Survival Of The Fittest

((Astrid Tate continued from The Dynamo of Volition))

Today felt as though it had been pulled straight out of a postcard. The sky was opal blue and dotted with puffy white clouds. You could feel the radiant sun on your skin, but there was a pleasantly cool breeze to stop it from being scorching. The grass was green, the birds were singing, and if you dared look close enough, there was a placid, casual smile on Astrid Tate's face.

She'd had history that morning and she'd just gotten out of PE, and she felt good. History always put her in a good mood when she was either allowed to work under her own devices or when she was allowed to lead a group, and what was more, the annoying Neanderthal who sat near the back and couldn't remember the difference between Trotsky and Tolstoy was ill today. In PE, they'd been doing circuit training, and the adrenaline of it all combined with her own consistent exercise and soccer practice meant she'd breezed through it, working up a sweat but feeling pumped afterwards.

Astrid strode across the lawn, humming tunelessly to herself with a towel slung over her shoulder. Even she realised that her musical skills needed a little work, not that she appreciated when people reminded her of that. She was in a good mood, though, and she felt like humming, and who would try and stop her from doing that? Assholes, that was who; in which case, they were huge assholes, and Astrid had the moral high ground.

Astrid slid onto one of the benches dotted around the place and took her lunch out of her bag. Eating alone was no issue for her; it was preferable to eating in the cafeteria any day of the week, and it wasn't as though she was going to say no to anyone who wanted to sit at this table in particular.

Well, okay, maybe there were a few people who'd get a definite no…

In the meantime, Astrid figured she could read a little bit, or maybe have a go at some writing, or a little bit of sketching. She'd never had a proper go at either of the latter two, but she figured there was no harm in trying. How hard could it be? She'd seen people in her classes spend entire years doodling in their notebooks rather than take notes, and it looked as though they'd been taking lessons from kindergartners.

Astrid peeled open the lid of the plastic box in front of her, and stuck a fork into it. Salad wasn't anywhere near the top of her ‘favourite foods' list, but this one was special. Sophie had made it yesterday evening, inspired by watching her big sister in the kitchen every few days. There'd been some spare this morning, and when Sophie had asked if Astrid wanted to take it for lunch, she had said yes without a second thought.

Smiling at the thought, Astrid put the fork in her mouth, chewed once, twice, and then made a face of utter disgust. Fuck. Fucking hell. She knew she should have asked Sophie what she'd put into this thing beforehand. Of all the vile, inedible foods in the world, why the hell did she have to put olives in the damn salad?

Grimacing, Astrid craned her neck to the side, and spat out the offending, slightly mashed up olive. It flew into the grass and disappeared, along with her good mood.

((Coleen Reagan continued from... ... shit. Smoke on the Water? Seriously? Daaaaaaamn.))

"Oh!"

It was a remark pocked with disgust, coated in a veil of resigned understanding. Coleen had happened upon the unfortunate scene simply by walking across the lawn towards one of the athletic fields, where she liked to spend the occasional lunch period on days where she wasn't hungry. Today was a day full of contemplation and wondering how to improve her relationship with Vanessa, which tended to kill the appetite. The weather was particularly gorgeous today as well, and that lead her to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Astrid spat something out on the ground in disgust.

"I, uh, sorry. You allergic?" Coleen offered along with a weak smile. It sounded stupid to her the moment she said it, but if Astrid had replied in the affirmative, she was more than willing to walk the tall girl back to the nurse's office. A small chance was enough to have prompted the question; after all, Coleen liked Astrid. Astrid was the kind of girl who wasn't really in any position to make fun of Coleen's face. A cold way to put it if it were said aloud, she realized, but there was something comforting in knowing that she could stand on equal ground and not have deformities be the main topic of conversation. A shame that she and Astrid never really hung out, though... Coleen often noticed some irregularities in Astrid's makeup and was internally dying to offer to help her out with it.

Coleen put both hands behind her back and clasped them at the wrist, working to strengthen her smile in Astrid's direction.

((Travis Lynch continued from smashing a bitches pride in Sting Like A Stingray))

Trav stepped outside with a smile on his face and his bag over his shoulder, like everyday in Arizona it was hot. Luckily most of Trav's wardrobe consisted of tank-tops, t-shirts and shorts, meaning he was always prepared. If it rained or was cold he was fucked though.

Currently it was lunch time and at school lunch time was the best time. Although Biology wasn't that bad, it was interesting, which was more than could be said for English or Maths. Now was time for food though, specifically chicken and rice salad. Good solid healthy food with some protein. Raising his water to his mouth, Trav took a long gulp as he scanned the field for a place to sit. There were a few empty benches but one had two people he kinda knew on. That was enough of a reason for him, he preferred being social to sitting alone anyway.

As he strolled over Trav tried to figure out who the two girls were. Luckily they both had pretty distinctive...um...faces. He was not sure if that was the polite way of stating that fact either. Thinking about it, probably not.

"Yo, Astrid, Coleen." He nodded at both of them as he spoke and then spun his bag of his shoulder and dropped it on top of the bench. "How're you two doin'?" Yep, that sentence didn't come out in the dumbest way possible.

