On his table, she saw the hazel-eyed guy, and as if sensing her stare, he looked up from her lunch and looked at her with an intensity that made Carola want to jump in his arms and make him deal with her problems.
Feeling the stare competition to be going on for far too long, she looked around. She saw Ella sitting along, nibbling on an apple.
Before she could get her lunch, she heard the screeching sound of heels and saw Natasha with her minions pass by in their over-short dress.
Natasha had stopped for a millisecond to acknowledge her with a ‘Hey, Care,’ before she moved on without waiting for a response.

Carola, hoping for an uneventful lunch, got hers and found a seat with the Asian kids. The best thing about her school was that, while there were mean kids and a hierarchy that had to be followed if you were alone, you could sit with the kids that weren’t on top of the food chain, and they wouldn’t ask you to move. Or maybe because they were too scared of her. There were inclinations.
All throughout the lunch, she had made sure to keep an eye on Ella and the jocks table. Elliot, however, had not so much as looked at her, and she felt tears pool in her eyes at the realization that was hitting her all over again. He had never loved her.

Five minutes before the period ends, Natasha walked towards Ella and dumped her flavored yogurt all over her. The other girl, in reflex, made the mistake of jerking back, causing her pomegranate juice to spill over the floor. It really was her unlucky day, for Natasha’s Louis Vuitton was in the range of the liquid.
It was then that all hell broke loose.
Natasha screamed and slapped Ella over the face. Her nails would leave a mark – Carola was sure of that.
The whole cafeteria had gotten quiet, as it did earlier this morning. Elliot and his gang of jerks were catcalling Ella and shouting. Only the hazel-eyed guy from their table stayed quiet.

Natasha was going on and on about how she was going to ruin Ella’s life. She then took her shoes off and asked Ella to lick them clean. The other girl looked as if she just might do it. Just then, for reasons she shouldn’t understand, Carola made her way to the crime scene and stood in front of Ella.
‘Nat, don’t. It’s just shoes. You can buy new ones or have them cleaned. It was just juice.’ She didn’t understand the reason why she was defending the person she hated the most.
It was also this moment when Elliot looked at her. Her heart skipped a beat at the eye contact, and not like the way it did with the Hazel-eyed guy.