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All the chicken on the menu lately has been making Edward nervous, so today he avoids the chicken and has the svedeesh meetbells. Food procured, he seats himself and opens a book, still trying to find out what went wrong.

Pippi glees when she sees the Svedeesh Meetbells! She takes quite a bit of it and grabs a Froot Coup as well.

She takes a seat. And eats with relish which is metiphorical in nature.

Blair comes in and takes a seat, pulling a bag of granola out of his backpack.

Anders, his hair wet from showering after gym class, comes in, and hey, Swedish meatballs (er, "Svedeesh Meetbells") look good, so he gets himself a hearty helping of those plus a bowl of soup, Piling all of this on a tray along with three glasses of milk, he spots Blair and slides into a seat across from him.

"Hey, dude, how's it goin'?" he asks. Then, spotting Blair's bowl of granola, he eyes his own plate and stammers, "Um. I can, like, eat somewhere else if you want?"

Blair frowned. "Why, man? Do I smell?"

Anders's eyes go wide, and he gestures vaguely at his plate of meatballs, looking guilty. "Oh, dude, that's so not what I meant. It's just, I used to be on the Pyramid team at my old school back home with this guy who was, like, way picky about his food and used to yell at me for, like, eating meat in front of him." His eyes would go even wider if it were possible, and his hands start making even more flaily gestures. "Not that, um, oh geez, dude, I'm assuming stuff and I should shut up now."

[OOC: Hi, I win at copy/pasting from Notepad. Yes.]

Blair grinned. "No man, I'm more of like a...freegan. I eat what's free! I just felt like granola today." Blair bounced happily. "It's totally cool that you're willing to adapt to those around you and stuff because a lot of people don't do that! Go ahead and enjoy your lunch!"

Anders sagged a little bit with relief, and grinned back. "Eat what's free, huh? I like that philosophy." He dug into his meatballs, then after a few bites asked, "So, you been adjusting okay to this wacky place? And hey, d'you ever meet my friend Bridge?"

Blair bounced. "I guess so, man. I don't have near as much of a problem dealing with crazy things now...so I guess that's adjusting."

"Bridge!" Blair bounced extra happily. "Yup! Bridge is great, I just saw him the other night at the Angels-got-his-body-back party."

"Lemme tell you something, dude." Anders leaned across the table on his elbows, gesturing with his fork. "Don't ever decide you're completely adjusted to this place, 'cause there's always something new and weird around the corner."

He grinned at Blair's extra-bounciness. "Yeah, he's an awesome guy. I had a feeling you two'd hit it off."

Blair leaned back, a little surprised at the fork waving and nodded. "I hear that. I met a cat who was a baron in town. It was weird, but nice."

Blair shook his head. "Whoa, man! Not like that! Bridge is cool and all and I guess he's handsome or something but there was no 'hitting off'! We're just friends!"

Anders's eyes went wide again and he dropped his fork. "Oh, dude, dude! I didn't mean it like that! I mean, not that there's, like, anything wrong with that, but yeah. So not what I meant. Just as friends, totally, I swear, that's all I meant. No offense or anything, man, didn't mean for you to take it that way."

Blair nodded. "There isn't anything wrong with it! It's just not Bridge and I! Or maybe it's Bridge or Bridge and other guys but not me and Bridge! We're just friends. Not friend friends...just...uh..Bridge and I are just guys who like to talk to each other. And I gave him a cookie. But it was a platonic cookie!"

Anders nodded back, trying to figure out how to calm Blair down before he started panicking himself. He was regretting the fork-waving, really. "Just like the cupcake Cally gave you. I totally get that, right?"

Blair nodded and sighed. "Yes! Exactly, just like Cally's cupcake!"

"Cool. We're on the same page now." Anders nodded emphatically, hoping he didn't look too relieved, and picked his fork back up before demolishing the rest of his plate of meatballs. "So how'd that party of Angel's go? I kinda missed it."

Blair bounced. "It was great, man! Loads of cookies and stuff and tons of people were there! There was someone throwing water balloons too, which was weird."

Lana comes in and sits at a table, pretending to pick at a fruit cup.

Shep skips food altogether. He hung his backpack on the back of the chair next to Lana and faceplanted into the table.

Lana looks at him with some concern. "Shep? What's wrong? Oh God, it must be really bad! You're not eating."

He lifts his head long enough to make a face at her.

"Hope you haven't eaten much yet, because I'm about to ruin your appatite rather spectacularly."

