Valentina glanced over at the quiet boy eating beside her. A part of her was thankful that Vallin wasn’t as talkative as the other members of the cooking club. Valentina did not mind having a conversation with other people but sometimes it can get overwhelming for her especially when she starts thinking about the other person’s motives. 

Which leads to the other part of Valentina that was suspicious of the quiet boy. 

After what happened last year, almost all of the students started ignoring Valentina, avoiding her, acting as if she didn’t exist because they wanted nothing to do with her. Valentina stared at her plate with a bitter smile. Not that she blamed them for trying to keep their distance from her, Valentina would have done the same thing if she were them. 

Yet, Vallin approached her instead of joining the other cooking club members. Valentina will admit she was taken off guard, she had gotten used to other students not wanting to talk to her and she didn’t notice Vallin’s presence until he spoke. She was too busy reliving memories of the past, the good memories of the past.

Valentina gripped the plastic fork in her hand but her expression switched into a blank look, her light pink eyes dulling. She tries very hard not to remember the bad memories, at least while she was around other students or people in general. It was a different story when she was alone or whenever she was with the leader.

Valentina shook her head, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about the leader. If they needed her, they would've told her before clubs started. They don't usually need her during school hours, so right now she can allow herself to pay attention to Vallin.

Although Vallin reminded Valentina of their first meeting, for some reason she feels as if that wasn’t her first time meeting him. How strange, Valentina thought, for she didn’t know who Vallin was until today and completely forgot that she had bumped into him on the first day of school. 

Valentina didn’t know why Vallin felt familiar to her and she was sure that he didn’t attend the school the year before. Vallin is the only student Valentina has met whose hair covered his eyes, leaving only the bottom half of his face visible. Now that she thinks about it, why does he hide his eyes?

Hm, Valentina glances over at the quiet boy who was slowly eating his brownie and drinking his lemonade. She couldn’t see his expression and she had no idea what he was thinking. Well Valentina couldn’t expect to know everything about him right away, they are still in the process of getting to know each other.

One thing for sure, Valentina was going to keep her eyes on Vallin until she can figure out his motives and why he feels so familiar to her. 

Her light pink eyes narrowed at the clueless boy, if he turns out to be a threat then she would have no choice but to inform her leader but she prayed it wouldn’t come down to that.

For now, she’ll just interact with him without showing any outward suspicion or distrust, so Vallin can let his guard down around her and tell her more about himself. Yes, that’s a good plan Valentina thought with a small smile and went back to picking at her food. Though in the back of her head, she wondered what would happen if Vallin actually wanted to be her friend. It would be nice to have a friend again, one who wouldn’t try to-

No. Absolutely not. Her breathing became short and fast. Her heart was beginning to race. She could feel sweat pooling up under her arms and gathering against her back. Valentina wasn’t going to finish that thought, she didn’t want to remember what happened that awful night.

She bit her lip, gripping her plastic fork in one hand and the table with he other and quietly took in a deep breath and out. Valentina did this a few times until she stopped sweating, her breathing went back to normal, and her heart slowed down. She took another minute to steady herself, thankful nobody was paying attention to her and calmly continued eating.

Valentina pushed the thought of being friends with Vallin away. It was safer to be cautious around him than to trust in the power of friendship. Not everybody who wants to be your friend has good intentions. Valentina learned that lesson the hard way, and she had no plans on setting herself up to get hurt again.