Next Up

Chapter 4

Since Ivy hadn't received her ID card, she couldn't get any food, but Zoe said she could use hers. Ivy returned to where Zoe was standing, her tray filled with Pizza, cheeseburgers, sandwiches, and a few slices of cake. Zoe looked at the mountain of food like it would come alive and attack her.

"Where are we going to sit?" Ivy asked between bites.

Zoe looked surprised, "you want to sit with me? Well, I normally sit over there," Zoe looked to an empty table towards the back of the room. Ivy sat across from Zoe and continued eating.

As per her ritual, Zoe had chicken nuggets, blueberries, and a bowl of sunflower seeds.

Scanning the crowd of people, the expression on Zoe's face turned to a grimace when a group of people walked by and sat down at the table adjacent to theirs. Her eyes lowered, and she fixated them to a point on the table. Ivy noticed this and glanced over towards the group. She caught the eye of one girl who was looking at her. With a very regal posture, she had tan skin, was tall with a toned but slender frame, and had long brown wavy hair in a wolf cut that reached the small of her back. Wearing shiny makeup with sharp-winged eyeliner, her Arcytex designer clothes were also spotless; a red long-sleeve silk crop-top, a black mini jean skirt, and black hi-top sneakers with shiny black sequins on the side. She got up from the table, walked over to Ivy with a grand gait, sat down next to her, and turned to face her.

"Haven't seen you before. You new here?" The girl's mouth split open in a smile, revealing gold braces with her right canine tooth missing.

"Yup! I'm Ivy," Ivy said between Bites. She stuck out her hand, but the girl didn't take it. Zoe had taken something out of her pocket and fidgeted with it under the table.

"Nice," the girl said, turning her attention to Zoe, who quickly glanced up from her lap but looked back down, avoiding eye contact. She continued to stare at her, slowly drumming her fingernails on the table. Ivy didn't notice at first, but the girl had a tattoo of a rose on her hand. The skin around the symbol was red and shiny.

A voice behind the girl said, "Go away, Reiza!". The voice belonged to a young boy; he was tall for his age, a few inches taller than Ivy, with messy brown hair and bright green eyes. He put his tray on the table and sat down next to Zoe. "Shoo! Begone!"

"Aw, come on, I'm just introducing myself. You don't need to act like such a sperg." the girl pouted as she pushed herself out of the chair, giving him the finger as she did so.

Noticing the new design on her hand, the boy smirked. "Reiza, you disgraced yourself by getting that."

Reiza looked down at Ivy, "Well, we should talk sometime. Like he said, my name's Reiza." She smirked and grabbed the arm of a girl sitting at the other table; they both walked to the food line, skipping in front of several people.

"Y'all okay over here?" he asked.

"Thanks, Colson," Zoe said, as her cheeks flushed slightly red. Ivy nodded, then took a massive bite out of a burger. "Toothless was just being annoying, as per usual."

Ivy stifled a laugh.

"Nah, we don't eat carbs!" Reiza's voice rang out across the lunchroom.

"Sheesh," Colson muttered, staring at the pile of food on Ivy's tray.

Colson glanced at Ivy, looking her up and down, his eyes narrowed with suspicion, "I know I haven't seen this girl before. If she's new...."

"So, girl, are you new here?"

"Yup!" Ivy happily introduced herself, "Just got here earlier today. Had to run across the whole country to get here!"

"The whole country?" Colson doubted, glancing at Zoe to see her reaction, but he forgot her expressions hardly ever changed. "So Pearson was right!"