Their table was probably the quietest for the first fifteen minutes of the lunch break, thought Max as he took his seat beside Tyson, who was busy gobbling up his food. None of them wanted to either hear or see Tyson talking with food in his mouth, which he did with very little encouragement. Kenny usually busied himself by talking with Dizzy about one or the other thing and Kai being Kai could probably go on for days without talking. 

Ray and he didn't really have much to talk about these days since their official beyblade practice sessions were yet to start. None of them wanted to rush Kai out of his resting phase. They wanted Kai to be the one to bring it up, choose the time and location, when he was feeling upto the task.

It was the buzz Dizzy was creating that broke Max out of his usual routine. Apparently, Kenny wasn't paying attention to whatever they the two had been discussing about. He was staring at something, looking shocked. "What's wrong, chief?" he asked, following his gaze. "Is that Hilary?" Ray commented, grabbing everyone's attention around their table. 

Hillary was sitting at on of the 'love' tables with a guy! "Yeah, it is." Max confirmed, immediately  looking worriedly at Tyson. "Who's she with?" Kenny enquired with curiosity, completely ignoring Tyson's feelings on the matter.  "Luke Ashton Morales. Parents divorced when he was eight. Custody's with the mother. She owns a cafe. Lives with his mother and step-father. Has two half-sisters, twins. Won a scholarship to this school through a short story writing competition. He's in the same class as her. A new friend of hers." answered Kai, in his usual monotonous voice. He hadn't even bothered to lift his head out of the small handbook he was reading through!

Tyson suddenly bursted out, "How do you know so much about him? Did you somehow know of this before?" he demanded, discreetly waving in their general direction. "He sits next to me during AP biology classes. You can't possibly not expect me to not dig up a bit of general information about him, can you?" said Kai, lifting an eyebrow at them all. 

Max suddenly felt very vulnerable. He was pretty sure that others at the table felt it too. If this was the amount of 'digging up' Kai did for someone he just sat next to, did anyone around this table have any secrets 'only to themselves' anymore? 

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Kai could practically feel the tension rising around their table without even looking up. He scoffed internally, really, he was  doing the Morales guy a favour by not giving up the darker, more juicer, gossip-worthy details about his home life. Abusive father. Wife beater. A typical domestic violence case. Father's been in and out of rehabilitation centre twice for excessive alcohol consumption. In jail currently for drug dealings two years ago.

But that was none of Kai's business. He would never judge people by their families, at lest not by the blood related ones. He just felt safer in knowing everything about everyone. To be honest, Luke did seem like an alright guy, even if he did have a slightly loose grasp on his temper.

 His teammates had to be fools if they didn't think that he would dig up each and every skeleton in each and every closet of their family. He didn't think of outing them all to the whole world or something. He just planned to bury them back in their respective closets after thoroughly  inspecting them.

He was about to come up with something creepy to tell them, just to make them more uncomfortable. Something like "Don't worry. All your secrets are safe with me. For now." Or "None of the skeletons in your closet are gonna come out anytime soon. Hopefully." when they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. 

Kai knew the sound all too well. His suspicions were confirmed when a well-manicured hand with perfectly-shaped nails painted black were places on his shoulder. "Hey boys, how are you? I hope I'm not interrupting you guys..." she said, taking a seat beside him for granted, sitting so close to him that their legs were practically pressed together at the side. 

Kai wasn't in the mood to deal with her now. His friends were the first ones to answer her. Kenny was practically stuttering through words as he formed a sentence. "O-off cou-ourse not. We-we wer-e just ta-talking. I'm Kenny, by the way." he squeked. "Nice to meet you!" she beamed, subtly placing her hand on his thigh. Kai rolled his eyes at this. He was sure that she wouldn't remember his name by the end of the day. Ray and Max at least had the sense to not introduce themselves. Everyone knew their names for sure. Just a polite hello. 

Kai, for once, was pleased with Tyson's behavior. He did not bother to smile for her. Just moodily said a 'Hey' and continued with his his food. Kai could hardly imagine the amount of  indignation she was hiding behind her plastered smile at Tyson's lack of interest in her. But she decided to move on, talking animatedly. "There's a party at Jude's house this sunday and you're all invited. You're all allowed to bring a date if you want, Kai's coming with me..." she smiled coyly at him, lacing her fingers through his. 

 "And don't feel shy coming in single! I'm sure I could find you someone interesting..." she cooed, earning awkward smiles from everyone around the table. Definitely not the reaction she had been expecting from them. Famous or not, his friends were pretty decent when it came to girls, unlike him. They pine away and have eyes for only for 'the one', until their heart's broken by them. Hopefully, it would never come to that. 

Tyson, still not out of his grumpy mood, just mumbled a "hmm". Kai hadn't bothered to speak up through the whole exchange. He was glad that it was over this soon. He removed his hands from hers, surprising her. "Now that you've said whatever you wanted to, get back to wherever you came from." He had almost added a "whichever hell you came from" but held it back. He wasn't done with her yet. He was still very much interested in the 'benifits' that came with with her.

For the first time since the conversation started, Tyson properly looked up, finding it suddenly interesting. To tell that the rest of them were surprised would be an understatement. They were flabbergast. "Kai's a sourpuss, don't take his words to heart..." Ray started, not wanting to upset his girlfriend, being the gentleman he is! Kai difficulty held back a scoff, thinking of the lecture Ray could be mentally preparing himself for him on how to behave 'gentlemanly' with girlfriends. 

