There is one golden rule that any transferring high schooler should know about going into a new school.
"The strong rule the weak."
That is what my sole friend David said before he got his ass kicked by the football team after he had failed to run an errand for them. He disappeared after that, his mom saying that he went off to live with his grandparents in the countryside.
Ordinary people cannot change that rule, no matter how hard they may try.
An extraordinary person could, however. Someone who was popular, a true leader amongst the plebs of high school society.
I, however, wasn't extraordinary. Hell, I'm not even ordinary. I'm at the bottom of the rung of the social ladder.
"Hey dumbass, bring me a juice from the cafeteria," A slap flew and landed on the back of my head; nearly sending me tumbling over.
My name is Lee, Lee Lozer. Yes, that really is my name. And yes, it's been haunting me my entire life.
I'm seventeen years old, and due to my dad's job, we had just moved to a different district in the city. It was too far away from my old high school, so I had to transfer here at the beginning of my senior year.
To say that I was an outcast was an understatement here.
A fat, friendless, kissless, loser. That's who I was.
"G-Got it, coming right up!" I squealed out as I hurriedly ran down the hall beelining to the cafeteria.
When I was given the choice by my Dad to transfer to a new high school, I begged him to make sure to not send me somewhere too prestigious. My grades weren't anything special, but because my Dad had some decent connections, he had decided to pull some strings to get me transferred to this golden paradise known as the Eden of geniuses; Lockhart High.
Only the creme of the crop could come here: sons and daughters of top-level executives, world-class athletes, supermodels, and the like.
They were promised futures of grandeur and success if they were to graduate here...
So why was I fricking here!? The only damn thing I'm promised is my dad's old car when I'm eighteen!
"Ew, watch out, piggy might bite!" A gorgeous passing girl whispered to her friend as she caught me gnashing my teeth over my terrible luck.
I kept my head down and my stubby legs quick as I slithered around the hallway traffic leading into the cafeteria. My goal was to get the favorite juice of my bully, Eric Graves; the star of the soccer team.
Ever since I had transferred here, he's made it his personal mission to make sure I was living through hell. Maybe it's because I'm too ugly or because I'm too pathetic, either way, Eric has always made sure to dole out some kind of cruel punishment for me every day; no matter what.
Finally, I had made it to the vending machine where the juice was being sold...
It's sold out...
I stared at the vending machine, hoping that it was just a pain-induced hallucination that was causing me to not see the juice being sold. But as I rubbed my eyes, I felt the despair creep in as its lack of being there really was that; it was gone!
Stay calm, just stay calm. I can take a photo and explain it to Eric. He'll understand, r-right?
"Looks like Piggy is gonna pass out, poor thing, hahaha." Another beautiful girl said as she walked by, her sweet perfume tickling my nose. Oink oink!
Think, think! What do I do!?
"Hey, Lee, are you okay?" A girl's voice spoke to me, it came from my left; I lifted my eyes up to meet hers.
It was the Angel of Eden, the prettiest girl in the school; Ria Goodgarden.
Considered to be untouchable by both the boys and girls of the school, Ria was the daughter of the school's headmaster, class president, and heiress to the Goodgarden fortune. She excelled at everything, academics, the arts, and being a top-level junior model in her free time outside of school. Why the hell was she breathing the same air as me!?
"I-I-I-I-" I couldn't speak a single word as I felt my lips flap uselessly together as I stared at this platinum blonde-haired goddess resting her flawless eyes on me.
"Hm, are you looking for something?" Ria said as she glanced over at the vending machine.
"Ah, Papa has said that he's shifting away from that juice. He says it's too high in sugar to be sold to children if that's what you're wondering why it's gone." She explained as she gave a smile; seeing it made my knees weak.
"You don't look too good, are you by chance diabetic? You must be if you're looking this poorly by the vending machine, that juice must've been what you were regularly drinking to regulate that, yes?" She asked.
I feverishly nodded like the star-struck idiot that I was. If she said I was diabetic, then I must be diabetic; I'll go schedule a doctor's visit soon now too.
"What a shame, this won't do." She frowned, unsatisfied. But she then plopped her small fist into her palm with an 'aha' as she began to rummage through her school bag.
From it, she revealed an unopened box of apple juice.
"Here, will this do?" She said with a worried look as she presented the apple juice to me.
"Y-Y-Y-YES!" I finally managed to speak as I let out an audible yes, slightly startling Ria in the process.
"G-Good, my, you must've been desperate for sugar; apologies for that. I'll go speak to Papa about restocking these vending machines with new juices for you and other students to choose from." She explained as she passed the juice box into my hand.
I felt the tip of her fingers trail across my hand as she gently handed the juice box to me, it felt like it lasted forever.
"Mm, well if that's all, I should be going now. It was nice seeing you again, Lee. Take care." Ria bid farewell with a casual smile as she departed off into the hallway traffic, other students making way for her as she trailed off to wherever she was going.
I, Lee Lozer, had just interacted with Ria Goodgarden. Things like this never happen, so why-
Wait, 'again'?
We had met before!?
I began to rapidly sort through my brain for any memory of meeting Ria in the last meaningless seventeen years of my life. Was she there during my birth? No, that's impossible... or was it?
Suddenly, however, I felt a heavy hand grab me by my shoulder and roughly spin me around, ripping me away from my memories; it was Eric.
"Hey Piggy, what was that?" He asked me, but it was more of a demand than an ask.
"W-What was what?" I asked him, but in return, I was met with a sharp jab into my gut.
The pain was terrible as it traveled through its impact point in my body and across my body; it had knocked some wind out of me as I doubled over.
"Don't play dumb, I saw you and Ria talking." He hissed as he crouched down and yanked my hair up, lifting my face to meet his.
"It... wasn't... like... that..." I muttered in between pained gasps as I tried to explain.
Eric then saw the apple juice box in my hand, I had made sure to not crumple it from the pain.
"Piggy's been given a gift, huh." Eric jeered as he wrestled the juice box out of my hand; I was powerless to prevent it from happening.
Eric proceeded to stab the straw into the juice box and took a sip from it. He scowled as he did.
"Yuck, it's sour." He griped as he finished the rest of the juice and threw the empty box at my feet.
"Thanks for the juice, but make sure it's the right one next time fatass." He cackled as he shoved me back, causing me to tumble down and onto my butt. The other students in the hallway either laughed or ignored me as they continued on their business.
I was an idiot for thinking that just because the Angel of Eden had treated me like a human being, I really was one.
Here, I'm nothing but a pig for them; a bottom feeder for them to pick on as they please.