The smell of bad pizza and mystery meat wafted through the air as Lou threaded through the anarchic landscape of the cafeteria. Not like in the old days when he slunk off to some isolated corner table, his book centered on the table before him, his eyes fixed on the page, his head down. Today, Lou was a changed man – a social butterfly of charisma burst forth from the cocoon of his awkwardness.

The cafeteria's usual sea of faces split as he strode through the lunchroom, whispers and giggles following in his wake. A group of girls, eyes shining with interest, waved him enthusiastically over to their table, their stance – not unlike a welcoming puppy wagging its tail in excitement. Lou, showing a coolness he never knew he had, slipped into the vacant chair alongside the girls, a smirk dancing on his lips.

"Well, well, well," he drawled, leaning back in his chair, "what's all this fuss about?" As he said this, Lou mused over how it is that people don't cringe at him.

They were all giggling, and everyone seemed to be looking at Lou like he'd just stepped off the pages of a teen drama as the latest heartthrob.

"Lou, where have you been hiding?" Suzie inquired, fluttering her lashes. She had curly hair with thick eyebrows. Known for her mischievous sense of humor and infectious laughter, she had a way about her of instantly making everyone feel at ease.

Lou smiled, his eyes glinting with amusement. "Oh, you know, just dealing with some. personal matters," he said, voice full of mysteries. "But I'm back now, and ready to take on the world. Don't tell me you girls missed me."

May, little and short haired with a grave face, came closer. " It's like we haven't seen you anywhere for ages. What have you been up to?" May was intelligent and sensitive, always ready to lend her ear or give advice.

They were really listening now, literally hanging off his next word as he began to tell them stories of recent adventures. Lou's was charisma on full tilt, and even the most boring tales sounded like epic stories. They were eating right out of the palm of his hand; their laughter carried across the cafeteria. Of course, he was lying.

"So, Lou, what is the most spontaneous thing you have done of late?" Suzie asked, her eyes flashing with interest.

Lou leaned in, dropping his voice down to a whisper that was a little short of conspiratorial. "Well, if you really want to know," he said precariously, stopping for dramatic effect, "I just got up and went to the city. No plan, no agenda, but me and my spontaneity." He turned away, trying to appear enigmatic. Of course, he was lying again.

The girls gasped in unison, their eyes wide with envy. "Wow, that must have been fantastic!" Suzie exclaimed. "You must have just had the best time ever."

Lou nodded, a knowing smile twisting his lips. "Oh, it was superb. In addition to seeing some stunning sights and meeting some truly fascinating people, I also kind of ran into trouble with the law."

May's eyes went very wide. "A run-in with the law? What happened?

Lou chuckled, waving a hand dismissively. "Nothing too serious, just a little misunderstanding. You know how it is... when a new kid comes to town he attracts all the attention."

"You're so brave, Lou," May said, her voice full of admiration. "I wish I could be that spontaneous."

Lou grinned, feeling more confident than ever. "It's all about stepping out of your comfort zone. You never know what amazing things you might discover." Lou wondered if it was him who said these things, or was it his charisma speaking for him?

Lou was basking in the newfound popularity when he felt a pair of eyes boring holes at the back of his head. It was Derek, Lou's arch nemesis. His face twisted into a mask of rage and disbelief. Lou grinned knowing he had Derek by the nuts. The whole school knew that Derek had a crush on May.

Derek strode over to Lou's table with a gang of yes-men waddling behind him like a gaggle of irritable hyenas. "Well, well, well," Derek smirked as he spoke with a voice as smooth, cold, and nasty as a serpent's tongue. "Look who crawled out from under his rock. The Good Boy himself."

Lou raised an eyebrow, intimidated a little by Derek's attempt. "What's up, Derek? Jealous that I'm sitting here with the hot girls now?" The girls looked at each other and giggled as Lou said this. Apparently, they could hardly believe they were the hot girls.

Derek's face was tomato red. "Don't get too cocky, Lou-ser," he snarled. "Trust me, this small act of yours won't last. I know you, even though I don't know what happened to you. You've always been the same loser."

Lou laughed and spun his chair backward. "Oh, Derek, you wound me." He clutched his chest theatrically. "But you know what they say, haters gonna hate. And you, my friend, are the biggest hater of them all."

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Derek's eyes reduced to slits as his hands clenched at his sides into two huge fists. "Listen, you little bitch," he sneered, bringing his face closer. "You might have gotten away with it with these airheads," he flung a glancing hand to indicate the girls, "but you can't fool me. The whole world knows that you are a selfish bastard."

Lou shrugged, a smirk playing on his lips. "Whatever you say, Derek. But you know what? I'm not the one standing here, desperately trying to insult someone just to feel better about myself."

Derek's face contorted in rage. He turned to the girls, his voice overflowing with malice. "What are you doing messing around with this creep?" he sneered. "He is a geek, a freak. You should be hanging out with people like us, not with this kid who stood by and allowed his friend to drown."

Suzie and May exchanged uneasy glances, unsure of how to respond. Lou, however, was not about to let Derek ruin his moment of triumph.

"Hey, Derek," Lou said, his voice calm and collected. "Why don't you go back to your table and leave us alone? We're having a perfectly good time without you." For some reason, Lou had the unwavering belief that he could handle this with his charisma alone.

Derek's eyes bulged with fury. "You little..." he started, but before he could finish his sentence, Lou cut him off.

