Bystander Read Online Free Page B

huge, filled with rows of long tables. Even at a glance, Eric could guess the personalities of some of the tables: the jocks, the geeks, the popular girls, and so on.
    So where did Eric fit in? Nowhere.
    In class, you took a seat and sat there while the teacher rambled on. It wasn’t a big lifestyle decision. But here in the lunchroom, there was no avoiding thereality that Eric didn’t have a single friend in town. He was alone and he didn’t want to be.
    In a month, he assured himself, everything would be fine. He’d make new friends, sit with them, eat, joke, laugh. But right now, today, the first day of school, it all kind of sucked. But on another level, none of it really mattered. Eric could smell his meatball sub and he felt hungry. He wanted to eat. There was nothing complicated about that. So without thinking further, he grabbed a chair at the vacant end of a long table.
    A few minutes later, he heard a voice: “Dude, tell me you are not sitting all alone at this table?” Eric looked up. It was Griffin Connelly, standing at Eric’s left elbow.
    â€œRemember me?” Griffin said, shaggy hair falling into his eyes.
    Eric pointed a plastic spork at him. “Yeah, you look a little familiar,” he feebly joked.
    â€œCome on, sit with us,” Griffin offered.
    Eric hesitated.
    â€œLet’s go.” Griffin turned and walked to the back of the room. Eric had no choice but to follow.
    â€œSlide over, Cody,” Griffin told the lank-haired,weasel-faced boy that Eric remembered from the basketball court. “Eric’s gonna sit there.”
    â€œNo, it’s okay,” Eric protested. “I can sit over—”
    â€œJust sit there, okay?” Griffin insisted. “It’s the first day of school. You’re the new kid. And you already look kind of pathetic. We’re trying to be friendly here.” He stared at Cody, who reluctantly got up to vacate his seat.
    Griffin blew the hair out of his eyes. “So,” he said to Eric.
    Eric waited for more, but there wasn’t any. He looked around the table. He saw another face he recognized, Drew P., and nodded.
    â€œS’up,” Droopy murmured, then capped it off with a yawn.
    Griffin rattled off a bunch of names—Sinjay, Will, Hakeem, Marshall, Pat—introducing Eric to the rest of the table. Eric nodded at everybody and got drowsy grunts in return.
    â€œSo,” Griffin began again. “What do you think of Bellport Central Middle School so far?”
    Eric shrugged, eyeballed his lunch. “The meatballs look a little—”
    â€œDisgusting?” Griffin suggested. “Soggy? Green? Inedible?”
    Eric laughed, pushed his tray aside. He was hungry—but not
that
hungry. “It’s not so bad here, really.”
    Griffin frowned like he knew better, but didn’t bother to disagree.
    â€œMiddle school,” Griffin repeated. “Where did they come up with that, anyway? We’re in the middle of what, exactly? Too old for elementary school, but not big enough for high school. So they shove us here. Look around. There’s not an interesting person in sight, just a bunch of clones who want to be like everybody else.”
    Eric nodded thoughtfully, signaling agreement. He kept his true thoughts to himself. He wasn’t prepared to pass judgment on everyone in the school.
    Something caught Griffin’s eye and he smiled to a lunch aide as she passed behind Eric. “Hello, Mrs. Rosen,” he said in a cheerful voice. “How was your summer?”
    â€œOh, hello, Griffin,” the woman replied.
    She was an older woman with black hair, aroundfifty, small and trim and tidy, and she reminded Eric of a kindly mouse. She seemed pleased to see Griffin Connelly. There was genuine warmth in her voice.
    â€œYou are getting so big,” she noted.
    Ugh
, every grown-up said that. Eric shot a look at Griffin, watching for his