[I][U]Jerry Thompson & Riley Rhode[/U] - The Cafeteria[/I]

A heaping stack of five pancakes, three waffles, a slice of melted butter, almost a cup of maple syrup, several other streams of flavoring, and a sliced banana for good measure was surely enough to satisfy Riley's appetite. She stepped out into the cafeteria and looked around. She hadn't really met anyone yet, besides Nikki when they met up in their room. At an otherwise empty table, a boy in a labcoat sat with a similar plate, except much more elaborately decorated.

Riley walked up beside him, tapping him on the shoulder. "Is this seat taken, by chance?"

Looking up from his pancakes, with his fork still in his mouth, Jerry took in an eyeful of the Irish girl, admiring the red streaks in her hair. "Of course not," he answered with a sly smile creeping between his cheeks. "Help yourself."

"Thank you," she said before offering a playful curtsy. She set her tray right next to his and asked, "So, what do they call you?"

Jerry swallowed, almost choking as he narrowly avoided breathing in the maple syrup. "My friends call me Labcoat," he lied, inventing a 'cool' name for himself. "But my name's Jerry."

"Nice to meet you Jerry, I'm Riley."

"Cool. So, Riley..." he waved his fork in circles as he looked for something to talk about. "This your first year here?"

"Yeah. How about yourself?"

"Yessiree-Bob-Dylan. I never been here before yesterday, but I heard about it from my cousin. It looks like it could be cool. You got any family here?"

"Not a soul," Riley said. "It's just me here. Who's your cousin?" She asked, groping for information.

Jerry dropped his head and muttered with an insidious disgust, "Todd Thompson."

Breathing in sharply, Riley covered her mouth with her fingers and whispered, "Oh my god."

"What?" He asked. "Does everyone hate Todd?"

"Actually," she said, dropping her hand into her lap and smiling hard, "I have no idea who that is." Then she tacked on, "But I can hate him, too."

"What's your last name Riley?"

"Rhode," she answered with a strong rolling of the letter R.

"Well, Ms. Rhode, it's been a pleasure to meet you. Would you care for some Root Beer?"

"I didn't see any root beer in the line. This isn't a trick to get me in your room is it?"

"No," Jerry stretched the word, quiet and long. "Just an offer."

Grabbing an empty glass, Jerry aimed his wrist into it before spraying full force. A brown mist gathered on the edges of the cup before beads gathered. Roughly thirty seconds later of the highest pressure that Jerry could manifest, the cup had about three centimeters of root beer tall. "Would you care for some, Ms. Rhode?"

"Umm," she drew a blank staring at the cup. But, with a daring swing, she swiped up the cup and took a gulp, downing the entire thing in one motion. "That was wonderful, Jerry."

"Wanna meet some more people?" Jerry asked, standing up and dragging his tray off the table.

"I haven't got a single thing I'd rather do." With that, Jerry and Riley walked over to a small cluster of students. A girl with an eyepatch (Gabe) and a boy beside her (Jake), presumably her brother.

"Heya, who might you fine people be? Jerry asked before taking another bite of his pancakes, still standing up.