Glimmer of Hope

Chapter 4

"Great!!!" Kitty grabbed Dawn's arm and pulled her through a maze of hallways. Finally, they reached a cafeteria. Everyone else was already there and food was already everywhere; on the ceiling, walls, and even some of the people. "This is where we sit." Kitty pulled Dawn down next to her. "That's Mimi and that's Cocoa and that's Bruno, but he doesn't talk much."

"Umm, ok?" Dawn looked around the empty table.

"Well, aren't you going to say hi?" Kitty asked.

"Uh, hi," Dawn said, getting slightly scared of Kitty and her imaginary friends.

"Hey guys, this is Dawn. She's new here and she's lots of fun and you're all going to love her and were roomies now so were gonna have lots of fun and we'll party every night and you guys can come whenever you want but not tonight cuz Dawn says that she's tired and so she wants to go to sleep soon but tomorrow would be fun and we can do karaoke and drink beer and have a blast. And then we can tell everyone about it and they'll all be jealous..."

Dawn started tuning out. Instead she tried to search the room for familiar faces. She saw Kyla sitting with some other mean looking girls. Cat and Queen were both at the same table and everyone in their "clique" was huddled together. They seemed to be plotting something. Sebastian was laughing with another group of boys. Not long after, she spotted Luke standing in line. "Uh, Kitty, I'll be right back. I need to go talk to someone."

"Wha? Oh, ok. Come back soon." She smiled, then turned back and started talking once again to the air.

Dawn cautiously walked around the tables, trying to avoid getting any of the flying food on her. Then, she went up to Luke. "Um, hey," she said shyly.

Luke whipped around and Dawn stumbled back in surprise. "Oh, hey." Luke sounded slightly annoyed.

"Please, I need to ask you something. What's with... Kitty?"

Luke smirked. "Don't tell me you're hanging out with her. She's crazy. If you hang around her too long you'll go crazy too."

"B-But she's my roommate. And where else should I sit? And I don't want to just leave her there. What if she thinks I don't like her?" Dawn asked in earnest.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to figure that out. You can get by without seeing your roommates that often. Come sit with me. And she won't even notice that you're gone." He said.

"Oh, well thank you. But I don't want to get in the way of...uh, you and your friends," Dawn said.

"Don't worry. No one will hurt you if you're with me," Dawn smiled at Luke, relief in her eyes. "But you really need to work on the whole... tough thing. I don't want you hanging out with me all the time."

Luke sat down. And Dawn set her stuff down next to him. There were five other boys sitting around the table who didn't even notice when Luke sat down, let alone Dawn. After a couple seconds one of them glanced at Luke, the spun around to face him as soon as he realized who it was. "Hey Luke, what took you so lon..." he trailed of and looked at Dawn. "Well hey there baby girl. What's your name?"

"Her names Dawn, she's new here, and she's probably about the nicest person on this planet so I don't want you messing with her," Luke said.

"Aww, c'mon. You know we won't be mean to her. Plus look at how hot she is." He whispered the last part but Dawn still heard it and blushed.

"I said I don't want you messing with her. This is the only day she'll be hanging out with us. And I only let her because I don't want her hanging out with Kitty any more than she has to." Luke growled.

"Um, can I please sit here tomorrow?" Dawn said quietly.

"NO," Luke growled at her. She hung her head and picked at her food.

"Don't worry," the other boy said. "You can sit here all you want, right guys?" The other four boys turned to see what he was talking about and then responded with a "sure" before returning to what Dawn eventually realized was gambling. "Most people around here call me J-Dawg, by the way. But you can call me J." He winked before starting to tell Luke some stuff he'd heard around school. Dawn heard that Kitty had paid Kyla $200 to do it with her behind the big cement wall on the track field. Apparently the guards had just watched for five minutes before they stopped it. After that, she tuned out what they were discussing and started to eat her food, hoping that they weren't talking about anything else too disgusting.

After dinner, Dawn found out that apparently they expect all the kids to just leave their trays at the table and then they clean up after everyone. As she left the cafeteria, J-Dawg came up behind her and looped his arms around her waist. "Hey there Dawn, may I walk you to your room."

"Uh huh," Dawn giggled and J-Dawg started to walk beside her.

"So, um, I was kind of wondering..." He trailed off, not quite sure how to finish his sentence. "Well, um,"

"Um, what?" Dawn asked.

J-Dawg sighed. "Do you want to... to go out with me?" Dawn looked slightly startled. "Oh, um, we can take it as slow as you want. And I'll make sure you don't have any trouble with..."

Dawn cut him off. "I'd love to, but I wanna know your real name."

"You really wanna know baby doll? It's Jason," he said, pulling her into his arms. "But please call me J."

"Ok, J," Dawn said, burying her head into his chest. He smelled amazing. And he was so sweet. She hoped that this would last.

"Here it is," Dawn said as they reached her door. She scanned her tag and the door slid open.

"So, how 'bout a goodbye kiss?" J winked.

"You wish," Dawn teased back. She waved as the door shut.

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J turned around, only to find himself face to face with Sebastian. "What're you doing over here?" he sneered.

"I could ask you the same question," Sebastian said in his slight British accent.

"My girlfriend happens to live over here."

"Oh, so you're with the new girl? It's too bad to know that she falls for such lowlifes. Of course, five minutes with me and she'll have much finer standards."

"Shut up." J punched him in the face.

"Can't think of a better come back? That's too bad. And you know what else sucks for you? Ladies can't resist a black eye."

"Better give you another then," J said. Sebastian caught his punch in the palm of his hand.

"Tomorrow, behind the wall, during track. If you're not there, I'm taking the girl," Sebastian said. He turned and walked away.

J sighed and walked back to his room. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. It was too bad that everyone's 1st class was track.

Sooo my lovely readers, thoughts on my story so far? I actually wrote this YEARS ago and just found it on my computer and was like HEY, I should put this up on Wattpad to motivate myself to continue writing. That's jsut how my crazy mind works :p Well I hope you have enjoyed my novel thus far. Be sure to check out my other stories :) Don't forget to like&&comment :)