Sure

Madison's smile could've lit up a city block as she seemed to almost glow with happiness.

"Okay, well I'll give you my number and text you if I have any ideas. Sound good?" she asked, her previous shyness seeming to practically vanish like a mist.

"Um, sure," Toby answered, pulling his phone from his pocket as he held two books in one hand before handing it to her.

Handing him both of her books, her fingers deftly flew over the screen inputting her number before sending a text to her phone to get his number. After quickly returning his phone and taking all four books into her arms, the two finally found their way back to the front desk, where Ms. Aubrey was still reading her book.

"So, I'm gonna take these to Ms. Littlewood's classroom and then head on to lunch. See you later Toby?" Madison said, already walking away while Toby tried to figure out if she was asking to see him later, or if she was asking if he wanted to see her later.

"Uh, sure. If you'd like, I can wait for you and we could walk to lunch together," he offered, only to immediately regret it as she turned to look at him with a strange look on her face.

"Nah, that's okay, I mean I'd hate to hold you up, and I'll probably want to talk some things over with Ms. Littlewood anyways," she replied, giving him a send-off salute which only further confused Toby as the girl turned the corner, leaving him alone in the hallway.

Just earlier she could hardly look me in the face and now it's like she's determined to not be seen with me...

Toby was lost in his thoughts as he slowly walked to the lunchroom, where he could hear the loud cacophony of exclaiming, bragging, and gossip, the symphony of chatter that was lunchtime.

As one of the last ones to arrive, it took him nearly ten minutes to get his food, which turned out to be some slop that was probably meant to be spaghetti, except the noodles looked they'd been waterboarded and the sauce was a disturbing shade of brown.

"I wish we were given decent food for lunch," Toby muttered as his plate shifted to hold... still spaghetti, but at least it looked edible at this point, and the new addition of a side salad practically bathing in ranch dressing.

He dropped into a seat next to one of friends, Rob, who didn't even notice as he was staring longingly at a table in the distance where the cheerleaders were sitting. Rob nearly hit the roof as Toby leaned in right next to his ear and whispered, "So, did you ask her?"

Physically Rob could be described as the stereotypical jock. With long arms, legs, and a towering height of nearly 6'2", he wouldn't have looked out of place on the school's basketball team, except for a few key differences. Rob had two left feet, which meant he was constantly running into somebody or something, he had the most offensive body odor after barely sweating a little, and his hair somehow managed to look like it had been covered in grease, but also lit on fire, as it was an off-color auburn that didn't match his skin color. He looked like he'd been locked in a tanning bed with a strange tanned skin tone.

Rob also had zero competitiveness, preferring to sit on the bleachers and watch even the most boring of sports, which was probably for the better, since what he lacked in physical skill he made up for in literary skill, writing in the school newspaper on the Sports section. He'd even heard mentions that he could apply for an internship to the local newspaper when he graduated.

Rob had even once managed to coax Toby out of his room to attend some so called 'Animal-lympics' which as one could guess from the name was a competition resembling the Olympics with animal competitors. They'd paid twenty bucks to get in only to watch the 100-meter dash with turtles, archery with monkeys, and the long jump with frogs...

Sure Toby had gotten into it by the time some event that combined skeet shooting with the discus throw for dogs had come up, but they'd paid twenty dollars to watch it all from the uncomfortable bleachers, only for Toby to learn when he got home that the entire thing had been televised!

"Man, don't do that! You almost made me shit myself!" Rob hissed as he sent a mock glare at Toby who merely chuckled as he began stabbing at his salad.

"Well, I wouldn't have to if you'd just ask her out," Toby mumbled through his food, "At least if she shot you down, I maybe could have a few moments of peace from you waxing poetic over how astoundingly beautiful she is. Honestly, I don't know what you see in Zara."

"Hey, what can I say man? I like the taste of chocolate," Rob snarked as Toby choked on his food.

"Really, dude, that's the grossest thing I've ever heard you say," Toby finally got out through his coughing, "You're weird man."

"Oh, yeah, you're one to talk. I remember how much you were drooling when you saw that girl dressed up as a cat at the 'Animal-lympics'," Rob said, as if that settled the matter. Which it didn't.

"First, I was drooling because I could smell someone's food, and second, there's nothing wrong with a reasonable attractive girl dressed as a cat," Toby tried to defend himself with, only to see Rob giving him a deadpan look.

"Look, it doesn't really matter anyways. You and I, we don't fit society's norms, and that means the only way a hot girl is going to talk to us is if we're in their way," Rob said, digging into his spaghetti as he continued to rant.

However, his words were lost as Toby's eyes found a familiar face at another table, all alone. But as he started to go and speak with Madison, his attention was immediately rerouted to Rob as someone poured a glass of water over his head.

"Aww, I'm sorry Reject, I thought you're head was on fire so I tried to put it out," A boy that only came up to Rob shoulders at nearly 5'11" with muddy brown hair and meany, beady black eyes said.

Rhett Kellar could be best described as a bully who seemed to practically exuded slime and disgusting energy who was constantly leering at girls and trying to pick up most of the female teachers regardless of age or marital status. He also filled the 'honorary' water boy position on the Football team.

Unfortunately, Rob made the amateurish mistake of standing up as the cold water ran down his face and back, blinding him as he tried to rub his eyes. Deciding to try and run away from the bully, or at least get somewhere where a teacher could see and maybe protect him, Rob tried to push pass Rhett, only for the shorter boy to blatantly stick out his leg to trip Rob, which sent the boy went down hard, his head colliding loudly with a nearby table.

"Timber!" Rhett shouted and in that moment Toby realized how much the bully resembled a monkey. Unfortunately, said monkey's taunts were quickly gathering attention as several other kids noticed and quickly spread the word.

Quickly standing, and starting towards his friend, Rhett completely ignoring Toby, either not caring or not perceiving the other boy as a threat. Toby's eyes flitted across the room to find Madison quickly leaving the cafeteria as if sensing his wishes. Sweeping his eyes the other way, he found his eyes meeting Jessica's across the room through the growing crowd of kids.