"Hey, do you guys mind if Ryan and Alana sit with us?" she asked. "They've got new-girl fever."

"No," I scoffed, "why would I mind?"

David lifted one shoulder. "Fine with me."

After Emily signalled them over, she leaned forward and a bright grin lit up her caramel eyes. "So, what'dya think-a new love blossoming, or what?"

New love? My head burned as if a warm towel had just been wrapped around it.

"I think you might be right, Emily," David said, a sassy smile twinkling in the corners of his eyes. And as I was about to grab both cheeks and run screaming like a girl at a boy-band concert, he redirected his gaze to the pair walking toward us, standing as close to each other as possible. "I don't think either of them has figured it out, yet, though," he finished.

Emily sighed, gazing dreamily at Alana and Ryan, while I caught my breath.

"Hey, all." Ryan bumped knuckles with David, then sat down next to Emily, sliding Alana's tray closer to his.

"Hi, guys." I smiled, still feeling silly.

"Hey, Ara-so cool what you did to Mr Grant, today." Ryan pointed gun-fingers at me. "I'm sure it'll go down in high school history: The Newbie Bites Back. Part One." Beneath his docile tones, he made himself sound like the voice-over for a movie trailer.

"I wasn't biting back," I said with my mouth a little full, "not really. I was just...politely not taking any crap."

"So noble." Ryan nodded, lost in awe. Alana sat quietly beside him, not making any effort to stand out.

"So, Ara?" Emily said. "We just finished French class-are you taking French this semester?"

"Nope. Foreign languages just don't click up here." I tapped my head. "My friend tried to teach me some French once...it was bad. I sounded like I was spitting insults at someone who made me hungry."

Ryan and David chuckled to themselves.

"That's a pity." Emily propped her cheek against her hand. "I was kinda hoping we'd have someone to take the spotlight off us for a while."

"Spotlight?"

"Yeah. Our teacher, Mz Sears-" Ryan pointed his chip at me, "-Total cow."

"You mean grenouille?" Emily said.

"Uh, Em?" David frowned. "You know that doesn't mean cow, right?"

Her cheeks flushed pink. "Uh-"

"Well, what's being a cow got to do with a spotlight?" I asked. Unless she was a Broadway cow.

"Oh, nothing." Emily sighed. "I just thought she might play nice in front of a new kid for a while."

"She's not nice?"

"Sometimes, but she's just so finicky. Everything has to be done a certain way. If you don't follow her rules to the T, she goes all PMS on you," Emily added, then looked at Ryan.

"Yeah. She's so stuck-up, Ara, like you wouldn't believe. She came from some private school in the city, and she just doesn't understand our ways." Ryan waved his hands about in the air, making 'scary fingers'.

Alana shook her head and smiled into her salad.

"Well, I come from a private school. I'm not stuck-up, am I?" I asked.

"You come from a private school? No way." Ryan leaned back in his seat, making a cross with his index fingers.

"Yes way." I sipped my choc-milk to wash down my lunch. "It's nothing like this place. A different world."

"So where did you go to school?" Alana finally spoke up.

"Really far away." I smirked.

"How far?" Ryan asked.

"Very far."

"Yeah, you have a bit of an accent there. What is that? English?" Emily leaned in slightly, as did Ryan and Alana, and the eager curiosity in their eyes made me want to smile-until I looked at David. I wasn't sure if he didn't care, or didn't want to know, but he sat still, with his fingers clasped just in front of his simple smile.

"Okay. Promise you won't laugh." I pointed at them.

Ryan crossed his heart. Emily crossed her fingers, laughing already. Alana and David waited patiently.

"I'm...from Australia." Almost closing my eyes, I awaited the onslaught of giggling-but they just gawked at me.

"No way? You're all the way from Oz? You're totally like Dorothy," Ryan said.

"Yeah, and that makes David Toto." Emily laughed.

"Yeah, um, Dorothy was from Kansas," I said. "If anything, I'd be the Cowardly Lion."

"No, the Tin Man. Didn't that Aussie guy play the Tin Man in that movie?" Emily looked up at the ceiling as though her answer would be there.

"No way-Tin Man? Ara has too much heart," Alana added. "You saw her play the piano?"

Mockingly, I tilted my head and sighed. "Aw, thanks."

When Alana ditched a piece of lettuce at me, David's hand shot out and caught it-right in front of my face. My mouth dropped and everyone else burst out laughing. "Nice catch, David."

"Yeah, he used to play baseball," Emily said.

"Really?" I turned to look at him.

"It was-" he stood up and reached across the table to drop the lettuce on Alana's plate, "-a long time ago."

"So, all the way from Australia, hey? You don't sound Australian," Emily said.

"Actually, I do. Just not so much anymore." I smiled softly. "I've spent the last month or so working on my accent, but you can hear it when I get upset."

