Merder AU

Chapter 3

The cafeteria was crowded and noisy, and the line to the food bars was insanely long. Since it was a fancy private school, lunch didn't need to be paid for, but was added into the tuition. So Meredith got into the line and waited for her turn. Cristina sighed at the line and mumbled "I'm starving." which Meredith seconded. She looked around the cafeteria to see Derek and Mark already at a table with food. How did they get there that fast?

She told Cristina, "Hold my spot?" And her best friend nodded, giving her the go-ahead to interrogate Mark and Derek about how they got food so fast. When she came up in front of them with an annoyed and questioning look on her face, Derek just said, 

"Maria is really nice. Plus her daughter has a big crush on Mark after they dated for a week." Maria was nice, and had run a Summer camp Meredith took when she was ten for a month, but Meredith had never heard of her giving food away. She looked to the line and saw Cristina had only ten people to go, so she moved to go back, annoyed with the boys, when her stomach rumbled. 

"You something, Mer?" Derek asked, pushing his plate towards her. She was about to say no when she saw the apple. She had been wanting an apple since this morning but they had had none. she snatched the apple of his plate with a clipped, "Thank you," and went to Cristina, who was five people behind the food.

"Where did you get an apple?" Cristina asked when she got there.

"I have my sources."

"Derek or Mark?" Cristina said without hesitation. Meredith gave a sarcastic little sigh and said,

"Derek."

"Okay," Cristina said with a hint of something in her voice Meredith couldn't put her finger on.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, just that I had a short conversation with Amelia..." Meredith groaned.

"That girl is delusional and doesn't know sarcasm when she sees it."

"That's what I thought, calm down Blondie." Blondie. That was one of Mark's many nicknames for her, pretty much all of which she despised. Well at least pretended to despise. Secretly she liked them, as a sort of mark of their friendship.

She was going to respond but they reached the tower of plates and bowls and tubs of silverware and got to get food. The first day was always pizza, but she hadn't wanted to steal Derek's half-eaten slice. She looked over at their table, with Mark and Derek now joined by Amelia. Everyone tried to sit with them, but Mark and Derek and Amelia had put random things in front of the other seats, saving it for them. When they sat down Amelia said, "Oh thank god. All of Mark's girlfriends tried to sit there and I don't think I could handle a lunch period with one of them."

Meredith just laughed, knowing the feeling, but also feeling grateful they still wanted to sit with her. "Does anyone else have a free period next?" Meredith asked, not wanting to be alone, and when everyone said they did, Amelia said, 

"Wanna sit outside?" And got up and left before getting anyone's answers. Meredith did want to eat outside so she shrugged and followed her to a picnic table under a tree. "I once ate my lunch in the tree but I was yelled at for it so I moved the table under here." Meredith looked around, and she could see faint treads of a pushed table from the rest of the table to here on the grass.

Meredith had the pizza one inch from biting down when the school bells rang and a voice called over the loudspeaker "Attention all students. Mandatory meeting in the auditorium. We will be taking attendance. You may not eat your lunch in there." Amelia groaned, sad we didn't get to eat outside, and Meredith seconded her with an annoyed grunt. She ate her pizza quickly in five huge bites, struggling to chew and swallow with her face stuffed, but managed. Derek was looking at her weird, and when she cught him he didn't look away. She gave him a questioning look, and he just reached out to her face and wiped a finger across her cheek. He pulled away with a glob of red on his finger. Oh. She had gotten really messy, that was it. She shoved down the disappointment that didn't exist, and Amelia called,