"Hey, C." Piper smiled as Cora walked over, her eyeliner heavy today, despite it not being a usual look she went for. "You okay?"

Cora sat down at the lunch table, a little smile left her lips. "Yeah, i'm good."

"We were just talking about bringing it up to the school to get us better mats for the gym." the curly haired girl said back, nodding her way. "What do you think?"

Cora pulled the jello from her backpack. "I think it's great. I've been loosing my footing on those mats."

"Okay, good." Piper nodded around the table. "That makes all five agree. So, if we head to Principle-"

She was cut off by a loud crash behind then. Cora leaned to the right some to look at the destroyed science project, Demetri, who was in her AP science class, looking in pure disbelief at Hawk. Cora knew Hawk, he asked her for a pen once and, despite not having another one, she gave him hers anyways. She wondered why he decided to destroy it, or if it was intentional. "That reminds me that I need to finish my project."

Piper laughed at her. "Out of all things, that reminds you?"

Cora had to grin. "We're in AP Bio together. I've been distracted lately."

"We all know." Lacey, a girl on the team, mocking slightly as the two girls next to her did the same. Cora's face fell, because she knew they were talking about the explicit video that was leaked of Cora a week ago.

"Stop." Piper looked at them with an eye roll. "I can help you finish if you need help."

"No, i'm pretty much done." she swallowed, shaking her head as she looked away.

"Why is your makeup so heavy today, Cora?" Hailee, the girl next Lacey asked. "Is it because Ryan is into heavy metal?"

Yes, it was. Cora was glad she at least noticed when he hadn't for the last week. Ryan being the asshole that leaked the video, the same asshole Cora was currently terribly attached to. She shook her head, recently touched up bleached hair stuck to her lips gloss just slightly. "Just got a little carried away when going for a simple look."

"I kinda like it." Lacey nodded her head. "You should try out black lipstick next."

Cora gave a little smile, despite knowing she was just making fun of her. She looked back toward the commotion that happened moments before, seeing Ms.Blatt scolding Sam, Hawk giving his best innocent look as he, possibly, was explaining what happened. Cora knew she probably shouldn't stare, especially when the four around her were engaging in another conversation about possibly getting new stalls for the bathroom.

When Ms.Blatt walked away, Cora rose her eyebrows innocently as she watched an evil grin go across Hawks face, clearly mocking Sam and Demetri before heading back go the table. She didn't see Dough was watching her.

"Cora's looking over here." he laughed with the group of boys around the table. "Which one of you was with her last night?"

It had them laughing, Hawk looked over toward the table. He knew Cora, she gave him a pen once, and he knew she sat at the same table every day. His eyes met hers, her entire face went red, it made him smirk, and she broke the eye contact short by pretending to engage in the conversation her teammates were into. "She's cute."

"Yeah, sure, cute." Mikey agreed with a minor laugh. "She's a nasty whore too."

"Freaky whore." Dough corrected with a snort.

Hawk had heard plenty about Cora, but he didn't think anyone at the table had been with her. "What? Did you use to date?"

"Date? God, no." Dough cringed slightly at the thought. "Hooked up over the summer."

"Three months ago." Mikey spoke for himself.

"Last week." Ryan spoke up, taking his ear buds out to listen in on the conversation. "Been blowing up my phone ever sense."

"Tell me about it, I had to unadd her to get her to leave me alone." Mikey agreed, rubbing an eyelashes off his cheek. "I wouldn't even mind actually talking to her if she didn't spread her legs for every single guy in the entire school."

Hawk looked back to Cora, her eyes had been looking down at an open folder now, English across the front. "Is she actually into all that stuff people say she is?"

"Yeah, dude. Begged me to choke her." Dough laughed, Ryan and Mikey did the same. "Should have seen how much she was into it."

"I mean, there is a little something to show." Ryan pointed out, pulling up his phone. "Video says a million words."

