didn't know you were cold ('til you felt my fire) // JENLISA AU

Chapter 3

Lisa knew what was going on the second the 'Pinksy' approached her at lunch.

The Kim girl, like most of the Progress Program kids, was just another rich brat who 'endured' the BMBYH because they wanted a fancy badge on their high school diploma so they didn't have to buy their way into university. Even though they didn't need the badge like kids like Ella did. Like kids the program was meant for.

Especially Kim, who was notorious for not talking to anyone. Shy, prudish, stuck up - whatever you wanted to call it. She was one of the richest of all the 'Pinksy' and a known loner.

There was absolutely no way the girl would ever sink to speaking to a local like Lisa if she didn't have to.

She figured Chaerin had set this up, meddling for Lisa's sake.

"Excuse me?" The 'Pinksy' accent made her nervous voice sound even more high pitched. "Sorry. Lisa?" Lisa rolled her eyes and sighed, tilting her locker door to adjust the mirror to see behind her. Orange hair with a strawberry blonde hue tint draped loose around her shoulders, wide brown eyes, chewing the corner of her bottom lip out of nerves like Lisa was going turn around swinging.

"What do you want?" Lisa asked flatly, shoving her algebra textbook onto her shelf and pulling out her English binder. She heard Kim clearing her throat.

"I was informed," she stuttered, "told, asked," she cleared her throat nervously. "You need a French tutor?"

"Yeah?" Lisa pretended she was looking for something behind her jacket hung up in the locker, still refusing to look directly at the 'Pinksy' girl. "You good enough at French to teach?"

"I'm fluent in French, Italian, Korean and Latin. Well, not conversationally in Latin, but enough to-" the girl cut herself off with a cough, like she knew she was about to start babbling. Lisa chuckled and the girl spoke again. "Yes. I've been speaking French since I was a child."

"I mean, that doesn't make you good at it," Lisa gave up the act of searching through her locker and stepped back. "My brother's been speaking English since he was a baby and he still doesn't know the difference between an adjective and adverb."

"Yes, well," at Kim's small voice and the sound of scuffing feet, Lisa finally turned to look at her. The girl was a little shorter than her, eyes even wider than they were in the mirror now that Lisa was facing her. She backed up a little, looking Lisa over.

Lisa huffed a small laugh. She knew what Kim was thinking. Vandal Trash, dressed in torn baggy jeans, studded belt, heavy boots, a hoodie with the sleeves cut off, fingerless gloves, short nails, hair dyed messily with at-home dye and shaved at one side, messy bangs, the nose stud and multiple ear piercings, bruises and scars on her left eyebrow.

Compared to this 'Pinksy', in her clean and fashionable white shirt and blue jeans, commercial-worthy smooth hair, and perfect natural complexion Lisa must look like a different species.

"What's in it for you?"

Kim blinked at the question and offered a smile that didn't reach her eyes, which were darting. "Nothing. I volunteered."

"Mmhmm." Lisa slammed the locker door closed with a smirk, turning her whole body to lean against it. "Let me guess, Chaerin found out about your little stash of special pills but you're such an exemplary student she's giving you a chance to make up for it so she won't tell your parents."

Kim looked, surprisingly, genuinely confused. Huh, Lisa had thought she hit the mark. "No?" She asked as a reply. "Is it so hard to believe that I just want to help?"

Lisa scoffed, pushing off her locker. "Yeah, but I actually don't care. If you wanna help me pass French, knock yourself out." She began to walk to the school's main hall, brushing past the 'Pinksy' girl roughly. "Meet you at the bleachers after school then, Dumpling."