Walking down the loud hallway, her hand clenched tightly around the ratty strap of her shoulder bag, Emily made sure to not make eye contact with any of the teens she knew were staring at her. Every time she was around the other teens in her neighborhood she did her best to keep to herself, not wanting to interact with those she knew spoke about her behind her back.

What others say is wrong: "At least they're not saying it to your face." Why would she want them saying it behind her back rather than to her face? It's better to know people for who they are instead of being some two faced maybe friend.

Emily kept her head down. She didn't really know what it was like to have friends.

The only friend she had ever had was Matthew, the lonely boy back in Italy who made her feel welcome, but after her mother had received a new assignment back in the state, she barely ever heard from the other teen.

Hearing her name, the ambassador's daughter let her eyes snap up to a small group of girls near the lockers toward the science wing. The saw her eyes look over to them and immediately the girl with her dark makeup flinched, seeing them almost fall back into their locker doors. Were they scared of her or disgusted?

Did it really matter? Either way, they wanted nothing to do with her.

"She was pregnant?"

The words from the blond cheerleader had Emily's heart falling into her stomach, and she quickly walked away from the group and down toward the cafeteria. She could feel her eyes stinging, and she brought her long sleeves up to wipe the tears away before they messed up her makeup.

Her mother hadn't even known about her pregnancy. How did her new school know?

Shuffling down the back stairwell, the sixteen year old girl did her best to stay away from everyone else and make her way to the cafeteria. The cooks back at home had made her lunch for the first two weeks at the new school, but finally Emily had talked them into giving the food they were to prepare for her to the local food bank so she could try the meals her school made for everyone else.

Looking into her back and searching for her lunch money, the brunette not paying attention to where she was going, she slammed into the back of another student, hearing whatever they had been occupied with clatter to the ground.

"Are you ok?"

The question went unheard to the meek sixteen year old, her big eyes looking up to the unfamiliar boy. When she didn't answer, he took a quick moment to bend down and pick up the phone that he had dropped.

Emily's dark eyes widened as she watched the older boy check his phone for any damages. "I'm so sorry. It's not broken, is it?"

"All good," he smiled, noticing the younger girl immediately averting her eyes. "Are you ok?"

She jerkily nodded her head. "Just a klutz," she shrugged, her cheeks heating up at the laugh that came from the older boy.

"Are you headed to the lunch line?"

When Emily quietly nodded her head the high school boy gestured for her to walk in front of him. He watched as the younger girl slowly stepped in front of him and he smiled. "What's your name?" When her body froze, the teenage was quick to offer up his. "I'm Aaron."

The ambassador's daughter kept her eyes from those of the older boy. "Emily," she said softly.

"Are you new?"

She could feel people staring at her as they passed the line. Her hands went back to the strap of her bag, clutching it tightly as she moved her eyes to the food the school cooks were putting on trays. "Two weeks," she supplied. "Just moved here."

Aaron frowned, wanting the girl with dark red lips to turn back around and look at him.

"You?"

"I've lived here for a few years," he almost smiled. "It's pretty nice. I'm sure you've met a bunch of other students already."

Emily shrunk under the teenager's gaze, moving forward in the lunch line.

The girl's quiet nature had Aaron somewhat confused, but what intrigued him was the way she was handling herself. She couldn't be older than he was, but she was doing her best not to hide her fear of the older boy and the others around her. "Have you been to anything the school has done this week?"

It was homecoming week, and every day was another event. Today was their school football game after the volleyball tournament that would go on during the last few period of the day, and tomorrow would be their homecoming dance.

Emily finally looked back to Aaron and slowly shook her head.

"Why not?" He could tell it would be pulling teeth with the quiet girl if he wanted to get her to talk. "I swear it's fun," he laughed, watching as she tried to smile back at him.

Hearing the cafeteria lady call to them, the ambassador's daughter quickly took the last tray of spaghetti and handed over her money. "Thanks," she nodded, moving around the older boy to try and find a table for herself. "I'll think about it."

He watched her practically sprint away from him, and he couldn't help but feel a tinge of hurt hit him. Taking the next tray and handing his money to the cashier, Aaron made his way over to the small salad bar their school had put in a month earlier and watched as the interesting girl sat by herself at the table in the corner, smushing herself in between the windows and the wall.

