A Strange Encounter

“Before you all go to lunch,” the teacher started. “Today we have a very special guest in the lunchroom. They work in the government and are here to answer any questions that you might have if you are considering going into a government position once you all graduate.”

A student on the left side of the room raised his hand.

“How long will they be here for?”

“Until the end of lunch.” She flipped through her small pocket-sized notebook. “I forgot to tell you all, but he will also have applications for anyone interested in signing up to do an internship. This is a fantastic opportunity even for those of you not interesting in working there!”

The lunch bell chimed through the school. Turning the heads of all the students as they hurried out of their seats and to the lunchroom.

Along with the rest of the crowd, Gray quickly packed his textbook in his backpack and followed the flow of students to the cafeteria only a short walk from his classroom.

He eagerly waited in line for food, his stomach grumbled in need of food as he didn’t have enough time to eat any breakfast.

“Excuse me, sir.”

“Sir?!”

Gray spun his head and noticed a younger student looking up at him.

“Oh, hi. Did you need something?”

“I’m very sorry for bothering you.” The student looked nervous as he talked. “But how does this line work? I have my number thing, but I don’t know where to put it.”

“Has this kid never had public school lunch before?!” Gray continued to be surprised by the twists the student kept putting on him.

“All you do is grab a tray from the rack, then take whatever food you want,” he explained. Gray took a tray from the stack and handed it to him before taking one for himself. “Once you get to the end you enter the number into that keypad and confirm the price, then it will go on your student account.”

“I see.” He looked between the tray, food, and keypad all in amazement.

“Are you new here?”

“Yes, sir. I was… homeschooled up until now. My guardians wanted me to go to a real school to make acquaintances.”

The two of them moved along in line, grabbing food as they went along.

Gray’s neck hair stuck up coldly. He looked out into the dining room, trying to find the source of the unpleasant feeling but didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary.

“Are you okay, sir?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” He rubbed the back of his neck, making the hair flatten. “Just thought I felt something.”

They reached the end of the line where he demonstrated how to insert their pin number into the machine.

“Would you like to come sit with me and my brother?” Gray invited him over.

His eyes glimmered in excitement as his hands started to shake slightly.

“I would love to!”

He followed Gray to the table where Oliver sat waiting patiently for him to arrive.

“Nice to meet you! I’m new!”

The student slammed his try down with just enough force to knock over his bowl of chowder. However, he didn’t seem to worry about it.

Oliver looked up at Gray with confusion as his hand was being shaken by the student.

“I’m Oliver, nice to meet you.”

His handshake lingered for longer than it should have.

“My name is… Argyle.”

“That’s a cool name,” Gray intervened. “I haven’t ever met an Argyle before. Kind of sounds like something from a novel.”

Argyle took his spoon and scooped up some of what was left in his bowl. The warm sensation ran down his throat as his body shivered in excitement. Like a dog, he kept scooping up spoonfuls of the liquid rapidly, sending small splashes of chowder flying onto the table around him.

“This is so good!”

“You might want to slow down a…” Gray trailed off, feeling the gaze on the back of his neck once more. His hairs pricked up and he looked behind them where the government official his teacher told the class

He made eye contact with the man for a few seconds before breaking it to look back at the table. Gray pressed the hairs on his neck back down with his free hand.

“Have you felt that guy from the government looking at us?”

Oliver swallowed the bite of sandwich in his mouth while Argyle continued to chow through his lunch, not paying attention to their conversation.

“What are you talking about?” Oliver started to look back as his head was redirected by Gray, pulling his gaze back to the table.

“Don’t look over there suspiciously.” Beads of sweat started to form on Gray’s forehead. “He might do something.”

Chairs from the whole right side of the cafeteria scrapped on the ground. Students from that area jumped out of their seats and rushed over to the corner, all fighting one another to get ahead.

Based on their cue, the rest of the students ran over to observe the commotion as well.

Argyle looked up from his meal, his mouth hung open as he held a cracker while looking at Gray and Oliver for what to do.

“Come on!” Oliver rushed out of his seat and into the crowd, trusting Gray to follow his lead and be behind him like always.

“Stay there.” Gray commanded Argyle. “This probably isn’t the best thing for a new student to try and get involved in.”

Not waiting for a reply, he followed close behind Oliver. His eyes danced around the scene, observing everything that was happening as they rushed through the crowd of people chanting “fight, fight, fight” and reached the clearing.

“You’re disgusting!” Oliver watched as a girl hit another female student in the stomach with a hard kick, sending her to the ground in a ragdoll fashion. She coughed up spit and lay on the ground, motionless.

Without a second thought, Oliver rushed into the circle to help the girl.

“Get back!” He shoved the other girl aside as she was caught off guard and fell on her behind. Her friends gathered around, helping her back to her feet while shouting insults at Oliver which he ignored.

He kneeled beside the girl and extended his hand out to her thoughtfully.

“Hm?”

He examined her clothes under her long hair more carefully, realizing that he had seen them somewhere else that day.

“Are you okay?”

The girl looked up with saliva running down from the corner of her mouth and slapped Oliver’s extended hand away.

“Fine.” She spat.

“That’s Isla all right.” He reached out to at least wipe the drool away. She backed away further and stood up herself, looking behind Oliver.

