Finding Faith

  Students flooded into the cafeteria.

  Andrew navigated through the crowd and took in the scene. All throughout the large dining hall, students gathered together in groups, cliques. Some consisted only of boys or girls, others were coed. In some, the students had similar clothes, like all black gothic shirts, pants, and they wore pale makeup. Other groups appeared to be of sports teams.

  As he walked past several tables looking for an empty one to sit at, a guy called out, “Hey, Andrew, over here.”

  He looked around the cafeteria and saw a muscular jock signaling him over to his table. Wondering if it was best to sit alone or to join the guy and his group of friends, Andrew finally decided to give it a chance.

  When he neared the group, he finally recognized the guy.

  “Dunlap?” he asked with reproach.

  “Oh, so you do remember me,” the guy said. “Well, I was just messing with you in homeroom. You can call me Darren.”

  Andrew stared at him and saw how the guy’s friends were all sizing him up, seeing how he would respond. None of them were snickering or giving him weird looks.

  “Come on Andrew,” Darren said, “take a seat.”

  As Andrew sat down at the table, a guy beside him said, “I’m Shawn Wright.”

  “Hello,” Andrew replied.

  “And this is Johnny McPherson, Max Stevens, and Carson Reynolds,” Darren said as he pointed to each of them.

  “Nice to meet you all,” Andrew said.

  Andrew still felt awkward and out of place sitting at their table. He wondered why they had invited him there. They were all, with a few exceptions, just like Darren: muscular, generally good-looking, jocks. Andrew was athletic having played soccer for years, but he didn’t have a very strong looking physique and while he wasn’t bad looking, he never considered himself all that attractive either. Certainly girls never looked at him the way boys glanced at his younger sister.

  When he noticed that all the other guys were starting to eat their lunches, he opened up his bagged lunch. He pulled out a sandwich, a small bag of chips with the clearance tag still on the bag, and a bottle of water.

  Out of habit, he then placed his hands together, closed his eyes, and began to silently say grace. In the middle of his prayers, he was soon interrupted.

  “Wow,” Shawn said his blue eyes wide with disbelief. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m just praying,” Andrew said in surprise as he gazed out at the confused group.

  Carson grimaced, “What for? I mean, it’s just food… not even good food at that.” He continued after peaking at his fare.

  Andrew squirmed in his seat and replied uncertainly, “I’m used to saying prayers before meals.”

  “Not at this table you don’t,” Johnny stated matter-of-factly.

  “What will people think of us?” Max asked with raised eyebrows.

  Darren waved the other boys off. “You need to cut the habit if you want to sit with us.”

  Andrew peered at the guys who all seemed disturbed by his actions, and then glanced towards Darren. “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

  “My boys and I are just saying that it makes us uncomfortable,” Darren began. “I mean, we’re the idols of the school, and everyone else looks up to us. Sorry to break it to you, but this isn’t your old Catholic school. It’s not even Christian. Grove High is a public school, and around here, you don’t pray.”

  Shawn added, “Andrew, my man, you want to hang with us, right?”

  “Yeah,” Carson chimed in, “you want to sit with us, right? Not with those other cliques or all by yourself.”

  “That’s right,” Johnny said. “And another thing, lose the uniform. Nothing screams newbie like a clean-cut uniform.”

  Max laughed. “Yeah, man, you look like a—”

  Darren raised his hand and Max fell silent. “Enough, you guys. Give the kid a break. It’s his first day here, and he just didn’t know any better. Okay?”

  Some of the guys nodded, while others shook their head in disbelief.

  “We want you to feel comfortable around here,” Darren said, “to be one of us. You want popularity, hang with us. You want to be respected in this school, act like us. And if you want to be a king among the students here, be one of us.”

  Andrew felt overwhelmed. He debated his current options, and pondered if leaving the table was a good idea or not.

  He glanced around the cafeteria, searching for a different group to sit with, or a nice empty table to call his own. As his eyes scanned around, he noticed someone else who also wore a solid blue shirt.

  Angela, he thought.

  Then, Andrew noticed that she was at a table full of girls and seemed to be fully engaged in conversation with them.

  She already made new friends, Andrew realized. Angela is always so perfect at doing everything. She’s the talented one. The popular one. The one with the looks. What about me?

  “Well?” Darren asked as he leaned closer to Andrew. “Do you want to be one of us, or what?”

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