Hanging out at lunch!

The shrill ring of the bell startles you out of your bored stupor and back into the real world. Looking up from your beaten down old desk you notice your classmates hurriedly strapping on their backpacks and leaping from their seated positions.

Wasting no time you heave your own pack up, likewise moving quickly to stash your binder, pencils and textbook. Zipping it up you push yourself out of the cramped and uncomfortably sized seat to exit this dreaded math classroom.

There’s a slight bunch up at the door as people you would consider less than smart jam themselves in but soon enough you enter the flowing stream of your fellow students to get out. Once in the hallway you detach from the main artery of the crowd and slow your pace to a more comfortable walk, passing classrooms and lockers as you move.

You let out a slight breath and feel your heartbeat quicken significantly in a matter of seconds as you remember exactly what you were about to get into, your anticipation of the coming interaction was already giving you grief.

You definitely intend to make good on that invitation Rachel had given you yesterday, after all it’s not every day a pretty girl actually asks you to sit with her. But still she said she would be with her friends, people you didn’t know and people you were fairly certain would have very different opinions of you than she did.

So between the idea of sitting with strangers and with a girl you didn’t know much about either but had a crush on, your ingrained nature was complaining.

It didn’t matter though, you’d been wishing you put yourself out socially more in the past recently and now was the time to do it. It was like a chance that had been offered by whatever deity there was after listening in on your woes, you couldn’t ignore how perfect it was.

Just have to push through the social barrier you’d bricked yourself into.

Though you found that increasingly more difficult to do as you stepped before the double doors of the cafeteria. A pit formed in your stomach as a thousand different ways to ruin this whole thing played in your head.

“Goddamnit it’s nothing special, just hanging out with people!” You berate yourself.

Drawing a breath you steel you nerves and summon as much confidence as you could. Driving the a door inwards and stepping through you’re Immediately hit with the hum and bustle of more than a hundred other human beings going about their business.

Plastic trays setting down, shoes squeaking on the smooth wooden floor, chatter at an unbelievable volume. You weren’t a fan of the cafeteria at lunch and all this noise was just one of the many reasons why.

Walking past the entrance you make your way into the fray, eyes scanning the student lined benches at each table. About halfway in you spot Rachel sitting at the far end, a cluster of friends all around her.

She’s at the end of the table bench mid conversation with a female friend. All around her are girls that look to be from the schools different sports teams, all of course soar out of your league, then there’s the guys. All of whom seem to come from the same hodge podge of mixed teams.

Yep, no sweat approaching this group!

Ignoring the voice in your head telling you to abandon ship you keep to the march, rounding the corner of a table you make your way down the aisle between towards her spot.

As you approach a few of the people there glance your way curiously, you keep your gaze low in response. Before long however you reach your destination and have to face the mix of different eyes now peering at you.

“I, uhhh…” You swallow reflexively.

Just then she looks up from whatever in depth conversation she was having to meet your eyes with her own.

Yep, theres those green gems again. Still goddamn beautiful enough to make your throat tighten and breath stop in its tracks on command.

A smile breaks out across her cheeks and she gives you a little wave, “John, I’m glad you came! Come here, sit down with us!”

She gleefully scoots away from the edge of the table and pats the now free space beside herself. Her friends watch with curiosity as you shift around to sit down, the pit in your stomach now a void of worried emotion as they gaze at you with such intensity.

Now seated you look around yourself and give a nervous smile.

“So everybody, this is John, I met him yesterday and he was pretty cool so I offered to have him come sit with us.” She introduces you to the crowd, her exuding enthusiasm feeling palpable.

A few nods, a few waves and even a few guys saying ‘sup’ entail at your announcement. Then, they all go back to what they were doing before you arrived.

You feel your heart rate slow as all the attention on you is taken away, “Huh… well this isn’t so bad now.”

Unsure of what to do you bring up your hands to rest them on the table and look around at the others.

“So how are your classes going today?” Rachel asks looking to you, smile still present on her face.

You shrug, “Not bad so far, just had to sit through math, which I hate, but other than that English and History weren’t so bad.” You return her smile, “How about yours?”

“About the same, boring but manageable, I just wish it went by faster sometimes. Except my stupid geometry class, fuck that one.” She laughs lightly and you join in with a chuckle.

“Oh dear god I know what you mean, Ms. Thackeray is so shitty, assigning packets instead of teaching, it’ll be a miracle if I can finish with a B.” You shake your head.

“I know right?! She also loves to call your parents and tell them about every single assignment you miss and how you’ll never get anywhere in life if you don’t straighten up.” She puts on an exaggerated sneer.

“Bitch.” You both say at the same time prompting another round of laughs.

As she calms her laughing she brings up her arm and places her elbow on the table, leaning forward she rests her head on her hand all while keeping her gaze on you.

It was nice having that beautiful face stare at your own, from her well defined feminine jawline to her smooth flawless cheeks you admired every aspect. God she was cute.

“So what kind of stuff do you like to do outside of school John? Like hobbies or… ya know?”

“Oh uh, w-well I don’t know I wouldn’t really want to bore you too much, I’m not super interesting.”

She shakes her head, “Nope, not accepting that annoying answer.” She giggles, “Come on, I don’t wanna have to interrogate you because trust me, I will.”

Something tells you she’s not lying either, not that you mind.

“Well if you insist. When I’m not doing schoolwork or normal work I guess I like to play video games, not all the time but a good amount of evenings. I also like to read when I get the time.” You shake your head, “Other than that I like to go on walks, though you kinda know that already.”

