The low mummer echoed against the brick walls of the cafeteria. Silverware clinked and trays thump as it flopped down on the linoleum topped tables were common sounds as the students of West Roswell High School crowded into the cafeteria for lunch. The cafeteria is centrally located in the big two stories building. In the back of the area were the doors that open to the courtyard. The courtyard was protected on all four sides. And although it had a few large trees that gave the area the much need shade, but there wasn’t a way for air to come or leave the area stagnant, therefore cafeteria was unusually crowded today. The scorching heat outside cause most of the student body to seek shelter in the cool air-conditioned room, while a few adventurous ones stayed outside and bore with the elements.

Maria looked up from her tray of spaghetti and meat sauce with a thick layer of cheddar cheese as she left the lunch line. She scanned the room for an empty seat or a familiar friendly face. It wasn’t hard to spot Isabel with her in crowdfriends since they were sitting in the middle of everybody. She thought about sitting with Isabel, they both knew each other, but they were far from being close friends. Isabel’s brother, Max was sitting by himself a few tables behind his sister and was intensely reading his book. She was hoping Liz would join her, but Liz had said she was busy studying for a test or something, so she was going to skip lunch. So Maria was alone, maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to sit outside. But she decided against it since the heat tended to give her a rash. Maria started to walk towards Max, trying to be as non-chalant as possible, but she had a sick feeling that someone was watching her. She slowly glanced to her right and left and caught a few eyes looking at her, but they quickly darted away and pretended to talk to the friends sitting next to them.

Straightening her head, Maria walked on, not caring for the high school antics. She knew she wasn’t like the “Isabel” of the world, where everybody wanted to be like her. Isabel was full of confidence and not to mention beautiful. Maria felt like a little waif when she was around Isabel. Also, Maria wasn’t like the “Liz” of the world either. Liz was so smart and knew exactly what she wanted. Liz was cute in the plain Jane kind of way, where everybody just loved her to death. Maria was just Maria who felt as if her limps outgrew her body and it made her awkward and uneasy as she walked the halls. Her lips brought too much attention to her face since it was totally out of place and her boobs hadn’t grown in yet. She just wished she was more comfortable in her own body.

Maria finally made her way and set her trey next to Max. He never noticed that she was there until she spoke, “Hey Max.” She gave him a meek smile as she sat down.

“Oh, Hi Maria!” said Max as smiled back at her. He shifted his eyes to look behind her and the smile faded away to a look of disappointment.

Maria couldn’t miss the look on his face, even after he tried to hide it behind a big grin. She couldn’t help but feel a little saddened by the whole interaction. She felt as if she was nothing more than Liz’s friend in Max Evans’ eyes. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to sit outside after all.

It was the loud sound of someone calling her name that caused Max and Maria's heads to look up. Alex was waving profusely as he approached the table. Maria gave him a big smile as she cleared up the seat next to her, to make some space for her best friend. Alex was one in a million. He was like a drummer that had a beat of his own and pretty much didn’t care what others thought of him. The only thing was Maria just wished he wasn’t so crazy about Isabel.

“Hey Max,” Alex said with a smile.

“Hey man,” Max said quickly before he dove his nose back into his book again.

“Mariaaaaaaaa… I need to talk to you.” Alex quickly shifted his eyes sideways to tell Maria that he didn’t want Max to hear what he had to say to her.

Maria made a big “O” with her lips and gave Alex a nod. She turned around to tell Max that she was going to go with Alex, but stopped when she noticed Max wasn’t even paying attention to them. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to read the expression on Max’s face. He was in a daze, in awe. She turned her head in the general direction of where Max was staring and saw the reason why he looked the way he did...Liz.

Liz had just rounded the corner as she turned towards the cafeteria. She looked as if she was in a hurry. She understood why Liz was in a rush when she saw Kyle right behind her. Maria sat there and watched as Kyle caught up to Liz and tried to stop her from walking away, but Liz just shook his hand off her shoulder. Liz looked up and caught Max’s eyes and quickly looked down and tucked her hair behind the ear and continued on her way. Maria quickly looked at Max to see that his happy daze took a look of concern as he picked up his books and followed Liz.

