Nothing Personal

Knives and New Friends

Aside from the 'incident', school didn't seem so bad...for the first three periods. Easy subjects: English, Physical Sciences and Mathematics. Of course I had to restrain myself in Mathematics. The work they did was quite easy and I actually found myself enjoying it. As I exited the classroom, I was smiling to myself. Suddenly the idea of school didn't seem quite so daunting...until I realized what I had next.

Lunch period.

Now guys, I have had extremely little exposure to being around so-called normal people and even less around school children. The mere thought of going and spending time surrounded by them scared me more than any mission I had ever been on.

"Ummm, need some help? Doors are quite simple actually. Just push on these and they'll open." I heard a deep, sarcastic voice say. I was currently standing outside the cafeteria doors, staring at the huge double doors as though if I opened them, a stream of flesh eating zombies would pour out and I'd be eaten alive.

Hey, maybe I would.

I shook my head vigorously, not removing my eyes from the door. Only when I heard the voice chuckle did I realize I'm probably in the way. I slowly stepped aside, eyes on the floor. "So the brave girl that kicked Yasmine's arse is afraid of lunch hour?"

I looked up to see Colin staring at me, a lopsided grin on his face. For just a moment, he looked different. He looked quite happy to see me which was bizarre...and for a moment I was caught off guard. Luckily, that moment lasted approximately 2 seconds and I recovered quickly. "Uhhh...what?" (...I said I recovered quickly, not brightly)

"Yep'. All bark and no bite" He said, raising an eyebrow and smiling smugly. "Oh shut it." I snapped, feeling irritated. As if to prove a point, I raised my head and marched straight through those doors and right into the school's cafeteria.

It was completely different to what we had back at the academy. The food they served seemed to have no nutritional value whatsoever plus instead of under fifty of us, there were probably over nine hundred of these kids, all talking loudly and causing a dull throb to form in my head. My eyes widened at the sight of so many people in one room.

"Feeling alright, tiger?" Colin said from behind me, startling me with his closeness. I took a deep breath before stepping forward and spinning around to face him. "Yeah of course. I'm perfectly fine. Why would you ask such a thing?" I said, confidently. In different or strange surroundings, assert yourself and pretend you belong. It will be easier to blend in that way. Colin shrugged carelessly. "This doesn't look like your scene. I thought you were more of a field sitter." He shouted over the noise. "A what?" I asked, confused.

Colin sighed and gestured for me to follow him. I hesitated momentarily before deciding to go with him. He navigated his way between the tables and out onto the luscious green sports field. 'He's new like me. Yet he knows this school well. Suspicious much?' I thought to myself. Stowing away the thought to pick apart and examine thoroughly at a later stage, I followed Colin to a group of brightly coloured red benches and Colin proceeded to sit on the lower level. I tentatively sat down next to him. A quick glance around and it was obvious the only people that sat out here were alone or in small groups.

"Okay so the school is broken up into groups. Kinda like High School Musical." Colin started, clearly prepared to give me a full lesson. I nodded, despite the fact that I did not know what High School Musical was. "So there are separate groups for everyone and everyone has a specific spot they're allowed to hang out. For example, the nerdy kids, tech geeks and kids incapable of doing sport usually hang out on the staircase outside of the library, in one of the labs or, well, here." He said, gesturing to the field. "And none of them are allowed to enter the gym area behind the school hall."