Helpless » Fillie

| one white lie |

The lunch bell pealed. Pens and pencils were hurriedly pushed into their cases, and papers were shoved into backpacks in an emergent manner. Satchels snapped and chairs were tucked into the wooden desks. A mass of scuffling feet raced towards the cafeteria. Millie, who was hustled away by the swarm of students, struggled to keep up. But when she eventually did, she was attacked by an appetizing blend of aroma floating about the feverish quarters.

The early birds were already seated on the benches, conversing fervently amongst themselves. With time, the cafeteria grew crowded. People were weaving their way through the room, cautiously carrying their bowls of soup and salads, or trays of spaghetti.

The benches were occupied with all kinds of students. There were, who Millie presumed, the health-nuts sipping on calorie-free drinks and nibbling on crackers, gossiping while giggling artfully. To her left were the perpetual bookworms, with a fork in one hand and a book propped up in the other. Another group, she noticed, was huddled in a wide circle singing along to show tunes that blared out of mini cassettes. Some others sat alone, preferring to keep their heads down while bobbing their heads up and down as they listened to music through their earphones.

Typical, Millie thought. Nothing I can't handle, right?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a ringing in her ears. The sound of a familiar feminine voice called out repetitively at her name over the clamor.

"Millie! Mills, over here!" She turned to face Sadie, who was waving her arms violently in the air. The redhead grinned when Millie's gaze met her half-filled table. She mouthed excitedly, Over here! while patting at a vacant seat across from hers. Millie made her way to where she was, chuckling when a boy next to her pushed her flailing arms down.

"Jesus Sadie, stop it. She saw you already. Can't you see she's coming?" she heard him say while motioning to the brunette, causing Sadie to playfully roll her eyes and blow a raspberry.

Millie placed her paper brown sack on the table, taking a seat across from Sadie and the boy. "Oh Millie, you have no idea how happy I am to see you," she beamed, cupping her cheeks while placing her elbows on the table. "I've just missed you so much!"

"Erm, Sadie, we saw each other yesterday."

"Right, but that was hours ago," Sadie whined. "So," she dragged, "how was your first day at Cabot Springs High?"

Millie shrugged, unwrapping the translucent lunch box from her bag. "I guess it was alri–"

"Oh!" Sadie cut her off, the suddenness causing Millie to jump in her seat, her head shot up. "I forgot to introduce you to Noah!" She gestured to the boy who sat silently, his nose stuck in a book, leaving only sight of his neatly gelled brown hair.

At the mention of his name, he dropped his book and gleamed at the girl in front of him. "What she said," he remarked. "It's nice to meet you, Millie. Sadie here hasn't stopped running her mouth off about you." Sadie blushed shyly at his comment.

Millie giggled, glancing at Sadie's apparent fluster. "Is that so?" she asked rhetorically. Her gaze returned to the boy, causing her eyes to slightly widen when realization dawned on her.

He's the boy from this morning. I knew he looked familiar.

"Noah," she said slowly, "do you happen to be a junior?"

He nodded immediately. "That I am," he poked at his salad with his fork before looking back at her. "I had calculus with you earlier today."

What? Am I seriously that dense?

Sadie chimed in, with a mouth filled with breadsticks, "No fair! Millie and I don't have any classes together!" She pouted her lip exaggeratedly.

Noah inched discreetly towards Millie, whispering, "You have to excuse her behavior. She's just having her occasional episode. You know, first-day-back jitters." Millie nodded understandingly.