The Alpha's Forever Mate

CHAPTER: 11

"You are being an i***t, Mark," said the Asian girl, clearly not caring if Violet could overhear. "Are you not the president of 'I hate Carl Johnson and all he stands for' club? Have some integrity!" she said to him.

Mark pouted and looked away as Violet sat down.

"Ignore him, he is an i***t," said the Asian girl. "I am Rose, and unlike other people at this table. I don't throw away my principles at the first sign of trouble."

The three of them were halfway through bowls of some sort of orange soup, though Rose did not seem to be eating hers much and was using it to prop open her book. Violet looked around again for somewhere to get food.

"Here," said Yana, pressing a small button in front of Violet's place setting. "It is all automated, but if you don't like the menu you can change it through your login on the school app."

Yana stared at a silver circle in the middle of the table that was not covered by the table cloth, but nothing happened. "Weird," she muttered, and pressed the button again.

"It is not weird," said Mark. "It is obvious. What did she think would happen when she made an enemy out of Carl Johnson?"

"It is not because of Carl Johnson," Rose said, turning a page in her book without looking up.

Yana pressed the button again. "I mean, how would they even know where she is sitting to block it?" she said quietly.

Violet shrugged and got out her tablet. "I will try changing the menu and doing it again." She loaded the app, went to the lunch menu, and selected the table and seat where she was sitting. It flashed up an error message saying the seat did not exist.

"Let us swap seats," Yana said. But that did not work either.

"It is him," said Mark. "They are not going to let you eat. You won't be able to access the facilities. The teachers will stop teaching you. They will treat you like you do not exist until it becomes true. Do you know what happened to the last person who was number one in the Carl Johnson 'worst things' rankings? Eaten by sharks. Sharks just jumped out of the sea and ate him up because Carl Johnson wanted it that way. Your life is over."

Rose rolled her eyes and turned another page. "Carl Johnson cannot control sharks, Mark."

From the look on Mark's face, he did not agree.

"It is not that bad," said Yana, though she did look worried as she pressed the buttons in front of other seats as well, and still nothing

happened.

"What do you mean, they won't let me eat?" Violet said. Her stomach rumbled in protest. She had not done anything that bad to Carl Johnson, had she? Surely this must be some technical glitch.

Yana smiled kindly and pushed her bowl of soup toward Violet. "You can finish my lobster soup if you like. I am sure it will all blow over soon."

Violet grinned at her and started digging in. She was so intent on eating that she did not notice when a hush fell over the dining hall, not until Mark kicked her in the ankle as he tried to duck under the table.

The doors to the terrace had been thrown open and the VIP Gold appeared in a stream of sunlight. The entire student body flooded toward them as if by their gravitational pull. Tiara Johnson said something to the other two and gestured toward the mezzanine level, overlooking the dining hall and gardens. Blake nodded at her, and they crossed the hall to the mezzanine stairs, paying no attention to the crowd as it parted to let them through.

Carl Johnson did not follow them. He stood in the entranceway glaring fiercely at Violet. A few people turned to see what he was staring at, then nodded in understanding and whispered to each other when they saw Violet. But she did not care. She had lobster soup and she was going to finish the whole bowl. And if Rose did not want hers, she would eat that too, and Carl Johnson could glare at her all he liked. It did not bother her one bit.

Creepy jerk, he was.

Although she did not care about Carl Johnson's opinion, she was in an incredibly small minority.

Lunch had been bad enough, with him scowling at Violet over his soup, everyone muttering, and Mark trying to hide behind some sort of exotic plant. But that was nothing. When she got up to go to class, so did everyone else. They converged and by the time she got out of the dining hall, she was completely separated from Yana and the others. It was as if she was being swept away by a tsunami. There was no way she could fight against it; the force of the crowd was too strong. She tried to push through them but they formed a solid barrier that she could not penetrate, so she gave up and just went with it.

As far as bullying went, Violet thought it was kind of weak. It was inconvenient and a bit creepy how they did not even look at her as they herded her along. But as soon as the bell rang, they started drifting off.

By the time the crowd dispersed enough for her to make her way, Violet was in some dusty, forgotten part of the school.

"Jerks," she muttered to the last few bullies as she got her class schedule up on her tablet to figure out where she needed to go. Of course, her physics class was at the other end of the school.

"You are late," said the physics teacher as Violet slipped into the seat Yana had saved for her. "Lates are marked as absences in this class," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. "Three absences are a failure. Organize your time better in the future," he warned.

A/N: To be continued...