Chapter 3: Cafeteria Crossfire
The Crestwood High cafeteria was not designed for peace.
It was designed for chaos pure and unfiltered. By noon, the long rectangular room throbbed with noise. The crash of trays hitting tabletops blended with bursts of laughter and the screech of metal chair legs dragging across the floor. Conversations rose and overlapped like a hundred radio stations tuned to static, while the smell of reheated pizza and industrial tater tots hung thick in the air.
The pizza slices themselves looked like regret in triangular form.
Ava Martinez stood at the threshold of the madness, clutching her tray as if it were a shield. On it sat a sandwich she had built with careful precision ham stacked evenly, lettuce perfectly tucked, napkin smoothed beneath it like a protective layer. Her apple gleamed, polished against her sleeve before she left the lunch line. Even her water bottle was positioned upright, safe from potential spills.
She wasn't just carrying food. She was carrying order.
And in Crestwood's cafeteria, order was constantly under siege.
Her sharp eyes scanned the room like a general surveying a battlefield. The freshman cluster by the vending machines was out immediately too loud, too unpredictable. A group of band kids pounded drum rhythms with pencils on the far tables, already halfway to composing a full percussion ensemble. The middle rows were impossible. That was the athletes' domain, loud and rowdy, their laughter ricocheting across the room like cannon fire.
No thank you.
Her gaze flicked desperately across the battlefield, until finally salvation.
Emily Chen, her best friend since childhood, waved both arms like a beacon from their usual spot by the wide cafeteria windows. Her black hair shimmered under the overhead lights, and her smile was wide, already pulling Ava out of her tightly wound nerves.
"Saved you a seat!" Emily called, nudging her backpack off the bench.
Relief flooded Ava as she threaded carefully between tables, balancing her tray with soldier-like focus. She slid it onto the tabletop and exhaled. "Thank you. I was two seconds away from retreating to the library."
Emily laughed, unbothered by the din around them. "Classic Ava. What's so bad about the cafeteria?"
"It's unpredictable," Ava muttered, adjusting her napkin under the sandwich. "At least in the library, no one's throwing grapes."
Emily grinned knowingly. "True. But then you'd miss my excellent company."
Ava was just about to agree, unwrapping her sandwich with deliberate care, when it happened.
"Martinez!"
Her entire body stiffened. Oh no. Not here. Not now.
"Sparkle Queen!"
She closed her eyes briefly. That voice carried too easily, like it had been designed to attract attention. She didn't need to look up, but she did anyway and sure enough, there he was.
Jace Carter.
He was a walking interruption. Tray balanced in one hand, basketball tucked casually under the other arm, as if it were an extension of him. His messy blond hair caught the cafeteria's fluorescent lights, his grin already locked firmly in place.
Ava's stomach sank. Of all the tables. Why this one?
"Don't you have your own table?" she asked sharply as he strolled over.
"The basketball table's full." He jerked his chin toward the crowded center section, where half the team already sprawled. "What can I say? I'm in demand."
Emily's eyebrows shot up as Jace dropped his tray directly across from Ava. "You're… sitting here?"
"Yup." He plopped down, leaning forward with a grin that could only mean trouble. "Fate clearly wanted this."
"No," Ava said flatly. Her fork slipped from her grip, clattering against her tray. "Absolutely not."
"Aw, come on. Don't you want me to brighten your lunch with my dazzling presence?" He reached across the table, swiping one of Emily's fries like he owned the place.
"Your presence," Ava said through clenched teeth, "is about as dazzling as a power outage."
Emily snorted into her juice box, nearly choking.
Within minutes, the table filled with more students Emily's friends, a couple of Ava's study partners, even a pair of choir kids who liked sitting near the windows. Ava sat stiff as a board, trying to pretend the boy across from her didn't exist.
"Nice binder," Jace remarked, pointing his fork at the stack sitting beside her tray. The colorful tabs gleamed like a badge of order. "What's this tab here? 'Ways to Murder Carter and Get Away With It'?"
"Tempting," Ava muttered without looking up.
"Thought so. You're practically blushing just thinking about it."
Her cheeks betrayed her, blooming with heat. She stabbed her salad with unnecessary aggression.
"Relax, Sparkle Queen. You can't hide your true feelings forever."
"My true feelings are that you're a public nuisance."
"And yet," he said smoothly, "you keep talking to me. Fascinating."
By then, their exchange had gathered an audience. Heads leaned closer. Voices dropped to whispers.
"Wait," one of Emily's friends said loudly enough for half the table to hear. "Are you two… sitting together?"
"It's not by choice," Ava snapped.
"It's destiny," Jace countered with a lazy grin.
Giggles rippled across the table.
"They'll be dating by winter formal," someone whispered.
Ava almost inhaled her juice through the wrong pipe. "Excuse me?!"
"Oh, I see it," another chimed in, eyes sparkling with mischief. "Classic enemies-to-lovers setup. You can't write this stuff."
Jace leaned back smugly, hands laced behind his head. "See, Martinez? They get it. They ship us."
"They're delusional."
"They're visionaries."
"You're hallucinating."
"You're blushing."
"I am not."
The laughter that followed echoed across the cafeteria. Phones slipped discreetly from pockets; Ava knew there'd be screenshots, memes, maybe even TikToks circulating before the final bell.
Jace, apparently unsatisfied with words alone, plucked a grape from his tray and rolled it across the table. It wobbled to a stop on the corner of Ava's neatly stacked biology homework.
She froze. "Carter. That is my biology homework."
"It's just a grape," he said innocently.
She flicked it back at him with a sharp snap. It bounced off his hoodie and plopped directly into his mashed potatoes.
The entire table gasped dramatically, as though witnessing the opening act of a play.
Jace narrowed his eyes, scooping up a spoonful of the potatoes.
Her heart stopped. "Don't you dare…"
The potatoes landed back on his own tray. He smirked. "Relax. I'd never waste food on you."
Relief flooded her followed instantly by fury. "Are you calling me not worth it?"
"I'm calling you too precious."
The table erupted. Groans, laughter, even a few "oooohs." Someone clapped like they were courtside at a game. Ava's pulse roared in her ears.
She pushed her tray away and stood abruptly. "You are the worst part of my day."
Jace leaned back in his seat, unfazed, basketball balanced on his knee. "Funny. You're the best part of mine."
For a split second, the world tilted. The words hung between them, casual yet disarming, like he hadn't just lobbed a grenade into her chest. Heat rushed to her face. Her throat felt tight.
But then the bell rang. The room exploded into motion chairs scraping, trays clattering, conversations dissolving as students spilled toward the exits.
By the time Ava gathered her things, Jace was already gone, basketball bouncing lazily at his side as he disappeared into the crowd.
Emily fell into step beside her as they left the cafeteria. "Sooo…" she said, drawing the word out mischievously. "That was interesting."
Ava groaned. "That was humiliating."
Emily grinned. "Humiliating… or kinda exciting?"
Ava shot her a glare sharp enough to slice. "Do not start."
But Emily only smirked knowingly, and Ava felt it in her gut this was far from over.