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class—I noticed something weird taking place over in the far corner of the cafeteria. It wasn’t just weird. It was completely bizarre. A group of six girls, probably sophomores because I didn’t recognize any of them, were walking in a line over to the table where Matt and Luke and Owen were seated. Only Luke didn’t have any food in front of him. And the girl leading the line walking directly toward him was holding a lunch tray out in front of her like it was an offering she was preparing to lay at the foot of a god. Or, I was quickly realizing, at the foot of Luke Preston.
    “What’s up with that?” I asked Josie, and pointed my spoon toward the line of handmaidens now gathered around Luke’s table.
    “Luke’s fan club.”
    “Don’t tell me they do this every day.”
    Josie licked a glob of peanut butter falling out of her sandwich. “Okay, I won’t.”
    “So they bring him his lunch? That’s insane.” I watched as Luke sent the girls away and dug into his own bowl of chili. “Don’t those girls have any self-respect?”
    “They’re sophomores,” Josie told me, as if that was enough of an excuse.
    It was truly nauseating the way Luke just let the girls lay his tray on the table and walk away without so much as a thank you. I mean, letting a group of girls wait on you hand and foot is arrogant enough, but not even acting like you appreciate it is inexcusable. The whole scene was outrageous, and what made Luke’s Lunch Legion even more annoying was that I couldn’t help seeing a little of me in those girls. Because I could recall more than a few times when I’d brought Sean his lunch. I hadn’t felt pathetic at the time, but seeing those girls look at Luke like he was perfection incarnate, I realized for the first time that I’d felt like that about Sean. I’d wanted to believe he was perfect, too.
    “What a jerk,” I mumbled into my chili.
    “Oh, wait. The best is yet to come. When Luke’s finished with his lunch he’ll just walk away and the girls will clean up his crap so he doesn’t have to.”
    I reached for my chocolate milk and held it up. “Guys suck.”
    Josie tipped her bottled water against the carton, toasting me. “Here, here.”
    “So, do you have any ideas, Emily?” Mandy asked me, and I managed to take my eyes off Luke before she could notice I’d been staring.
    “Any ideas about what?”
    “The senior class time capsule.”
    “We’ll probably do the same as every other class—a few CDs, some newspaper clippings, maybe a lottery ticket.” Lucy looked to Josie and me to see what we thought.
    “Come on, we can come up with something better than that, can’t we?” I asked, attempting to balance a spoonful of chili without spilling it all over the table, but failing.
    Lucy passed me a napkin. “We could try.”
    “How are you getting home this afternoon?” Josie asked me.
    “My mom was going to pick me and TJ up. We’re still figuring out what to do.” Since Heywood students came from at least six towns in the area, we didn’t have very many buses, just two or three for the towns with the most kids. The rest of us were either picked up by school vans, carpooled with other families, or, once we got our licenses, drove ourselves. When I left Heywood, none of us had our licenses yet, so it was bizarre to think that all the cars parked in the parking lot now belonged to the same classmates who couldn’t ride a moped without causing bodily injury during our freshman class trip to Block Island. Even though Mr. Wesley had repeatedly warned us to be careful, half the class had ended up with gauze around their ankles after burning off several layers of skin on the mopeds’ tailpipes. Josie still had a vague scar on her ankle, I think.
    “Why don’t you call your mom and tell her you’re coming home with me and we can try to come up with something better than a copy of People magazine with Britney Spears on the cover?”
    Wait out front with TJ for my mom to pick