An Unintended Followup

[Sunar Chugani]

Halloween was fast approaching. 

Sunar was excited. Finally, for the first year ever Dev had agreed to go to one of the school dances -- okay, they'd only known one another for three years, but still. He thought that getting his friend to come was a victory. 

Every morning he awoke and smiled as he looked around his dorm room at the decorations he and his friends had set up, and every day as he went about his schooling he thought about Halloween. He had most of his costume at this point, and he was slowly working on painting a large pair of wings he'd bought from the costume store. He needed to buy some hair dye, but that was really it. 

Only the details remained. 

He was consumed with thoughts of Halloween as he marched into the cafeteria. He thought about Halloween as the lunch staff flung a flat looking cheese pizza on his plate beside some string beans. 

He was so focused on Halloween that he almost walked right past Paul -- but as he passed the other student his mind slowly caught up to his eyes, and he paused and turned. 

"Hey! Blind Date!" He greeted the other boy, and dropped down into the seat beside him as he asked, "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

[Paul Wilkerson]

It was that time of year again. Halloween. Houses had put up their Halloween decorations. Even Paul had helped his dad put some decorations in their yard. At school Paul could still feel the Halloween vibe. Talk about the Halloween was on most of the students' minds. As for Paul the dance wasn't. Simply because Paul didn't have someone to go with. Most people have dates or a group of friends to hang out with. It would be pretty pathetic for Paul to show up by himself. He plans were to scare unsuspecting trick-o-treaters on Halloween.

Paul entered the cafeteria and went to find a seat. He sat and unzipped his lunchbox. Even though he told his mom that he was going to get school lunch today. She still packed a lunch for him. In some ways Paul shouldn't complain about it. He was lucky that his mom made lunches for him. Many students' families lived out of state and don't get a home cooked meal from mom. Or dad. Whoever does the cooking in their family.

Paul stabbed the straw into the juice box. Paul finished the juice. He then opened the container with left over mac and cheese and dug in.

"Hey! Blind Date!"

Paul almost choked on his food. He looked up with a spoonful of mac and cheese in his mouth. Sunar. Paul chewed what was in his mouth. "No. Go ahead." Paul mentally slapped himself for being surprise to see Sunar. They two went to the same school, so of course they would see each other. He absent mindlessly stabbed his food until Paul thought of something to say. "How are you?"

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar seemed not to notice Paul's reaction to his appearance and self-invitation. Instead he focused his attention on his pizza, which was not quite as delicious as pizza ought to be, but was passable enough for a hungry student. 

At the question he glanced over, but instead of answering he furrowed his brow and gestured with his half-eaten pizza, "Dude! Do you get your lunches ordered or something?" 

Then he realized that maybe he should answer the question, and he added, "I'm great! Super stoked for Halloween, what about you? Do you have a good costume? Wait, no, is it secret? Don't tell me if it's secret."

And he took another bite of pizza.