Hawk seemed to be the only one who wasn't in the twitter thread, considering he didn't even have it. Grasping the phone, he hit the thread that had her first and last name on it. His eyes went wide, not expected there to be so many nudes, that she cleared took and sent to others, along with a video of her on her knees, another of an entire sex table that was filmed from afar. Dough laughed at his reaction. "You've really never seen these before?"

"Twitter is stupid." Hawk shrugged, scrolling more until he reached the bottom.

"You've never hooked up with her before?" Ryan laughed in disbelief. "Woah, can't believe we actually found someone that she hasn't pounced on."

The trio of boys all started to clap loudly, making a massive scene around the cafeteria. Cora looked over to see what was going on, having no clue how they were all talking about her. She looked back go her unfinished English homework, too busy last night watching eyeliner tutorials. All for Ryan to just talk mega shit on her from a few feet away.

"Okay, enough." he stopped them when it was getting embarrassing the way they were clapping, when no one else knew why. "Is she, like, any good at it?"

"I mean, you've gotta bring it up to her first, which is kinda a drag because she acts like she's never done it before." Mikey laughed, and Ryan was nodded his head. "But, she's a good nine out of ten."

"Until after, then a solid zero." Dough pointed out. "You gotta get outta there before she starts-"

"Asking if you wanna get breakfast and stay the night." Ryan cut him off, and the trio were laughing again. Hawk looked toward Cora one more time, she still wouldn't look over here after he caught her the first time. "You should try it out."

Hawk looked back his way. "What?"

"Just go over there, compliment her, and she'll do whatever you say after that." Mikey nodded his head toward the blonde. "It's worth dealing with her annoying ass after, believe me."

"Believe us." Dough corrected with a snort.

He was too nervous to talk to Cora like that. He'd talked to plenty of girls but now, but never anything like that. The most he'd gotten was second base with Moon, while from what was said, Cora had plenty of guys under her belt by now. "Probably better to do it alone. Her friends might start shit."

"Yeah, probably." Ryan confirmed, opening his water bottle. "They're shit starters, but at least they have respect for themselves."

Dough laughed. "Yeah."

Hawk looked at Cora again, and this time she was putting the folder back.

Math rolled around quickly, and he knew he had this class with her. They usually sat on opposite sides of the room, except that one day when he got in late and slide in next to her. This time, he walked over, and took the spot infront of her. Cora looked up from the math book, finding the page that was on the board, staring back at him. Her eyes were dark, almost black, while his were blue.

Unfitting for who they were.

"Hey." Hawk cracked a grin, one of his arms was on her desk from how he sat to look at her. "I like your earrings."

"Oh." Cora's hands came up to grab them immediately, not totally sure why. "There's citrine. It helps bring positivity."

"Well, looks like they worked." he cracked a grin at her, a shy smile fell over her lips. "I'm Hawk."

"I'm Cora." she said back, despite them both knowing each other by now. "I like your necklace."

He didn't know how she could see it, only a little bit peaking out from under the hoodie. He nodded to the one around her neck. "I like yours too. What's that one do? Bring negativity instead? To even it all out?"

It made Cora laugh, he smiled at her. "No, it's just the normal kind."

He took his chances by reached over, grasping it slightly. His fingers grazed her skin, when he latched onto the thin chain. She was warm and soft, his knuckles pressed just a little under her collar bone as he got a closer look at the necklace. "Oh, it's a snake."

"My uncle got it for me." Cora said, he let it go slowly, lingered against her skin. "Not that- that was dumb. You don't know my uncle."

Hawk gave a single chuckle. "Might be a little weird if I did."

"Yeah, probably so." Cora agreed, her eyes casted down as the gently grin stayed on her face. Apart of him expected her to be really forward, not so sealed off and shy as she was.

"What are you doing later?" he asked her, because his friends made it seem like she'd suggested a hang out first.

Cora gave a small shrug, and her heart was jumping. "I can hang out if you want to."

Hawk grinned.

•

kylie speaks

ily sweet bby cora!