Maria turned around to get Alex so that they could go and see if Liz was ok, but he hadn’t seen a thing since he too was in a daze. Alex’s eyes were glazed over like the first time he saw his first love, his acoustic guitar. Maria didn’t need to look at what Alex was looking at to know what it was, Isabel. After calling his name a few times, Maria finally had to jerk his arm.

“What? What’s going on? What happened?” Alex said in a speedy mummer.

“I just saw Liz and she looked upset… she just ran off.”

“Huh? What? Where’s Max?”

“I don’t know… Kyle was running after her or something. Max ran after them.”

“Oh is that it!” Alex said as he leaned back against the table, so he could get a better view of Isabel. “He’s been bothering her the whole morning… wanting to talk to her. He won’t give up.”

“But don’t you think we should go and make sure she's alright?”

“You said Max went after her?” Alex started to chomp on the piece of garlic bread that he stole from Maria's uneaten plate of food. He continued after Maria answered him with a nod, “well, there you have it, just let Max resolved the problem he caused.”

Maria agreed and sat there looking at her unappetizing plate of spaghetti. She started to move the pasta around, lost in her own thoughts. It finally occurred to her while in mid feed that Alex never did tell her what he needed to talk about so badly. She turned around to see the same look that he had on earlier. All she could do was let out a hard sigh.

“Alex, what was the thing you had to talk to me about?” Maria asked as she placed a hand on his arm to get his attention.

“Oh that…” answered Alex without taking his eyes off of Isabel. “I just wanted your opinion on how I should ask Isabel out on a date.”

Maria hung her mouth open in shock. This was the thing he needed to tell her about? She was staring at him, but he never even noticed, he never even glanced at her once. Once again, she turned around and concentrated on moving the food around on her plate.

“Why do you look at Isabel that way?”

“What look?”

“The one you were just giving her.”

“I didn’t give her a look.” Alex tried to defend himself, but he knew better. “Is it really that obvious?”

“Yeah-”

“You think she noticed?”

“I’m sure she has…” She wanted to laugh at how pathetically cute Alex was, but she couldn’t help be a little envious of the “Liz” and “Isabel” of the world. “So, why do you look at her that way?”

“I don’t know. Well it's hard to explain. I guess the best way to explain it is, she literally takes my breath away.”

“Oh… I guess Liz does the same for Max.”

“He does?”

“Yeah. Hard to miss with all their soul-mate glances across the Crashdown.”

“Maria, is there something wrong?”

“I don’t know. Yeah…” Maria hesitated for a bit, contemplating on what she wanted to say. She didn’t want to sound like she was pathetic, and make Alex feel bad for her, but she was feeling pretty pathetic. “I’m just… I wanna know how that feels like, to have some one look at me like that, the way you and Max look at Isabel and Liz. I want something like that or close.”

“What are you talking about Maria? You are one of the most beautiful girls I know and I’m sure there are lots of guys out there who looked at you like that.” Alex put his arms around his childhood friend and gave her an encouraging hug.

Maria gave him a weak smile, but was soon lost in her own thoughts. She never had gotten the look from anybody and for once in her life, she wouldn’t have minded if anybody had looked at her in that way. But she knew better, no one would look at someone so awkward and different. She would never know how it felt to take someone’s breath away. She was happy to end her period of self-pity when the lunch bell rang, marking the end of her lunch period.

The mass of high school student slowly got up and started to throw away their thrash. Slowly the student body made its way and disappeared in the various classrooms, leaving the cafeteria empty but trashed.

Michael didn’t move from his corner until everybody was gone. A few days ago he had found the perfect spot in a far corner where no one ever ventured near. Michael watched as Maria gathered her books and went to class alone. His breathing became normal again as he walked the opposite direction.

THE END