Act 1 | Chapter 4

A couple of hours later, I found myself sitting down at my usual lunch table. I always sat more towards the back of the cafeteria with Riley. It was always just us at the table, as no one ever bothered to sit down with us. To be fair though, the tables can range from four people to eight. Depends on the size of the table you sit at, and for us, it was four. I unclipped the lunchbox from my backpack and began pulling out the contents inside. I always pulled out my napkins first and laid them out in front of me. It's a habit I have from when we had to do it back in the first and second grade, and I just never really grew out of it. After that, I took out my sandwich and started eating it, while I took out the rest of the food. The school only gave us about half an hour to eat lunch before the next wave of students comes through, so I always tried to manage my time while eating.

"Hey, Zoe!" Riley said, sitting next to me. She put her bag down beside her and pulled out her own lunch. She too had made a sandwich, but it wasn't well made. When I glanced over to her and waved, I was able to see that she was breathing heavily. It makes sense because she has gym class right before lunch, so Riley always had an appetite. Her hair was damp, meaning she most likely took a quick shower in the locker rooms before the hour ended. She didn't do a good job drying it from the looks of it, but that's also normal. Riley never really cared about her appearance or how she looks to others. I wish I could be the same, not having to worry about constantly keeping my skin smooth and clean.

"Hey, how's your day been so far?" I asked her, taking another bite into my lunch.

"Pretty good. History was boring as always. How about you?"

"Well, art was fun as always. Oh, we also started learning about Inverse trigonometric functions in precalc."

"You are such a nerd." She chuckled and ate her lunch. "How was... how was Maria today?" Riley asked me in a change of mood. She glanced over to her table, which was unfortunately close to ours. I took a moment to think of a response, but couldn't come up with anything clever.

"A... bitch as always." There was a soft thump against my forehead, and a small ball of crumpled up paper fell before me. It had come over from Maria's table, and I glanced over at them, frowning. The girls at the table all looked away and pretended like they didn't do anything, but I had already spotted them. I knew they threw it at me unless there was some random chance it was from another table and it just so happened to hit my forehead. After picking up the paper and unfolding it, I read the message that was written inside, and it was exactly what I was expecting. 'Your art is shit' The paper readout.

"What does it say?" Riley asked, trying to take a glance over at it. Quickly, I crumpled the paper back up in my fist and shook my head.

"Nothing."

"Come on, lemme see." She held her hand out and tried reaching for it. Riley stared at me, making a face insisting for me to give it to her. I couldn't say no. Slowly, I handed the paper back over to her, and Riley unfolded it. She glanced at it and sighed. Just like me, Riley crumpled the paper up and stood from her seat. She walked over to Maria's table and did something I honestly wasn't expecting her to do. She grabbed Maria's shirt and pushed her out of her seat, onto the hard tiled ground.

"Hey!" She practically screamed, "What did I do?"

"You leave Zoey the hell alone, Maria. I'm tired of your shit."

I couldn't help but gasp at the act of 'violence'. Riley shouldn't drag herself into this, she just shouldn't. As she approached our table and sat back down, I looked over to her with a shocked expression.

"What?" She asked, turning her head to look at me.

"Why did you do that?"

"She was bothering you, wasn't she? I wasn't gonna just sit and watch you get bullied by her."

"Okay, but now she is going to come after you too."

"And what's she gonna do? Sue me for protecting my friend?" Riley frowned.

"I- I don't know." I glanced back down at my food and shook my head. "But I don't want her coming after you too, Riley."

"You don't have to worry about me." She gave me a small smile. I could already see that Maria was scorning the two of us, as she talked with her friends.

"A-Alright." I gave Riley a nervous expression and went back to eating.

The bell rang a couple of minutes later. I had already folded my napkin over the rest of my trash and tossed it away into one of the several grey bins around the cafeteria.

"I'll see you in class in a bit, I gotta go use the toilet," Riley said, standing up, and patting my shoulder. I nodded and clipped my lunchbox back onto my backpack, before putting it back on and walking over to the exit. However, as I reached the cafeteria's exit, I was stopped by Maria and her friends. Taking a few steps back, I stared at the group of them.

"What?"

"Tell your friend to stop accusing Maria of harassment." One of them spoke up. It was Hannah Bolton, one of the school's cheerleaders, and probably one of the biggest sluts I have met in my entire life. Snobby, rich, and a complete pain in the ass.

"W- What?" I tilted my head, "But she is harassing me." My eyes shifted over to Maria, who was standing behind her wall of friends, eyeing me down.

"You heard her." Maria spoke up, "Tell your friend to stop harassing me, or else." She growled and turned to walk to class. I stood there and watched the group leave. They blended into the crowd of students as they walked through the halls, but I knew they were all monsters in their own way.

"Hey, Zoey!" Riley called out to me. She was walking up from behind. Well, it was more like running up to me from behind, instead of walking. "What did they say to you?"

"She saw that? Great."

"Nothing. Just for you to leave Maria alone."

"They didn't say 'or else', right?"

"No."

Riley sighed and gave me a small nod of reassurance.

"Alright, I'll leave her be. But if she does anything to you again, I'll go past shoving."

"Please don't." I frowned and walked down the hall with her.

"They've gotta stop sometime, be it by force or persuasion."

"Hopefully in a way where no one is hurt."

There was a short pause before Riley gently tapped my shoulder with her own.

"I'm kidding. I don't wanna get expelled. Mum would kill me if she knew I got in trouble again."

"Yeah, and I don't wanna see you in trouble again."