He could see how she almost collapsed into herself as she ate her food, paying no attention to the others around her and keeping her head down.

Slowly, the older teenager walked across the cafeteria floor and stood before the ambassador's daughter.

Emily could sense a shadow blocking the light she had been looking at her vegetables with and slowly lifted her head. "Hi," she whispered, noticing him staring down to her. She immediately felt uncomfortable; did he see her scars? Did he come over to make fun of her?

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

The brown eyed girl licked the sauce from her lip, slowly sitting up in her seat.

Aaron tried to smile to the younger girl. "I don't have to, but if you don't mind I'd like to keep talking to you."

Emily was confused. Hesitating for only a second, the older boy took that as an initiation to sit himself down across from the brunette. "Why?"

"Why what?"

Emily's head shook. "Did you hear the rumors about me or something?" she asked the boy quietly, already noticing people staring because Aaron had taken the liberty of sitting himself down. "I'm sorry, but I really don't need to be made fun of right now."

The look of sadness in the brunette's eyes had Aaron yearning to reach out and at least touch her hand, give her some sense of sympathy. "I haven't heard anything about you."

Normally a sentence like that would have insulted someone, but Emily found herself feeling lighter at the look of sincerity the older boy held in his eyes. Slowly nodding her head, Emily looked back down to her spaghetti.

He could see Emily shrinking back into herself. Reaching forward, he offered her the soda he had gotten from the vending machine the period before.

Emily looked up, her brow raised.

"You don't have a drink," he shrugged.

"Now you don't either."

Aaron cracked a smile. "I'll live." Looking down to the tray he had gotten, he picked the bun off of his cheeseburger and dipped the meat into the ketchup on the side. "So where are you from?"

Emily watched the older boy with curious eyes. "Born in New York."

The older boy's eyes widened. "Wow. I heard that city is supposed to be insane," he laughed, seeing his new friend trying to give him a smile. "How was it?"

"I don't really remember." Seeing the other teen's confusion, the ambassador's daughter sat forward in her seat. "We moved from New York when I was three. My mother got a job transfer." It wasn't a complete lie.

"So where were you before you moved here?"

Emily bit her lip. "East," she nodded, looking down to the soda she had finally taken from the center of the table and opening the can. "Far east."

Aaron took the vague answer with a grain of salt. Biting down into his burger, the teenager who had just gotten a spot on the football team sent the new girl a smile. "So the homecoming football game is tonight. Do you want to come?"

Emily cursed herself as she froze up again.

"Are you ok?"

"No yeah," she breathed. "I'm fine." Taking a huge sip of the sugary drink, the brunette girl could feel the chemicals start to gnaw away at the enamel on her teeth, and somehow that feeling was more enjoyable than the one she got from talking to the older boy. They always had ulterior motives. "I've never been to a football game."

Aaron grinned. "Well this will be a good first. We always win against Bayside," he whispered, taking pride in the smile he got back. "I'm on the team so I won't be able to watch with you, but I'm sure my friend JJ would love to meet you."

Emily shifted in her chair.

"And then we have a party afterward, if you'd like to go to that too."

The girl with dark liner painted around her eyes was quick to shake her head. That was too much too soon.

Aaron could see she was close to going silent again and he tried to sit back in his chair and give her room. "Ok, how about just the football game?"

Her teeth ran over the red of her bottom lip mulling the idea over in her head. She was sure if she went to the game, a lot of the others there would focus on her instead of the game and that wasn't something she was comfortable with. On the other hand, if she were to not go to the game she'd be back at home trying to have a conversation with one of the maids.

"Ok."

Aaron grinned. "Really?"

Emily tried not to seem insecure at the question. "Do you want me to change my mind?" she chuckled humorlessly.

"No, of course not." Looking over to the clock above the salad bar, the football player grimaced. "I have to go, I'm tutoring a freshman in ten minutes. But why don't you come back to the school at seven, ok? The game starts at seven-thirty, and I can introduce you to JJ before I go out on the field."

The brown eyed girl watched as her new friend packed up his belongings and took a final bite of his food, and she could feel her stomach wrapping itself up around something hot. She could feel something within her tightening, whatever it was making her stomach turn. "Thank you."

The quiet words barely made it to Aaron's ears. Instead of answering back, he gave her a smile, leaving her to contemplate the best moment of her day.