After four grueling periods full of class introductions, course outlines, diagnostic tests, and receiving textbooks, it was finally time for lunch. They survived the initial fan rush and were able to pull themselves together quickly enough; they had seen rowdier crowds. Because Rosalina was the only one who hadn’t arrived yet, the rest of the guys waited in front of her locker.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Nat said, brushing himself off. As always, he had gotten the worst of the mob.
Cooper, on the other hand, was grateful for never having to deal with the same clawing that the others did. “Well, they did make the announcement to leave us alone, and they’re probably going to repeat it until the hype dies out.”
“I hope Rosalina’s alright.” Of course, Nat was the one with her constantly on his mind. That part of him never seemed to change.
“Yeah, where is she?” David said impatiently. “I’m starving.”
Right on cue, Rosalina walked briskly over to her locker, busily chatting on her cell phone. She was so distracted that she barely acknowledged the existence of the others.
“Yeah,” she muttered to whoever was on the other line. “Did you see the new room? We all have our own offices now.”
“Hey, Rosalina,” Nat said hesitantly; she seemed so preoccupied.
“They’re pretty big.” She opened her locked and pulled out a medium-sized box, full of random folders and papers. The boys were surprised at how well she handled herself, holding the phone between her ear and shoulder while carrying the box in one arm and shutting her locker and spinning the lock with the other. It was almost as if she had done this before.
“Rosalina?”
“We’ll call a meeting on Friday. You can get your keys then.”
“Rosalina, do you need help with-?”
She held up her free hand to acknowledge that she had heard him but was unable to respond. The group waited patiently for her to finish.
“Yeah, so could you tell everyone for me? Thanks. I’ll be organizing the office if you need me. Bye.” Her phone smoothly dropped from her shoulder into her hand and then her pocket. “Sorry about that. Have you been waiting long?”
“Only forever!” Qaasim shouted in an obviously exaggerated fashion. “I’m ready to eat my arm off.”
“Alright, alright. Let’s go. I’ll show you where we can eat. It’s actually right in the middle of the school, so it’s not too far away if you need a place to hide. Oh, and by the way,” she gave Nat a quick kiss, “hi.”
“Are you guys going to do this every time you see each other now?” Thomas groaned.
They blushed but said nothing, only deepening the boys’ urge to tease them. Fortunately, their gnawing hunger kept them from going much further. Rosalina then lead the group towards the main office and around the corner. They stood before an unmarked door, and their dubious looks provoked an explanation from her. “They still haven’t marked the room yet. It was completely redone when they renovated the school. Now it’s bigger and the facilities are much better.”
“What is it?”
“Oh. It’s the journalism room. This is where we work on the school newspaper.”
“The what?”
“What is this, twenty-questions or something? Just come in and we’ll talk inside.”
Nat let it slide and went in, followed closely by the rest of the band. As Rosalina had said, the room was quite large. Small dividers separated individual desks that were equipped with computers and other miscellaneous supplies. Printers and white boards surrounded the room. It was empty and untouched now, but they knew it would be chaos in there when the paper started running.
Ignoring the questioning looks on everyone’s faces, she took them to another door in the back of the room and opened it with a key. It was a large office, similar to the individual stations except that it was much larger. Unlike the empty stations they had seen earlier, this office had a few boxes in the corner and piles of random supplies were scattered about. A decently sized sofa was placed in the corner of the office, and Rosalina prompted them to take a seat as she placed the box amongst the others.
“So this is my office. It’s a mess right now. I just started to organize it before school started, which is why I had to leave so fast. You guys can make yourselves at home whenever I’m in. The journalism room is open to everyone, but you can get some peace and quiet my office. No one can come in and bother you since you need a key to get in.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Thomas interrupted. “What do you mean that it’s your office? You have an office? In the newspaper room?”
“Well, yeah. I’m the editor-in-chief of The Evergreen.”
“The what?”
“You guys really are clueless, huh?” she rolled her eyes and smiled in amusement at her underclassmen friends. “The Evergreen is the school’s newspaper. I started writing for it as a sophomore but I was always hanging around the room my freshman year. I got the editor position this year. Amigos takes a lot of pride in its school’s paper, so it wasn’t hard for us to request a bigger and better room for the journalists. We asked them to make it better, but I didn’t expect them to do so much. It’s awesome.”
With that said, the boys accepted her answer and began to eat their lunches. They started discussing their teachers and classes, lounging on the couch and floor as if it were their own homes. She did tell them to make themselves at home, after all.
Nat, however, was still curious. “So you’re the head of the paper?”
“Yes,” Rosalina blinked.
“And you didn’t tell us?”
“I didn’t think it would matter to you guys. Is something bothering you?”
“I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other.”
“This isn’t a secret, Nat. I’m just the editor of the newspaper. It’s nothing you have to make a big deal out of.”
“You’re right,” he relented. “I’m just not used to it, I guess. What else is going on with you that we don’t know about?”
She sat down in her swivel chair and idly spun about, thinking. “Hmm. A lot, actually. I didn’t think it was that much, but I guess more things happen in two years than you can keep track of, right? Everyone just finds their niche in high school eventually. I found mine in journalism.”
“You mind telling me some of these things?”
“Maybe later. I really have to get this stuff organized.”
“Do you need help?”
“No,” she grinned. “Just go eat your lunch. I have it under control.”
He walked towards the guys sitting on the couch, but remembered something and turned back around. “Hey, Rosalina?”
Rosalina turned and the boys all silenced, thinking that Nat would make a pathetic attempt to be smooth and give her a kiss. However, he remained completely unaware that his friends were expecting him to do something romantic.
“What’s a niche?”
There was a moment of silence before everyone in the office burst out into laughter, Rosalina included. Still clueless, Nat looked around, confused.
“Just eat your lunch, Nat,” Rosalina laughed. “Just eat your lunch.”
