The More The Better

It is 10:30 on a Wednesday when I walked in to the food court, and the smell of greasy, but delicious food greeted me. The sweet smell of tacos, quesadillas and burritos was in the air, and everyone had the look of hungry wolves waiting to devour their meal.

I took a seat in an empty table and started observing the people. I tried to look as normal as possible, but when you constantly stare at people for a whole hour it gets creepy, and people start to give me annoyed looks. I did not let it bother me, since I was the one who was gathering data from them, and not the other way around.

The place was full of students from all ages who had just gotten out of classes. Apparently everyone was getting their breakfast at this hour. I imagine the majority woke up late for class and did not have time to eat early.

Everyone was seated in groups of two or three people and were talking quietly among themselves, some even paying more attention to their food than to their friend next to them. I saw nothing unusual about them.

There was this particular group that caught my attention, they were a group of three boys and one girl: Pancho, Carlos, Pepe and Risitas; just by looking at them I knew they were Mexican. They acted very different from the other people there. They looked a little bit more friendly and open than the others because they were the loudest and funniest people there. Risitas laughed for everything they guys said. They could be heard from the whole place. Apart from being the loudest, they also were the ones who kept laughing over and over.

A few minutes later two girls and a boy arrived at the place. They immediately approached that group and said hello. Immediately they pulled three available chairs from other tables, and the seven squeezed themselves to all fit in a table that was meant for four people. It did not look very comfortable, but they did not mind squeezing themselves, in fact they seemed to enjoy seating like that. This also caught my attention because the biggest group apart from them were of three people, and they did not act the way they did.

Now that their group got bigger, the louder they got. They laughed for whatever story one of the girls was telling them, and all of them got along very well. Their voices clouded out any other noise. There was not a time they stopped talking. They were even sharing their food, eating from the same plate and biting front the same burrito. They were so entertained by their conversation that they did not notice that I was staring at them for the whole time. I do not know how they could not feel my stare, but I am glad they did not notice. I was very entertained by just watching them.

After an hour passed, all of them got up and left as group. Outside they separated each going a different way to their classes, but I am sure that once they had another opportunity they were going to hang out again.