"You sure you don't want to come and eat lunch with me?" Nate asked in a concerned tone, leaning against the entrance to the music room with his eyebrows furrowed into a line of perturbance. He hadn't exactly kept the fact that he was worried about her health a secret. Eleanor had forgotten the number of times he had commented on how dangerously small her lunch was. But, after saving up so much for school supplies, she really couldn't afford anything more. And, as much as he offered, she refused to take up Nate's offer of financial aid. As sweet as it was, she refused to take advantage of their friendship in that way. It just wasn't right, especially as he had proved to be the only true friend she had left. "I can buy you something if you want. I know how much you love the cake they have on Friday's."

Eleanor just shook her head with a smile, reaching down off the piano stool and into her backpack to get out a small, purple lunchbox and placed it onto her lap. She attempted to ignore Nate's fixated gaze on her, as it was beginning to make her quite uncomfortable. She never had appreciated people staring at her, it always made her feel analysed and judged. Nate knew this. But he had been doing it a lot lately. He had also been constantly reminding her on how to keep safe after dark. So much that she had actually considered him as the identity of her mysterious death caller. It would have made a lot of sense, especially considering that Nate was the only person she had ever told about the details of her music. But then she took a moment to reflect upon the nature of the conversations she had participated in and found the caller's eccentric and impulsive manner to be the complete opposite of Nathaniel Reed. It just wasn't the type of thing that he would do. Besides, if Nate had some sort of supernatural power, he would have told her, wouldn't he? They had known each other for four years now. Since they were fourteen. Surely...surely he would have...no...no, there was no way he could hide something this big from her. 

"You go eat without me, Nate. I prefer to eat alone anyway." This wasn't the complete truth; she actually wouldn't have minded his company. She just wasn't really willing to expose herself to the cruel scrutiny of the school cafeteria. Although, if she was honest with herself, eating alone with Nate in the music room did sound quite appealing...if it weren't for the little puppies that followed him everywhere. As a matter of fact, Eleanor wondered where they were now. By this time of day, they had usually managed to drag the poor boy back into the pits of hell, in which he would soon begin to rot after spending so much time in their company.

"Hey, Nate! What are you doing here, man? If we don't move fast enough then all the cake is gonna run out in the cafeteria and that is a type of devastation that I do not want to experience." Eleanor had to refrain from banging her head against the wall. Repeatedly. It seemed as if the demon puppies had arrived, the exact reason why she could never hang out with her best friend in peace.

"Shut the hell up, Liam, can't you see that Nathaniel's trying to have a private conversation with his girlfriend?" And there was the other demon clothed by an extremely good-looking face. 

For as long as she could remember, Nate had hung out with the two idiots he called friends. The only time she could get him alone was in music and, due to her severe intolerance to idiocy, Eleanor refused to hang out with him when they were around.

"She's not my girlfriend," came Nate's exasperated response, still leaning against the doorframe with the kind of nonchalance that suggested a complete disinterest in the situation. But Eleanor could see the small smile that twitched at his lips when his friends came bounding into the room. It was no secret that Nate was incredibly close with the two boys, and there were rumours around the school that the three good-looking males were caught up in some kind of bromance. Considering the amount of time that the three spent together, Eleanor didn't exactly have any evidence against the idea.

Eleanor did, however, have evidence that two members of the trio were devils straight from hell. Flynn Morgan, for example, had been the one to expose the school to her lower financial status. And Liam McAllaistar, of whom Eleanor was convinced was Satan, had single-handedly invented every nasty nickname that anyone had ever called her.

Nate knew of these facts and had, to his credit, advised them to apologise. But they didn't. And they still hadn't. And yet he continued to be friends with the two idiots. Which probably meant that his level of friendship with the boys was far deeper than his relationship with Eleanor ever could be.

Which was fair enough, she supposed. But she refused to hang out with him when they were around. Because although they did not verbally abuse her when Nate was present, they had degraded her so much that it felt uncomfortable to be around them.

And now, the two boys leaned against the wall next to the third member of their party, arguing about who had the privilege of pissing Nate of the most. If Eleanor had to wager a bet, Liam would win by a couple hundred miles.

