FicWad

Lunchtime, and I stood with a piece of pepperoni pizza and water in hand, staring at the full cafeteria. I'd never felt so intimidated in my whole life, staring into a sea of unknown faces.

"Hey stranger," I voice said seductively into my ear. My body felt tense as I turned and locked eyes with a guy wearing a jersey. "Coming to the big game today?"

I scrunched my face, thinking about how much I disliked sporting events. I was about to tell him politely that I wouldn't able to make it, "uh," I spoke, catching a glimpse of Gerard, "No."

"Huh?" The guy said, as I made my way past him to Gerard's lunch table. I felt bad for snuffing him like that, but I had always hated being around people I didn't know, and really all I wanted right now was to be with someone else...

As I arrived to the place that Gerard sat alone, I asked, "This seat taken?"

He looked up at me and set down a chocolate milk carton, shook his head and said, "Not at all."

I smiled to myself as a took a seat across from him and set down my piece of pizza. "So how's your day going?"

He shrugged, "Fine, I guess. It's getting better, though."

My heart jumped at what he'd said, but I didn't say anything about it. Just smiled.

"How about you?" he asked.

"Um... okay, I guess, under the circumstances..." I told him.

He looked at me in a confused way. "Circumstances?"

"Uh, yeah... circumstances."

We both looked at eachother. "Oh," Gerard said.

I took a bite from the pizza.

"So what do you take?" I asked him.

"I just had French, Math and Art."

We were both silent. I asked, "What do you have next?"

"Right after lunch I have Chemistry and then English. And I think my last period is History."

Suddenly my heart raced and a huge smile broke out on my face. "Oh no way! I have Chem next, too!"

Gerard nodded, "Yeah, I know."

It made me feel stupid. Obviously he would know that. It was well into the school year.

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"Like, acting all nice, just out of the blue."

Shrugging, I told him, "Well, why not?"

"I'm just saying," Gerard said, "Because I think it's all some kind of joke. That you're just going to go back to your friends at the end of the day and make fun of me or something."

I shook my head. "Why would you think that? That's horrible."

He sighed. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time."

"Look," I paused, "Just give me a chance. I'm not who you think I am. Let me... I don't know, prove myself, I guess."

For the first time, Gerard gave me a good look. Our eyes locked for the second time today and I felt my breath catch, so I looked down quickly.

"Okay," he said, and then the bell rang.

"First one to Chemistry wins," he said playfully, smiling as he stood up quickly.

"Hey, no fair!" I yelled after him. "I don't even know this school!"

Gerard turned, a bit of laughter rising out of him, "Nice excuse," he said.

I was about to tell him that I was being serious, but I realized that the real Amanda Matthews had attended the school for a whole year and a half before now. So instead I said, "Well I want to make it seem worse when you lose!" and laughed it off.