Jon spent lunch talking over Nicole, interrupting Amber, correcting Tiffany, and generally making sure he was the center of attention. He couldn't help himself. And the strangest thing was, the more intolerable he felt he was acting, the more the girls seemed to hang on his every word.
It felt good to be in control. Much better than being controlled, especially by a pair of shoes.
That thought grabbed Jon's attention. Weren't these girls Sarah's friends? Where was she? Why wasn't she eating lunch with them? For that matter, why was Jon eating lunch with them? He normally preferred to spend the period with someone else. Karyn. Where was she sitting? Jon scanned the cafeteria, but before he could lay eyes on Karyn, he realized that his whole table was looking at him, expectantly.
"Jon?" Amber prodded.
"Are you going to tell us what you think of the new routine that Coach Barry wants us to learn?" Nicole looked like her life depended on Jon's answer.
For his part, Jon had no idea what routine they were talking about, but he was not going to disappoint. He couldn't disappoint.
"Look," he said, "we're still in high school, right? There's limitations on what she can have students do. Liability or whatever. There's more sophisticated routines out there, but if someone gets hurt doing them, it's her fault."
The girls all nodded sagely, and Jon spent the rest of the lunch period telling the cheerleaders how to be cheerleaders.
