"C-Could I get the demon bird soup, with some grape juice?" Stutters a skinny boy.

The faceless bearded man behind the counter gives the kid a nod before scooping up some delicious smelling soup into a bowl, and pouring a cup of the aforementioned grape juice. He hands the boy his meal on a tray before turning back to the next student in line. This student has a scowl on his face, and his messy black hair is parted by a pair of curved goat horns.

"Razor fish sticks with gremlin juice." David says curtly.

David's meal is placed in his hands a few seconds later, and the skinny boy from before follows him to a table. The other students at the table who were talking shut up upon seeing David's scowling face and signature goat horns. David doesn't even say anything to them, and starts eating his food.

"Y-You ok, Boss?" The skinny boy asks.

David swallows a mouthful of breaded fish before glancing sharply at the boy. He wipes his face with a napkin while getting an unfamiliar look in his sharp eyes.

"I told you not to call me that, Kenny." David mutters.

"Sorry, Boss!" Kenneth replies earnestly.

This causes David to shake his head in exasperation before looking up suddenly. He scans the cafeteria with that imposing glare of his, yet he doesn't find the person he's looking for. He sees Miranda with her small clique of friends, and mutters something foul before turning away from the snake haired girl.

"Hey, have you seen a girl-" David stops suddenly.

"W-What?" Kenneth asks.

"Never mind." David sighs.

Kenneth keeps glancing at David with concern in his gaze, but doesn't bring up David's change in attitude again. The two of them eat like this for a while before Kenneth tries to lift his friend's mood with a reckless proposition.

"Want to start a food fight again..?" Kenneth offers.

David stops himself from biting into his food, and glares at his buddy angrily. The entire student body present in the cafeteria earlier that day received a nasty punishment for their transgressions, and if David starts another food fight he'd be asking for expulsion.

"Hell no. Let's just eat, and then go fuck around." David scoffs.

With that Kenneth shuts up and the two of them finish their dinner in a stiff silence. When David stands to toss his trash and add his dishes to the pile, he finds his mind drifting right back to that girl he met in the bathroom. She wasn't anything special, yet he found her so hauntingly familiar, and that fascinates him to no end.

Stolen story; please report.

"Why haven't I seen her since the bathroom?"

Right as David turns to walk out of the cafeteria he bumps squarely into Michael. The two of them lock eyes for a moment before Michael quickly averts his gaze, and David snorts. David's hand nearly reaches out to grab the boy's collar when he spies two other losers glaring up at him. Scy Walker and Jamie Schneider; neither are anything special but not worth the trouble.

"Stay out of my sight, mageless." David grumbles.

The confrontation ends just as quickly as it started, and David is left with his emotions boiling up inside of his chest. The mysterious girl is forgotten as his mind dives into the recesses of his past, and memories from his childhood resurface like razor fish coming up to bite an unsuspecting mage.

~

"Dad?" David asked.

The house smelled of alcohol that day, and an assortment of booze bottles littered the kitchen. David's father sat at the table with a bottle in one hand, and a crumpled photograph in his other hand. His breath smelled of the drink as he turned to speak to his child.

"Leave me the fuck alone!" David's father shouted.

There was only silence for several long moments. David's small face twisted into an expression of confused shock and fear, as his father had never spoken like this in front of him. The man had always been gentle to both strangers and family alike, albeit with more caution for those unfamiliar to him and his kin.

"Dad- What's wrong?" David asked haltingly.

David's father didn't respond to the question, and instead turned his head back to the bottle. There was a sickening sound which David would remember for years to come as his father drank deep gulps of booze.

"Where's mom?" David asked softly.

That question brought his father back to reality as the man's face twisted with a mixture of grief, rage, and anguish. The man stood and turned with spittle dripping down his chin and smacked David across the face harshly.

David's cheek stung, but that wasn't why tears gushed from his eyes as his father breathed labored breaths. The man who hit him just now was a healthy bright man just this morning, and wouldn't hurt a fly. David's young mind couldn't comprehend what was happening.

"She's fucking dead, you little shit!" David's father roared.

Spit hit David's blank face as his father screamed at him. The confident intelligent woman he knew his mother to be was gone. David couldn't believe such a thing, and he didn't want to let such a horrible reality exist.

Of course in the face of his enraged father David could only whimper and sob like the child he was. There was nothing he could do to bring his family back to the way it was, and he would never be able to reverse this tragedy.

~

"Why do you hate that guy so much?" Kenneth asks quietly.

David glances over at his friend with a mixture of emotions welling up in his heart. He sighs slowly before clapping Kenneth on the back casually, as he often does when the two of them are away from the judgement of the public.

"He just rubs me the wrong way, is all." David mutters.

Kenneth doesn't really get what his friend means, but Michael is arguably more of a man than he is. If Kenneth didn't stick around David he'd probably be the target of some other bully instead of David's faux lackey.

"Well, if you say so." Kenneth shrugs.

The two of them leave the main school building and walk into the courtyard surrounding the dormitories, and soon after they're gathering students to play cards.