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"Sorry again about the coffee," I apologizedelse inelse

With one giant exception

"No worries," he replied without even a smile before the door was shut onwith Kenna in the office

That was honestly a first for, I needed a break from the world of acade forward to lunch Seriously, there was nothingschool well after everyone else and facing the death chamber known as the lunch roo about the food

I was pretty sure I would have preferred lethal injection

Or at least the laed you there at lunch In fact, lunch usually came in the form of an assortment of rainbow colored pills in Dixie cups

Mmmm Delicious

I had no friends at my school- none Exie and Sloane, the only people in my life I could use that term even loosely with, went to private school Why? Because theirof a word, but they cared more about their reputation than life experience, unlike uys I had dated, or used or whatever But girls in general hatedex-boyfriends for friendship instead of uys and I didn’t have the patience to deal with that

But I hated feeling intih to face my fears So I took a deep breath and stepped into the stale s cafeteria and hoped for the best

The best beingit to the end of the period alive

And with no more food spills or stains on ot in line immediately so I could scope out the roo up my tray with various healthy options, like an apple and bottled water Lunch could not getthan that…

"Hey," Chase ca me a bit

"Hey," I offered back and then resettled the bottle of water I had tipped over in ether"

"Looks like it," he s with interest

Ok… so et it

What was going on with theoffice attendant then?

"Where are you sitting?" I paid forthe cheese fries I h school cafeteria; they were going to be awful Still… they didn’t look awful, they didn’t smell awful and they’re nearly neon yellow processed cheese topping practically had ?" Chase looked down at ave into the cravings that were hauntingfor it as I followed hih the lunchroom It wasn’t cheese fries, but I hoped it would at least tide ht so I had a super yummy bare as could be salad to look forward to

Yum Lettuce

A fresh wave of utter hatred for my life washed overlance back at the cheese fries

"I’reasy, fattening food I wasn’t alloithin s distance of

Exie and Sloane were sojunk food than ive up virtually anything that couldn’t be bought in a hundred calorie snack pack, I decided my very first purchase with my trust fund would be a candy bar Ok, probably it would be a plane ticket, but then definitely a candy bar

Maybe two

I eso

I followed Chase to his table, nearly groaning at howto be an interesting lunch

We wedged in between two of his friends I knew they were friends because of the guy fist pu they did e approached and how they scooted out of his way so we could sit down on the narrow bench seat

"Ivy Pierce?" The guy sitting next to me asked all surprised and shocked

"Yep," I nodded, peeling open the wrapper of ranola bar I realized then that if the entire table kept staring atto be able to eat any ofback, like ever," he so eloquently explained his disbelief

"Well, I’m here," I clarified shyly

I was not shy Actually the farthest thing fro with the feral attraction the boys at this table atching me as a mixture of astonish and I kind of just wanted to find a quiet place and die

That wasn’t too much to ask for was it?

"So they wouldn’t let you transfer to another district?" A snotty girl from across the table asked innocently I knew boys, but I knewbrown eyes watched me with excited anticipation and I could al in the air

I just shook my head

"Oh, they didn’t want you either, then," she sighed with irls around her tittered away their approval of her joke and I shrunk into Chase, using hiainst the open hostility

Last year I would have snapped back with so that was both witty and cruel I would have easily put her in her place by si away at whatever façade of self-esteeue her for years to come I would have shut off every euilt and acted in the way I was raised to I would have made my mother proud

But since nowadays I could barely look atfor Alares She was right after all; no other district would let me transfer into their school Not even et me in I mean, that was a lot of fear and rejection

"Geez, Aly at my persecutor

"What? It’s the truth," Amber narrowed her eyes on me She was really pretty with her short rich brown bob with red highlights Her face was pixie-like with a cute nose and full lips underneath her huge eyes She was definitely pretty enough to get all the attention of the boys at this table She shouldn’t have had to fight me for it anyway

But she did

We both knew it