The Price of Friendship
By Terry McDonald
Copyright
Copyright 2014 Terry McDonald
All Rights Reserved
Cover Image
Pruitt, D. S. (Photographer). (2010, July 20). Write Your Story [Web Photo]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
The Price of Friendship
About the author
The Price of Friendship
Devin looked up from his feet. Changing schools had become commonplace for him, but he’d decided he’d never get over the nervousness that comes with it. He gripped his backpack with a shaky hand as he walked into the cafeteria for lunch on his first day. Many faces turned to look at him. “Great,” he silently said to himself.
He had to fight the urge to look down at his feet again. Don’t look down, he thought. People respect confidence. He scanned the cafeteria full of glaring eyes. And if I ever find some, I’ll be sure to show it to them. A small smile crept onto his face. Devin thought he was funny, it was other people who didn’t seem to agree. He contemplated this as he took in the room where he would be eating lunch from now on. Large cement bricks painted white made up the walls. The floor, the walls, and the long tables were all white. The only things not white were the blue chairs, and a very large head of a bear painted onto the back wall. The angry looking bears head on the wall was painted red and black like the school colors.
Devin took all this in quickly as he hurried to get in the lunch line. He avoided eye contact as if it could be lethal. He avoided it expertly until it was his turn to get his lunch. The frightening looking lunch lady with a large mole on her nose slammed a glob of food down on his tray.
“Is this prison food?” he asked. He couldn’t help himself. It just popped out. He immediately regretted it. He had avoided eye contact expertly, but now he couldn’t stop himself from looking into her angry eyes.
The lunch lady grimaced at him. “Does it look like gruel? It’s mashed potatoes and turkey—eat it!”
Devin was stunned silent. He finally managed, “I just—”
A boy behind him butted in. “It’s one of the better meals,” he whispered.
Devin turned to smile at him. He enjoyed his first experience of interaction with a new classmate. However, his smile quickly faded. The student seemed to be put off by Devin smiling at him. Okay, he’s right, Devin thought. It’s weird to think someone talking to you is a big deal.
Devin moved along with his tray. He wandered the cafeteria for what seemed like hours. Finally, a boy sitting alone waved him over. Devin sat down across from him. “I’m Larry,” he said.
“Devin.”
“So, you need someone to show you the ropes.” Larry seemed pleased with himself. His happy-go-lucky attitude set Devin at ease. “Well,” he continued. “If no one else will, then I guess . . . I won’t either.” There was an awkward pause. Larry saw Devin wasn’t getting the joke. “Just kidding,” he muttered.
Larry quickly tried to save the conversation. “So, what’d you wanna know? I saw you looking at the back wall.” Larry looked behind Devin’s shoulder at the large bear painting. “Were you checking out the dedication?”
“What dedication?” asked Devin.
“You didn’t see dedicated to Ryan Cook written under the bear?”
Devin looked behind him at the painting again. There it was written with black paint under the right side of the bear. “Yeah, I see it now. What’s the deal with the dedication?” he asked.
“It’s in memory.”
“Ryan Cook died?” Larry nodded yes. “How?”
Larry leaned in. “Heart explosion,” he said.
“What?”
Larry kept his leaned in position. “They say his heart exploded on the track because he ran too much.” Devin leaned in just like Larry. Larry continued: “Ran until his heart attack turned into a super heart attack.” Larry paused for affect. “That’s how seriously people take sports here.”
“You run till your heart explodes?”
“Exactly.”
Devin leaned in as far as he could go. “Seriously?”
“I don’t know.” They both leaned back.
“What do you mean?” asked Devin.
Larry started to dig into his glob of turkey and mashed potatoes. “People do take sports way to seriously here, but I don’t know anybody who knew that guy. Maybe his heart didn’t explode.”
“Probably not,” Devin reassured himself. Larry shrugged his shoulders.
Devin felt at ease again. He started to dig into his glob of food as well. “So, what can you tell me about everybody?” he asked.
Larry leaned in again. “See that guy in the big coat over there?” Devin looked behind him. The boy with the large green coat and a short haircut was sitting with his back to them. Larry said: “That’s Cody.” Larry leaned back again to continue eating. “He can be nice or a bully depending on the day. I’d avoid him just in case he’s grumpy.”
Devin continued to look around at the students on that side of the cafeteria. He noticed a blonde girl who had a table in the back right of the cafeteria all to herself. “What about her?” he asked. “She’s . . . ah . . . you know.” Devin blushed a little.
Larry joined him. “Yeah, she is.” The blushing faded on Larry as he came back to reality. “But she’s also mean,” he said matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean?” asked Devin.
“Have you ever heard of the phrase ice queen?” Devin shook his head no. “Well, walk over there,” Larry continued. “Believe me, it gets down right chilly!” Larry chuckled loudly at his own joke. Devin stayed silent. Larry seemed to be experiencing the same problem with humor that Devin had.
A question popped into Devin’s head as he continued to look at her. He turned back to Larry to ask it. “Everyone glares at everyone here. Why is no one looking at her?”
“Fear,” Larry answered. “You know, the whole ice queen thing. Also, respect. She is like the coolest person in this whole school.”
This puzzled Devin. “She’s supposed to be cool? No one is sitting with her.”
“I know!” Larry said. Devin seemed to have validated a thought Larry had been having. “How can you be considered cool if you have no friends?!”
“I don’t know,” Devin answered reluctantly.
“Me neither,” Larry said whimsically. “But believe me . . . I’m workin’ on it.”
Devin looked back at her again. A little smile crept on his face for the second time. “I’m gonna go ask her.”
“Wait!” Larry shouted after him. Devin had already risen from his chair and started for her. “Do you have a death wish?!” Devin kept his stride. Confidence finally washed over him.
He kept his confidence as he approached her table. She was reading a book she had set next to her tray. “Hello,” Devin said. She didn’t look up from her book. “Ah, sorry for disturbing you. My friend and I were wondering how you could be considered cool if you have no friends?”
She stopped in the middle of flipping a page and finally looked up. “Who said I have no friends?” she asked.
Devin looked back at Larry and thought about his answer. “No one. It’s just . . . no one is sitting with you.”
Her face showed he had peaked her interest. “It’s not that no one wants to sit with me; it’s that no one is good enough to sit with me.”
“
What if I were to tell you I thought I was?”
A defiant look replaced the look of interest on her face. She closed her book. “Okay, prove it.”
“How?” he asked.
She took a second to think. Devin noticed the spark of an idea come to her eyes as she thought of how. She reached for her backpack. Out of it she took her algebra book. In the middle of it were papers with math problems. She took them out of the book and set them on the other side of the table. Devin sat down to look at them.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“The first of three challenges.”
“Challenges?”
“Yes. I can’t be friends with just anyone.”
Devin looked down at the papers. “My first challenge is to do your math homework?” She nodded her head. “Are you just using me?”
The defiant look came back upon her face. “What? We’re not friends yet; I don’t have to be nice.”
“And what would me doing your homework prove. Other than I’m a pushover.”
“I can’t be seen hanging out with the class idiot. This is the brains challenge. If you can do