"Thanks" You chuckled after briefly introducing yourself. If it weren't for the people in your family, your friends and the 4 girls you just met you probably would've almost forgotten what basic decency from others was like.
"So you're the so-called school freak everybody was talking about?" Joel said with a disbelieving chuckle.
"They talk about me?" You raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. Painted you like some ugly monster that kicks puppies and sets kittens on fire"
"Well, I can't really deny the ugly part but I'm not in the habit of hurting animals..." You laughed and glanced at Ben, who groaned on the floor "...except those that attack first"
"Bruh, are you kidding?! By tomorrow you're gonna be the school's legend!" Ezekiel called out as he and Brian approached you, the former showing his phone to you.
Despite being a proud self-proclaimed nerd one wouldn't think of him that way at a first glance. Sporting a thin build that was common amongst Lillies but lacking some muscle owing to his interests not being too aligned with physical sport. He had somewhat messy light brown hair and light green eyes as well as a paler complexion than most with some freckles on his face to go with it. In truth, perhaps if he omitted his quirky personality he looked like he could've given the likes of Jim a run for his money but then again, Lillie girls were far too picky.
"Ah, hey there, Emperor Ezekiel" You waved at him with a slight laugh.
The moniker stuck because Ezekiel became a minor celebrity at school for his iconic role as the Emperor Ezekiel from an ancient Lilliputian historical theater play. His charisma and quirkiness made the otherwise mildly boring thing far more memorable than it would've been. He'd even adopted it as part of his personality, as he was proclaimed 'King of the Nerds' and led various clubs with related interests.
As one of the cliques lowest on the social totem pole back at Mully Ully Gue, the nerds didn't have all that much to lose by approaching to you but even minor interactions were often harshly punished either by Chrissy or by her right-hand-man/human doormat Ben.
You looked at his phone and much to your surprise, it showed a short video uploaded on PikPok, the popular social network, rather infamous for its severe lack of intelligent content but wildly popular, and a medium for memes and trends to massively viralize and spread like wildfire across the globe.
The video itself was a recording of Jen's arrival and it included the moment where she pulled you out of her cleavage, gave you a kiss and then told you to text her back to be taken back to your table. It was edited with a catchy, badass-sounding tune and a caption that read "It's just the first day of the Gulliver exchange program and bruh pulls up like "
You then noticed that the video had just been uploaded 10 minutes ago but it already had 1,200 views and 800 likes. Those numbers already exceeded the total number of Lillies in the whole school, plus, with your poor social standing you didn't imagine many of the Lillies that knew you reacting positively to this sort of thing.
"Yeah, that's an unreal level of spoken rizz, man" Brian said. He looked more like your stereotypical nerd with thick rimmed, square-ish glasses and brackets on his teeth but other than that, he had a similar slender build and pale complexion to Ezekiel's.
The other jocks then slowly approached just to pick up Allen and Ben, who were barely conscious and muttering gibberish, the latter still clutching his now useless ceramic switchblade. Unlike how things were back at Mully Ully Gue, it seemed that their iron grip on the others was faltering. No doubt that the fact that this was a Brob-run school and that Arianna had already made a name for herself as someone terrifyingly stern but fair had to do with it, even the most obnoxious among your fellow Lillies had to know that their shenanigans would be no longer tolerated or encouraged.
"Well, with that dealt with, care to say how on Earth you pulled that off?" Hunter said, approaching you along with Matt, Anthony and Brett plus another guy called Thomas.
"Pull... what off?" You asked, raising an eyebrow again. Even with the video you'd just watched you didn't quite understand why people were wondering about you when this was clearly Jen's doing.
"Hey, I get it if you're mad at us" Matt scratched the back of his head apologetically "Look, I don't think any of us can excuse how we treated you back then but-"
"I can excuse them" You nonchalantly said, casually pointing at Brian and Ezekiel with your thumb "When they showed the tiniest bit of kindness or decency as people, Chrissy or Ben would send their goons to give them a beating or worse"
In addition to being ridiculed, insulted and attacked gratuitously, the other times you got into fights with the jocks or various bully gangs were caused by them attacking people who'd just casually talked to you, or even interacted in a remotely civil way. You remembered the time that a new student got his head slammed into a locker merely for helping you pick up books that fell out of your locker and that was just one of many such incidents.
"I know" Matt sighed "But things don't have to be like that anymore..."
