New school, new beginnings

It didn't seem to be a High School cafeteria, it more reminded of a war zone, or just plain chaos. Lou was definitely relieved when she saw Josephine wave to her from a table by the windows. She started to balance her tray past the numerous tables between her and Josephine, but of course, when she was almost there a boy at the football-team-table pushed his chair back and stood up just as Lou raised her tray a bit to push herself between his chair and the one on her other side. Lou was squeezed and the tray went upside down on the floor.

"Ow." Was the only sound she could make. The old Lou McCloud would never let such an episode pass without making the responsible person hurt at least a day or two, but she was determined to start anew in this town and school, so she suppressed her rising anger and took a deep breath.

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry!" The boy said worriedly and quickly pulled the chair away from her. "Are you okay?" He asked and looked at her with sensitive, brown eyes. He had really nice eyes...

"Yeah, sure, I'll live." Lou managed to say and rubbed her aching hipbone.

"Please, sit down here." He put an arm around her shoulders and helped her sit down on his now empty chair, at his table. "I'm Kid, by the way, and I guess you're the new girl."

"Yup, I'm Lou, new girl, hungry girl..." If he wasn't going to get hurt, he sure as hell was going to pay for her lunch.

"Pardon me, what does mademoiselle wish to eat?" He asked with overacted politeness and Lou had to smile at him.

"Well, that was a chicken sandwich, salad and a coke." She answered with a nod at her crashed tray.

"Coming right up!" He smiled and went to the counter as Lou said hello to the four guys around the table. Of course they were football players too and she was quickly informed that Kid was quarterback and the captain of the team.

Lou turned around when she heard some splashing behind her and noticed a cleaning lady had picked up her tray and was now sweeping the floor. *Wow, nice to not have to do that myself!* She gave the cleaning lady a thankful smile.

"My lady, your lunch is served." Kid said and put a new tray before her. Lou looked down on it and found all the things she had on her last tray plus a heart shaped chocolate biscuit.

"Thank you." She said and took her tray and stood.

"Why, aren't you gonna have lunch with us?" Kid asked somewhat disappointed.

"Well, you seem nice and all, but I already have a lunch date, sorry." She left them and smiled to herself. *Not wanting to be too easy to catch, do we?* She went over to Josephine and the two other girls at the table by the window and put her tray down beside Josephine's. "Sorry it took so long, but some jerk trashed my lunch."

At first, Josephine and her friends just stared at Lou, like she was some alien or nutcase or whatever.

"What?" Lou demanded confused.

"Wow...you actually left their table to sit with us?!" The girl to her right asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Well, yeah, I told Josephine I'd meet her in here for lunch. Oh, maybe you want to talk alone?" Lou started to rise, but Josephine stopped her.

"No, of course you are welcome to sit here! We are just shocked over the fact that you didn't take the chance to lunch with the captain of the Lion Claws, every other girl would..."

"There is a time for everything, maybe some other day...but he is cute, isn't he?" She smiled and the girls joined her and the time flew by when they talked about boys. The other girls were Alina and Veronica, they were in Josephine's English class and Lou did find them nice.

Suddenly Alina looked up and frowned. "Hey, the Queen is coming this way!" She told the others in a low voice and they turned to face the beauty.

The cheerleader smiled at them all, but turned to Lou. "Louise McCloud?" Lou nodded and the girl continued. "Hi, welcome to Sweetwater High, I'm Linn Cross and I want to give you a personal invitation to the cheerleader tryouts tomorrow, since you might not have gotten the information yet." She handed Lou a blue card with green letters.

"Thanks." Lou managed to say, very surprised and looked at the card a bit suspiciously.

"I really hope you show, you have the physics for cheerleading." Linn smiled. "Well, nice to meet you, enjoy your lunch, see you tomorrow!" With that she left.

"Wow! You really got an invitation to the tryouts?!" Veronica squeaked.

"They must really want you, because I don't think they ever had invitations before." Josephine said quite impressed.

"Well, I think it's a conspiracy. The headmaster wanted me to join the cheerleading squad, told me it would keep me out of trouble..." Lou told them.

"No, I hardly believe Linn would go the headmasters errands, the other way around sure, but not that." Alina stated and her friends nodded in agreement. "So, are you going?"

"Yeah, sure, of course I would like to know why they want me there so desperately." Lou smiled. "Will you join me?"

"Oh, no, we're not into that, but we could come and support you if you like?"

"Yes please, I very much like!"

"And Kid will be there..." Josephine looked at her teasingly. "He most certainly will, since he bought you a chocolate heart..."

"Ah, I got it! Of course it's Kid, who made Linn invite you! He wants you in the cheerleading squad so he can get to know you better. Don't you think so girls? Oh, he likes you." Veronica teased a little.

"Oh, well, that would be nice..." Lou said dreamingly and looked out the window where Kid and his friends sat on the lawn. She almost missed Josephine's teasingly: "Half a day at Sweetwater High and already in love!"