Mechanical Heart

2 - A New Group

~POV: Lucas~
Ness walked Lucas over to his table in the corner of the large dining room. Surprisingly, all five plates at the table were empty and had nothing but crumbs remaining.

Four other boys were sitting at the table. Two had bright blond hair, one had brown, and the other had black. Just like Ness, this other black haired boy wore what appeared to be a baseball hat. It was red and white.

"Everyone, this is Lucas!" Ness shouted at his friends, "He's new here."

Lucas could feel his face heating up. He was bad at social interactions and this was too direct for him.

"Come on, Ness," the shorter of the two blonde boys said sarcastically, "Don't make the poor kid feel bad."

"Oh, it's fine," Lucas added shyly.

"Giving people heart attacks is Ness' specialty," the black haired boy replied, "Well, Ness and Vil."

"Oh, give it a rest. You sure know how to make someone's heart stop beating," the brown haired boy, presumably Vil, quipped.

"That was ONE time-"

"You know very well it was not ONE-"

"Terrible timing you two," Ness looked disappointed, "Anyways, sit down, Lucas. Want anything to eat?"

"No, but thanks for asking," Lucas quickly sat down next to Ness and looked at the other boys sitting at the table. Lucas worried he has made a bad first impression.

Ness pointed to the shorter of the two blond boys at the table, "That's Tiberius, but he prefers Toon."

"Did you have to tell him my real name?" Toon sighed.

"He would have found out anyways," Ness then pointed to the other blond, "That's Yves, but he prefers Young. Even though he's slightly taller, he's still a minute younger."

"How's the weather down there?" Young asked Toon. He used Toon's head as an arm rest, "Feels great to be taller than you!"

Toon quickly jabbed Young in the ribs with his elbow.

Oh...They're twins...Claus, Lucas pushed that thought away.

Ness pointed to the brown haired boy, "That's Virgil."

"But he prefers Vil?" Lucas guessed.

"Give this man an award," Vil still had murder in his eyes pointed at the final kid that Lucas still did not know the name of.

"You'll get used to him," Ness quietly told Lucas. Ness then pointed at the final kid.

"I can introduce myself. I'm Red. No nickname for me."

"Nice to meet all of you," Lucas said.

"Nice to meet you too!" Toon responded.

Lucas got the feeling that Toon and Ness were the friendliest and most outgoing of the group.

"Anyway," Toon continued, "What do you like to do?"

Lucas, caught off guard, struggled to think of something, "I don't really do a lot of things..." Great job, Lucas. Now they all know you're boring.

"I'll find you something you enjoy. There's got to be something," Toon seemed determined.

"Don't be pushy," Vil told Toon.

"Oh, what would you know about being pushy? More than me I'm sure," Toon sarcastically responded.

Vil and Toon quickly proceeded to break down into arguing.

"Is this normal?" Lucas turned to Ness.

"Don't worry, happens all the time," Ness turned to Lucas, "We're all just happy you didn't fall into that crowd."

"Who-" Lucas began.

"Them." Ness pointed to a table with way too many chairs. There was a relatively large group of students. It looked like one of them was doing most of the talking. "You see that kid, with the spiky dark hair? That's Rock. He himself isn't a terrible person, but he attracts the wrong type of people."

Red spoke up, "It's not Rock you have to specifically look out for...it's his group. Especially Ridley. You don't want to be near him. He broke my arm and almost fractured my leg two years ago."

Toon and Vil stopped their argument to listen.

"He's the worst," Young added, "Ridley kept threatening me for most of last year. He didn't do anything, but he sure is intimidating. He almost went after Toon."

"Yeah," Toon added quietly, "Even if he doesn't act on them death threats aren't exactly something you can just ignore. Especially when he almost killed a kid."

Lucas' eyes widened in shock, "He killed a kid?" What kind of school is this?

"Almost," Ness turned to face Lucas, "He beat up that kid so badly that they had to stay in the ER for a while."

"It makes what he did to me look like a scratch," Red comment.

Vil looked Lucas in the eye, "I'm warning you...Do not under ANY circumstances get on Ridley's bad side. He will make your life hell as long as you're here. This is a boarding school so you can't exactly leave. Look again. He's the tallest kid at the table."

Lucas looked closer at the table Ness had pointed out. He could instantly tell who Ridley was. He was tall and muscular with messy hair that put Rock's to shame. Lucas thought Ridley could just look at him and he would drop dead, "There is no way I'll do anything on purpose to upset him."

"Good," Ness said with a concerned tone, "Just hope you don't have any classes with him and pray you don't sit next to him if you do."