What a bitter taste [OPEN]

[Charlotte Avery]

"If you've never had poisoned food, I suggest you try it. An absolutely wonderful bitter taste."
-

The feeling in the cafeteria had turned from stale to suddenly excited, in one incident. A student had started to mouth off with another student behind him, and the two pushed each other around for a moment or two. Charlotte could have swore she saw ice or something form around one of their hands, but it was instantly gone when a teacher got up from their seat and yelled. The people in line instantly broke out into an excited chatter.
"Did you see that?!
"Ugh, he always starts fights!"
"Dude, he's such a hothead."
The redhead's eyes drifted to the ground, as to not attract attention to herself, and she quickly darted past the people who had paused in line to gossip. Don't look at them, don't look at them. Don't get too close to them. She thought with a nervous breath.

The item on the menu that day was pork steak, whatever that was. Charlotte really had no idea at all. As she got her tray and filled up on the mystery pork main dish, she got a small salad and some blue jello. The girl looked about the lunch tables- her daily dilema. It seemed like every day was a chore just to keep distance from people in such a social place as the lunch table. Every once and a rare while, people would attempt to sit down next to her and talk, flirt or whatever it was. Charlotte was the kind of person that, if such happened, she would simply say hello, get up, and leave. The girl located an empty table on the far corner of the room, and she quietly sat down. She poked at the meat for a moment, then took a bite of salad. Having poisonous glands in her mouth caused a bit of a strange side effect. Most of what Charlotte consumed tasted bitter, which she found extremely odd. People who ate poisoned food usually died- how ironic. Giver and consumer, all in one.

She took a few disdainful bites, and then took a sip of milk. The day had been average as usual, though the cold temperatures made her a bit down as of late. The girl preferred the warmer spring months, when she could go outside without risk of falling flat on her butt on the ice. Just as Charlotte began thinking about what she would be doing when spring came, a sound from the table behind hers made her look around. The jocks were all laughing and being obnoxious, as usual. On the ground towards her rolled a single apple. Surprised, Charlotte picked it up with her hands, and felt the slow transfer of poison from her hands to the red fruit. She sighed and set it down on her plate with an expressionless face.

"Mmm..."

[Deidra McKay]

If Deidra listened to people she might be half alright most of the time. But no, the girl..well, she wasn't the best of listeners. She was texting away on her little phone, sending messages to her older sister. A silly little argument, at least so she thought. The others at the table she was at were telling her not to go over by the girl by herself. She was "like, poisonous or something." Dei just rolled her eyes though. As she passed the jock table consisting of mostly meathead boys rolled an apple her way, sort of like a snow white kind of thing. Only, they wee jocks. Well, jocks could be as bad as evil-witch-stepmothery kind of people at times.

" Hey there! Whatcha doin all alone? There's plenty of like minded peeps 'round here so you shouldn't have to be alone." She said in her accented, strange word infused english. Deidra talk like a regular person? Ha. Ya right, like that would happen. The girl scooted onto the table, throwing her little bag up there and being the annoying bright person she was.

[Charlotte Avery]

As the redhead gazed down at the somewhat ironic, ruined apple on her tray, the sound of someone approaching came to her ears. Charlotte's back immediately straightened and she turned slowly in relative horror at the sound of a girl's excited, preppy voice.
" Hey there! Whatcha doin all alone? There's plenty of like minded peeps 'round here so you shouldn't have to be alone." It was one of those moments in time that Charlotte's eye twitched. Only for a second, but it was one of those moments. Why...is this girl talking to me? Did someone set her up for it? A feeling of rejection filled the girl, and she looked down at her hands for a moment. "Um..." She trailed off and rolled the apple beneath her fingers lightly.

Before Charlotte could even think of a coherent response, the girl sat down at the table across from her, and threw her bag down girlishly. It almost made Charlotte shudder. This was the kind of girl she was afraid of. Outgoing, quirky, popular, and uniquely pretty. The girl was a bit on the short side, but she made up for it with her exciting, frizzy dark hair and bright flecked eyes. Charlotte looked at the girl's smooth mocha skin and felt even worse about her own appearance instantly. "I don't like...sitting with people..." She murmured with her head almost tucked into her neck as she avoided the outstanding girl's shining gaze. "Ch-Charlotte...Avery."

[Deidra McKay]

Didn't like sitting with people? Deidra had never heard such a thing. She really didn't understand people who liked to be alone. Even after all her people watching. Of course, she enjoyed the company of others immensely. So sometimes she really just didn't get the idea of 'alone-time'. Or personal space for that matter.Deidra leaned up and over the table, looking at the girl and smiling. She was really pretty, with wonderfully red hair and green eyes. Her face was kind of squarish, which Deidra thought was really attractive.

" Hey, you're really pretty, you know that? Like...really!" The girls bright expression lit her face with unadulterated excitement, somehow mixed with contentment. She couldn't help it, with her rather spastic nature. She looked at the apple the girl was rolling under her fingers.

" Ooh, that's a shiny apple! I'm glad it wasn't flubbed up by those silly meatbrains." She said. Deidra really wanted to touch it, but refrained for the moment. She was only just learning really that people didn't take to kindly to having everything touched.

[Charlotte Avery]

Among the loud shouts at the table behind, Charlotte attempted to pay most of her attention to the girl across from her. From behind, another popular girl started flirting with the boys, giving fake insults and laughing loudly with her nasally voice. Charlotte rolled her eyes at the sound of the girl, and looked back to her new lunch table companion.

"Hey, you're really pretty, you know that? Like...really!" She said with excitement, her eyes shining. Charlotte's eyes widened, and her face turned bright red. She couldn't remember the last time someone had said that to her. With a face as bright red as her hair, Charlotte could only open in mouth in shock. "Ooh, that's a shiny apple! I'm glad it wasn't flubbed up by those silly meatbrains." The girl looked at the apple, and her hand moved ever so slightly, like she wanted to touch it. She stopped herself, but Charlotte immediately grabbed hold of the apple and threw it behind her, away from the girl.

In horror, she turned around in her seat to see the jock table had become deathly quiet, and the apple was jumping off the head of the nearest big muscled jock. He turned around with a simply infuriated face, and looked around for who was the culprit. Charlotte's eyes widened and she sunk into the bench seat as much as she could.