Nameless World

Anastasia sipped her chocolate milk without any thought in the world. Her head was swimming with the images from last night’s dream, a dream she’s seen many times before from when she was a kid and, just recently, a few weeks now.
She almost thought it was real this time, with the water surrounding her and sunlight dappling the surface. Of course, she could never reach the surface because she could never control her dreams. Her dream-self, instead, began to swim.
‘Before, I could only float,’ she thought as she set her milk carton down for a break. ‘But now, I’m swimming.’
Swimming to what, she never found out, because by the time her dream-self almost touched the edge of the surface with an outstretched hand, she managed to pull her hand back and after inspecting it, realized that her fingernails, long and sharp, were claws.
“Hey, dummy! You’re gonna share with the class on what Miss Anna’s thinking about?” Latika, one of her best friends, said as she snapped her fingers in front of the daydreaming girl’s face.
Anna blinked a few times, the image ingrained in her memory. She realized that her friends, Latika, Dean, and Alex had just sat down at the lunchtable with their trays already sat down. As usual, Alex, being a vegetarian, scooted his lunch over for Latika, Anna, and Dean to take from. Out of his backpack, he pulled out a small Tupperware bowl filled to the lid with leafy greens and colorful vegetables. The three other friends glanced at the abandoned plate in front of them and debated who should get what, or to abandon it as well.
“I’m not really feeling that Shepherd’s Pie muck,” Latika said with a little groan at the end of her sentence.
“It’s okay if you add a little salt,” Dean added, taking the Shepherd’s Pie and scooping it gracefully onto his lunch plate.
The two girls were then left with a carton of chocolate milk, green beans, and a pear slice.
“Y’know that pear came from a can…” Anna remarked, her fingers wrapping around the carton of milk.
When Anna held the carton in her hand, it was slapped, making her drop the thankfully unopened carton on the table. Anna looked up at the Indian girl with a look of disbelief.
“No way did you just do that –“
“You’re not leaving me with some gross green beans and a canned pear!” Latika exclaimed as she took the milk in her hand.
“Dude, you have some milk right there on your plate!” Anna said while pointing at the other girl’s unopened regular milk.
“It’s just some food, guys,” Alex said with a mouthful of lettuce. “Just throw it away if you don’t want it.”
“Well, yeah, we could just do that, but it takes the fun out of who gets the milk first,” Latika said with a shrug while Anna stealthily stole the milk away.
“Anna, put it down,” Dean chided, “How about a game of Fluxx to see who wins it?”
“Nah, it’ll take too long,” Latika disagreed, pawing at the milk that was taken by Alex. “Besides, it’ll get warm and not everyone likes room temperature milk.”
The argument over the milk carton continued until a crash and clattering of utensils and lunch trays caught their attention. The group looked to where the noise came from and saw Jenna Ross, resident Queen Bee, covered head to toe in food slop. Anna wondered who had the bravery to cover her in it, until she saw that a freshman boy was spread eagle on the floor. Behind the boy was a smug looking football player who was just now hiding his outstretched leg underneath the table. Anna looked back at Jenna and saw the girl stomp over to the boy and dropped her own tray on his head.
“What the hell were you thinking, freak?!” She screeched at the boy.
“It was an accident, I-I swear!” he exclaimed, trying to wipe the gross mixture of food off of his face.
“An accident?” Jenna challenged, stepping closer to him, making sure her now ruined expensive tennis shoe was near his ankle, ready to stomp. “An accident?! Are you seriously trying to tell me that it was an accident?! I know freaks like you, and that shit isn’t going to fly with me.”
Jenna was ready to break anything in this boy’s body, just to get revenge for humiliating her. Anna growled lowly and stood up. She strode her way up to the pompous girl and pulled her arm back, making Jenna face her.
“He said it was an accident, Jenna. He didn’t do it on purpose,” She growled. “Let him go. You have enough money to buy you some more clothes.”
Jenna scoffed. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Scarface? “
Anna was taken aback for a bit. That nickname was a tender wound on her memory, but she didn’t let the rich girl have her satisfaction.
“I’m doing what I think is right, Jenna,” she said angrily, “You shouldn’t be treating anyone, especially him, like goddamn animals that you can abuse.”
Jenna stared Anna down, bewildered by what the opposing girl had to say about her behavior.
“You don’t know your place, bitch,” the rich girl growled and then slapped Anna across the face.
The high school cafeteria felt like it was about to burst with anxiety. Even the popular kids knew that this was going to turn dangerous if Anna wasn’t careful.
Anna carefully brought her trembling fingers up to her cheek, touching a wet patch. Confused, she brought her fingertips to her eyes and was surprised by red liquid staining them. She stared at them as she felt two people brush past her, and a third gently grasping her shoulders and leading her away. She was too distracted by the blood on her fingertips and the anxiety caused by the staring students to notice Jenna’s screaming and yelling, but one phrase did catch her ears.
“If I see your goddamn face again, I swear to god I’ll add more scars to your ugly face!”