Suzie’s House 310 : Because We’re Bandmates

Tracy smiled at her. She even waved. Emma felt so grateful, but kind of stunned, too. So she stayed sitting there at the exta-long lunch table instead of clearing her tray and going to the library. Maybe she could eat after all.

Except Tracy didn’t come over right away. She sat talking to Gene for a minute. He looked up at her and waved, but didn’t stop unpacking his lunch. Kate still hadn’t looked at the long table, Justin and his friends were about done eating and starting to leave, and there was no sign of Bruce.

So there Emma sat by herself at the end of the extra long table while every other member of the band hung out with someone else.

If it weren’t for Katy and Alisha’s ultimatum, Emma would have been fine. She’d choke through lunch like always. They might not be as much fun, but they were always there. But now, because she chose to go to a band meeting just once, it was like the total destruction of her world. Nothing she did before worked anymore. She didn’t get to walk with them from class to class, or talk with them after school or anything.

It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t feel so exposed. Even though she knew no one was really looking at her, she couldn’t help but feel like a sore thumb. She imagined herself turning into a ninja.

Wouldn’t that be cool? She could see herself sitting there in the black outfit, complete with face cover and those sword-fork things strapped across her back. She could sit there all calm like it was normal for a ninja to sit in the middle school lunch room. She couldn’t eat, but she couldn’t eat now, so what did it matter?

Then she imagined herself suddenly turning into an angel. A golden glow would surround her and wings would burst out of her back, lanky hair would turn thick and glorious. And there she’d be, serenely eating lunch as it is were perfectly normal for an angel to sit by herself at the biggest table in the lunch room and eat. Emma even managed to take a bite out of her chicken while thinking about it.

“Hey.” Justin touched her shoulder.

Emma jumped. “Oh! haa-haa- hi!” She could feel her face going hot.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Um. Y-yah. Go ahead.”

He sat right next to her so close she could feel his warmth, just like there wasn’t a whole table available. Now she couldn’t eat for a whole different reason than before.

“So your friends don’t want you to eat with them anymore?”

“They said to choose. The band or them.” Emma dragged her fork through her pudding, making a little Zen rock garden of it. Or maybe a farmer’s plowed field.

“That sucks.”

Emma nodded.

“You know, anytime you want, you can come and eat with me and my friends.” Emma glanced over to the table he’d where he’d been sitting. Most of the guys were already leaving the lunch room. One stopped and waved at her. She raised her hand, then realized she was waving back and she didn’t even know the guy.

“Um….” Emma glanced at where Tracy was sitting. But Tracy wasn’t sitting anymore. She was dragging Gene and his lunch sack across the room.

“You know you can always just sit with us,” Tracy said as they the two of them came sat right across from Emma.

“I… I can?” Why hadn’t she thought of that?

“When she isn’t sitting with me, you mean,” Justin said.

Emma could feel her face heating up again, but she didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything.

Now Kate got up with her tray. She stopped and looked back at Katy and Alisha. The way the two girls looked reminded Emma of when they told her to choose. Were they doing the same to Kate? If so, then Kate wasn’t taking it seriously, because she laughed, then continued to the long table.

“Are we having a band meeting? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“No. We’re just having lunch with Emma,” Tracy said. “Right?”

Emma nodded, though she didn’t have the nerve to look right at anyone. It didn’t seem to matter. Justin clapped her on the back, then rubbed the spot he’s slapped. Gene slid a cookie from his bag toward her in the same off-hand manner he handed half the contents of his bag to Tracy.

“Why?” Kate asked.

“Hey, we’re band members,” Tracy said like that explained it all. She looked around at all the blank stares. “When one of us needs something, the rest of us should be there for her. Right?”

“Oh. Of course. I didn’t know she needed anything.” Kate put her tray down. “You don’t think Katy and Alisha were serious about choosing between them and the band, do you?”

“Yes.” Emma said clearly. “They meant it.”

“Oh.” Kate slanted the girls in question a narrow-eyed look., then shrugged. “Their loss. Can I have your muffin? Thanks.”

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