"You guys are still largely under Chrissy's heel, aren't you?" You said somewhat dryly. Before the conversation resumed, you noticed that the crowd parted and then you heard a familiar voice. You could almost even hear in your head a comedic tune.
"Make way, peasants! VIP comin' through!" Jim spoke in a mock aristocratic posh accent.
"Jim, this a bit too-"
"Make way for the friends of the Brob Makto!" Jim said proudly as he made an overly dramatic entrance, with Pete sheepishly following behind. Without missing a beat, he seemingly leaped towards you and before you knew it he had wrapped his arm around your neck and waved at the crowd like a celebrity himself.
"The hell are you doing?" You narrowed your eyes.
"What does it look like? We're enjoying our fame!" Jim replied cheerfully "Man, I knew you'd be a late bloomer but I didn't imagine you'd bloom that hard, damn!"
"He's been sharing Ezekiel's video like crazy" Pete explained "I assume you've already watched it?"
"Just did" You laughed a little, still feeling awkward. The strangest part of this is that some among the crowd were actually taking pictures of you "Okay, can someone explain to me what the hell is this all about?"
"Wasn't it obvious?" Hunter replied "Dude, the first day's not even over, we're all struggling to deal with these gigantic girls and you just came in with one like it was no big deal!"
"It's even more surprising that it's you of all people. No offense" Thomas spoke quietly.
"Nah, none taken" You shrugged "Been called the Ugly Duckling long enough that I've just accepted it as a fact of life. The sky's blue and water's wet, nothing new under the sun"
"Dude, what the fuck?" Jim said, giving you a surprisingly chastising look "You just pulled the most insane stunt in Mully Ully Gue history and you have the AUDACITY to say you're ugly?!"
"What? It's true, ask any of the girls" You shrugged, glancing briefly in the Lillie girls' direction. They were still sitting by themselves but looking at the crowd from a distance.
"He's got a point, you know?" Pete added "There's no way the ugly duckling could've pulled a girl that can easily put all Lillie girls to shame, and a Brob one at that!"
"Okay... but what the hell was that about Makto?" You then asked Jim.
"Well, you know, from that movie about the blue aliens. Remember how they gave a special honorific title to the guy that tamed the most dangerous beast? Welp, that's you right now!" The blond guy explained, giving you a thumbs up while Brian and Ezekiel also gave a thumbs up, getting the reference.
"Please don't actually call me that" You facepalmed.
"Well, you need a proper title for your uncanny levels of badassery and godly rizz!" Jim said and he looked like at that moment he devoted all the power of what few braincells remained inside his skull into thinking of another silly moniker.
"Giants' Whisperer? Nah... Hannibal Brobca? Nah, not a good idea to compare Brob girls to elephants..."
"Surprised he even knew that one" Brian pointed out.
"You learn a fair amount of history and stuff by talking to him" Pete said, looking at you, making you feel awkward.
"Got it! Titan Tamer!" Jim said, snapping his fingers and quickly pulled his phone out, sharing the PikPok video over Chirper with the newly created #TitanTamer hashtag. Your eyes were wider than ever as you helplessly watched that happen in less than a minute.
"Yep, that just happened" Pete confirmed.
"Jim, I swear to god..."
"Trust the science, man! If you're not school-wide famous by tomorrow I'll eat my shoes' soles for lunch!" Jim boasted confidently.
"Want some fries with that?" You taunted him. However, you saw that nearly everyone around you then pulled their phones out and most likely went to like and further share the video.
"Of course everyone coordinates when it comes to screwing me over" You huffed.
"What are you talking about? People are amazed!" Ezekiel replied.
"They're not lying" Joel spoke, having watched events unfold in silence up until now. He pulled his phone out and showed you the comments on Ezekiel's video. People were asking for your name, what school that was and mostly "how did he rizz up that giga babe?"
"In all honesty, how did you do that? Scoring a Brob girlfriend in 3 hours? Sounds like an insane speedrun" He asked.
"Look, she's not even my girlfriend" You said but everyone gave you a look that said 'Yeah right' as hard as it was possible to express wordlessly.
"Hey, we get it. These kinds of things can be tricky to readily come out about" Pete said, putting a hand on your shoulder.
"I literally didn't do anything. She saved me from getting squashed by another girl and we have class together so I've been with her the entire time" You shrugged but you could almost hear the crickets, no one bought it even though it was the actual truth...
