I slumped into a chair in my next class. It was an algebra class I was supposed to be flying through since I had been taking trig before the accident. I wasn't struggling with figuring out the problems but was with the effort it took and the actual doing of the homework. Heads turned a little as I sat down, but returned quickly to the whiteboard. The teacher glanced at me, didn't even pause his lecture and I was back to being invisible. I pulled my sweatshirt hood up and sank deeper into the chair. I was good at meeting people's low expectations.

"Hey."

I kept my eyes on the blank notebook on the desk.

"Hey, dude."

I looked up. A girl was watching me an amused look on her face.

"Yeah, I was talking to you," she said a hint of annoyance in her voice. I raised an eyebrow.

"You're Jake, right?" she asked. I nodded. She didn't say anything else.

I glanced at her again and rolled my eyes. Fucking weirdo.

I tried to focus on the board but got lost in the scribbles everyone else seemed to understand. I passed the time by doodling on my notebook; at least it looked like I was paying attention. And then thankfully the bell rang.

Kids rushed to grab their shit and sprint to the cafeteria, pushing each other to get out the door. I watched and slowly shoved my things back into my bag. Lunch had turned into my least favorite part of the day. I usually took the half-hour to go visit Mara rather than have to face the lunchroom full of people who didn't want to look at me, let alone sit with me. Maybe Mara could make me feel better.

"Yo, Jake," a voice called to me.

I turned and found the girl looking at me.

"You going to lunch?" she asked.

"What?"

"You goin' to lunch?" she asked again like I was stupid.

"I got plans," I replied quickly.

"Sure you do," she smiled, "You can come hang with us if you want. I know you've had it rough, so you know. Not eating alone might be good for a change."

She had a gravelly voice like she had picked up smoking in elementary school. I hadn't really paid any attention to her or her friends, but I had seen her around before. I wanted to say no, I wanted to go see Mara, but someone was finally talking to me.

I found myself agreeing and following her into the hall.

"I'm Tori, by the way," she said walking towards the cafeteria, her short brown hair clipped in uneven lengths bounced as she strode away. She was wearing all black and everything looked a little too small, but she was willing to talk to me. I decided to ignore things that would have immediately turned me away from talking to her before.

We stood in the lunch line together not talking, but for the first time in a long time I didn't feel like everyone was staring at me, it was also the first time in a while I actually felt like eating. I piled chicken nuggets and fries on my tray and followed Tori out of the cafeteria. She took us through the quiet halls to a lonely corner of the school. Four others were already seated on the ground, their backs to walls or sat cross-legged in the middle of the hallway.

"Who's this?" a pink-mohawked guy asked, motioning to me with a slice of pizza.

"This is Jake," Tori said.

"Hey," I did a weird grin thing and felt immediately embarrassed. No one seemed to notice.

"I'm Cam," the guy with the mohawk said through a mouthful of pizza and pointed to a guy wearing heavier eyeliner than I had seen any of the girls wearing, "That's DJ, he thinks he's going to be a rock star."

"Whoa, hey, what do you mean think?" DJ laughed and lightly punched Cam in the shoulder, "I am going to be one."

"Yeah, okay, and I'm going to be the next Annie Liebovitz," the girl with pink hair looked as my pointedly, like I was supposed to know who that was, "Really? Nothing?"

"Umm, who?" I asked.

"Famous photographer, took the photo of Jon Lennon and Yoko Ono?" She wriggled her eyebrows at me, "Okay, wow, we gotta educate you, I'm Lil, and you've got a lot to learn."

Tori groaned and slid down the wall dropping her tray to the floor.

"Really, Lil, give the guy a break, not everyone is obsessed like you with photography," she shook a fry at Lil before dipping it in ketchup. I sat down on the floor and leaned my back against the opposing wall from Tori.

"Settle, girls. I'm Bryan," the skinniest one asked stuffing a fried chicken nugget in his mouth. His pants looked a few sizes too small while his sweatshirt looked a few sizes too big, but I was really in no place to judge, "Hey, are you the guy who was gone for like a month?"

"Uh, yeah," I muttered.

"So you really were on the streets for that long?" DJ gave an impressed low whistle.

"Uh, yeah," I said again.

"Sweet, you know I-" he started before getting cut off.

"No one gives a shit about the time you ran away in middle school, DJ," Cam laughed and chucked a piece of crust at him.

"Yeah, well," DJ said lamely, "Fuck, I don't have a good comeback."

We laughed. They talked through the lunch period, mostly inside jokes and stories I didn't get, made sure to fill me in where they could. It was weird eating with this group of friends I had never paid attention to before. I barely knew they existed before. I wondered what my old friends were doing and for a brief moment imagined myself back with them. But it felt wrong like I didn't belong with them anymore.

The bell rang again, more classes to suffer through.

"Yo, Jake," Cam nodded at me, "Meet us after school, we can hang."

I was surprised but nodded back.

"Alright, cool," he replied shaking his bangs out of his eyes, "See ya then."

I was supposed to meet Mara after school for a quick check-in, or at least that's what we called them, but decided to see what my new friends were like instead. I sent her a quick text saying something came up but was looking forward to seeing her the next day. I sent one off to my mom also, saying I was hanging out with friends for a few hours.

Cam found me a few minutes after the final bell rang.

"Sup?" he fiddled with the straps of his backpack, "You have a car here or need a ride?"

"Not today, it's in the shop." The old car had been grinding more than usual, hopefully, it wouldn't be an expensive fix.

"No worries, you can ride with me," he started walking out, "Just be warned it's real loud and rattles a bit."

I laughed.

"Can't be any worse than mine."
It was. Cam's car was so loud we couldn't hear each other so we ended up sitting in silence until we pulled up in front of a coffee shop. It squealed to a stop then was quiet as Cam took the key out.

"Well here we are," he looked apologetic, "The girls wanted to hang here for a bit, so yeah..."

The café was named Losing Lennon. Photographs of the man were plastered to the windows.

"It doesn't look that bad," I tried.

"Yeah, that's what I said the first time too," Cam grumbled and got out of the car, "It's an absolute nightmare, but Lil fuckin loves it, so here we are."

The interior of the café didn't make the outside any better. It was like a Jon Lennon shrine, photos and memorabilia hung off of every square inch of the place. Tables were crammed together in the front, leading to a more open relaxed area with couches in the back. Cam and I stopped to order drinks, even the drinks were Lennon themed and made our way back to the couches where Lil and Tori sat.

They grinned at us over tall glasses topped with whipped cream.

"DJ has band practice, but Bryan should be here soonish," Lil said then slurped her chocolaty looking drink, "So you survived Cam's deathtrap car I see?"

"Just barely," I settled down into a chair opposite her, "I think I might have lost partial hearing though."

Cam laughed and sat down as well, plopping his feet up on the coffee table between the couch and chairs.

"Welcome to Losing Lennon," Tori said with a sigh, "I only pretend to like it because they make the best oreo milkshakes."

"It's not that bad," I said unconvincingly.

"Yeah, you're not fooling anyone," Tori laughed, "This place is miserable."

We laughed. Bryan came in a few minutes later, another frothy looking drink in his hand. The afternoon flew by, I settled back into the feeling of having friends and laughing and felt almost normal, if only for a few hours. I had missed this, having friends and a hangout spot, and being part of a group. I couldn't wait to tell Mara I was improving. I was getting back to normal.