There's something terrifying about eating lunch next to someone who brings a laminated schedule and doesn't flinch when half the school stares. Ethan learns that dating the Ice Queen comes with sides — attention, fries, and mild existential panic.
Ethan's first mistake was assuming "public lunch" meant something casual.
His second mistake was letting her pick the spot.
The third?
Showing up.
Cafeteria. Center table. Prime visibility.
Isabella had chosen the most trafficked intersection of social hierarchy on campus. Jocks to the left. Honor students to the right. Gossip queens diagonally adjacent.
She sat waiting with military posture, a lunch tray perfectly aligned with the edge of the table. Her drink was untouched. Her gaze? Lethal and unbothered.
Ethan approached like a man walking toward a firing squad.
She gestured at the seat beside her without looking.
"Sit. We'll begin with neutral topics."
"This feels like an ambush," he muttered, setting his tray down.
"I made an itinerary."
"Of course you did."
Half the cafeteria turned to stare. The other half pretended not to while sneaking photos.
He spotted a girl on her phone mouthing the words: "He's sitting with her? Like—actually sitting?"
Across the room, Logan gave him a thumbs-up and mimed the shape of a heart before cackling into his sandwich.
And somewhere near the vending machines—
Claire froze mid-sip of her iced tea.
"Today's objectives," Isabella said calmly, "are basic normalization and public perception adjustment. We need to desensitize them."
"Desensitize who?"
"The student body. To us."
"You say that like we're a controlled fire hazard."
She tilted her head. "Aren't we?"
He stabbed his fork into a grape and prayed for the floor to open.
At some point, she nudged a fry onto his tray. "You skipped carbs."
"You tracked my tray?"
"You skipped them last Friday, too."
Ethan blinked. "Have you been observing me?"
She didn't blink. "You're a case study."
"Of what?"
Her answer came without hesitation."Someone I'm learning to care about, system by system."
He didn't know what to do with that sentence. He didn't even know where to look.
So he focused on chewing. And pretending his face wasn't on fire.
Afterward, as he dumped his tray and tried to slip out unnoticed, Isabella brushed her hand near his.
Not a full touch.
Just a calculated move, almost.
Item 1.3: ☑︎Accidental Hand Brush.
Ethan Cole had survived lunch with the Ice Queen. He just wasn't sure he survived it well.