"Listen, Derek," Lou began, his voice surprisingly steady, "I get it. You feel threatened. I'm sitting with your crush, your ego's bruised, but throwing insults around isn't going to solve anything. How about we talk this out like civilized human beings?"

He lunged forward, snatching Lou by the collar. "You think you're so smart now, don't you? Well, let me bring you up short, you little bitch."

This brought Lou instinctively around, twisting out of Derek's grip and throwing a solid punch into his jaw. Derek stumbled backward, surprise etched across his face. Lou pressed the advantage, sidestepping a crazy swing and throwing a quick solid kick to Derek's stomach.

Derek's counter was quick and sharp, his fist coming squarely into Lou's stomach, knocking the breath out of him. Lou staggered back, fighting for air, but he gritted his teeth and refused to give any visible or audible sign of his pain. The faces around him flickered for just a moment with worry. Lou squirmed, ignoring the feeling, squared his shoulders and refused to give up quite so easily.

Derek came on, throwing his next punch. Lou met it with his forearm, and the blow shook his bones. Using the motion, Lou counterattacked. He immediately jabbed at Derek's face. It was a good punch. Still, Derek merely grunted from the effect and followed up with a roundhouse hook Lou ducked just in time to avoid.

Breathing heavily, Lou realized that each exchange was costing him more energy than he could afford. His punches were getting slower and less accurate. It was becoming painfully clear that in a straight-up fight, he was severely outclassed.

"What are you doing Derek?! Leave him alone!" Suzie and May screamed simultaneously. But Derek, blood boiling, ignored their pleas completely.

Lou wiped the sweat off his brow, looking around the cafeteria. He just needed something to change the course of events. Watching Derek advance on him for another blow, Lou backed up a step and said under his breath, "Time to switch strategies."

Activating his Cringe Perception, Lou's eyes ravaged the cafeteria for desperately anything that could help. His gaze raked over the laughing and worried faces of his classmates, the scattered food trays, until finally, they landed on the two heads of iceberg lettuce sitting forgotten on a table nearby.

His mind ran at high speed, his body was screaming at him that he needed to act, and Lou saw his chance. He ran towards the lettuces, the desperation and hurried inspiration making his movements cool with purpose. He snatched the lettuce heads and turned to face an increasingly puzzled Derek ready to unveil his unconventional counterattack.

With a melodramatic flourish that drew every eye in the cafeteria, Lou began to shake the lettuce heads like pom-poms, jumping and kicking in an absurd parody of a cheerleader.

"Two! Four! Six! Eight!

Who do we appreciate?

Lou! Lou! He's our man!

If he can't do it, no one can!" he chanted, his voice oozing with derision.

The reaction was instant and visceral. Faces contorted in secondhand embarrassment; a wave of giggles and groans washed across the floor. Derek halted, a furrow of confusion across his brow, as he watched Lou's cringe-worthy performance. The spectacle was so outside the realm of anything he ever could have predicted, so completely bizarre, in fact, that it threw him off his rhythm.

Fueling off the cringe energy radiating from the crowd, Lou felt a surge of power. His stamina, slightly replenished, allowed him to dodge Derek’s next few punches with surprising agility. He was using his Embarrassing Evasion skill to its fullest, twisting and turning with exaggerated theatrics that only increased the crowd's discomfort.

As Derek's anger surged, Lou saw his opening. He relied on his Cringe Power Up as he focused all his accumulated cringe power into one, daring deed. Firing off a muffled war cry, he launched himself at Derek and threw a fist that cracked with freakish violence. The blow landed squarely on Derek’s jaw, sending him flying backward and crashing to the ground, unconscious.

There was a moment of dead complete silence before the whole place erupted with cheer and applause. Lou stood there, panting-heaving with his hands on his knees, just digesting what he just had done and what was inside of him. He just knocked out Derek, the school bully, with the power of cringe.

As he looked around at the faces of his classmates—some shocked, others amused—a notification blinked in his mind's eye:

LEVEL UP! You are now Level 17!

Lou had gained two levels from the encounter, his powers growing stronger from the cringe he had induced.

A smile spread across Lou's face, a mix of relief and triumph. "Even if I'm boosting my charisma," he thought, "I can still make people cringe when it counts." He realized that his unique powers, as embarrassing as they were, had real potential. Not only could he defend himself, but he could also turn any situation to his advantage. Even though people cheered him when he defeated Derek, no one came up to him and asked if he was okay.

As Lou attempted to navigate across the floor to use the bathroom, his eyes locked across the room with Evan's. It was brief, barely a second in time. Lou could see through that, for one of the first times in a very long time, there wasn't disgust or disdain. Just a glimmer of respect, an instinctual nod of approval. It was small but it meant the world to Lou.

Lou, his heart pounding with equal parts elation and fatigue, wanted to run to Evan with open-armed enthusiasm to eliminate, finally, the distance between them. But he wasn't allowed even one step.

Lou noticed two teachers right beside him. The look on their faces could have curdled milk in a second. Their eyes were dead serious.

"Lou," one of them growled. His voice was low, like rumbling thunder on a summer day. "The principal wishes to see you. Now."

Lou's heart sank. He knew this couldn't be good. He'd just defeated the school bully in a very public display, and while the kids cheered, the teachers certainly didn't find it funny. Heck, they probably considered it a major disruption.

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Lou followed the teachers out of the cafeteria, his classmates' noises fading into the background. As he walked down the hallway toward the principal's office, he could think of only how he sent the school bully flying with a single punch.