"Oh God." Lana pushes the basically untouched fruit cup away from her. "What is it?"

His face still buried in his arm on the table he mumbles, "You are sitting down, right?"

"Now you're scaring me." Lana's face has gotten very pale.

"I'm trying to brace you... are you braced?"

"Shep..."

Sitting up and fixing Lana with a 'really not amused' look, he finally says,"Remember the red-headed chick in the bar Saturday?"

"I don't think I'm *ever* likely to forget her, thank you." Lana says looking slightly green again. "Yeah, what about her?"

He tries to grin when he says, "Let's just say that she's back and making my life hell. As usual."

"What do you mean she's back - and making your life hell as usual?" Lana starts to look really upset. "Shep, you *promised* me you didn't know her."

"She promised me I didn't know her!" He's not sure that made sense, but he'll backpedal later if he has to. "She lied! She admitted it, but I don't think that's going to matter much to you... is it?"

Lana looks at him with an odd look on her face. "I don't know. I have absolutely no idea what you just said so I can't tell you if it matters or not."

His head fell back to the table with a loud *thunk*. "Thatgirlwasprofessorcreggwhogoteatenbylockerthreetwentysevenandspatheroutasateenager."

"What?"

He sat up and sighed. Over enunciating this time he said, "That. girl. was. Professor. Cregg. My. Comm 301. teacher. She. got. eaten. by. locker 327. and. was. spat. out. as. a. teenager." He thunked back into the table.

Lana stares at him. "I... that was...? In the bar...? I... Oh God. I want to die." She puts her head down on the table and covers it with her hands.

"Get a plot for two." He ran a hand through his hair. "I dragged her out in the hall yesterday and told her that she better get her ass off campus."

"You what?" Lana's eyes get very wide. "Tell me you dodn't do that!"

He isn't quite talking in one-long-word sentences any more, but it's a damn near thing. "She told me she was a Junior at some California School. I was afraid that Mountie dude was going to come by and bounce her off campus. Then she starts spouting off our history - the whatthefuckgrizzlybear, the time I had to walk her home because she was drunk and all kinds of other things. It was weird. And believe me, I've seen weird before. This was... weird!"

He stops for a second before saying some what quieter. "Then she got all... girly on me."

He looks up at the stricken expression on Lana's face.

"No! Not like that! All... 'you were talking to me like a real person instead of calling me 'ma'am' and all that crap.' What was I supposed to say to that?"

Lana shook her head. "I don't know. I... I just don't know."

She sits quietly for a moment. "I still want to die."

And another moment. "You walked her home when she was drunk?"

"Last term... ran into her coming home when I was out running, yeah."

He rubs his temples. "At least you don't have to sit in class with her every day."

"Oh God, I hadn't thought about that."

She sits quietly for another moment then half gets up out of her chair before collapsing into it again. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh God, no!"

Shep sits up startled. He can't imagine how this could be worse... wasn't sure he wanted to. "What?!"

"I have to go apologize to her." Lana looks sick again. "I mean, when she was some random person I'd - we'd - probably never see again, I could kind of let it go unless I ran into her. But Professor Cregg... You have to - Oh God, you don't think she'd fail you because of what I did, do you."

Lana starts up trying to collect all her things randomly and not succeeding in accomplishing anything.

Shep sighs. "The good news is, it's Professor Cregg. For all that she can intimidate the hell out of me, I've never seen her be unfair. She knows that what happened was as much her fault for not telling me as anything else. She seems to think we're cool. It's just hard to look at her like that... and not think of her... She's a whole different person when she's not your teacher. And she's 17. It's becoming an object lesson in sender-receiver paradigms in class."

Shep puts a hand on her arm stilling her frentetic movements. "Relax, Lana. Seriously. I'm more freaked out about what happened than she is. She probably won't even remember who you are. Maybe just as 'That girl with Shep'. I mean, seriously, it could be worse it could have been the principal in a chick's body or something.

Lana sits down again. "I don't even want to think about that last," she says with a shudder. "Okay..."

She sits for a minute. "I still have to apologize. Do you know when she has office hours? I just want to get this over with."

"I think she's in her office most of the afternoon. Let me know how it goes?"

"Yeah. I'll come by your room tonight, okay?" She gets up. "I'm gonna go right now." She hesitates, then leans in to give him a hug before heading out.

He hugs her back before dragging himself off to see what kind of insanity Sociology would offer up today.