page 10

[green]

Mikey sits down next to Frank and nods.

“Hey,” Frank says. “Mikey, right?”

Mikey feels a little happy that Frank remembers his name. He nods and looks at Frank's tray. There's fries and a salad, but no sloppy joe.

Frank sees him looking and says, “There's no vegetarian option. I guess I'll be brown bagging it from now on.”

“That sucks,” Mikey says.

“My old school had everything you'd ever want,” Frank says, but he doesn't sound like he's missing it very much.

Still, it makes Mikey ask, “Miss your friends?”

“Oh, sure,” Frank says, but Mikey can tell he's lying by the way he doesn't look at him when he says it and jumps into, “This school is okay, though.”

Mikey shrugs. “I guess.”

“What electives are you taking?” Frank asks.

Mikey has to pull out his schedule to remind himself. “Uh, just Drama this semester,” he says. “I'm thinking of doing Cooking after the winter break.”

“They didn't have much left over by the time I got my schedule,” Frank says, “So I'm stuck with Personal Finance. I don't even know, man.”

Mikey smiles the barest hint of a smile and shrugs again. “Maybe you'll learn something useful, at least.”

“Yeah, like how to budget my cheap ass allowance,” Frank says, stabbing at his salad.

Mikey takes a bite of his own food and makes a face. “This is horrible.”

“School food, what do you expect?” Frank says.

“Something that doesn't taste like puppy chow,” Mikey says. “So, you just moved to town?”

Frank nods. “My mom got transferred here.”

“So I guess you don't know much about the place,” Mikey said. “There's not much here, but we do have an all-ages club in town. Some pretty good bands play there most weekends, and when there isn't live music they've got a good DJ.”

Frank lights up. “Cool.”


page 20 ask Frank to go to the club on Friday night
page 21 give Frank phone number
page 22 do nothing