68 – Feeling Green
=Brighton Academy, Cafeteria, Noon=
Kate waved Dave over as soon as he walked into the cafeteria.
She smiled. "Hey! I saved you a spot," she said.
He sat down across from her and smiled back. "Thanks," he said.
He excitedly grabbed the insulated two story stainless steel lunch box Jackie had prepared for him. Not only did it make him feel warm inside whenever she made him lunch her cooking was also better than anything the school had to offer. Today she made him a bacon avocado scramble on a whole weat slice of bread, a Caprese salad, and whole milk to wash it all down. It was delicious, but more importantly it was made with his high nutritional needs in mind.
Kate pouted. "I could make you lunch too you know," she said.
'I'm not exactly sure just how good of a cook Kate is yet. It would be hard to beat Jackie. A few extra calories shouldn't be a problem though with how many I burn every day now,' he thought.
He smiled. "You can if you want, but you know you don't have to," he said.
Her pout faded. "Great... it might take a few days though..." she said excited at first, but quickly turning to awkwardness.
'That's... not a great start,' he thought nervously.
She stared at him with a curious look. "So Mr. Genius... what did Ms. Samoine want?" she eventually asked.
Dave shrugged. "Nothing much. She was just curious about my sudden improvement in grades and had some questions surrounding it," he said.
Kate's smile widened. "Good. See I wasn't the only one suspicious," she said.
He rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't my girlfriend trust me?" He asked.
She blushed. "W-well... maybe," she said.
He suddenly felt something rubbing up the inside of his calf.
When he looked up at Kate in surprise her blush deepened.
She looked at him nervously. "S-so I w-was thinking. T-there's a midnight release for 'Nascent Sphere'. I w-wasn't sure if you w-would want to, but could you take me to get it?" she asked.
He smirked. "Did you already forget I'm a geek too?" he asked.
Her foot halted for a moment and her eyes showed her realisation.
He chuckled and her blush deepened from embarrassment.
"I'd love to," he said which helped assuage her.
She smiled slightly. "Good," she said much quieter.
He could feel her leg become more confident again getting awfully close to the inside of his thigh.
Across from them on the other side of the cafeteria the mood was very different.
Mara was doing her best not to glare at the two flirting so openly in the middle of lunch. There were too many thoughts running through her head.
'Why is he with her? Why is he suddenly all in shape and hot? Wasn't he terrible at school? Why did Jeffrey turn out to be such a pathetic loser?' She thought.
She looked over at Jeffrey sitting beside her like a wet noodle. 'What happened to the confident guy I had selected? What did I even see in this pathetic little bitch?' she wondered.
"Did you hear Ms. Samoine this morning. Apparently Dave got a good grade. Did anyone have a chance to see what it was?" One of the girls at her table asked.
"Not just that, but did you see him in gym class?" Another chimed in.
"Yeah. He looked so hot. Was he always that hot?" A third said excitedly. Her face was burning red with blush.
Mara was practically gritting her teeth, but did her best to act like it had nothing to do with it. "Oh? Is that so? I hadn't noticed," She said.
"Weren't you friends or something?" One of the girls asked.
Her smile turned even more strained. "Friends might be a little much, but we used to be acquaintances. I know his family," she said trying to maintain her facade of nonchalance.
'How dare he? How dare he? How dare he?' She kept repeating in her mind. She had given up on him once she realised he didn't have any of his father's potential, but he didn't even have the decency to disappear into the background like the good little loser he was. Now the bastard was ruining all her plans.
"Since he was just an acquaintance you won't mind if I have some fun with him, right?" The same girl asked nervously.
Mara almost blew up, but maintained her smile. "He has a girlfriend though..." she said.
'How dare he fucking have a girlfriend? Wasn't he still pining after me. He should be happy I allowed him that much. That loser, she can't even compare to me,' She thought inside though.
The girl shrugged. "So? I'm hotter than her," she said.
A slow smirk slowly formed on her lips. "And who said he needs to break up with her first?" She said.
Mara shrugged. "Whatever. If you want to lower yourself like that do whatever you want," she said.
Her thoughts were the complete opposite though. 'This horny slut... She better not...' she thought.
She looked over at Jeffrey beside her again. 'Why aren't you saying anything? Do I need to dump his ass?' She thought in frustration.
She was so frustrated she couldn't even enjoy her lunch.
The rest of the day went by rather quickly. He rushed straight to the gym once the last class ended to get some more hours in towards his apprenticeship. He wanted to become a full fledged personal trainer as soon as he could. Not only would he no longer be reliant on his father financially once he did, but some lonely neglected married MILFs trying to reclaim their youth in the gym might make for some easy targets.
His father was still distracted by his training. It seemed the closer they got to his next match the more absorbed he became by his training regiment to the point where they barely saw him and when they did it was all business. Dave suspected it was because he probably wasn't seeing the results he was expecting despite all the effort. Maybe he would think he was getting too old.
Since he couldn't go to the martial arts gym he spent some time in the evening at home going through the exercises and some shadow boxing to drill the things he had practiced that weekend even further. Every moment counted. He only had a couple weeks to get brushed up on his techniques.