Paige Stevens
"You gonna tell me what happened?"
"No."
"You gonna tell me what happened now?"
"Nope"
"Tell me what happened."
"No thank you."
"There'll be no eating if you don't tell me. I'll make us late for computer studies."
"Please don't, I feel like we've been playing with fire already."
"Ah, is that a clue?"
"Was it-"
SLAM!
There was a crash of books on books, heads on heads, bodies on bodies… stationary launched out of cases. Cars couldn't collide harder!
Paige still standing, found Jin had disappeared, like a ninja.
"Don't! touch!" The words, feminine, deliberate, loud.
Paige looked down to find Naya with Jin pretty much wrapped around her. Both parties scrambled as though the other were marked by the plague.
Naya glared only to get the same. One would have sworn they were about to start swinging.
"Watch where you're going, I don't want your stink on me." She said, picking up her stuff.
Naya, the embodiment of school hope. Clear brilliance in her eyes, words, and most importantly, grades. Beauty built of perfect contradictions.
Sharp eyes, soft features, high cheek bones missing a gaunt pull which spoke of a skinny face. Instead cute, thick, soft and adorable. Lips that, when not pulled in their current scowl, were fuller than a sumo wrestler's lunch box.
Her body spoke volumes. Writing tomes of how one sided the gene pool's lottery could be. All pointed straight at Jin.
The world around them zoomed in.
Jin had been first to his feet, not once extending a hand. Instead placing them securely in his pockets. Watching Naya rise, as if it were a part of a macho plan to check her out. Her rise wasn't graceful, their glares unceremonious.
"I still smell better than the toilet water you call perfume."
Chuckles burst like sparks out a fire.
"You'd know, wouldn't you. Hiding in a toilet for a month, acting like one of 'them'"
Smirks formed as Jin took a superman pose, arms akimbo.
"I heard something about you being scared to say you were taken too."
Naya's cheeks reddened and she gritted her teeth."I was in Tokyo, with cousins."
"At the exact day a piece of the world disappears at the same time?"
"So you think people stopped having holidays?"
"In the middle of the school year? Six weeks to exams that'll decide if you're still top student? Smells like snob bullshit and everyone knows it."
He leant in on those last barbs, they were close enough to share air.
Naya's shoulders bunched, fists clenched before releasing, her entire form eased, kids were already moving on.
"I am the top student," She hissed.
"While a street kid like me was missing."
"I'm glad you're back, so I can remind you that second place is the best you can do. In life."
"I'm glad I get to show you money isn't everything."
Naya sneered and turned away.
"Asshole!"
"Bitch!"
She didn't bother, simply throwing a middle finger before disappearing between an army of girls. The girls taking advantage of his 'girls are too soft to hit' rule offering fingers of their own before turning the corner. Paige was the only one left.
She jumped when Jin threw an arm around her, ruffling her hair enough to leave it looking as though she'd lost a fight with a blow drier. He still smelt of smoke and cooked meat, but his demeanour had changed.
Guilt chose that moment to tear at her, somehow being attacked and sworn at by Naya had left him better off.