of your books. I got room in my purse." she offered. As she let her hand balance in front of Jennifer, Leona took note of the boy between them. She recognized him in passing, but didn't quite know his name. Still, she'd not introduce herself- she was a bit poor at those types of things.

"I suppose we'll have to kill time. Anything new with you?" the boy asked Jennifer.

"Um, nothing major," she said, "Just school and such, you know."

Jennifer was becoming painfully aware of how awkward conversations with strangers could be. She felt a little bad about all the times she had put people in the position she found herself in now. Still, it was a friendly gesture. Maybe the boy would become a friend, like Melissa had.

Suddenly, Jennifer heard her name called. She glanced over the boy's shoulder, and saw her friend Leona headed for the line. Jennifer smiled. Leona was a nice girl, who Jennifer liked chatting with.

Leona made her way over, and offered to take one of Leona's bags. Jennifer gladly handed over her science book, the lightest one in her pack, and then turned back to the boy.

"This is Leona," she said, gesturing to her friend, "Leona, this is..."

Oh fuck. I can't believe I just did that. I don't know his name, Jennifer thought. She brought her hand to her mouth and began coughing loudly, croaking out "I'm alright."

Please introduce yourself to her, she thought desperately, as she continued to fake a coughing fit, Please don't make me make any more of a fool of myself than I have to.

For a moment, Geoffrey looked blank at Leona, trying to think back to his notes before remembering "Leona Christopher... Member of the choir, that's it." Holding back a scowl at the girl having the audacity to cut in front of him, he managed to give her a smile as he heard Jennifer's weak excuse. Deciding to end the poor girl's misery, Geoffery gave a bow of his head as he held out his hand "Geoffery Angevin at your service. I don't believe I've had the pleasure quite yet." He said pleasantly.

"Most people haven't." Leona said, shaking Geoffrey's hand. With a smile, Leona looked over at Jennifer. "Dry throat? If this line speeds up, you should get a bottle of water...speaking of, Jeff, wanna sit with us today?" she offered. Leona wasn't usually one to make invitations, but she felt like talking today. And, although she liked her, Jennifer didn't make for much conversation. "God, you'd swear the food was being marinated back there." Leona snapped, glaring at the slow moving line.

The boy, Geoffrey, granted Jennifer's silent request, and introduced himself. She made a note of his name. She had to try to remember it. Leona commented on Jennifer's cough, and then invited Geoffrey to sit with them.

Jennifer continued coughing for a few seconds for authenticity, then said, "Yeah, I'll get some, um, water. If we ever make it to the counter. And yeah, um, Geoffrey, you should sit with us."

Jennifer looked ahead. The line was moving, but not quickly. Maybe three people had been served since Leona had shown up. She hoped they would actually have time to eat their food before lunch ended.

"So, um, how have you guys been doing lately?" Jennifer asked, hoping to keep the conversation from lapsing into an awkward silence, "Has anything interesting been going on?"

"Jeff? Freaking Jeff?" Geoffery thought at the nickname, knowing that he would almost certainly never be able to shake it. Fuming more than a little inside, he nodded pleasantly enough to Leona's offer "Sure, sounds good." He heard Jennifer's question and shrugged "Same old, same old. Science is a pain as usual, the teacher really needs to lighten up in that."

Geoffrey looked down the line, noting it was going as slow as ever. Sighing a little, he brough his bag in front of him and pulled out three small chocolate bars, having one for himself before offering the others to Leona and Jennifer "Something for the wait." He says, attempting to get into their good graces.

Leona took the chocolate bar from Geoffrey and smiled. "Thanks." she said. Leona took a bite from the bar and chewed for a moment. She was on a diet, but one bar wouldn't hurt. After all, she had eaten chocolate before and had no particular qualms about eating it again. "So, what science teacher do y'all have?" Leona asked, turning to face Geoffrey and Jennifer.

Geoffrey offered Jennifer a chocolate bar, saying "Something for the wait."

"Oh, thank you!" Jennifer said, eagerly accepting the small bar. She unwrapped it, crumpling the wrapper and tucking it into a pocket on her backpack. Jennifer was getting to like Geoffrey. He seemed like a kind boy. She popped the chocolate in her mouth. It was very good: sweet with a bit of a bite.

"So, what science teacher do y'all have?" Leona asked Jennifer and Geoffrey.

"I have, um, chemistry with Mr. um, Higgins," Jennifer said, "It's a really hard class."

Jennifer wasn't very good at chemistry, but she wasn't horrible either. She felt like she had earned her C with her hard work over the semester.

Geoffrey looked towards Jennifer with some envy "Mr. Higgins? I had him last year, pretty good guy, at least he isn't Mrs. Flaversham." Geoffrey's own personal nemesis, Mrs. Flaversham was his science teacher, old school strictness who made her class's lives miserable. The day she retired or kicked the bucket was long hoped for by many of the students. Geoffrey was lucky to average around a 'C' with her at best "At least it's history up after lunch, that I'd good at."

"At least it's history up after lunch," Geoffrey said, "that I'd good at."

"Oh. Um. Cool," Jennifer said, "I'm actually really bad at, um, history. It just doesn't make too much sense to me."

That was an understatement. Jennifer though that history class was a horrible waste of time. The past held very little she could use in her everyday life, and history class invariably had a broad focus. Jennifer didn't care about countries. To her, it was the people who made them up who mattered.

The line had advanced a good bit; there were only about fifteen students in front of Jennifer now. She wondered how long was left in the lunch period, and considered flipping out her cell phone to check, but decided not to. She didn't want to give her friends the impression that she was bored with them.

"I hope there's actually some food left when we reach the counter," she said with a smile. She was only half joking, though.

"Oh. Um. Cool," Jennifer said, "I'm actually really bad at, um, history. It just doesn't make too much sense to me."

Geoffrey raised an eyebrow at this. She honestly didn't like history? Shrugging it off and wondering how on Earth it couldn't make any sense how someone couldn't grasp and enjoy the full scope of history, the destiny of naions and Kings, the fall of Empires, the...

Realising that he had gotten caught up in his thoughts, Geoffrey brought himself back to Earth just in time to catch Jennifer's next words.

"I hope there's actually some food left when we reach the counter,"

Nodding in agreement, he offered a weak smile "If not, I have some sandwiches to go. As long as you like jam of course."