31)

Ryan passed me up in the line and I had to step up close behind him before anyone else got in front of me. The thin teen seemed pleased with his double serving of meat patties with mashed potatoes. “Yes, mystery meat reconstituted potato flakes, just like mom used to make.”

The lunch lady who had scooped out the food from the large tray narrowed her eyes at him, "Very funny Ryan. Keep it up and I'll pack some up for your dinner tonight."

I held up my plate and noticed the woman looked a lot like Ryan. She scooped the potatoes out along with a ladle of gravy from the meat tray after setting one of the patties on my plate while telling me "It's mostly beef, along with some pork and chicken, not the best cut of beef but it's pretty good for cafeteria food. The vegetables are fresh from the farmer’s market at least until the end of the Fall.”

I thanked her as a girl who looked like she should still be attending school gave me a good sized scoop of mixed vegetables that looked steamed. I noticed that the ladle was big enough to easily have given me twice the amount of vegetables. The Werewolves probably never wanted that much and she assumed the same for me.

By the time I got to the end of the line, I had a roll, a paper covered square of butter, and finally a choice of a paper carton of milk or a plastic bottle of water.

I grabbed the milk. Dairy products had given me some trouble when I was younger but my Uncle Dave taught me his technique to handle dairy. He had taken the “Drink Milk.” for big strong bones thing as a kid seriously enough to start a whole line of digestive techniques which had helped to make him the Ichiban family Training Master.

It must have worked, At five foot ten he’s one of the tallest men on my Mom’s side of the family.

I myself was still hoping for at least two more inches by the time I was eighteen, but Five Six would be enough for me. Being big just made you more of a target.

Heading out into a big room filled with tables I wasn't all that sure where to go. Other than Ryan, I had beaten everyone here that I knew who might be in this one of the three lunch periods.

So I picked a table in the corner of the room with a corner brick support pillar to my back and a good view of the three entrances to the lunch room. Two hallways and the exit from the serving room.

Nicole came out of the lunch line and looked around with the same lost look I must have had. I gave her a wave and she smiled in relief as she headed my way. "Thanks, I haven't met anyone other than the people on the bus this morning. But don't worry, you won't be stuck with me all semester if you're just being nice."

I thought that over. "Even if there are some people I already know, I'm not going to want to sit with the same people every day. We both can mix it up a little."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Then I settled into my lunch, channeling chi in my stomach to ensure that everything got fully digested to get the maximum nutrition from each bite.

Thanks, Uncle Dave.

Just as the two of us were finishing our meals, Kevin, Nicole’s younger brother, and the Werewolf from the bus that morning, Skip plopped down in the remaining two chairs. I was a little surprised since they were both young enough to have walked into the elementary school with my younger sister and brother.

Nicole explained. “The kids that are old enough to carry their own trays eat over here.” Kevin shook his head, “I wish we didn't. Skip sat us down with a bunch of teenage werewolves, even the skinny kid finished before me and was eyeballing my food.” Skip shrugged. “You were teasing them.”

Nicole’s brother clenched his hands in the air. “The food was actually good, they had Hawaiian rolls. I was savoring it, and then I look up to see five of you guys all staring at me. All of you were nearly drooling.”

The other boy shrugged. “The Rolls were good, and you had only eaten the top.” His eyes went distant. “And the bottom had gravy soaked it while still being crisp around the edges and the butter still melted on top.”

I hastily stuffed what would have been two bites of my roll into my mouth.

Nicole looked at his sister and then me, "So are you two friends yet, it's going to make it a lot easier to spy on your family for the Secret Order of Monster Watchers if you are."

I choked on my roll as the red headed boy rolled his eyes.

The bell rang as I tried to wash down the last of the roll with what was left of my milk. The other three people at my table stood up to make their way to their next class, with Nicole holding back for a moment. "I wasn't trying to be sneaky or anything. Your Dad had invited us to dinner tonight and you'll get the full details tonight. See you then."

She gave me a hesitant smile and an awkward wave as she hurried out.

So. This was another thing my parents hadn’t told me about. Some sort of organized group monitoring people like me, and people like the Werewolves. And Mom and Dad didn't even warn me.

Instead, they just planned to spring it on me without any chance to discuss it first.

I didn’t have time to make an angry phone call or text before I had to get all the way across the school, up one floor to my locker, then halfway back to the lunch room, and down a floor to get to my US history class.

Another class, if the gym in a different building counted, that I shared with Nicole. Who cringed a little as I walked into class and shot her a sharp look and sat two rows away from her and a couple of chairs back.

As a first day thing, the teacher covered the curriculum, the every other week tests, and what we could do for extra credit.

A diorama to go with our end of term paper was mandatory. I had thought that was just something they did in TV shows.

I held back a minute to let Nicole get out of the classroom well before me, as I had my books for Life Science with me already, I wasn’t in a hurry.

My last class of the day was in a classroom full of tables with gas taps and tiny sinks, along with seats for two at each workstation. As I looked around to figure out where to sit, knowing I would be stuck for the semester with whoever sat next to me as a lab partner, I felt someone large step into the room behind me.

Turning around I saw Austin looking down at me. “I get good grades, not the best, just good.”

Then he half stepped around me to sit at a table in the back.

Okay… I walked up to his table and made a waving gesture at him. He looked up and sighed. “I don’t like talking, so people think I’m stupid. But I can usually get at least a B, my Mom’s a teacher and made me learn how to…” He thumbed his hand on the table. “To learn.” Then he shrugged.

I looked at him and then around at the rapidly filling room. “Can we at least sit up close to the board?”

He seemed surprised. “Yeah, but I don’t want to block anyone from seeing the board.”

I waved at him to follow me to a table near the window, then froze in place seeing a goose looking back at me from an enclosed courtyard in the middle of the school. I had seen it on the maps for the school, but I hadn’t seen anything about the various birds filling up the large space.

“Is that a peacock?” The large boy nodded. “Charlie. The Peahen is Jenny.”

I looked at the birds again for a second then waved Austin to the outer seat. “You’re there so you aren't right between anyone and the… blackboard?"