"Man, school's gonna be awkward today." "Why's that?" "Montgomery crying the blues about Heather Voss and all that." Jared shrugged, "Probably sinks it with her, unless he has heretofore unknown powers of charm. I mean, I dunno, you're the one that's been going to school with these guys for a while." "Heather Voss has options and Gabe is a slick motherfucker, but he's not a world class ladykiller, even if he is a pretty decent playah. Like Tasha says, the man is a dog." "That's what she said about you." "Yeah, well I guess she's right," Carl grinned but then went serious. "You worried about Livingston?" "I dunno, man. I hope he's not there. Dude's crazy. I mean, I feel like I really gotta kind of watch my back around him, because he's pretty unbalanced and it's not just that he doesn't like me. I mean, that shit where he ran me down on my bike, what was that? Was it just because I went up to Ricki's and was coming out of it?" He flexed his fingers on the hand that he used to punch Livingston; there were bruises on it from the hit he gave him after the tackle. "I dunno man. But you're getting like this reputation for being the king of disaster around here. Not like you slept with Ricki, but it's like if you're the school's ironman or something. I mean, Tasha said Livingston's nose was broken." "I didn't know that," Jared told him, "But I didn't really have time to check the damage." "Well, someone living near the highway recorded some of it and caught the part where he trashed your bike and tackled you. Looks like you gave him a real good punch." "Yeah," Jared told him, "And to be totally honest, it felt kind of good." Jared wasn't the kind of guy to get into fights, and he could take a hit himself, but he felt like slugging Livingston for scaring the shit out of him and just the pent up aggression in general from the last week or so of events. "I bet it did. He always was an entitled prick." "And he trashed my damn bike." "So buy another one?" Carl supplied helpfully, as they pulled into the school parking lot. "I mean, you made decent money at the restaurant, right?" Which was why Carl was driving. "Yeah, I dunno, I kind of want to hang onto the cash for savings." "You oughta just get a car man, then your busted ass wouldn't be bumming rides off me." "Yeah, I guess. I dunno. I'm trying to save for college. Anyway," Jared said, glancing out at the school parking lot, where knots of people were already assembled and his arrival was noted, "We better get the day going." "Oughta be a lively one." "Give me boring, man." "Could be worse, you could be Gabe or Ricki. Shit, they probably made a scarlet letter for her in home ec or something." -- In Ms. Andrews' class, David Livingston was conspicuously absent, Gabe was trying not to make eye contact. Jared didn't try to get Gabe out of his shell, mostly because they could talk later, when there weren't eyes all around. In any case, Ms. Andrews arrived and the class was paying attention to her. Morning announcements went by in silence, the Pledge was said and all that and then, class commenced. "So, hopefully there was some work done on your projects, since they are due on Tuesday and Wednesday. Gabe, I am reassigning you because of...things." There was a moment when she made eye contact with Jared and he gave a minute shake of the head, hoping that people weren't actually watching that back and forth, "Anyway, try not to put working on this assignment off until the last minute." Luckily, current events wasn't a hot topic with Ms. Andrews and the class moved on from there to Shakespeare, specifically to Richard III. Since the theme of that play involved Richard of Gloucester acting like a traitor, someone, a Livingston fan apparently, coughed, "*Jared*" for some reason. Well, that was bound to be coming. -- The other periods weren't quite as excruciating, or maybe he just got used to it. By the time lunch rolled around, people were forwarding a rendition of Kanye's "Gold Digger" with Jared's face in place of the various chicks dancing. It wasn't that well done or that popular; some of the football guys got a kick out of it, but Jared was a sideshow compared to Montgomery, Voss, Livingston and Trenton. Speaking of which, the lunch room was watching everyone way too much, and Carl and he were getting their salads off the salad bar when Jared suggested, "You gonna sit with Maureen, dude?" "Uh, I--uh, yeah, man." And that's how they wound up approaching the table of shame. "Ladies, do you mind company?"