Electra's Pov
I stood there, staring at the doors of the hall, still slightly stunned by the girl who had just run into me and then bolted out as if she couldn't get away fast enough.
My lips curled into a small, amused smile, replaying the scene in my head. The way she had looked at me, wide-eyed and startled, like she had never seen another human being before, and then those hiccups—adorable, really.
She had looed like a deer caught in the headlights, so out of place in this chaos.
"Electra?" Penelope called out, breaking through my thoughts. "Are you okay?"
I blinked, pulling myself out of my reverie, and turned to face Penelope and the rest of my group.
They were all standing there, watching me with puzzled expressions, as if they couldn't quite understand why I was so fixated on a girl who had practically fled the moment our eyes met.
"Who was that?" I asked calmly. I glanced around at my friends, expecting one of them to know the answer. "The red-haired girl. Anyone recognize her?"
Roxana shook her head first, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder as she often did when she had news to share. "No, she's unfamiliar," she said. "Probably a new girl since I've never seen her around before."
A new girl. That made sense. I would have noticed her before if she'd been here longer since not many people go running through the dining hall like that, especially not ones I haven't already crossed paths with.
Roxana's voice pulled me out of my thoughts again.
"Are you sure you're okay, Electra? You've got a scratch on your knee."
She pointed to the small scrape just above my left knee, a result of my rather ungraceful fall during the collision.
I glanced down briefly, barely registering the minor injury. It was nothing, and I'd had worse in fencing practice. "I'm fine," I responded with a dismissive wave. "It's just a scratch."
But I wasn't ready to let the matter of the mysterious redhead go just yet. Something about her intrigued me—the way she had looked at me, the panic in her eyes, and the way she had fled the scene.
It wasn't just embarrassment; it was fear. She seemed... out of place, different, and it made me want to know what she was about.
"Roxana," I said, turning back to her, "I want you and the girls to find out who she is. Ask around, figure out her name, where she's from, and report back to me."
The request caused all of them—Roxana, Penelope, Irina, and Deena—to exchange confused looks.
It wasn't often I asked them to find out something about someone new, because normally, I couldn't care less about the new students.
Most of them fell into line quickly enough, and the ones who didn't... well, they never lasted long anyway, but this girl was different. She had gotten under my skin somehow, and I couldn't help but be intrigued.
Deena, never one to hold back her thoughts, furrowed her brows in genuine confusion and spoke up. "Why do you want to know about her, Electra? She's probably some irrelevant girl who's lucky to be here."
Her words rubbed me the wrong way, and I could feel my temper flare for just a second. I threw her a sharp look that made it clear I wasn't in the mood to be questioned, and when my gaze locked on hers, Deena, realizing her mistake, quickly looked down, a look of regret crossing her face.
"Are you questioning me?" I asked, my voice low. I didn't raise my voice because I didn't need to.
Deena paled, swallowing nervously before shaking her head. "No, of course not. I just... I didn't think she was important." She shifted awkwardly, realizing she had crossed a line.
I kept my eyes on her for a moment longer until she nodded in understanding. "We'll do as you asked," Deena said quickly. "We'll find out who she is."
"Good. I have my reasons, so just do as I say," I instructed.
After giving my instructions to Roxana, Penelope, Irina, and Deena, I started walking toward our usual table, the one perfectly centered in the dining hall.
It was a position of power, a spot where everyone could see us and, more importantly, where we could see everyone.
But as we neared our table, I noticed something that made me stop mid-step. A group of girls was already seated there, casually eating their meals as if they had no idea where they were sitting, as if they hadn't just taken my table.
A slow smile spread across my lips, amused by their audacity.
Roxana was the first to react. She stepped forward, her voice irritated as she addressed the girls. "How dare you sit here?" she demanded. "Shouldn't you already know this table is reserved?"
"Reserved by who?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Penelope scoffed, her lips curling into a sneer as she leaned forward. "Do you have a death wish?"
The girl didn't flinch, instead, she raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I think you're the ones who have a death wish seeing how you're interrupting our meal. This table doesn't even have your name written on it."
I let out a small scoff, more entertained by the situation than I had been in a while. The entire hall was practically holding their breath to see what would happen next since it was rare for anyone to stand up to us like this—well, rare for anyone to be stupid enough to stand up to us like this.
The girl clearly had no idea who she was dealing with.
Irina, who was standing behind me, moved closer. "I'll handle this, Electra," she muttered, ready to step in and deal with the girl like she was swatting away an insect.
Irina was always the one to handle the physical side of things, and her intimidating stature usually ended any potential confrontation before it even started.
But I held up a hand to stop her in her tracks. "Don't bother, Irina," I said, and she immediately stepped back.
After she stepped back, I took a step closer to the girl, and without warning, I grabbed her hair and slammed her head down into the table with a loud force.
The crack of her skull on the wooden table was extremely satisfying, and the shocked gasp from the other girls made my heart race with excitement.
The girl's nose started to bleed immediately, with crimson red blood splattering across the table. A dark red mark formed on her forehead, and for a moment, she just sat there, too stunned and shocked to react.
A loud noise broke out in the hall with people whispering and gasping from the shock, but none of them were foolish enough to do anything about it.
I kept my smile, and leaned down just a little with an amused look as I watched her struggle to gather herself.
The hall staff didn't bother to make a move, obviously too terrified to mess with me since they knew better. They knew that any interference from them would only make things worse—for them and for her.
I waited, expecting her to stand up and run away with her friends, but instead, she tried to speak. Foolish.
Before she could get more than a few words out, I grabbed the back of her head again, slamming it into her plate of food this time.
The hot, sticky mess of whatever she'd been eating splattered across her face as she screamed as the food burned her skin, while her nose bled even more heavily.
I straightened up, wiping a small speck of blood from my hand, and turned my gaze toward the other girls seated at the table.
They were visibly shaking, their faces pale with fear, and they clearly didn't know what to do, their eyes darting between their screaming friend and me.
"Well?" I asked casually, as if I hadn't just brutalized one of their friends. "Aren't you going to help her?"
That was all it took to get the girls to scramble to their feet, nearly knocking over their chairs in their haste to get away from me.
They rushed to their injured friend, helping her to stand, though she was still wailing, and clutching her bloody face as hot food dripped from her hair and clothes, and without another word, they half-carried, half-dragged her out of the dining hall.
Once they were gone, I let out a soft sigh, as if the whole incident had been nothing more than a mild inconvenience.
When I looked around the room, the eyes of every remaining student and staff member were fixed on me, and they all wore the same expression—fear and disbelief, but no one dared move. No one dared to say a word.
I turned toward the staff standing around. "You," I called out, gesturing to a group of them.
They hesitated for only a second before rushing over with their heads bowed low.
"What do you need, Princess Electra?" one of them asked, his voice shaky.
I pointed to the mess on the table—the spilled food and blood. "Clean this up," I instructed casually. "I'll be back in ten minutes, and I want the table spotless by the time I return. Also, have everyone else leave in ten minutes. I don't want anyone else here when my friends and I return."
Not bothering to wait for a response, I turned on my heel and walked out of the dining hall, my friends following closely behind me.
"You didn't have to do that, you know," Penelope said from beside me with a light chuckle. "Not that I'm complaining."
I smiled, running a hand through my hair as I walked. "She needed to remember her place, sweetie," I replied. "They all do."