The morning went past in a blur. Professor Giles was stern and to the point but all in all was a great teacher. I felt like my hand was going to fall off from all the notes I wrote during his history lessons. Finally, lunch arrives and my stomach growls after the bell rings.
"Did you bring anything?" Natalie asks me as she shoves her books into her purse.
"No," I reply quietly.
"Come with me then, I'll show you the cafeteria."
She takes my hand and leads past the students who chose to remain in the classroom and hallways. We descend the stairs and she takes me down another hallway and through two heavy doors. Before me resides a row of tables and large windows decorate the eastern wall allowing light from the outside brighten the large area. Many of the tables are filled with students eagerly shoving food into their faces. A buffet resides on the other side with students lining up and dishing a variety of different foods.
I follow Natalie to the line and both of us serve up whatever looks good. I settle for chips, a sandwich, and a soda. Natalie directs me towards a table near the windows and we both take a seat. A few of the people sitting at the table smile and wave at her and she mirrors the gestures.
She returns her focus to me and plops a french fry into her mouth before speaking, "Since you're new here, there's some rules you need to know."
"I'm listening," I say as I munch down into my sandwich.
"Rule one: Giles is off limits. He may be single, but no one is allowed to touch that. Not to mention he could lose his job if he got caught with a student. Even though so many of us wish we could see what's under that suit and tie."
Professor Giles was attractive but he was my teacher. I couldn't look at him any other way. "Got it," I say after swallowing my bite of food.
"Secondly, everyone, and I mean everyone, knows about the princes of the school. They're the most popular students of this school. Most of them have rich parents, or parents who own the school and sponsor many of the programs. You do not want to become enemies with them. They can either make your life here a paradise or hell."
I froze mid-bite of my sandwich. "So basically, I have to grovel to these guys to get them to like me?"
"Well, you don't have to suck up to them unless you want to, but you don't want to get on their bad side at least."
"Who are these people?"
Natalie eyes the crowd around us then sucks in a breath as though spotting something. "Behind you," she says quietly and I turn to find a group of boys walking into the cafeteria. A boy with raven colored hair strides in first, his shoulders tall and his head held high. Everyone pause their meals as they all turn to watch this guy. He keeps his dark eyes forward, three men following behind him.
One of them has glasses and short brown hair walks to the right of the man in the middle. The one to the left I recognize as Sid from this morning. Behind them is a boy with hair the color of chocolate hanging over the left side of his face. He looks almost bored.
Natalie taps my arm and I look away to find her shifting her eyes between me and the group of boys. "The one in the middle if Byron, or otherwise known as the King of the School. His father is the owner of this school and the Stein Group. The one on the right is Albert. He's a longtime friend of Byron. Anywhere he goes, Albert is there beside him. Sid is the one on the left. He's a bit more open than the other two and always throws parties in his dorm on the weekends. He's extremely popular. Then, there's Rayvis behind them. He's more quiet and keeps to himself and tends to be more independent. He follows the group around, seeing as he grew up with them all, but usually you'll find him reading a book in the library alone. One time, my friend tried to ask him if he wanted to study and he said he preferred to study alone. No one really knows much about him, other than he's mysterious."
I turned my gaze to the group as they found an empty table and took a seat. Food already rested on trays there and a young man with rose-colored hair greeted them. "Who is he?" I asked.
"The shorter one is Nico. He's Byron's half brother but not too many people bring attention to it. I guess the papers reported that Byron's father had an affair with one of his secretaries in the past and compensated the woman well. She passed away due to illness when he was little and the Wagoner family took him in despite Byron's mother being displeased over it."
"Wow," I murmured. I knew the school had important people but I had no idea who.
A table near us broke into laughter and both Natalie and I turn to find a group of boys messing around. "There's another one for you," she says.
I look at her and she gestures towards the table. "The one with the brown hair is Alyn. He's the captain of the soccer team and almost every girls wants to be with him. His nickname is 'Heartbreaker Crawford'. Every girl who's confessed have never been reciprocated. As far as I've known, he's never had a girlfriend and puts soccer first, saying girls only distract him. Talk about commitment."
My eyes spot the boy she's talking about only to have my heart stop. The boy from this morning who I ran into sits in the middle of the table laughing with his friends who I assume are his teammates. Of all the people I ran into today, it had to he him.
"Why?" I moan and rest my forehead on my hand.
"Sera?" Natalie says quietly. "Are you sick?"
"No," I sigh. "It's just that this morning I might have ran into Alyn on my way to the classroom."
"Really?"
"It was embarrassing," I say and pick at my chips.
"Did he say anything?"
An image of him delivering my phone to me flashes in my mind. "Not really."
"Well that's good. Sometimes he can be pretty blunt and rude. He's honest at least. His brother on the other hand is a total flirt and compliments everyone. Total opposites."
"Who is his brother?"
Natalie points to another table near the back and I look over to see a group of girls and a couple guys chatting. "That one in the middle is Leo. He's Alyn's brother. Always the center of attention when it comes to girls. He's practically dated almost all the girls here, myself included. Though, none of us last more than a week. Longest I saw was Ashley and they dated for two. You missed the drama when that break up happened."
My eyes focus on the boy and I recognize him as my tour guide and the boy who winked at me earlier. "I see," I say. So his flirting with me and my mother was just show. I guess that's just how he is.
"He's really smart though and tutors most of the students who seem to not quite get a passing grade in many subjects. I guess that's why he's Class Rep too. He's almost in his own ranking of king of the school beside Byron. There's a rumor last year most of the girls voted on who was better. I never did hear the results though," Natalie says with a small frown. "I really wanted to know."
She continues talking about I drown her out as I look around me at the students known as the 'princes'. What kind of school was this?
I continue my survey of the cafeteria when I notice a boy sitting alone at a table a few feet away from us. He's reading a book, his face resting against the knuckles of his right hand. His pale-blonde hair hangs over his face and I watch as he tucks a loose strand behind his ear as he continues to read.
"Who is that guy?" I ask pointing towards the boy.
"Oh, that's Louis. He's new like you. Doesn't really interact with anyone. He shares a room with Sid who likes to pick on him. A few girls tried getting close to him and he just brushed them off coldly. No one tries to talk to him anymore."
Something inside me felt a connection to this Louis guy. If it wasn't for Natalie, I'd probably be sitting alone too. "I'll be right back," I say and rise from my seat. I feel eyes on me as I approach the empty table and sit across from Louis.
Blue eyes rise and I remember them glaring at me this morning as I took my sweet time walking to the school. They narrow at me, his lips in a terse line. "Can I help you?"
"Hi," I say. "I'm Sera."
"Can I help you?" He repeats.
"Would you like to come eat with my friend and I?" I ask.
He looks at me for a moment before glancing back at his book. "No."
"Well, the offer is there," I say and rise from my seat. Eyes watch me and I hold my head high as I return to Natalie. Her eyes widen as I take my seat at the table.
"What was that?" She says.
"Just a friendly invitation. Nobody should eat alone."
"But he chose to be like that."
"So," I say and shove a chip into my mouth. "I just thought I'd be nice since we're both new. It'd be nice to make more friends."
"Ookay," Natalie says confused.
I smile to myself, knowing full well that boy will eventually open up and he'll make at least one friend before school ends.