Rivals by David Wellington Read Free Book Online Page B

there was
a whole table that wasn’t being used.
    He sat down
and unwrapped his plastic knife and fork. He bumped his tray and it made a
clinking noise as the plate jumped. The cafeteria fell silent.
    Which was
weird. Normally you couldn’t hear yourself think in there. A couple hundred
kids who had been quiet all morning in class suddenly had a chance to talk to
each other and the resulting noise was, well, loud.
    Now you could
hear every time somebody shifted in their seat and their clothes rustled.
    Brent looked
up and around at the people sitting near him. A lot of them were looking down
at their own trays. A lot of them were looking at each other. Which was how
it should be. But then—a sizeable minority of them were looking right at
him. Staring at him.
    As if they
thought he might do something interesting, and they didn’t want to miss it when
it happened.
    He finished
his lunch as quickly as he could and headed for his locker. Lucy was waiting
for him there, but before he could reach it he had to pass by a group of girls
who were all walking together, clutching their books against their sweaters.
He saw the way their hair shone as it bounced with each step. He could see
their white teeth gleaming as they smiled. One blonde girl turned and
whispered something to a brunette, who promptly blushed. They were popular
girls and they had never looked at him before, but now their eyes followed him
as he walked toward them.
    “Hi, Brent,”
the blonde said. Her name was Jill Hennessey, and she was the richest girl in
the school. He knew she was also dating the captain of the soccer team. And
now she was smiling at him.
    She was a senior . It did not make any sense. He was a sophomore,
and therefore did not exist yet in the school’s social ladder.
    The brunette
giggled. Her name was Dana Kravitz and she was the captain of the school’s
color guard. She was only a junior but Jill had taken her on as a protégé and
now she was the second most popular girl in school. A week ago he would have
bet good money she didn’t even know his name. Now she caught his eye for just
a fraction of a second, blushed again, and looked down at her boots.
    “Hi,” he said,
and every pair of eyes went wide. Some of the girls, hangers-on in Jill and
Dana’s circle, straightened up as if they were coming to attention. The girls
didn’t stop walking but it seemed to Brent they had slowed down to a lazy
stroll. He had no idea what he was supposed to do.
    “Uh, how’s it
going?” Brent asked.
    “Us? We’re
fabulous. And you? Are you glad to be back among us?” Jill asked. She and
her friends were even with him now and they had to turn their heads to keep
looking at him.
    Brent
shrugged. “Sure. Well, um, I guess I’ll see you around,” he said.
    “Definitely,”
Jill said, and walked past him. The circle followed—but Dana Kravitz
glanced back over her shoulder and made eye contact with him again. And
blushed. Again.
    When he got to
his locker Lucy was bouncing up and down in impatience. “I have to get to
social studies,” she said, “but I have so got a mission for you.”
    “A mission?”
Brent asked. He had no idea what she was talking about. “Did you just
see—that was Jill Hennessey and Dana Kravitz, right? I didn’t just think
it was them?”
    “Yes, I did
see. I saw how shameless they were, definitely. I think you’re absolutely
right that they were looking at you, and that that’s something they would not
have done before, which I think should tell you something very important about
girls like that.”
    Brent shook
his head as he worked the combination of his locker. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?
I mean, I haven’t actually done anything. I still feel like the
same person. But everybody’s acting so weird.”
    “Yes, those
girls are weird,” Lucy confirmed. “But
you know how it is. School can be very boring and we all get excited when
something new happens, and now you’re the flavor of the week. I