"I'm in love" An idiotic-faced Alexander stated.
Taylor, Travis and Bianca only frowned. They were, as usual, eating together.
"And why you say that?" Taylor asked, munching on his sandwich.
"I can't stop thinking about Candy: she's so pretty and perfect" He answered, smiling like a fool.
Candy was one of the human girls he invited to play videogames the other day. Really beautiful to the young-male population, but still a 'meh' for the rest of the world.
"She has something no one else has".
"Big boobs?" Travis commented smirking.
Alexander also smirked in compliance, and Bianca suppressed an urge to cringe. Disgusting. What was she doing with these weirdos who treated her like air anyway? She stood up and left wordlessly, leaving behind the confused boys.
"Oh, crap. Forgot she was a girl" She heard Travis say.
"I forgot she was there" Alexander admitted.
Much more important matters needed her attention. For example, finding some classmate fellow to teach her fighting techniques, if she didn't want to flunk the class. Not that she wanted to study here anyway, but learning a bit how to fight was also convenient to protect her grandma and herself. Discarding the obviously hostile magic users, her tutoring options cut almost in half (now, that's something), which were mostly strangers.
Her roommates, Nicole and Sabrina (the black-haired one) kept ignoring her, so it'd be too awkward to ask any of them. Then, she saw a friendly face greeting her from afar when they went to a class in common, and she sighed in defeat. She didn't lose anything trying.
When the class finished, she approached him, which surprised him a little.
"H...hi?" She greeted awkwardly.
"Hi".
Dereck Nolan smiled a little at her and kept his distance, trying to appease her. She reminded him of a small, fragile animal.
"Eh... you... know how to fight?"
"The basics, yeah. I'm at level one".
"Great. I wanted to ask, if you don't mind, if you can teach me a bit?".
Bianca was growing scared, until Dereck showed her a bigger smile. An unfamiliar warm feeling invaded her, not used to seeing someone other than her grandma smiling sincerely at her like that.
"Yes, I'd like to. I often tutor other students so, you came to the right person".
They agreed to meet later that day at one of the classrooms, which probably would be empty after last period. Dereck showed up with an unfamiliar human girl, and soon explained she wanted to come along. She was pretty, but seemed humble and harmless enough.
"I begged him to teach me too" She said "it's unfair only witches get to kick ass".
The overly-friendly attitude between those two impressed Bianca. She has only seen magic users hanging out with their own kind at this school.
"I'm Peyton Sammuels by the way".
"Bianca Hersey".
The three of them arranged the classroom so the seats wouldn't take more space than needed.
"Okay, now I want to see you both fighting to make an initial evaluation of your skills" Dereck instructed "Remember to use only official techniques, no catfights. The first one falling on the ground loses".
"So, no boob-punches allowed?" Peyton joked.
Both girls took a fighting stance at opposite sides, and twenty seconds later Bianca already was on the floor.
"Bianca, try to watch more for your legs to avoid losing balance" Dereck advised her.
Even following his advice, the girl lost four rounds in a row pretty quickly. Both Peyton and Dereck couldn't help but cringe.
"Okay, this is an emergency" Peyton said before helping Bianca to stand up.
"Is it really bad?" Bianca asked, humiliated.
Dereck answered 'yes' in his mind, but ended up telling her "a little, but it can be improved" to not discourage her. Peyton really wasn't a proficient fighter, but next to the hybrid she was the white-girl version of Bruce Lee.
"How do you know how to fight?" Bianca asked Peyton.
"I used to take judo classes".
"Ah".
Dereck and Peyton spent two hours more trying to teach Bianca the most basics things of fighting, but it was obvious she was naturally untalented. And her lack of real interest in learning didn't help either.
"I never thought someone could suck so much at something. No offense" Peyton said, turning to Bianca at last.
"I don´t mind. I don´t even like this stuff".
Bianca took a sip of her water bottle, tiredly.
"We´ll have to train everyday" Dereck sighed.
"What!?"
Dereck ignored her reaction and continued talking, while Peyton snickered at her exaggerated incredulous face.
"First, physical conditioning. You´ll need to grow strength and resistance to keep on with the classes".
Bianca resisted the urge to grumble just because she appreciated the boy´s willingness to teach her. He was a good teacher: patient, encouraging and skilled; the problem is that she was weak, slow, useless.
"Thank you, a lot" She said to Peyton and Dereck.
"You´re welcome" Peyton replied "Now let´s arrange this classroom like it was".
The next few days, Bianca trained with Dereck after school day, and sometimes Peyton joined them. It was hard, but the girl could see she was improving. During that time, she saw less of Alexander and his friends (mainly because he wouldn´t stop talking about his 'love') but still ate lunch with them.
"She´s so into you" Taylor commented about Candy.
"You think?"
"Of course! She helped with the party, no?"
What party? Bianca thought.
"Yes!" Travis commented "She did. Also, she was stuck to you the whole time".
"That´s true".
"At this pace you´ll be an ex-virgin, you lucky bast*rd".
They all laughed while Travis made obscene gestures minus one. Bianca felt so uncomfortable she hurried to change of topic.
"What party?" She repeated her thought aloud.
Almost immediately all laughs stopped. The boys looked at each other and then at Bianca.
"Ehm... Alex´s birthday party" Taylor answered awkwardly, referring to Alexander.
"When was it?".
"Not too long ago?".
Bianca squinted her eyes, trying to remember his birthday from their childhood memories. She knew it was around this month, so...
"Congratulations" She told him, serious.
"Oh, how could you not remember? I´ll forgive you this time, only this time" Alexander replied, obviously pretending to be offended "and thanks".
"A... anyways, what do you plan to do now that Candy likes you?" Taylor changed of topic.
They so clearly excluded her from the celebration, intentionally or not. Bianca ignored their conversation and debated with herself if she should just let it go or walk away, until the bell for next class rang and now she had the perfect excuse to get away from these inconsiderate idiots.