Frankie took a look at Lewis' friends. They all looked relatively cool, but at least they weren't the cookie cutter type who wore all the same style of everything. Sucking in his gut, Frankie managed to slip in next to Lewis. The other kids looked at him for a bit and Frankie's face reddened, but then Lewis remembered to introduce him. "Hey guys, this is my friend Frankie. We're in homeroom together!"
"Oh boy, here it comes," Frankie thought to himself, bracing for a barrage of insults. Instead, he was met with warm smiles. A short Portuguese girl with dark red hair (probably died) stuck her hand out at him.
"Hi, I'm Gabby" she said kindly. Frankie bashfully shook her hand, mentally twitching when his arm jiggled from the simple motion.
"Nice to meet you, Frankie. We were just talking about some of the latest scumbags running for office these days," Said a tall, lanky blond boy with a crooked nose.
"No, that was mostly you, Nick." Said a shorter, chubby black haired boy. Then he turned to Frankie. "Sorry, Nick likes to rant about politics. I'm Matt. I like drawing and being a cynical asshole, but at least I find myself funny." he said with a straight face, and Frankie laughed. Frankie looked at what Matt was doodling at the time, and had to say that it was honestly pretty impressive.
Lewis gestured towards another boy at the table who was busily chowing down into his lunch. He was tall with short, almost shaved blond hair and had a strong muscular build, but enough soft chub to cover it all and give him a nice belly without being "fat". Seeing another boy who appreciates food made Frankie feel a little better. "That's Conner." Lewis pointed out. "He's the resident redneck, or at least as close as you can get at this school." Lewis explained that Conner also played that MMORPG they played.
"That's not the only thing they have in common!" A taller girl with multiple colorful bracelets sitting next to Gabby chimed in, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively. Lewis glared at her and threw a muffin wrapper at her, hitting her in her rainbow dyed hair. She responded by punching a bottle in his direction, bouncing off his head, then off Frankie's belly then back in front of her. "WHOO!" She shouted in celebration of her conquest over adversity. Clearly this girl was rather enthusiastic.
Lunch proceeded calmly for the most part, and Frankie was surprised that nobody brought up his weight (which was pressing against the table the whole time) until out of all of them, Lewis mentioned something. Frankie had more food than most of them (except maybe Conner), but to his dismay his stomach let out a fierce growl. The table giggled, and Lewis said "You should probably go fill up that tank with seconds, man."
"No, no... I'm good," Frankie said, still shy around these new potential friends.
"Dude, I've seen you eat at my parent's restaurant before. I know you can put away more than that! Now go get some more. We don't want you passing out on us." He said this in a way that poked fun at him, but there was no hatred. It was a warmer way of saying it, unlike what he was used to.
Frankie waddled up towards the food to fill his tray for real this time. When he was up there, he looked back and noticed an interaction. Lydia, the girl with the rainbow bangs, punched Lewis in the arm and winked. Lewis then shoved her back, laughing. Lydia turned to whisper something to Gabby while Lewis turned to Conner, clearly saying something to him. Conner nodded and smiled, then gave Lewis a pat on the back. Matt was lost in his sketches and Nick was browsing for what was probably the latest memes or news articles regarding national policies or something Frankie didn't understand. Then...
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