misunderstood and alone

Kate was sixteen. She had no parents, no siblings and no friends. She lived on her own by the generosity of child protective services. She had been allowed a small little apartment in the city.
One day, during school, Kate was sitting alone at her own lunch table as usual, when without warning, a girl with silky blond hair sat down across from her.
"Hi!" she said. "I'm Nina!"
Kate stared at her. "Um... okay." she had a wary feeling that this was just some dare and that this girl was here to tease her somehow. But as she watched Nina closely for a few minutes, her suspicion began to fade. The poor girl seemed totally clueless. She was eating a sub sandwich and every time she raised it to take a bite, she followed it closely with her eyes until she was cross eyed. She concentrated so hard on her food that she barely even noticed Kate watching her.
Finally, when she finished eating and took a long drink from her jug of chocolate milk before setting it down with a satisfied sigh and smacking her lips together. Then she interlaced her fingers and propped her chin on them, staring at Kate. It took her almost thirty seconds to realize Kate was staring back at her.
Nina blushed and looked away. "So do you like Chinese food?" she asked out of the blue.
"What?" Kate was confused and exasperated, which for her, was never a good combination.
"You know, Chinese, that country in Japan?"
Kate stared at Nina as if she was some sort of bizarre new species.
"I think you mean Japanese food..." Kate said slowly.
"No." Nina protested. Then she picked up her tray and angrily stormed off to the trash can. Once she had dumped the remains of her lunch in the can, she paused for a moment, then turned back and skipped to Kate.
"Wanna eat Italian food tonight?"
Completely at a loss for words, Kate looked down at her food.
Nina clapped her hands excitedly. "Yay!" she squealed.
"N-" Kate started to say. Nina cut her off.
"See that boy?" she pointed over Kate's shoulder. Kate looked back where Nina was pointing.
"That boys gonna take us out tonight."
Kate's words got stuck in her throat. She was pointing at Griffin, star of the football team, joking around with his friends.
"Wha- bu-"
"He doesn't know yet, but I'm gonna go tell him right now.
"Wha-? N- He-"
Halfway to his table, Nina turned around and came back. Kate sighed, relieved that Nina had lost her nerve.
"That girls coming too!" Nina said and skipped off to Griffins table.
Kate watched in horror as Nina shoved Griffins friend off of his seat and sat down next to Griffin. Kate couldn't hear what she was saying, but it looked an awful lot like,
'Your taking me and that girl and that girl to an Italian restruant tonight.'
Kate ducked when Nina pointed at her. Griffin didn't look at all surprised at this and so Kate guessed that Nina did this just about every day. He nodded skeptically and looked at Kate. He smiled his perfect smile at her and Kate, at a loss of what to do, did the only thing that came naturally. She glared at him, her eyes glowing with what looked like hatred. Griffin's eyes widened and he looked away, and Kate turned back around to her lunch, humiliated. He probably thought she was a freak. She peeked back and saw Nina flip her pretty hair as she got up. Griffins friend sat grumpily back into his seat which he had so rudely been knocked out of and started talking to Griffin. But Griffin was watching Nina skip to the other girl who was to be invited, shaking his head, laughing. Kate felt her heart melt into wax at his smile. Her breathing got fast and uneven, and she forced herself to look away.
"Get a grip." she told herself. "He's a jock. Nothing to get worked up over. He's probably already thought of the first insult he's going to throw at me tonight." And even though she told herself this, deep down, under eight layers of skin, Kate was hopeful for the first she could remember.