David shifted in his chair.

"Are you ashamed of it?" Alana asked.

"No." I shook my head. "I just didn't wanna draw any extra attention to myself."

"So, is it different over there to, like, how school is here?" Emily held a forkful of carrot just in front of her mouth.

"Yeah. In ways. I mean, we have our school year from January to December and we break over summer as well, except it's over Christmas."

"Christmas in summer?" Ryan stared into the distance. "Weird. But cool."

"Actually, it's not cool," I said. "It's really bloody hot."

Emily and Ryan stared at me blankly.

Alana stifled a soft giggle. "Summer is hot, Ryan?" She nudged his arm. "Not cool?"

I looked at David, who shook his head. Emily and Ryan did the same, half smiling.

"Okay, that goes in the vault as the worst joke of the week." Ryan pointed at me again with his ketchup-covered chip.

I feigned insult.

"But you did sound very Australian when you said bloody," Emily added.

David chuckled beside me.

"Yeah, say it again?" Ryan leaned forward, turning his ear toward me, making a funnel of his hand.

"She's not a circus freak, Ryan." Emily pushed his hand down.

"Thanks," I mouthed, and with my belly full, all my pre-rehearsed questions came flooding back. "So, where do you guys normally sit?"

"Well," Emily chimed in, "David sits with the giant, incredibly gorgeous guys throwing food at each other." She grinned at David. "More like monkeys, really. And I sit with that group out there by the tree." She pointed to the windows covering the back wall of the cafeteria. Outside, in the sunshine, a large group of cliche-ridden boys and girls gathered under a big oak tree, laughing and throwing water.

David leaned closer and whispered, "Second in command."

I wondered where that placed me if I hung out with one from each group.

Emily's voice trailed back in suddenly with my attention span. "Ryan hangs out on the basketball courts, mostly." She looked at Ryan for confirmation; he shrugged with a small nod. "And Alana hangs with those guys." She pointed to the Music class kids.

"Cool." I nodded. "Well, thanks for keeping me company today, you guys. I would've felt like a total loser sitting by myself."

"That would never happen." Emily tilted her head to the side. "Someone would've come and talked to you. If they could get past David, that is." She threw him a mock annoyed stare.

David grinned and leaned back in his chair, resting his hands behind his head. "Can you blame me? I kinda like fresh meat."

I inched away from him jokingly, and a sudden whoosh of air brushed past my hair, impacting something that screeched loudly. Silence washed over the room. We all turned to the kid behind us, who sat straight again, rubbing his head.

"What gives?" His friend stood up, aiming his voice at the jocks.

"What up, losers? Mommy forget to pack your helmet?"

Apple pulp covered the chess club boy's hair and shoulders, while the remainder of the offending fruit rolled around on the ground just near his feet. "That's it," he said, and with teeth tight in his mouth, jumped up and grabbed the apple.

"Just leave it, Dominic. It's not worth it," one of his friends said.

"No. I'm sick of this." His knuckles turned white around the apple.

No one in the room seemed to have moved; I think they were bracing for an all-out war. But someone should have done something. If even one person stood up for that boy, just once, maybe those jerks would leave him alone.

I pushed my chair out, and as I took a step toward him, Emily squeaked, "David? Don't!"

My eyes flicked from the apple that was in Dominic's hand, to the other side of the cafeteria where juice rained in a shower over the jocks, a million tiny pieces of apple sticking to the wall behind them.

A cool silence lingered.

David's arm came back down to his side, his shoulder still leaned into the throw, when the whole room erupted-every person, sitting or standing, started clapping and cheering. Even the helmet-comment jock raised his thumb.

David took a few pats on the back and shook a few hands, and when he looked at me again, his eyes betraying fake amusement by displaying anger, I closed my gaping mouth and walked up to the chess-kid. "Hey? Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he moaned and sat back down, rubbing his head. "Those guys are just assholes."

"Yeah. They had no right to do that. I'm so sorry. If I hadn't moved, it would've hit me."

"Guess it's good you moved then." He gave me a smirk, his whole face still red.

I shrugged. "Nah, I can handle embarrassment pretty well."

"Lucky you."

I smiled softly at him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

He nodded and shifted his black knight to another square on the chessboard. "I'm used to it."

"Yeah, but it was cool what David just did," one of the other guys piped up, still laughing.

"Right. Today. But tomorrow he'll just be a big jackass again like the rest of them."

A bucket of realisation flooded over me like heat. "Really? He's a bully?"

The boy glanced at David, then shook his head; not a no, but maybe more like he was shaking it at himself, then went back to his game, ignoring me.

David turned quickly away then, dropping his head, tension making a stiff line across his shoulders.

"Is that true?" I sat back down in my spot.

"Really, Ara," Emily said. "He sits with the jocks, but he's not like them at all. Anymore."