Chapter 4

Part I

It was Tom who I noticed first as I walked towards the cafeteria. He waved me over and I saw that Gail and Grace were talking with my sister Katrin.

"Hey Tom, how are things goin'?"

"Mark, I heard about the bombings in London. Lori told me about how you helped her find her cellphone and call Aunt Jeanie. That was a really good thing you did, Mark." Tom was looking me in the eye and extended his hand out to me.

I wasn't used to guys my age offering to shake my hand. I guess Tom musta been raised in a serious sorta way. We shook hands and I noticed Katrin and Lori's two friends eyeing us like we were those Jovian aliens I'd thought of back on Tuesday.

That's when I saw Lori heading our way with several more of her friends. She headed straight for me and wrapped me up in her arms, placing her face against my chest. "Mark, thank you."

"For what, Lori?"

"This morning. You did what needed to be done - what was necessary. You found my cellphone. And you stayed around for me. You held me while I cried. You're so good for me." She was sniffling and I could see some moisture welling up in her eyes.

There was a loud cough and I looked up from Lori to see a teacher looking at us. He was staring and shaking his head at our PDA. I explained. "Her parents are in London and her father was at one of the subway stations that was bombed this morning. She needs someone to hold her." I stared back at him and he seemed a bit shocked at my calm expression and steady delivery of what had happened with Lori's father. He jerked his eyes away from us and went on into the cafeteria.

I noticed Lori's friends were now looking at me with an even stranger set of expressions. I had to suppose that what I was seeing was disbelief.

Tom came to my rescue. "Mark, you just made a teacher back down."

Lori sniffled and looked up into my eyes. "What happened?"

"One of the teachers was objecting to our hug. I persuaded him not to bother you."

"Oh. You're so nice. Why didn't I notice you before?"

"It's kinda hard to notice a shy and nervous geek who's hiding down in his desk all of the time."

She smiled up at me and wiped away the little bit of tears that had begun to run down her cheeks.

I reached out myself and wiped away some moisture that she had missed. "Come on, let's get some lunch. Remember, we need to introduce Grace to Greg. And I think Gail just might like to meet Timothy." I smiled at Lori and glanced over towards her friends. Lori grinned back at me. I nodded my head towards the cafeteria doors and started Lori in that direction. Tom and Katrin joined us along with Gail and Grace.

We joined the line on our usual right side of the cafeteria. Lori and I were leading our group of six. She was still sniffling a bit and her eyes were red.

I guy up ahead of us turned around and saw Lori. He couldn't have missed how upset she was. He suddenly scowled and started moving back down the line towards us.

When he got to us he spoke to Lori. "Lors, what's wrong? Is this guy bothering you?" He actually looked at me like I might be some sort of loathsome bug that he was ready to squash.

Lori to the rescue! "Hi, Kyle. No, Mark's my new boyfriend. He hasn't done anything to me. I'm just upset because my father was in one of the London subway stations that was bombed this morning. He's OK, but it's still so upsetting! I'm stuck here while a pack of terrorists are trying to kill my parents and everybody else in London!"

With that Lori again leaned into me and I hugged her.

"Your dad's in London?"

"Yeah, it's awful."

"But, you said he's OK. Is your mom OK?"

"Yeah. Both of 'em are fine." She still sniffled a bit.

I looked into this guy's eyes and suddenly saw him relax. He looked at me.

"Sorry about that, but I've known Lors since first grade and she and I are old buddies." He seemed to suddenly notice Tom back behind us. "Oh, hey Tom. I didn't see you at first."

Lors? Was that some kind of nickname I didn't know about?

He stuck out his right hand. "Kyle McClellan, Lors' best ol' buddy from back in the days when she was a tomboy."

Lori complained about that last part. "KYLE!" Her sniffling and red eyed hurt got immediately transformed by a pout - she became a different girl. It was actually funny to see her do that.

I stuck out my own right hand and found myself shaking hands with a second guy in just about as many minutes. "Mark Jacobs, Lori's boyfriend as of Monday.

Kyle smiled as we shook hands. "Since Monday, huh? I guess she hasn't gotten around to telling you about her bein' a tomboy, has she?"

"No, this is news to me." I glanced back towards where Tom, Gail, and Grace were following us in the line. I gave them a look. They all grinned at me. And my evil little sister Katrin was digging her elbow into Tom's ribs while practically leering at me. "Seems like some other folks knew about Lori's disreputable past, too." I smiled at her as I said this.

Lori smiled at me as she tightened her hug. "Mark, you're so funny sometimes."

That's when I noticed Kyle and Gail exchange some sort of signal. It was low-key, but it was there. It probably had to do about me. Maybe Gail was letting Kyle know I was alright. I didn't know, but I hoped that was what it was that had been communicated.

We kept on moving along in the line and Kyle started regaling us with funny stories about what Lori had done before she went all girlie on him. It was funny the way he was telling some of the stuff.

I had to wonder about a guy who'd been her friend for so many years and didn't appear to be trying to get into her panties. What was up, or not?

Lori must have noticed my carefully neutral expression as I studied Kyle's back while we moved forward through the line. "He's got a girlfriend. She attends St. Bonaventure Catholic school." She smiled at me.

"Ah. That explains why you and Kyle aren't already together." I whispered that into her ear.

She slapped me on the chest. "No, you beastly idiot. We're just friends. We used to play baseball and did all sorts of other stuff together. We couldn't ever get together. It'd be too weird."

"OK..." I didn't understand it. I couldn't really comprehend what Lori had just said. But, still - she accepted it and I decided that was good enough for me.

We got our lunches and Lori asked Kyle if he wanted to join us for lunch. He agreed and joined Gail and Grace as we headed over to the table where my friends were already seated.

I glanced over and saw Tom introducing Katrin to several of Lori's friends at their table. Several heads swiveled over towards us as the girls seemed to compare Katrin against me. OK, Katrin got the good looks in the family. She never has looked too much like me. Which probably helped to explain why Tom seemed to be orbiting around her.

Anyhow, it was time for me to introduce Lori's friends Gail and Grace to my buddies. And, I'd also have to introduce Kyle - who I didn't even know. Well, no problem - I didn't really know the two girls, either!

I pulled out a chair for Lori and she grinned at me as she placed her tray on the table and allowed me to push the chair forward for her to sit down.

And Timothy had a wicked-looking grin on his face as he glanced from Lori and me to Gail as she maneuvered to seat herself next to him.

Lori spoke up at this point. "Grace, that's Greg. He's the guy you want to talk to about your sick computer." She pointed to Greg and Grace went right over and sat down beside him. Greg grinned as Grace looked him over. She grinned back at him.

Kyle was watching this and looked to Lori. She smiled and winked. He suddenly seemed to comprehend what was going on. He looked at me and offered me that same little quirk of the eyebrows that he'd earlier exchanged with Gail. I returned the same expression. He grinned as he sat down in one of the last two empty chairs left at the table.

Things seemed to be getting interesting around us. I tried to settle down and enjoy lunch with Lori.

Part II

I tried to pay attention to Lori while following the conversations that her two friends were having with my two friends. It seemed like Grace was planning on having Greg come over to her house to look at her computer. Greg was acting a little bit nervous about that, I thought while watching him. But, he was mostly concealing it - mostly, but not every bit of it.

Grace had what seemed like a pleased little smile that she shared with Lori. I had to wonder if Greg was about to undergo a life change like mine. He wasn't nearly as geeky looking as me - or, so I thought. He might find it much easier to attract a girl, given he actually looked like something approaching normally handsome.