4.

I tapped my foot impatiently, while waiting for my turn in the cafeteria line. The damned line was moving painfully slow and my stomach was growling wildly.

I had no idea how I survived the first three classes of my first day. It was actually the second day of school after the winter break. I skipped school on the day of reopening after finding out that brother dearest had enrolled me as ‘Kris Noodles Mendes.’

I always knew he was an airhead but had no idea that it was such a severe case. I mean, really? Couldn’t he just have simply kept it to a single surname?

I would have been happy with Kris Mendes (though the fan girls of Shawn Mendes in this school didn’t seem too happy) or even Kris Noodles (I didn’t really mind when it came to food)

But, my brother just wanted to annoy the crap out of me. I had no idea how he managed to procure fake documents for such a ridiculous name. No one in this school was going to take me seriously.

I had to scare away at least fifteen kids since morning who dared to make fun of my name. It was easy, I just gave them a practiced glare and my face did the rest of the work.

My thoughts were cut off when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a pretty blonde giving me a blank look.

“So, you are the new kid?” she asked, looking down upon me.

Did she just call me a kid?

“Yes, mom, you got that right,” I replied.

Her face instantly contorted into an ugly scowl, “Don’t try to play smart with me. I am your queen- I mean, the queen of this whole frickin’ school!”

I measured her from head to toe, “You sure do look like the queen witch.”

This time, her nostrils flared, “What did you just say?”

I sighed, “Look, queen bitc-I mean witch, I don’t have time to play mean girls with you right now. You better go find someone else, because, right now, my food is calling me.”

“Oh, wow! You and I are going to be best friends then!” a new voice perked from my left.

I turned to find a cute boy with dimples grinning at me. He seemed to be an easygoing, laidback kind of guy, from the way he was carrying himself: both his hands full with different kinds of food.

“Actually, I made you my friend since I found out that you punched that moody bear,” he continued advancing towards me.

Moody bear? Punched? Only one person came to my mind from these two words.

“Um…are you Alexander, the great’s friend?” I asked him cautiously.

His mouth fell open as soon as I uttered those words.

“Oh man! Is that what you call him? Now, there’s no doubt that you are my best friend. I am Blake, by the way,” he said.

I was saved the trouble of telling Blake that I didn’t plan on making friends in this school, when the queen witch opened her mouth to shriek.

“Blake! Can’t you see? I was about to show this wimp her true place! Just get lost already!”

Wimp? True place? This girl was asking for it now.

“What the hell is wrong with you Madison?” a girl’s voice came this time.

I looked up to see the familiar face of the girl from the pool party glaring at the queen witch- who I now knew was Madison.

“Millie, it’s none of your business. You better stay out from this. I am taking control of my domain again,” Madison replied.

Millie offered me a small assuring smile and then, turned to Madison again, “I don’t get it. I thought you had changed.”

Madison started cackling like a witch, “I am not going to change. This is how I survive. This is how I thrive. This is me. Trivial matters don’t affect me like it does to you guys.”

I couldn’t help what I did next: clap.

“You have got some really mighty words, queen witch,” I mocked, “too bad they will go into utter and complete waste with a personality like yours.”

This time Madison let out a loud screech, grabbed a glass of orange juice from a passing boy and tossed it at me.

It all happened so fast, that I neither had time to register what was happening nor to defend myself. And the result was: I was drenched in orange juice from top to bottom. Thank God for the fact that my hoodie was protecting my hair.

The whole cafeteria had fallen silent now and of course, everyone was gawking at the scene unfolding in front of them. I looked up to see Blake and Millie looking between Madison and me, with shocked faces. Madison, on the other hand, was smiling in satisfaction.

Oh no, no one messed with Kris Noodles Mendes and got away!

I marched towards Madison, grabbing the plate of noodles from Blake’s hand on the way and before she could even widen her eyes, I emptied the whole plate on top of her head.

The look on her face was priceless!

This time, Millie started clapping for me with her jaws still dropped to the floor, “You have just taken years of revenge on my behalf,” she said.

While Madison looked like she was having a hard time processing what had happened, Blake got over his surprise and yelled two words that changed the course of next few minutes:

“Food fight!”

The next I knew, foods and drinks started flying out of nowhere. The scene transformed from that of silence to chaos in a matter of milliseconds. Everyone started running around, taking the revenge of lifetime from their high school enemies.

Blake, Madison and Millie had disappeared out of my sight in all this confusion. I, meanwhile, had to keep pulling hard on the cap of my hoodie to save myself from the food assault.

I decided it would be better to leave the cafeteria, if I wanted to preserve my remaining sanity and clothes. With that in mind, I made my way towards the doorway, dodging the French fries, cakes, pastries, apples, etc incoming at me from different directions.

Just as I was about to exit, my eyes fell on a tray of untouched food on a table. my stomach let out a loud growl at the sight. I looked around and decided that since the owner of the tray didn’t care about it anymore, it wouldn’t harm to whisk it away.

I quickly grabbed the tray and resumed on my way, but, had to halt in my steps when my hand was caught in a tight grip.

“Who do you think you are? How dare you even look at my food?” a voice growled in my ears from behind.

I shut my eyes tight and did the only thing that seemed possible at that moment: I picked up the bottle of sauce from the tray, turned around and squirted the bottle in the owner’s face.

But, I had no idea that by doing so I was endangering my life.

Because, I realized that I was staring back at the sauce covered face of a very pissed off Alex.

“Oops, looks like, I did it again!” I blurted out; backing away from the murderous look he was giving me.