You snap your fingers, “Oh yeah I also love history, like… I could probably talk about any point in history for a ridiculous amount of time.”

Her interested expression never falters, somehow she’s keeping a straight face as you tell her about your perceived lame pastimes.

“Well that’s not all that boring, I know plenty of guys who that like those same things and they aren’t boring to be around either.”

“I guess, I don’t know I just always figured those were kind of lame things to be into.”

She lets out an indignant snort, “Lame? It’s not lame at all, something is only lame when you have no passion and from the tone of your voice it sounds like you have plenty of passion for what you like.”

“T-Thanks Rachel.”

She nods then cocks an eyebrow, “So if you like history then is there a part of history you like more then the rest?”

“Uhhh… that’s a good question. Um, early Rome is really good candidate for favorite, Punic wars and early expansion plus the power plays in their politics is just amazing. But later on the early Middle Ages are also fascinating, Vikings and Saxons, Frank’s and Arabs, there’s so much cultural conflict and development you know. All of that shit is just… cool.”

You shrug as you feel a wave of embarrassment wash over, you’ve never really talked about this sort of niche interest with anyone besides family before.

“I also have a huge interest in uh, early modern stuff as well, Ottomans and the wars with them, plus the push into the new world going on at the same time…”

“I could also talk about the Bronze Age for a really long time too…” You stop talking and sheepishly look at her now huge smile.

She lets out a giggle as your slight rant slows to a halt, “I see, so you weren’t lying when you said you could talk about it for hours?”

You simply nod your head.

“Well I wouldn’t be so embarrassed about it, it seems to me your pretty smart and that’s a good thing!” She gives you a reassuring smile, “Smart is good for a lot of reasons… it’s also kind of attractive in a guy.”

Your ears and eyes perk up at that, luckily she turns away and misses the uncontrollable red blush that tinges your face.

“Did she just…”

Thankfully for her as well you aren’t able to see the blush on her face either.

Suddenly the voices of two of the other students across from you grow louder drawing your attention. As you look up you see one of them is looking straight at you.

“Traitor legions or Loyalists?”

“Wha… what?”

“It’s John right?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Cool I got it right, anyway, traitor legions or loyalists? Which are better?”

You look at the rather bulky blonde guy with a stupefied expression.

Rachel leans forward and with an annoyed look interjects, “This is Jake, my annoying little brother.”

“Oh.” You nod, “Hey Jake.”

He nods back, “Yeah, sorry for pouncing on your friend like this Rach, but my buddy and I here gotta settle this argument and I figured he looks like he might know what we’re talking about.”

You see next to him is another large fellow with an indignant look on his face, arms crossed.

“Oh well I…” You aren’t sure how you feel about the insinuation he made off your appearance. He’s correct but still.

You look to Rachel for a moment and she shrugs so you do the same and answer, “Definitely loyalists, for the imperium and the emperor.” You state with a firm nod.

“See!” Jake turns triumphantly to his comrade, “I told you, normal people don’t take the demon’s side!”

“Pbbsssht, yeah go on worshipping your corpse emperor bro.” He shakes his head at the both of you.

~

The next ten minutes involve a rather intense and heated debate of Warhammer lore, something Rachel’s football player brother and his friend have absolutely immersed themselves into.

Who’duh thunk it?

Rachel herself goes back forth between talking to her other friends and listening in, she’s especially attentive when your passionately pontificating and or defending a point.

You get the feeling she doesn’t actually care about what your saying but is being nice to you anyway for some reason. Are all girls like this?

But soon enough the bell once again rings, disrupting the conversation and sending the cafeteria into a frenzy of activity.

Jake gives you a nod goodbye and a thumbs up as you all finish talking. Then he pushes up and leaves the table.

Some of the other people who had been sitting near you do the same saying goodbye with the pleasant smiles. You do your best to return the gestures with waves of your own.

In this moment of social activity you felt… really good. Between being thrust into something you were into and getting to talk with Rachel your normal attitude of introvertedness disappeared almost entirely, it was amazing.

No anxiety, no worry, it was great! You were talking without restraint, expressing yourself with no fear as to what others would say. Yes it would only as long as you were in the moment but it was a great feeling nonetheless.

Smiling to yourself you remain seated as you slip your backpack back on. Before you get up from the table though a hand latches onto your arm and it’s owner grabs your attention.

Rachel serenely smiles at you as her eyes meet yours, they shimmer in the light as she gazes at you, “I’m so glad you and my brother get along, I had no idea you would hit it off so well to be honest.”

“Heh, yeah… me neither.”

“So um, before you go I just wanted to ask if you would want to take a walk in the park together after school? I don’t have cheer practice today and we didn’t exactly get to finish talking earlier, plus that is a really nice walk.”

You feel the blush creeping back as you try to nod yes at an appropriate level of enthusiasm, “Yes ma’am I’d love too.”

Her excitement is visible and she lets go of your arm, “Great, I’ll see you after school then John!”

“Y-Yeah, see you then Rachel.”

Yeah, you feel good about today.

(Authors Note: So I’m sorta writing this for practice and to get into the gist of keeping characters consistent in their ways of speaking and mannerisms but it’s also just an idea I’ve had for a while. I hope you’ll excuse the slower pace of this story but I feel buildup and detail makes the eventual sexy times that much better you know? Anyways, thanks for reading and I look forward to releasing the next chapter soon!)