Damien and the two sophomores burst into laughter. My eyes flew open. Damien let me go and I jumped away from him. I looked in disbelief at the three boys doubled over in laughter. The sophomores slapped each other on the backs and had to wipe tears from their eyes. Damien’s shoulders shook as he laughed silently as well. 

“That was a joke?” I said still not believing, but swiftly growing upset. 

Damien slung his arm over my shoulders. “Come on! That was funny. Like hysterical.” 

One of the sophomores nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, it was great!” 

The other sophomore slapped the arm of his friend. “Dude, did you see the look on her face? Man, I wish we’d recorded it. It was priceless!”

“You planned this?” I asked Damien.

He tightened his arm around my neck. “It was just a joke.”

I shoved him off me and stalked to Spanish class. I was shaking. My body was full of adrenaline, and it had no release. I stopped in the doorway to Spanish and surveyed the desks. The classroom was only half full. The pair of desks in the far corner from the door were empty. That would be where Damien would want to sit. 

I didn’t go to the back. I sat at a pair of desks front and center. I waited for Damien to make his appearance. Ready to fight him tooth and nail over where I would sit. I refused to sit beside that psycho.  

Prof. Nuñez came in, saw where I was sitting and gave me an uncertain smile. She knew this wasn’t were I usually sat. I looked back at her impassively. The bell rang and Prof. Nuñez closed the door. Damien  still hadn’t shown up. It appeared he would be skipping. Or maybe he had switched to Japanese. What did I care? The less he was in my life the better. I got out my Spanish textbook and notebook and listened to Prof. Nuñez’s lesson. 

When the bell rang to end class, I gathered my things. Time for lunch and the haven of my family’s apartment. Not having Damien on my heels was a relief. I was assured another hour without him. This made me bouncy and chipper. I ducked through a back exit. The apartment building was in view. My feet slapped the sidewalk. I was on auto-pilot. 

“Sarah, over here!” Hearing my name surprised me so badly that I tripped on nothing. I caught myself and turned. That had been Angela. When I saw her, I couldn’t help staring in amazement. I’d been so set on my path that I hadn’t seen the table set up with white tablecloth. Five servants stood ready to the side. They were in crisp black and white uniforms. I didn’t recognize any of them. They weren’t Noble staff. 

Being a staff daughter, of course, I focused on the service rather than the pair sitting at the elegant table. It only took a glance to recognize Angela and Damien though. Angela hopped up and grabbed my hand. “Isn’t it great? Damien had set it up.” She steered me to an empty chair and gently pushed me down. I realized there were three place settings. 

“What is this?” I asked.

“Lunch, silly. What else could it be?” she asked.

My eyes turned to Damien sitting with legs crossed, seemingly ignoring us. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll close my eyes, and suddenly, I’ll get hit repeatedly in the face.”

Angela’s brow knitted. “Why in the world would you think that?”

Damien had been inspecting his nails. He sighed and let his hand fall to his lap. “Oh, she’s still sore over a little trick Andy and Tom played on her earlier.”

Angela’s eyes widened. “Oh no, those two are awful. What happened?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but Damien spoke over me. “It was just a little prank. They pretended to be bullies and scared her a bit.”

“They are bullies and so are you.” I calmly rose from the chair, determined to go.

Angela shook her head. “Oh, I’m sure they didn’t mean anything bad, Sarah.”

“If that was them being nice, I’d hate to see them when they’re mean.”

I turned to leave, but found my way blocked by the strange servants. “Shall we serve the salad, young master?” asked a balding man in his mid-forties. He wore a spotless black coat with tails and a crisp white shirt. He appeared to be the head servant for the group.

Damien waved a hand for them to go ahead. The servants closed in on me, and I found myself slipping back into my seat to avoid bumping into them as they placed plates, poured water, and set napkins. The plate contained a small salad. Being a cook’s daughter, I could identify the bed of greens as Arugula. On top, there were some sliced beets with what I thought was goat cheese sprinkled over them.  

“Oh, this is lovely,” Angela cooed, picking up a fork and knife to dig in. I looked over my shoulder longingly. All I’d wanted was a simple ham sandwich and some potato chips in the privacy of my home. 

“Sarah, try this. It’s scrumptious,” Angela said. 

I looked back at the plate. Was this place setting here for me? It seemed so. All I could figure was that Angela must be trying to smooth things over between Damien and me. I wished she’d consulted me before setting all of this up. I shouldn’t be rude. She’d gone to a lot of trouble. I took careful note of the utensils she was using and mimicked her. Damien wasn’t eating. I carefully cut into the beets and gathered a bite. I’d never actually had goat cheese before. I wasn’t sure I would like it. I made the mistake of looking at Damien as I took my first bite and almost dropped the fork when I saw him staring intently at me. My eyes darted nervously to Angela. She was eating her salad and seemed very happy, oblivious to where Damien’s attention was pointed. 

I looked away and finally allowed myself to take a bite. The salad had a light drizzle of vinegar and oil and had been seasoned with salt and pepper. The beets weren’t pickled like I was used to. They had been cooked. I was surprised at how good they tasted in combination with the goat cheese.  

“How do you like it, Sarah? It’s not breakfast for dinner, but it’s pretty good, right?” Damien asked. There was a hint of steel to his words. I once again glanced nervously at Angela. She either didn’t detect the hostile tone in Damien’s voice, or she didn’t care. 

“It’s lovely like Angela said,” I answered.

Damien picked up a beet with his fingers and dropped it into his mouth. 

“Damien, don’t be a pig!” Angela protested, but her voice held laughter in it. 

I quickly cut and ate the rest of my salad. I didn’t like Damien watching me eat. It made my stomach twist

He was licking his fingers clean as the plates were swept away and the main course was set before us. I looked down at the plate and found it contained things I easily recognized: A thigh and leg of baked chicken, a dollop of mashed potatoes, and French cut green beans. 

Damien wasn’t waiting for us. He already had his leg in his hand and was tearing bites off of it. Angela was ignoring him and had picked up a different fork which I peered at closely to identify. I picked up the same.

“Just use your fingers,” Damien said in exasperation.

“That might be fine for you, Damien, but we ladies don’t enjoy the smell of chicken under our nails,” Angela replied.

Damien snorted. “We ladies? Are we using the royal we now?”

Angela’s eyes darted to me in dismay. I sighed. “The chicken is excellent. Thank you for inviting me,” I told her.

“Oh, it wasn’t—” she began.

Damien snorted again. “Yeah, she loves to do charity work.”

Angela’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about, Damien? You’re the one who set all of this all up. It was your idea to—“

“SHUT UP! I DID NOT WANT TO INVITE HER!” Damien shouted into her face. 

Angela cowered in her seat at his outburst. A small watery hiccup sounded from her. 

Damien threw his chicken leg back onto his plate. “Oh great, start sniffling. Go ahead.”

Angela brought up her napkin to hide face. I rose from my seat and went over to her. I crouched down and patted her back. “Angela, don’t worry about it. Thank you for having lunch with me.”

Tears were glittering in her eyes. I moved to embrace her, but she sprang up and ran back into the school. I stood up and watched her disappear into the school. 

“Wanna split her dessert?” Damien asked.

I grabbed Angela’s water glass and threw the liquid into his face.