“And then he said, ‘I can’t play because my back hurts!'” There was a chorus of laughter.
“Shut up everyone! Here he comes!”
Pau and his teammates hurriedly quieted their laughter as Dwight sauntered up to the lunch table. “What were you guys laughin’ about?” he asked, suspicion evident in his voice.
Kobe said quickly, “Jodie here just told a real good joke, didn’t you Jodie?” Jodie promptly confirmed that he had indeed told a very humorous joke.
Howard still looked wary. “So you weren’t makin’ fun of me, then?” Everybody shook their heads. “That’s good. You know how I hate bein’ made fun of.” Just as he put his tray down and began to munch on his fruit cup, he looked up at the clock with a start. “Oh dang! Mr. D’Antoni told me to come in on the lunch hour to get in some more free throw practice! I gotta split, catch you guys later.” With that, Dwight took his tray and left the cafeteria.
As soon as Dwight was out of earshot, Pau said, “Can you believe that loser? Anybody with even, like, half a brain can shoot seventy-five percent from the line. Every time he misses, he grabs his back like it hurt him so much that it messed up his form.”
“What a loser,” Kobe echoed. There were nods and “yeah”s at the table as everybody agreed with Pau’s comments.
“Look out!” Earl whispered. “Here comes that loser Robert kid. Everybody pretend not to see him!” They all suddenly appeared to be very focused on the pizza squares and chocolate milk in front of them.
“Hey guys, mind if I sit here?” Robert asked in his nerdy, nasally voice.
“How often do we have to tell you, dork? Yes, we do mind. Go take your glasses and your pimples and sit with Devin over there at the nerd table,” Pau snapped. Robert put his head down sadly and trudged over to where Devin was picking his nose by himself. “That dweeb is even less effective in the post than Dwight is.”