Never Judge a Book By Its Cover

Chapter 4

Mystery meat . . . That is what Ash called the thing on his food tray that the school tries to pass as beef. Sitting down at his usual table by himself durning lunch, Ash couldn't help but wonder if serving this stuff was part of some elaborate plan that the government came up with to fight obesity in kids. Seeing that this stuff was barley edible and knowing that no sane person could stomach more than one helping, that just had to be the answer.

Thinking that he poked the stuff enough with his fork, Ash prepared to get up. However, instead of him getting up, someone else decided to sit down next to him.

Awkward silence soon filled the air as the mysterious person was too nervous to speak while Ash just didn't care.

"Well, I haven't got all day," Ash finally said when he realized that silence was not getting him any closer to leaving.

After a couple seconds and a gulp, the person finally said, "I just wanted to say thank you for what you did yesterday."

"Is that all?" Ash said as he turned his head away from the mystery meat and towards Kenny. "If so, then I'll be going now."

Kenny visibly cringed when he got a good view of the damage caused from the punch that was meant for him, not Ash. Feeling guilty, he made no move to stop Ash's second attempt to leave. However, a certain "queen" choose at that time to sit down across from the two boys.

Shit . . . That was the only word that went through Ash's mind when he saw the nightmare known as Dawn giving him the same nervous smile as yesterday. He couldn't believe his luck.

Meanwhile, next to him, Kenny had similar thoughts. However, for very different reasons.

"Hi A-Ash," Dawn weakly said.

"Dawn," Ash simply responded.

Silence soon filled the air between them as Ash gave her a hard glare while Dawn looked down in shame.

After what felt like eternity, Ash blinked and looked away from her. "Did you come here to play with my emotions again?"

"No!" Dawn said as she snapped her head up. "I just wanted to say-"

"Sorry!" Ash yelled, while meeting her gaze. "I've heard that before."

Seeing her soul being reflected in his eyes, all of Dawn's confidence left her and she lowered her head.

"When you first said that word to me yesterday, I thought that maybe you truly regretted what you did. However, I quickly realized the truth." Ash narrowed his eyes. "You just wanted to mess with my emotions again!"

"That's not true!" Dawn said while, for the second time, snapping her head up. "I meant what I said and I even offered to help you!"

"Sure you did say that," Ash responded without missing a beat. "But what do you think would of happened afterwards?"

". . ."

Dawn, by her confusion, was left speechless. However, someone else was not quite done.

"After you satisfied your conscious with helping me, things would have returned back to normal between us." Ash sighed. "You only wanted to help me because I made you feel guilty, not because you wanted to change anything between us." Ash stood up with his food tray in hand. "Well, you don't have to feel guilty anymore." He started to walk away. "Because I already forgave you yesterday." Ash took care of his lunch. Then, left the cafeteria.

Some time after the shock wore off, Kenny decided to play the hero. "Don't worry," he said while standing up. "I'll talk some sense into him." Kenny, then, went after Ash while thinking that this was his chance to win the girl of his dreams.