Astrid wiped her mouth in disgust, shaking her head before looking away at the offending patch of grass. The aftertaste of the olive was still in her mouth, something akin to a delightful cocktail of cockroach and blue cheese. She grabbed a carton of orange juice from her bag to wash away the sensation, but just as the straw touched her lips, she heard a voice from nearby, clearly directed at her.

Astrid spun around, a steely glare fixed onto her face, totally prepared to tell whoever it was to fuck off and give her some space. The words were almost out of her mouth, before she saw exactly who it was and her expression softened.

It was hard, even for Astrid, to dislike Colleen. She was generally polite and pleasant to everyone she met – perhaps a little naively so – and she was also a hard worker. She was smart and got good grades, and although they were never really in the same social groups and didn't spend much time outside of classes together, Astrid could definitely respect her.

Beyond that, Astrid also felt a sort of kinship with Colleen thanks to their shared… irregularities. It wasn't as though it was anything to be proud of, and Astrid wished more than anything that the accident had never happened, but there was still a weird sort of bond between them. Like meeting someone who had the same first name as you.

Astrid managed to muster a grim smile at Colleen, taking a short sip of orange juice before placing it back down on the table.

"Nah, nothing that bad. Although it looks like I'm going hungry today, this thing's got olives in it." Astrid shot a dark look at the plastic container and muttered under her breath.

"Fucking hate olives…"

As Astrid was busy berating her salad, a third person joined the scene. Astrid was… alright with Travis. He had a habit of cracking some dumb joke in any given situation, which had gotten old and irritating on about the second day of knowing him. His constantly laid-back attitude was equally as annoying, but somehow, his schoolwork remained decent, if not spectacular, and aside from that, there wasn't really anything to complain about him.

Then again, they didn't spend much time together either…

"Alright, I guess," Astrid said. "Was going better earlier today, after all."

Astrid nodded at the bench, her way of saying she was fine with them sitting down with her.

"You're smart not to eat them, you know."

Tessa's comment was addressed to her friend, but she gave a little wave to Colleen and Trav as she approached.

"Any Californian produce, really. None of the water out there's natural, you know. They don't get any rainfall or anything, so all of their water's manufactured, and it's all laced with all this stuff that makes you extra docile, extra compliant, that sort of thing. It's what makes Californians… y'know, how they are."

She dropped her bag on the ground, then sat down next to it, and began to fish around inside.

"Then all that water goes into the olives, into the almonds, into the grapes. All of it's terrible for you. Your body knows, though, and so it tells you how bad it is for you by making them taste awful. It's like how pregnant women crave bananas because they're short on potassium. The body knows, Asty."

Tessa's hands found what they were looking for, and she pulled out a ham, lettuce and mayonnaise sandwich, wrapped in crinkled tinfoil.

"Here, go halves with me instead. Save me from myself!"

She opened the sandwich up and held it towards her friends face.

"Smell that all-American goodness, Asty! The body knows what it waaants" she sang, then pulled the sandwich back and took a hearty bite.

It was delicious, as she'd known it would be.

"Couldn't you just take the olives out?" Coleen asked, or at least started to ask, before Tessa entered the scene. Only a short moment before, Travis had greeted the two girls. Coleen waved in response and offered her usual smile, not wanting to risk interrupting anything Astrid had to say regarding her day. It was understandable how a mood could be soured by undesirable food. To her, it would be like finding out that somebody had cooked corn into macaroni and cheese. In both cases it seemed more than possible to dig the offending food out, though the fact that maybe the 'juices' from the olive had somehow tainted the flavor of the rest of the salad had not entirely slipped Coleen's mind.

Tessa, unfortunately, took the conversation in an entirely different direction with some strange diatribe about docile water, California being dirty or... something. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing she expected a high school student to say. Rather, Coleen would have expected it more from that crazy guy on the History channel who spouts off about aliens and made himself positively infamous on Facebook or wherever that photo came from. The girl meant well, though, and Coleen thought it especially sweet that Tessa was actually willing to give up half her sandwich in order to make Astrid's day just that little bit better.

Her smile warmed up a little bit, and she sat on one side of the bench, nervously fiddling with her hair. She turned her attention to Travis, clearing her throat. "Hey, um, Trav? You don't happen to remember the due date for our Chem paper, do you?"

The conversation was about food, specifically the presence of olives and how to deal with them. Trav dug his fork into his meal and lifted some chicken into his mouth as he listened in. He raised his head in Tessa's direction and gave a wave as she approached. She was right about the whole body knowing thing, the body knew a lot of things. Sometimes it would instinctively do stupid shit and you had to train that stuff out but most of the time it had a good natural idea of what was good for it.

Coleen turned and asked him about a chem paper. Trav's eyes went wide mid-mouthful and he stared at the floor racking his brain for the answer. Had he done the chem paper? He actually didn't know. He knew he'd started it but he couldn't remember if he had actually finished the work. He also didn't know when it was due, more than a little unhelpful considering the question he'd just been asked.

"Ummmmmmm," He swallowed and looked up at Coleen. "It's due in a week?" He sounded unsure and raised his arms in what resembled a shrug. "I think it's a week...I mean, I hope it's a week."

He must have sounded super convincing.