I hit the cafeteria with my stomach rumbling. Even with first lunch I was always starving by the end of 3rd hour. I got in line for the meatloaf, not that it was good, honestly it was barely edible, but the free and reduced lunch students weren't allowed to hit the salad bar and I damn sure couldn't afford anything from the fast food vendors.

I was pounding down overcooked vegetables and underseasoned mystery meat when T plopped down across from me with a burger and fries.

"Sup?"

Before I could even return his greeting much less fill him in on the videos I'd watched, T gushed on, visibly excited.

"I found your uber-nerd, dude. This guy has got to be the winner. "

"Who is it?"

"You know Troy Steadle?"

"Duh, I'm a dback. Of course I know the starting receiver. The word your looking for is asshole, not nerd. He's a prick but we were in the same Spanish class. He can barely read, no way he's the nerd we need."

"Like I can't speak to his literacy, public schools yanno? But it's the assholery that gave me the answer. I talked to him 2nd period, and him and Darryl have been fucking with Kevin Yelzin all school year. "

"Huh?"

"Darryl knocked some comic book type thing out of his hands by accident on the first day of school and he flipped shit on them. They've been fucking with him, his locker and whatnot ever since. Hell, they've pantsed him twice and get this, one of the time he was wearing x-men underwear. That nerdy enough for you?"

"God those guys are dicks. But yeah, he sounds like a contender. You know if he has first or second lunch?"

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T shrugged around a mouthful of burger and then pointed over to another table. A slender guy with glasses was sitting by himself fiddling with a sack lunch.

"That's him?"

"Yeah, I remember him from freshman year, he used to be kinda funny. You never have a class with him?"

"Uh, not that I remember. " I pushed the remainder of my tray over to his side of the table. "I'm gonna go introduce myself, have some meatloaf. "

I popped up and got two big steps away from the table before he had the chance to refuse and snickered. T had too many manners to just leave it there, so now he was stuck bussing my tray.

I still had a grin on my face when I slid into place on the bench across from the Kevin guy. I threw him a bro nod, "hey, dude. I need a nerd and it turns out you come highly recommended. "

In retrospect, it wasn't my smartest opening gambit but in my defense I had a lot on my mind. His face immediately screwed up like he'd just taken a bite of the meatloaf.

"Who are you calling a nerd? All you stupid jocks just can't ..."

"Whoah, killer. I thought you guys had taken it back or whatever, not trying to insult you. I wanted to ask you some questions about the trials."

"And the way you get that is to just march up and insult me? I've got news for you dumbass cavemen, the trials are the start of a new era."

"Look man..."

"You look." He practically screamed it, coming to his feet and nearly vibrating with the intensity of his emotion. "I'm through putting up with assholes like you messing with me. I've got the power now. I got D6's, and no time for your bullshit. You're looking at a guy who practically specced into destruction magic and I'll probably have a harem before you figure out how to drop back into your soul space."

He stopped his rant then, red faced and breathing hard, and judging by the look on his face only then realized he'd been shouting the whole time. He looked around the now silent cafeteria and I saw his face harden as he made some kind of decision.

He nodded once and turned to face a blonde in a sundress sitting at the next table over. She was staring at him, like pretty much everybody else in the room at this point.

"You, you're hot enough. Wanna spot in my harem, I'll only offer this once."

"Eww, no."

It was a brutal rejection, but seemed heartfelt and more out of surprise than malice. Looking at his face, he'd pretty much expected the response anyway. Then a guy sitting next to her started to laugh and Kevin lost his mind.

He screamed and waved his arms around in a big circle before throwing an honest to God fireball at him from 6 feet away and the room devolved into chaos.