Riley's POV

We were all gathered around the table, trying to stomach the slightly tasteless oatmeal. It had been about two months since the events of New Years Eve, and we had all agreed to stay friends. What we already had was much too precious to risk for something so tentative as a middle-school relationship. And we had gone, for the most part, back to normal. There were still times of heavy awkwardness when anyone brought up New Years or what happened in Texas, but other than that we were the best of friends...That's all.

But wasn't normal was my dad entering the kitchen groaning and looking like he was really dreading something. "What's wrong, Dad?" I asked, startled by his lack of enthusiasm. His only response was to let out another groan and bury his head in his hands. We all turned to my mom for an explanation. She simply rolled her eyes at her husband.

"The transfer student's supposed to be coming to your school today, and your father's not exactly excited."

"Why not?" This time my dad answered, his voice slightly muffled behind his hands. "She's part of this new 'Educational Forgiveness' program. She was expelled from her old school and she's being sent to JQA as a second chance." Lucas looked confused. "What are you worried about, it's pretty much what happened to me. And I think it worked alright. People change people right?" Dad finally dropped his hands and sighed. "She's didn't get kicked out for fighting. She got kicked out for almost setting the school on fire! I feel like there's a difference."

"I feel like this is going against quite a few of your life lessons, Mr. Matthews." Maya smirked.

"I'm not your teacher at home. I don't have to enforce these life lessons until eight a.m." I couldn't help but think that seemed a little hypocritical, but I laughed with the others all the same. Noting the time Maya, Lucas, Farkle and I left my apartment and heading towards the subway station and what promised to be an interesting day at school.

It was while we were boarding the subway train to JQA when Maya jokingly wondered if we'd meet the new kid on the subway like we had first met Lucas. I was excited at the possibility but Farkle said how unlikely that was due to the sheer number of subway trains in New York not to mention the almost infinite combinations of different trains the new student could take to get to school.

"That's if she's going to take the subway at all." He added as an afterthought.

Looking back I realize that we did see her on the subway, but we didn't really take any notice of her. I vaguely remember that she had bumped into Lucas when she had boarded the train at one of its last stops before where we got off. It was an everyday occurance being knocked into by people getting on and off the train. If the girl hadn't ended up being part of our class, I probably wouldn't have ever thought of her again. But I do remember this, even though I had seen her for what was probably a half second. She didn't look like an arsonist.

Lucas' POV

History was the same as it always was. Mr. Matthews stood at the front of the room trying to start his lesson from a single word written on the blackboard.

Empathy

"Something that we often forget while studying history is the basic fact that these people we learn about were still human. Sometimes we're so caught up in the facts and studying what we think the teacher will put on the test that we forget why we study history. Because the people that made past mistakes and achieved past glories were once everyday people, just like you and me. History never fails to show us that when you began to stop seeing people as other human beings who have souls, dreams, and loved ones just like you do, bad things happen. And history also shows us that when you step into the shoes of someone else and see how they see the world, your outlook on everything can change." There was a knock on the door, causing Mr. Matthews to jump. He tried to mask his pure terror, but most the class saw right throw his act. And the majority of the class looked curiously at the door to see what had our teacher so scared. I don't think any of us, including Riley, Maya, Farkle, and me, were expecting the girl that walked slowly through the door. She was fairly tall, and had long wavy reddish-brown hair, even from my seat in the middle of the classroom I could see the strange and striking green/gray of her eyes. She was dressed casually, wearing a white Shinedown shirt, torn jeans, and beat up sneakers. She looked so...normal. I found it hard to believe that she was the girl from the forgiveness program.

Mr. Matthews seemed to recover from his own shock. "Um...you must be..." He checked a paper on his desk. "Amaryllis Stevens?" A few soft giggles cut through the silence at the sound of her name. Amaryllis trained her eyes on the ground. "Amy." She corrected softly. Not raising her eyes from the floor.

"Right...well, Amy...you can take a seat." Mr. Matthews told her hesitantly. She took a seat at the very back of the classroom and Mr. Matthews recovered enough to go on with the lesson. "Now empathy is important throughout history, especially while studying a person whom we'd rather forget. It's easy to write these people off as being just plain evil, but you have to consider the time period, the ideals of people in that time, and their situation. Empathy reminds us all what we're truly capable of...both the good and bad." He paused here for minute, looking around at us all. "You guys are going to do a project. I want you to partner up with someone and I want you to learn as much as you can about them. I want you to humanize your partner, I want you see them as the complex human being we all are. And I want you to do a presentation on what you've found out. And remember while empathizing with others, you discover parts of yourself. And here's the catch." He added as he watched several people already moving to pair up. "I want you to be with someone you've never been partnered up with before. The point of the project is to learn things you didn't already know, and to understand people you don't normally interact with."

People stood up, moved around the room, and chose partners, a bit reluctantly. I looked around the room. Someone I'd never been partnered with...

I finally I saw her, still sitting, as though trying to stay invisible in the back of the room. I went over to where she was and sat down at the desk next to her. "Hey." I started lamely.

"Hi." She replied tonelessly, sketching aimlessly in her notebook. "I'm Lucas." I continued.

"I'm Amaryllis." Still in that flat, emotionless voice. "Like the flower?" I asked, still trying to make conversation. She looked at me for the first time. Her eyes were even more intense up close, I shifted uncomfortably as she continued to stare at me. "Yeah," She said finally, going back to her drawing. "My mom had a thing for Amaryllises, lilies too." Her voice changed at this simple statement, it became slightly lighter, as though the words were easier to make out.

I wasn't sure what to ask after that, she seemed like she didn't want to answer any of these questions and she wasn't asking any of her own. Until, "The teacher's looking at me, isn't he?" Startled I looked up at Mr. Matthews who was throwing glances at us every few seconds. "No, I don't think he's-" I started but she cut me off with snort of laughter, though her expression told me she thought the situation was anything but funny. "Figures." I heard her mutter as she shoved her notebook into her bag. She turned to face me, and I was a bit intimidated by the look of resentment of her face. But her expression softened, or at least it returned to the stony impassiveness that she was wearing when I sat next to her. For a second she looked like she was going to say something, but then she decided against it, and she dropped her gaze to the floor again.

We sat in silence for the rest of the class. While Amy sat staring at the floorboards, I was looking at her notebook. It had slipped out of her bag when she had knocked it over in her anger. Drawn across the lined paper was a large bird taking flight, it's wingspan taking up half the page. It appeared to be flying away from a tree, a tree engulfed in flames.

Okay, so before I continue with this story I want you to know that I have never written anything remotely like this. I usually right mysteries, so please if you have any suggestions feel free to review or PM me.

-Mockingjay