"Hey, Lisa!" Carl came panting as he jumped on and landed himself beside Lisa who was seated on a chair around a table with Mona, Amelia, and Owen in the cafeteria.
It was recess time and all of them were stuffing their mouths with the lunch snacks hurriedly before it was over.
Lisa who just took a bite of her burger forgot to chew it and swallowed down it as it was, considered how just Carl hit on her by taking her name in an over-enthusiastic tone.
She knew the instant he entered there that he got something exciting to tell them all, especially Lisa.
"Hey, Carl! Tell me what it is?" Lisa replied and inquired directly about the matter as she had guessed.
"Guess what? Guess what?" He repeated the words twice to create more suspense among his gang.
"Professor Burton got his favorite old-fashioned-Ferrari got rushed into a pol?" Mona guessed as she stuffed another crispy fry into her mouth.
"I wish he could have but no," Carl said as he made a disgusted face.
Professor Burton had been the strictest teacher of theirs and it was the sole reason they all hate him; for his strict rules of teaching and his old-modeled car which he considered as a Ferrari because despite its being so old, it still ran so fast.
I'm sure if it's put in with a race with Ferrari, it would definitely be going to beat it." Professor Burton made an overconfident statement about his car in front of the class when one day they discussed the quality of old engines and electronics.
"Wix and Rania broke up?" Owen who had had a crush on Wix's girlfriend Rania made his guess as a devilish smirk appeared on his face.
"Eh, c'mon Owen, stop being envious of the couple." Carl curled his lips and rolled his eyes.
"Stop puzzling! Just tell it straightforwardly, else I'm leaving for the class." Lisa who just got done with her burger said while taping her face with the napkin.
"Okay! Okay!" Carl raised his hands in the manner to surrender to her annoying attitude and proceed with his oh-so-important news of the day.
"We have a newcomer, named Ella," Carl announced as a wicked spark crossed his eyes.
"Umm." Lisa twisted her lips. While the other just passed on secretive stares to each other.
"So, what's the plan?" Carl inquired in a vile tone.
"Like usual." Lisa let out a little laugh and gave the be-ready-to-bully glare to everyone seated around the table.
Their gang was famous for their ragging and bullying other students, especially newcomer had always been the target of their dirty guns.
Lisa, a girl with braced teeth, braided hair falling on his hips, loved piercing to an extent that one couldn't figure out a single part of her ears unpierced. She had the most villainous mind among other in their gang, so she was always treated or considered as the leader of the gang.
They were in their last year of college and it was Ella's first day.
Ella walked past through the huge metal gates of the college, a historical building of the state's oldest yet famous of its most intellectual faculty stood up straight in front of her, huge, lively pine trees lined up across both side of the roads as she headed towards the main block of the college.
Her nerves were getting tight as a rush of emotions flew up in her body. Her eyes became numb on witnessing her dream turned into reality.
She was dressed in an orange midi dress which really complimented the white cloudy sky above her as her denim jacket made her look more casual for college and she walked through the corridor with her notebook tucked to her chest as her red wavy locks bounced on her shoulders.
It was clearly jumping in pursuit of her happiness of entering into the state's biggest college.
She couldn't even think of that that it would really happen one day.
Now that it happened.
She's happy.
But not sure how long it will last.
As for the day she moved in, each day woke up to bring new adventures in her life.
She couldn't say whether she's enjoying it or not. But it's all-new for her. So new for a girl who had spent a good period of her life in woods cut from the activities of the city and its hustling bustling life.
Though she's matured but she's innocent as compared to the kind of people she had interacted with here in this college.
Ella didn't know about her class, so she preferred asking for help rather than wasting her time and energy roaming around the college to locate her classroom.
"Hey, my name's Ella, I'm a newcomer here, don't know about my class, could you please show me the room?" Ella stopped a boy who had blonde curls and blue eyes as he was dressed in a striped jean with a red checkered shirt on top of it. A silver chain hanging in his neck was bearing the alphabet 'C' in it.
Ella thought that might be the initial of his name as she glanced at it for a pretty good time.
Carl motioned towards the east corridor and asked her to follow him.
As they both headed towards the direction Carl signed to, he asked her about everything about her, and Ella being the innocent girl, unaware of the ragging trend of college kept on telling him about everything.
She started considering him as his first friend and was pretty happy about that.
But soon her happiness was to evaporate.
"Oh, I just realized that we took the wrong path. In our conversation, I just forgot about it. So sorry." Carl turned and excused her.
Meanwhile, Carl cast a loop-sided grin to the other members of the gang standing just inches away from them and winked at them.
"Hey Lisa," he raised his hand and pointed it towards Lisa.
"Could you please help us both?" He said loudly.
Lisa headed towards both of them with her hands tucked in her pockets and mouth moving as if she was chewing on bubble gum.
"What is it?" She asked.
"It's Ella, newcomer and we need to find her classroom."
Carl point towards Ella and introduced her to Lisa.
Both Carl and Lisa passed a glare to each other and smirked.
"Hi, I'm Lisa." She stretched her hand out of her pocket and laid it towards Ella.
"Hi. Nice to meet you." Ella passed a smile.
"So, where you came from?"
Lisa asked.
"I'm from Rhode Island, just moved in here a few days ago." Ella said.
"So, you belong to Rhode. Well, I've heard pretty much cool stuff about its people."
Owen who had been observing the conversation from a distance now invaded it.
"Hi, I'm Owen." He introduced himself.
Ella repeated her introduction to him too, as her cheeks were flushed red, she might have assumed that Owen would have heard good things about her former homeland, and she somehow felt proud for that but soon the bubble of her assumptions was brutally busted.
"And what's that?" Lisa questioned him as her eyes showed the devilish act there were going to do.
"I've heard that its people feed on human flesh and eat animal flesh uncooked, their favorite beverage is raw blood, and they never sleep at night.
It is also said that they're not human actually but vampires."
Owen narrated that so fluently as if he himself had been to the island, lived among its people, and observed their lifestyle or he's some kind of history master who knows about the lives and people of every single place on this planet.
Ella felt insulted at this introduction and tried to cut him off many times and tell him he's going wrong; her former people weren't any sort of that.
"No. You're wrong, there's nothing like this. People of Rhode Island are pretty much as human as you're." Ella said defensively.
Lisa moved close to her and grasped her wavy locks in her hand lightly.
"It's the color of raw blood that has appeared on your hair as well. You suck that much blood. Ewww..." Lisa made a nauseated face.
Ella felt disgusted at this comment and wanted to run away from there. Far away to the deepest and darkest corner where no one could reach and saw her, and she wanted to cry.
But she chose to not cry as it would show her as weak, and she couldn't afford to have an impression of a weak, naive girl on these cheap youngsters.
Ella swallowed down her tears and freed her hair from Lisa's grip as she flipped around, face to face with Lisa.
Her eyes were enraged, and her soul had become wild.
She threw a sharp, stoic stare at Lisa which afraid Lisa and she couldn't succeed in hiding it as it showed on her face.
"Even if we feed on human flesh and drink raw blood but I and my people never played with human emotions and hearts." Ella said in a plain voice, yet her words had a hidden sharpness that attacked straight on Lisa's heart and pierced it down.
The faces of all of them grew colorless in an instant as Ella turned her back on them and marched past them.
Her head was high and back straight, she didn't let the pathetic words of them weaken her mind and body, yet she composed herself and turned their game on them.
She wasn't feeling triumphant or had any kind of pride though it was necessary for her to preserve her self-respect, after all, she's going to spend the next two years of her life here in this college.
So, it'd be better that she shut their mouth right on her first day to have a pretty much peaceful environment around her.