Kai continued though, "Never interfere us again, especially when we are together. And definitely don't assume that you're welcome at this table!" He said, pshing herself away from her. Laura got up from her place, looked thoroughly humiliated. Good for her. That is what she gets for acting like she bloody owns him. "All right, I'll just leave! No need to be so mean about it." She grumbled, waving a bye to the rest of them, though she didn't really meet their eyes. 

Kai observed a few of her friends snigger in her direction when they saw her return back to their table. It would be thoroughly amusing to listen to her as she came up with a story for why she was coming back... He turned back to his friends, who were staring at him in astonishment. "What?" He snapped, pretending to be thoroughly annoyed. "Nothing" "Nothin' " they said, shaking their heads, and continued their lunch. He went back to his handbook, the table peaceful once more...

******

"Nothin' " replied Max, quickly ducking his head to continue with his lunch. When he was sure that Kai had retreated into whatever world he was in before, once again staring at his handbook, Max turned to Tyson. He was staring at his vegetables  in disdain, for gods knew how long. 

"Psst, Ty" he whispered, nudging him with his elbow. "What?" He mumbled, sounding dejected. "Look there." He said, pointing at the 'love' table Hillary was sitting at moments ago. It was empty now. A bit of searching and they found Luke back at his usual table. Hillary was sitting at the 'nerd' table for a change, explaining something excitedly to a few students surrounding her, after completing her lunch. 

They were still halfway through lunch break, which meant that Hillary hadn't been at the 'love' table for more that fifteen minutes. She and Luke couldn't really be 'together' if that was the case, could they? Tyson must have arrived at the same conclusions, for he started smiling goofily again. He completed the rest of his lunch with vigour. Max couldn't help but laugh at this. Tyson looked so cute when he was worried, especially about matters trivial like this one. 

Max was glad that it was what one would call a 'misunderstanding' or 'over-reacting' on their part. But what about the next one? Tyson couldn't be that lucky, could he? 

He knew Tyson liked Hillary. He also knew Hillary liked Tyson. Anyone who had seen the two of them interact with each other for more than a few others would know that. But did Hillary really know that Tyson liked her? He really hoped that Tyson would make a move before Hillary really gives up on him...

******

Cassy couldn't help but laugh when she saw Laura returning back to their table, looking flustered. She mimed like opening a book. "Reason number two hundred and sixty-one to not date jerks like Kai: They kick you out of their 'best-friends' table." She promptly said. Liz and Jude cracked up while Nate, Liam, Ethan and Theo sighed dramatically. Laura just rolled her eyes as she took her usual seat beside her, elbowing her to shut up! 

Cassy had started a sort of a tradition to warn her best-friend with reasons why she shouldn't date playboys and jerks. But since Laura had still continued with it for more than an year now, she could without a doubt admit that she had thoroughly failed at her job.

"He didn't kick me out or anything. I just came back after inviting them to the party!" She stiffly said, refusing to make an eye contact with any of them. "You wouldn't have taken your lunch with you if that was the case, duh." muttered Jude, loud enough for everyone at their table to hear. Nate choked on the water he was drinking, laughing and coughing at the same time. "Shut up!" Laura glared at her, while she was busy exchanging an high-five with Liz. Jude just stuck out her tongue in response. 

They spent the rest of the break in relentlessly teasing Laura. It was a change for them all, for it was usually "Lauri-lu, spare the poor boy, the boy can only bear so much of heartbreak!" 

"If you're looking for your next prey, that boy there could use a bit of humbling, thinks he can take away my captaincy by sweet-talking to the coach."  

"Gods, when and where did you learn to be this cruel?"

"Oh, reduce the leash you have on him, he'll be thoroughly ruined by the end if you keep spending his money like that!" And things like that. So it amusing to them all to see Laura almost dance to Kai's whims. Theo especially loved to tell her that karma was starting to catch up on her.

 Of course, Laura kept Kai on his toes too, otherwise, they wouldn't be together still. But Laura had never had to stuggle for dominance or to get her way in a relationship before. Cassy felt like she was watching an overly dramatic and complex form of a chess match most of the time, seeing who would one up the other and who would counter-one up the other and how fast each of them would do it. It was exciting as much as it was exhausting. She could only imagine the adrenaline rush that would come with it, the main reason for why Laura was still with him.

It was just the two of them when Laura started. "Come on, Cass. Please come to this party." Cassy just sighed deeply. She had been expecting this conversation since Liz had decided to throw a party two days ago. Laura took her hands in hers. "I mean, I understand. I mean, I really don't, since I'm a single child, but I mean I really really want to help you. I mean, You'll have to come out of the walls you've built around yourself sometime! It's been months since it happened, almost a year now!" 

"I-" Cassy started, but she didn't know where to start. "You don't have to stay too long either. Just an hour or two. Dance around, play games, flirt around and enjoy yourself. You can go back home then, I won't stop you. If you want, I'll be there with you the whole time too. Please say yes!" She pleaded.

Cassy finally stuck with the diplomatic, non-confirming "I'll see what I can do..." Laura deflated a bit at this. "I see that'll be the best response I could get today, isn't it?" She just shrugged. "Well, it's surely better than nothing, I guess..."

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Words: 2241

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A/N: So...?