Both boys were incredibly good looking, all three friends competing for the hottest guy in school without their consent or knowledge. Flynn Morgan, by exemplar, tended to have a real charm with the ladies. This may have had something to do with the fact that his smooth words were accompanied by the most hypnotising blue eyes that Eleanor had ever seen. They were such a startling shade of blue that Eleanor often found herself sucked in, the colour draining everything else in the room to nothing. He had cropped short blonde hair and an eyebrow piercing that glinted whenever he was washed out in sunlight.

Liam McAllaistar, on the other hand, had about as much charm as a strangled sloth. His joking manner meant that he often resorted to insulting a girl rather than complimenting her. Often without realising it. This, however, did not halt the herd of women hurtling his way. This may or may not have had something to do with his good looks. Brown eyes that reassembled the best kind of melted chocolate. A sprinkling of freckles that reminded Eleanor of snow falling in winter. And fiery orange hair that was such a mess it somehow ended up looking attractive.

"You not coming to lunch with us, Skittles?" Liam asked in his usual domineering manner, his smile irritatingly smug in its routine manner as his dark eyes glinted with what Eleanor could only take for malice. She couldn't explain it, but there was something about him that set of a fury of fire within her whenever her eyes came across the perfect little details of his face. 

"Don't call me that," Eleanor snapped, voice laced with the usual sort of heated flame that ignited whenever the two teenagers spoke to one another.

Liam's grin widened, flashing a pair of pearly white teeth, appearing to enjoy watching her patience with him dwindle faster than a candle burning to the bone. "Why not, Skittles? Do you not like my subtle reference to..." He had trailed off at the sight of Eleanor's deadly gaze. Every muscle in her face had become taught, eyes narrowed into blade-like slits. If looks could kill, Liam would have been so far under the ground that he would have been found as a fossil in years to come.

"Don't you dare," Eleanor ground out in what she truly hoped to be a threatening voice, because if Liam so much as mentioned the event that had prompted the nickname of Skittles to anyone, she would hang the wretched villain by his own testicles.

Unsurprisingly, Liam was now grinning with so much emphasis that Eleanor just wanted to punch the pretty freckles off his face. It really wasn't fair how the boy was so good looking. It was almost as if God had decided to create a curse among the human race. Devastatingly good looking to the point of becoming under the painful illusion that he was a deity among mere mortals. And, perhaps if it weren't for his toad like personality, Eleanor may have worshipped him like the many other female pilgrims paying homage to him in school.

"You know, Skittles, if I didn't know any better I would say that you didn't like me." The ginger-haired demon continued to speak. For some reason. Perhaps the poor boy was simply not aware that Eleanor had been strategically planning his death for years. In fact, she had spent so much time fantasising about the idea that her plans had actually become quite creative.

Almost as creative as the time that Liam had strategically laid out thousands of skittles for her to trip over in the corridor. Because, as embarrassing as it had been to fall on her face in front of him, she had to give the boy points for originality.

Liam, being Liam, had then felt the need to brag about the amount of planning that had gone into this event. Which left Eleanor with several questions. How hard was it really to drop a few thousand skittles in the corridor? How did he know that she would walk down the corridor at that exact moment? Why did he put in so much effort in the first place, was it really that funny to watch her fall? But, perhaps most importantly, why had he timed it so oddly? Why so late at night when there was no one else around to watch? Did he really need blackmail over her that badly? 

Nate's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, backpack slung over his left shoulder as he gestured for his two friends to follow him out of the door. "You sure you're okay on your own, Ellie?" He ignored the way his minions repeated his question in a swoon like fashion, grabbing the two boys by the collars of their blazers and yanking them out of the room.

Eleanor shook her head with her eyebrows raised in amusement, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture as she unwrapped the cling film encasing her half of a ham sandwich. She was saving the other half for dinner. "I'll be fine, you go eat without me."

Liam imitated her statement in the same high pitched tones as he had mocked Nate. And she couldn't help but note the likeness of his manner to the one of her mysterious death caller. 

A breath of relief escaped her lips as the door clicked shut behind the three boys. She felt as if she had finally resurfaced from an evolution of confusion. Of course. Of course it had been him. Pulling another stupid prank on her. No wonder she had felt the same flare of irritation when talking to the caller. It all made sense now. 

She also felt a bit stupid. Because she had generally taken the threat seriously. She had been paranoid for weeks now, always checking over her shoulder and constantly mistaking dark shadows to be potential threats. This reminder of her fear sparked up a new flare of anger. What a cruel trick! How dare he?

She was in the mood for giving that boy a piece of her mind.