I don't own anything in this story, except the idea and plot. And it might seem odd, but only cause it's really late where I am. R&R please? What do you think?

Stella's POV

I have to admit; fourth grade isn't as fun as the upper grade kids told us last year. So far I got separated from my friends, my best friend moved to Canada, and I'm still sitting with a table full of... dumbos. Also known as boys. I swear they're the worst things in this school. So far they pushed me into a mud puddle, stole my lunch, and from what I heard dared Carl Shoester to pour pudding in my Penelope Peach Pit Purse. In other words, fourth grade stinks.

It was lunch time and, once again, my lunch was stolen by my "bully buddy", Adrian. I sat alone at the table, New Jersey sunshine in my eyes. Nobody bothered to sit with my. They thought I was an emotional girl since my friends left and really strange. That and they didn't wanna get picked on too. I looked at my stomach, which growled with hunger in response. All of a sudden laughter filled the silence three tables ahead of me. I looked up to find a boy standing up with shock on his face.

The boy had long shaggy, black hair covering his eyes which were a dark brown color. His gray collared shirt was unbuttoned partly the stain of chocolate milk streaked across it and dripped on his black jeans. He was pretty tall for a fourth grader, and plenty frustrated with the stain. I ran over to him, pushing past my laughing classmates. I am not letting him leave the building like that. At least under my watch.

"Follow me." He grabbed my hand and did as told, the sound of laughter disappearing behind us. We ran to the water fountain. Once there, I took out some tissues while he stared at his shirt.

"Oh man. My mom is gonna kill me since she just bought this shirt yesterday," I heard him say. I handed him a tissue.

"Start dabbing it before it settles in," I instructed. He followed orders without saying a word. Somehow I knew what to do and use when these situations happen. Weird huh?

"Thanks for not laughing at me" he said as I helped him clean his shirt and pants. "Everyone else isn't as nice to me. Or as pretty." I smiled and replied, "Thanks. Uh, what's your name?"

"Joseph Lucas. Joe for short. My brothers call me Danger due to crazy and dangerous things I do. My mom calls me Joe-bear but don't tell anyone please?"

"Sure. So why do they make fun of you?" Joe pondered at question for a while before replying.

"I'm not sure; probably because I'm the odd-one-out with my straight black hair since my bros have brown curly hair, but I've been raised right like a gentleman and I've been taught to not let things get to my head." I smiled at him again as we finished cleaning his shirt and pants. There's just something different about him that I like. Yup. Definitely good different. Once we finished cleaning out the disaster, we started walking back to the buildings. It was quiet between us, until he spoke up.

"Hey you never told me your name," Joe mentioned

I said, "Oh, I'm Estella Marie Carla Malone. Stella for short." All of a sudden, two kids with similar brown, curly hair came running up to us once we reached the tables.

"Joe there you are, we've been looking everywhere for you. I was about to go with Kevin's theory of being abducted by aliens," the younger one said, then looked at me. The other one, who I'll assume is Kevin, turned his head and looked at me too.

"You found a girl on the ship," Kevin asked, the groaned as Nick smacked him on the head. Wow.

"I'm Stella," I introduced myself, "Sorry, I had to help your brother clean a chocolate milk stain off his shirt. I better get back to the tables and starve. It's been nice meeting you guys." I started to walk off when I heard Joe yell, "Do you wanna come sit with us? I have an extra sandwich with me." I hesitated before turning around. Joe held up a sandwich, smiling at me. Nick and Kevin motioned for me to come over. I gave in and passed the bullies with my head up and sat with the Lucas brothers.

I think this is gonna be the start of an interesting friendship.