I kept my eyes off the new girl after having said my brief piece on the matter, certain that the others would voice similar concerns and queries. I doubted any of them would make a move to kick her out, it sort of went against what I assumed to be the point of why we were all here. After all, if we kicked out and shunned someone from out cliqueless existence, wouldn't that make us no different from the cliques, or a clique as well? Either way, I had no more opinions on the matter and was content to go about my business, eating my rabbit food and piping in with a bit of sardonic humor when the need called for it.

And the next thing I knew there was a whisper in my ears and a pair of lips on my cheek. 

To put matters into perspective, not even my grandparents do that, none of my family does. We're a hugging family. It's not that I'm uncomfortable...not necessarily...okay, that's maybe stretching the truth.Uncomfortable isn't a synonym for shocked, but stunned is. Stunned. I was stunned, almost literally in fact. Sure, it wasn't a kiss you see the more...involved couples do behind the staircases or in the library stacks where they think we can't see them (oh, the stories I have about the library stacks) but it was still something personal. To me, anyway. I'm not a very physical person in any sense of the word, and here was this stranger who sauntered over and got very much inside my personal space all to play it for a laugh. 

I'm almost certain my cheeks went as red as Alena's hair just from the sheer bravado on display. 

After the cheek kiss I lifted my eyes towards Alena just in time to see her reaction. One thing I admired about Alena was how she handled her relationship and the preferences that that entailed. Given the culture present in the walls of this fine educational establishment it was probably for the best that she wasn't walking around doing public displays of affection, but just being able to casually mention to the new girl her lack of a date and earlier when she playfully flirted with Sarah - was that flirting, I'm not really sure - takes guts. I wonder which takes more guts, playing a sport like hockey or showing up to a dance with another female. 

Regardless, as I saw the expression on Alena's face I couldn't help but grin. Yes, I was still quite shocked, shocked into silence even, but seeing the raised eyebrow and the subtle color change was worth it. If ever it was possible for a jock to be jealous of one lower on the social totem pole, this had to be it. 

"Careful, Alena, I'm not sure the visitor picked up on your oh-so-subtle introduction." This time I smiled after the comment. Now it was funny, teasing. "At least you didn't bury the lead." 

In an unprecedented gesture, I close my study material. Suddenly I'm a bit more interested in this lunch period. 

"But for posterity's sake, I'm just going to go ahead and say that I was right about red heads." 

That probably went without saying at this point.