Chapter Two

Lori walked into the crowed cafeteria, gripping a plastic tray with sweaty hands. She scanned the rows of picnic tables for Courtney and Jeffery, whom she met in orchestra class and so far her only friends. She'd never been the outgoing type, but luckily that hadn't bothered them; they talked enough for her.

Her gaze landed on the boy she'd met yesterday. Mitchell, she remembered him saying his name was. He sat alone at an empty table with his back to her. She bit her lip, glanced around, then mustered up the courage to walk over to him.

He glanced up from the sheet music he appeared to be studying as she sat her tray on the table. He smiled as he recognized her. "Hi," he said. "Lori, right?"

"Yeah," she said blushing and sub-consciously brushing her hair from her face. She'd worn it down that day and it was a nervous habit of hers to run her fingers through it. "I wanted to thank you for sticking up for me the other day in math class. I appreciated it."

"No problem," he replied.

Lori opened her mouth to ask him if she could sit with him, but was cut off when Clara pranced over to them and plopped herself onto Mitchell's lap without glancing in Lori's direction. Mitchell looked down awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"There you are!" Clara exclaimed. "When I didn't see at our usual table I was worried you'd gone home and didn't tell me."

"I just wanted sometime alone to study," he said referring to the sheet music spread out across the table.

"Oh. Well then who's this?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at Lori. "Laura, isn't it?"

"Lori," Mitchell corrected. "She'd just come over to tell me something."

"That's sweet," Clara said smiling sarcastically at her. She turned back to Mitchell, "Why don't you come back to our table and she can return to the other side where she belongs?"

Lori looked around uneasily. Behind her she saw Courtney sitting next to Jeffery and a few other people she'd met in orchestra on the other side of the cafeteria. They were all staring at her. The cafeteria consisted of two sides of round picnic tables with a condiment station in the middle dividing the room. At lunch the day before they had informed her that orchestra students sat on the right side while band members sat on the left. Same in the classrooms. She'd thought it was more of a weird guideline then a rule. She hadn't realized people took it so seriously.

"Don't be ridiculous Clara, she's not causing any harm," Mitchell defended her, but Lori stopped him.

"No, no, it's fine. I see some people I know, I'll just go sit with them. Nice meeting you Carla. See you around Mitchell." Lori gave a small wave as she picked up her tray and went over to the other table, but not before she heard Mitchell chuckle at her purposefully mispronouncing Clara's name and Clara scold him for it.

 "What were you doing over there?" Courtney questioned Lori as soon as she sat down.

"Just thanking him for being nice to me yesterday."

Jeffery quickly jumped into the conversation, "He was probably trying to recruit you for the band."

"I can't imagine why though. The band already has plenty of members, if anyone should be recruiting it should be us," Courtney pointed out.

"They're just greedy. They would do anything to sabotage the orchestra even more than they already have."

"One year they even tee-peed the orchestra the day before our big spring concert. It took a whole class period to clean it up, which took a way the practice time we needed."

"Those band people are nothing but trouble."

"You should stay away from them."

Lori had trouble following between Courtney and Jeffery. The two of them were so in sync they might as well have been the same person. Though they looked nothing alike, their behavior made it was hard to believe they weren't related. Lori had questioned them about it after the first conversation she'd had with them during which they'd explain the fundamentals of Joplin so synchronized that they been finishing each other's sentences. They insisted they were just close friends who had met playing soccer together in elementary school.

"I appreciate your help you guys but I can take care of myself." Lori said, slightly amused.

"Then you've clearly never faced Clara Clarkson."

"She's evil."

"Evil?" Lori raised her eyebrows at Courtney's use of the word. "A bit of a b***h maybe but I've faced her type before. I can handle it."

"You don't understand. She's evil. She once tried to seduce Jeffery so we'd lose our leading violinist the week before our state wide competition."

Jeffery shuddered. "Never again..." he mumbled.

"She's devious. She'll do anything to get what she wants. And what she wants now is Mitchell, so if she thinks you're trying to get in her way she'll get rid of you."

"Well that's not a problem because I'm not in her way."

"That doesn't matter because you talking to him has probably gotten you on the list."

"The list?"

"The list of people she wants to dispose of," Jeffery explained. "Almost everyone in orchestra is on it, including me and Courtney. But it doesn't stop there. From what I've heard she also hates half of the trombone section just because one of them slipped milk on her favorite shirt."

"Well how will I know if I'm this list? Does she post it somewhere or something?"

"No, she'd never be that obvious. Next time she talks to you, and trust me, there will be a next time, you'll be able to tell which way she tilts her head when she gives you her trademark fake smile. If she tilts it to her right then you're fine... for now. But if she tilts it to her left you'd better watch out."

"What if she doesn't tilt it at all?"

They both got serious. "Let's put it this way," Courtney said as if she was about to deliver bad news to a small child. "The last person she didn't tilt at no longer goes to this school."

  Struck by their grave tone Lori glanced over her shoulder to where she'd last seen Mitchell and Clara, but they were no longer there. She still felt as though someone was watching her, and she wondered just what kind of crazy mess she'd gotten herself into.