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Prologue
AH, BLISS. Charlotte's face remained expressionless even as her soul danced for joy the moment she lifted the lid off herbentobox. Game show model Amelia might not be the typical PTA-attending parent, but few other mothers could match her efforts when it came to her daughter's lunchboxes.
Having once seen Charlotte practically salivate while watching an anime character feast on raw fish, Amelia had immediately gotten herself a Japanese cuisine cookbook, and Charlotte's school lunches had never been the same again.
Every lunch made her feel like she was being transported to Tokyo one bite at a time, and today was no different, with Amelia having prepared a trio of tuna mayoonigiri, several slices of crabsticks, and Charlotte's favorite salmonsushitopped with a generous amount of Dutch cream cheese.
After taking her Sailor Moon chopsticks out of its case, Charlotte clasped her hands together and silently murmured the traditional Japanese phrase before meals.
Itadakimasu.
She went for the crabstick first, but just as soon as she had it between her chopsticks—-
"That looks good."
—-the strip of crab meat disappeared into Landon Carmichaels' mouth, and Charlotte instinctively reacted to this blatant act of theft.
Jab!
Landon grunted as her elbow connected solidly with his guts, but the gleam in his dark eyes told her she hadn't been able to hurt him as much as she wanted. Then again, he was six-foot-plus to her meager five-two, and the jerk also worked out religiously while Charlotte despised any activity that would make her sweat.
Her not being able to inflict pain on Landon was a no-brainer, and while Charlotte was usually the type not to waste her time on the impractical—-anything that had to do with the boy next door (literally) always seemed to be an exception.
"Can I have another one?" Landon asked.
"No, and don't—-"
Landon took the seat next to her, asking, "Don't what?"
"—-sit there," she finished at the same time.
"Too late." Landon flashed her a smile, but Charlotte refused to acknowledge the way it nearly made her swoon.
Also, it wasnottoo late for him to find another place to have lunch, but before she could say another word, other voices had already butted in.
"What'stoo late?" That was Devon.
"Or is itwho'stoo late?" And that was Nick.
"Whatare we talking about?" Then there was Sean.
"Or is itwhoare we talking about?" And finally, there was Logan.
Charlotte barely stifled her groan as Landon's friends came to her table one after another. The five of them werethemost popular boys in school, but honestly, all these guys had going for them were their looks. She had been friends with them for years, and most of the time, Charlotte felt as if she was surrounded by toddlers who just happened to be over six feet tall.
As Landon's friends laid down their trays, her table once again went from socially isolated to the most envied and hated in school, and already she could feel more and more girls glaring at her from every direction.
Great, just great.
Since Charlotte had a reputation for being half-dork, part-nun, and part-thug, most girls were understandably pissed at the way these guys were sticking to her like glue, and now Landon was just making things so much worse—-
"Could you feed me that?"
Oh Lord, save me from this jerk.
Charlotte could practically hear the other girls gnashing their teeth upon hearing Landon make his request in a voice that could only be described as...intimate. While Landon was probably the friendliest and most approachable among his friends, he was also rather notorious for keeping his distance from all other girls in school...except her.
The gleam in Landon's eyes told her that he knew exactly what he was doing, and Charlotte decided it was time for payback.
