The first few classes of the day went by relatively normally for Jon. Neither Sarah nor Biff were with him in second period, and Karyn seemed to be her usual self, makeup aside. He didn't share third period with any of them, so that went as normally as could be expected.
But when Jon arrived at the cafeteria for lunch, he found Karyn was sitting with Zoe and the other goths, rather than at their usual table. And furthermore, he realized that there wasn't room for an additional person there. Unsure what to do, Jon stood dumbfounded in the middle of the cafeteria, holding his lunch tray, when Biff's voice called out to him.
"Hey Gibson, come sit over here!"
Jon turned in time to see half the football team break into a chorus of snickers, which sent Jon's heart straight into his socks, but they were quickly admonished by the quarterback: "stop being dweebs, you guys. Gibson's cool."
The noise died down, and Biff kept grinning expectantly at Jon, so he sheepishly acquiesced and found himself sitting next to Biff, surrounded by teenagers who were easily twice his size. Well, mostly teenagers who were twice his size. Sitting on the other side of Biff was Sarah McMillan, who didn't protest this new addition to her lunch table, but did give Jon some looks that he wasn't sure he was comfortable with.
Biff tried to get Jon involved in the conversation a few times throughout the hour, but Jon just gave noncommittal answers and generally tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. There was being confident, and then there was whatever level of ballsiness it would require for Jon to navigate an actual conversation with these galoots, and Jon did not believe that he held quite that level of testicular fortitude.
A few times, Jon found himself glancing over at the goth table. It was strange seeing Karyn getting along with Zoe like that. Strange to see the relatively normal-looking Karyn among a cluster of black. Although, Jon supposed, it did fit her last name. But the moment Jon's mind started to focus too much on his friend and his sister, Biff would pull him back into the jock conversation, and Jon would be forced to mine what little football trivia he held in his head in order to participate. And then Sarah would give him a sympathetic glance, as if to say "I'm just glad he's not trying to get me to talk about football."
But eventually, mercifully, lunch ended. And the football players, and Jon, and Sarah, and a a few other cheerleaders that had been sitting a little further down, all got up and dumped their trays as a unit. And as they left the cafeteria, Biff gave Jon a hearty slap on the back and said "See you in Spanish 2, yeah?"
Jon forced a smile and a thumbs-up, hiding the fact that the slap had temporarily robbed him of the ability to breathe, then went on to his next class: Pre-Calc. Whatever this new dynamic was, it was going to take some getting used to.
