The cafeteria went silent. The warm soup trickled down her face, the upturned bowl miraculously stayed put on top of her head. The new kid seemed to have gotten at the bad side of the popular kids.
Few felt pity for the girl but they knew that if they tried to help her, they’d be digging their own graves. It was just the start of senior high and they’d rather not offer their heads to death by helping a stranger. Most shrugged the drama off; it wasn’t a new thing anyway. Everyone who had the misfortune to bump into the bitchiest clique in Eastwood Academy always ends up to be an outcast, in the least. Same old, same old.
The one who dumped the soup to the poor victim, Mason, laughed hard, pointing mockingly at the pitiful sight of the transferee. People in the cafeteria followed suit, monotonous laughter dominated the earlier stillness of the room.
To everyone’s surprise, the new girl laughed with them, “Oh my god, you’re so funny! Throwing my soup on my head!” She said in between laughs.
Mason’s eyes widened, this wasn’t the reaction he wanted to draw from her. A scream, or perhaps a cry and then a walk-out, would be much more entertaining than her laughing along as if it was... a joke.
“Nice to meet you! I’m Harper Koenig!”
