I'm just going to be completely blunt here. I do not care to give every single little detail of my daily life. I'm just going to fast forward through a lot of empty drivel for you.
After the Homecoming dance and learning about the history classroom, I stopped eating with the group completely. I didn't exactly feel like talking with people that didn't even want me there. Plus, I was able to use lunch for more reading time.
Mr. Helmstader was also a very interesting person to talk to. History was always my favorite class anyways and him and I got in many fascinating discussions about historic figures and ancient engineering. Some of the other kids in the lunch sessions started joining in. I think people enjoyed stepping away from the middle school drama and to simply be in the warm bubble talking about why the Romans were assholes.
The girls at one point did show up in the class to apologize which is fine. I was over that. After that night, I simply realized that I was trying to fit in and I never actually wanted to do that. I didn't want to talk about boys, go to illegal drinking parties, practice kissing, or spend my days talking about useless garbage.
They didn't believe me of course but in all honesty, I don't care that they didn't. They just wanted to use me as a cover up story for their parents and if that is all they wanted, they could have it. I'd play along if they wanted to. That doesn't mean I have to spend time with them though. They seemed hurt by me saying that but considering they are the ones that ditched me, I didn't think their feelings really mattered in this situation.
Lee eventually figured out where I was eating and started showing up. After all, his job is to figure out what will make me sell my soul, not talk with middle schoolers. When he showed up at first, I wasn't happy but he didn't do anything weird. He just sat down with us and casually talked about history like everyone else.
He did offer to take me to his place many times to hang out and for the most part I would say okay. Who wouldn't want to wander the halls of that gorgeous piece of architecture? He did start introducing me to wine. I do think it is better than beer but I think I'm a little to young to be drinking so I do try to stick to only one glass. He was very understanding and so instead he would introduce me to fancy tea.
I have been converted. Tea is amazing, especially the ones Lee gets. He started even bringing them to my place. My parents found my sudden obsession with tea a bit odd but eventually they started to engage in tea discussion at the dinner table. Now my father wants to plan a trip overseas to a tea farm for a summer vacation and I am not going to protest that.