Why was this so hard?

  Drew looked around the lunchroom. His tray was nearly shaking in his hands as he tried to figure out where to sit. His eyes kept on scanning the room like he was looking for someone. But whoever it was, wasn’t there.

  For that matter, Drew didn’t recognize a single person in the entire room. How was that possible? It was the second quarter of school. Even though he hadn’t made any friends yet, he should at least recognize some of the kids from his classes, right?

  Oh. Right. He had just transferred into this new middle school. Even worse, since he was in sixth grade he was already right back at the bottom of the school’s food chain. How had he forgotten that?

  Whatever. It didn’t matter. He just needed to pick someone to sit by who looked like someone who could be Drew’s friend. That’s all he needed to do right now. He could figure out why it felt like he was having a permanent brain fart later. Like during history or something.

  The good news was, even though he didn’t recognize anyone specifically, it was pretty easy to tell what group of people belonged. The sporty boys were over there talking about their game last night. Definitely Drew’s people. Of course, there were the perky girls.

  Drew’s brain finally pinged, and he recognized someone. Annabelle Cormack. The ringleader and worst of the perky girls, who for some reason Drew was utterly flabbergasted about, had fallen madly in love with him. She was waving at him and trying to direct him to the open seat next to her which she had just shoved another girl out of. Definitely not.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Which left table number three. The table was almost full, but there was an open spot in the middle. Drew walked over and sat down before he could think about it too much. The entire table turned to stare at him.

  “What are you humming?” The boy next to him asked.

  Drew blinked at him. Had he been humming? He might have been. He did that sometimes when he was worrying about something. He usually didn’t even notice he was doing it. So he probably had been.

  “Uh,” Drew glanced around the table, everyone was still staring at him. Apparently they were very interested in the answer to this question. “Just a song that got stuck in my head.”

  “Really?” The boy asked. “I like a lot of music and that didn’t sound familiar. What song was it?”

  “Oh, I know this one!” The boy across the table from Drew grinned. “It’s called, the Ballad of the Dorks.”

  The entire table laughed. Drew forced a smile on his face, and laughed along with them.

  How could he have been so stupid? What sort of dork just starts humming randomly when he sits down at the lunch table? How could he possibly make friends when he was like this?

  The conversation moved on around him. No one really paid any attention to him. Which was perfectly fine with him. He could just go ahead and eat his pizza in peace. Not bothering anyone. Eil help him, he was useless.

  Wait, who or what was Eil?

  The lunchbell rang, jarring Drew out of his thoughts. Great. Time for art class. That wouldn’t have been a bad thing if Annabelle hadn’t been in that class with him. Drew quickly scrambled up from the table, and put his tray away. He grabbed his backpack and headed for the art room. He forced himself not to hum as he went.