roller derby queen ~ j.g.

six

in dakota's mind, school lunch was a game of survival. you either found a group of people early on that could tolerate you and then later become friends, or you're unlucky enough to get stuck transferring in the middle of sophomore year, with no friends, no one you know, and everyone else already has their little cliques all set up. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which one she was.

eden hall was full of cliques, most of them stuck together for years and content with not letting anyone else in their little groups. dakota was mostly fine with that; she had all the friends she needed from derby, and she was at eden to get an education, not to go and get drunk or prank the tennis team or whatever else the cliques at eden hall did. however, lunch was a different story. it was a little awkward getting out of the lunch line and being the only one who didn't make a beeline for a specific table; instead, dakota mostly just drifted around until she found a table that was mostly empty, sat down, and pulled out a book.

this had been her routine for a semester before, so she was pretty used to it by the time junior year rolled around. so when she got out of the line, she immediately looked around for an empty table. her eye caught a table at the back, completely empty. score! she turned to walk over but stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed who's table it was next to.

matthew cole was sitting with all his cronies, jaylah at his right hand and looking like she'd rather be literally anywhere else. when she saw dakota across the lunch room, she brightened up, and started to lift her hand to wave before cole noticed who she was waving at and grabbed her arm. she immediately deflated, looking at dakota and sufficing for an apologetic half-smile instead. dakota just shrugged. not her fault her brother's an asshole.

as she turned to look for a different lunch table, she definitely wasn't expecting to hear her name being called across the lunchroom.
"hey, dakota!" she turned around to see vicky, with a huge smile on her face, waving her over to a table with a few kids dakota didn't recognize. when dakota walked over, a little hesitant, vicky set her lunch down on the table. "you should come sit with us! you know, if you don't have another table you're going to sit at." dakota startled. she had known this girl for not even a day, but she was still inviting her to sit at her lunch table? she glanced around. connie sat at one end of the table, shoulder to shoulder with a boy with curly blonde hair. she waved. dakota waved back before turning back to vicky.

"yeah, i'll sit. i don't have anywhere else to go anyway." she set down her tray and pulled the chair out to sit down. "thanks for the invite."
vicky gave her a huge smile.
"of course! we sit together in english, might as well sit together at lunch too."
dakota was still reeling from how nice and friendly this girl was when vicky grabbed her arm. dakota jumped and vicky quickly let her go, looking at her apologetically.
"it's okay," dakota said. "really." vicky nodded before turning to the rest of the table.
"i thought i'd introduce you to everyone, if you're going to be sitting here for a while." she pointed to the boy with curly blond hair sitting next to connie. "that's guy, connie's boyfriend," she said. "you'll never see them not together." she ignores the 'hey!' and 'that's not true!' that comes from both of them and moves on. "that's russ, and next to him is luis-"
"hey, pretty lady. come here often?" aaand there it was. dakota pulled a face and looked at vicky.
"sorry, but i don't think-"

"luis, can you stop being a fuck boy for two seconds and shut up? you're going to scare her away." dakota and vicky both turned to see julie sitting at the other end of the table, glaring at luis. luis ducked his head sheepishly, staring down at the sandwich sitting on his tray. julie glared at him for a second longer before turning to dakota. "sorry about that, all the boys here are idiots." dakota smiled at that, knowing that she at least had someone to back her up with that statement. she and julie just looked at each other for a second before vicky spoke again.
"and that's julie, our goalie. she's also just really badass." dakota grinned.
"yeah, i've met julie already." vicky tilted her head and looked at her, confused. "she's my roommate." vicky's eyes widened as she realized what she said.
"oh my god, really? that's so cool! we can have hangouts and sleepovers and stuff now, this'll be so much fun-"

she's cut off by a familiar voice saying "how's my favorite girl?" dakota looks up to see...
"oh my god, again?" fulton reed was in the process of sitting down in the chair next to vicky, his hand reaching to hold hers. he looked up at dakota and his mouth dropped open. vicky looked between them, seemingly oblivious of the whole situation.
"fult, this is dakota, she's going to be sitting with us for a little bit. i met her in english."

fulton looked at dakota, and as coldly as he could, said, "yeah, she just loves bringing in strays." dakota couldn't help the response that slipped off her tongue.
"yeah, i can tell. were you one of them?" she heard guy wince from his seat, and she saw russ' mouth drop open. fulton couldn't quite figure out how to retaliate. dakota smirked. he had really thought that he had her.

their glaring contest was broken by a tall boy with a red bandana coming up to the table and grabbing fulton's shoulder. fulton jumped a foot in the air, seeming to try to shrink himself down. the other boy pulled back. "sorry, man. forgot." as he sat in the seat next to fulton, taking fulton's attention off of her, but dakota couldn't stop looking at fulton. she recognized that jump. she knew what it was like to try to sink into your seat like that. she knew what that was, because she did it too.

she and fulton didn't argue the rest of the lunch period.