Gray watched the situation unfold from the edge of the circle. He noticed the group of girls talking as one grabbed an empty tray from off a nearby table and brought it up over Oliver’s head.

He sprung into action instinctively. His legs moved forward, bringing him between the girl and Oliver within a second. Gray grabbed the girl’s wrist and ripped the tray out of her hands before kicking her legs out from under her, making the girl lose balance and fall like her friend.

Oliver whipped around to look at the scene, examining the commotion behind him after hearing the cry of the girl that fell to the ground.

“Thanks for that.” He looked up at Gray and gave him a thumbs up which was returned with a smile.

The group of girls walked away just as the teachers broke through the thick circle of students.

“Move out of the way! Let us through!” They shouted as they pushed through the crowd to reach the inner circle, now with just Gray, Oliver, and Isla standing there with blank stares.

Mutters of the good part being over lingered in the area as the students broke up the circle and returned to their trays of food, disappointed that the action was over. Gray noticed Everett looking at Jasper walk away, doing the same after lingering for just a moment longer than everyone else.

“What are you three doing?” One of them asked. She put her hands on her hips and looked at them disapprovingly.

Oliver opened his mouth to speak but was beaten by Gray who spoke immediately.

“Our sister here was being bullied by a group of girls who left the scene already.” He moved his arms around wildly as he explained the events that happened just before they arrived. “I didn’t get a good look at any of their faces but if you look at the cameras, I’m sure you’ll find them easy peasy.”

The teacher narrowed her eyes and leaned into Gray slightly to which he backed away the same amount. She searched for anything in his eyes that might have shown if he was lying. Once she confirmed he was telling the truth, she spoke again.

“Take her to the nurse’s office, please.”

The two of them nodded to the teacher then looked at each other, gaining a mutual understanding of what to do without saying a word. They surrounded Isla and each placed one arm under her own.

“Can you walk fine?” Oliver asked her. He leaned over to try and look her in the eyes but she moved her head away, letting the hair block his line of sight.

“Sure.” Her blunt tone emerged from her mouth for one word only.

“Don’t sound too enthusiastic,” Gray joked with her.

They slowly guided Isla through the cafeteria, moving at the pace that she set for them. Eyes followed them from all around. Gray made eye contact with Argyle, giving him a thumbs up that everything was okay. His next target was the now empty booth where the government official sat just moments before.

“He was a lot of help,” He scoffed in his head.

Soft clapping came from the entranceway of the cafeteria. Footsteps followed as a figure they knew well came gliding towards them and lifted Isla’s chin up with her soft but firm fingers.

“You look exceptional.” Hazel brushed over Isla’s face, feeling the spots where she had bruises beginning to form. “Your performance was simply exhilarating to watch from afar.”

Oliver clutched his hand into a fist and gritted his teeth. Gray looked over, noticing his slight movements and spoke up.

“Let us get where we need to go… please.” He reached his hand up to her shoulder, pushing Hazel out of Isla’s face firmly.

With no hint of surprise showing on her face, she took her position back on the doorframe, leaning against it with one foot posted up.

“Why are you not going to the nurse’s office?” Oliver turned around and saw the group of teachers with the girls that hurt Isla behind them.

“We’re sorry ma’am,” he said. “We will get going now.”

Gray watched as the teachers dragged the group of girls behind them out of the door and to the right. Jasper followed close behind with a large grin spread across his face, not even giving any attention to the four of them standing there.

He glanced back at Hazel who was waving goodbye with a sly smile on her face as they made their way to the nurse’s office.

Gray clicked his tongue in annoyance as his fingers holding onto Isla’s arm began to twitch.

“She’s so annoying!”

“I know, I know,” Oliver agreed. He glanced around Isla and made eye contact with Gray. “But I believe that she has some good in her that just hasn’t been drawn out yet. We’ll find it… one day.”

His gaze moved back to Isla who sensed his eyes and moved her head away to avoid looking at him.

“Are you okay? Hazel’s words didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“Sure. Fine.” She said curtly. “Be quiet.”

Without speaking anymore, the three of them reached the nurse’s office. Oliver took her arm off his shoulder and shifted her weight to be more on Gray before he knocked three times on the door.

“I’ve been expecting you.” The door opened to reveal the nurse with a crate of supplies in her arms. “They told me over the radio.”

She looked over at Isla who was still leaning on Gray and examined at her with listless eyes.

“Those injuries are worse than before. What were you two thinking taking so long to bring her here?!” The nurse motioned Isla over as she scolded Gray and Oliver.

“We’re sorry, ma’am,” Oliver apologized and looked at the ground as the tips of his ears turned red. “We ran into some trouble on the way here.”

Gray led Isla into the room where the nurse guided them to a bed. He gently laid Isla down and brought the blanket up which was smacked out of his hand.

“You two may go back to your classes now.” Her pen scribbled down notes on a clipboard as she spoke to them. “I hear you were late to your first classes already. Don’t keep your next teachers waiting.”

They both avoided looking at her sheepishly and walked out of the room. Oliver closed the door behind them.

“Should we meet back here after classes to pick her up?”

Gray looked up and gave him a thumbs up.

“Don’t be late.”

“I could say the same to you.”

They high-fived each other and headed in separate directions to their next classes.