A/N: Hello. This is my my first attempt at writing for about three years. I may be a little rusty. So cut me some slack. What I'm saying is flames will not be appreciated. If you don't like, don't read. Or review. End of story.

Anyways, as of now, I have an idea as to where this story is going, but that idea is subject to change...kind of. So please bear with me because I'm really excited to be back! I missed writing a lot.

One more thing, I will soon be a freshman in art school and as freshman year is the hardest, updating will be difficult. But I promise to do my very best.

So...here we go...

Chapter 1

Anyone who ever told that college would be the best time of your life was lying to you. Seriously. Take it from me, a sophomore at Tyler School of Art in Philly, it was quite the opposite of fun. I was halfway through the year and I probably only got about three hours of sleep on average. Not to mention the fact that I had to work two jobs just to continue my education.

I know what you're thinking. And no, my parents aren't helping me financially. And that is another story for later, so forget about it for now.

Anyways, college for me was terrible. So far. I had no social life to speak of thanks to my school work and...well work. My job was cashiering at the local grocery store. I barely paid minimum wage and I was there during all of my free time. So you see my predicament. I. Have. No. Life.

But let's get on with the story...

I was walking back to my dorm suite, since it was only a few blocks away from the art building. It was around eleven. I stayed late at the studio to work on an assignment. My shoulder hurt from carrying my portfolio so I slung it to the other shoulder. The city was bustling with life, as usual. I had grown accustomed to it's noises and smells, from the car horns to the hot dog vendors. After growing up in a gossipy, small, conservative town for eighteen years, the city was a welcome retreat.

I entered Peabody Hall and headed up the stairs to my room. Luckily, I had finished the assignment so I was excited to finally get some sleep. I hastily unlocked the door and practically threw my things down in the "living room". It was so small that my portfolio took up most of the space.

"Diana?" Emily called from the bathroom, "Is that you?"

"Yeah," I answered as I plopped myself onto my bed. My eyelids immediately began to droop and I didn't care to change into pjs.

"I just got back from Chris' and we're going out," She walked into the room we shared, "Do you want to come?"

I turned over in my bed to face her. "Do I look like I'm in any condition to go party?"

"I guess not." She sighed and ran her fingers through her blonde hair. She always did that when she was frustrated. "You never go out. You work too hard. Just this once..?"

"Emily," I straightened myself up so I was sitting, "I haven't gotten any sleep for the past three weeks. I'm exhausted. This is the first night I've finished all my work...I NEED to sleep." I fell back on my bed.

"Fine. But you have to go out and enjoy yourself sometime." She grabbed her purse from her bed and headed out the door. "You can't call yourself a college student and not go to any parties."

I waited until I heard the door shut to get up from my bed. I decided that since this was the first night of real sleep I would have for while, I would make the most of it. I hastily put on my pajamas and jumped back into my bed. It didn't take long for me to fall into a deep, well deserved sleep.

I sprung awake to my alarm, as it had always startled me when it went off. I turned it off, remembering the dream I'd had. Well, I actually didn't remember it, but I knew it had something to do with my family. I quickly forgot about it and went about getting ready for class.

I showered quickly and brushed through the thick, brown mess that was my hair. I brushed my teeth and got dressed. When I went into the living room, I found Emily passed out on the couch. I brought her alarm clock out and set it on the floor next to her and set it for ten o'clock. She had a bad habit of sleeping through her classes.

I gathered my things and headed back to the art building. It only took about ten minutes on foot to get there, since our dorm was so close. I was almost always the first one there- even before the professor.

On my way there, I suddenly remembered something else about my dream. There was someone else...a man...I couldn't recall what he looked like, but his presence had a strange air about it. The strongest memory of the dream was him, and the fact that he meant a great change was coming...I felt it.

But it was just a dream, of course. And dreams almost always mean nothing. Almost.

Anyways, as I was saying, I was pretty much always the first one to my classes. So it surprised me to see some guy standing outside my computer class. At first I wondered if he was lost or something, but as I walked closer to him, I realized he wasn't just some guy. No. He was just some completely gorgeous guy.

Normally, ponytails on guys was a little bit of a turn off for me. Not that I didn't like long hair on a guy, but I felt that after a certain point, it just looked to feminine. But, for some reason that escaped me, his fair hair only seemed to enhance this guy's masculinity. He was also tall, at least 6' 7". I don't know why, but this guy really intimidated me. Not that this wasn't normal. Considering the fact that I never had time to properly socialize myself with the opposite sex, any guy could have intimidated me.

Besides the fact that he was incredibly good looking, nothing seemed too special about him. I walked up to the room and sat myself down on the other side of the door. I stared down at the ground trying extremely hard not to stare at him. But seeing as the real life version of Michaelangelo's David was standing only a few feet from me, I was having a lot of trouble.

Finally giving in, I spared a glance up at him, which was meant to be a quick one. However, I noticed he was unabashedly staring back at me. I quickly looked away, making a point to stare at anything but him. My gaze ended back upon him though, and he was still looking at me. This was just getting really awkward so I felt I should break the ice.

"Umm... Hi." Like I said, I'm no good at socializing, so what else did you expect me to say? What would YOU have said?

"Hello." His eyes still never left mine, and I was starting to get a little creeped out. There was another two minutes of silence until I realized that he expected me to say something.

"I'm Diana," I said. I held out my hand to him and he leaned down and shook it. I couldn't help but notice that his skin was very smooth, like a baby's. (I don't have a better comparison. Leave me alone.) But I really noticed his eyes. The were a beautiful shade of blue, like I've never seen before. They seemed to be aged though. He didn't have any wrinkles or anything like that, but there was something about them that seem old. But in a good way.

"My name is Leo." He said, smiling. And still staring. I felt the blood rush to my face and I looked away for a moment so he couldn't see me blush. I struggled to find something to say to start a conversation, but my lack of social skills was overwhelming me at this point. Luckily, I didn't have to worry because my new friend Leo was one step ahead of me. "Are you in this class?"

"Yes," I replied, grateful for the distraction from the awkwardness, "Are you? I've never seen you around before."

"This is my first day here," He answered, "I am a transfer student." Transfer? Now? When the semester was only two weeks from ending? That was weird.

"Where did you transfer from?" I was desperate to keep the conversation going.

"RISD," He said as if it were nothing.

"RISD?" I looked at him in disbelief, all my fears of being awkward were immediately replaced by confusion. "That's the best art school in the country! Why did you want to transfer?"

"I did not enjoy the atmosphere." He said grimly. Something told me that that wasn't it.

"Oh," I said quietly. I felt I had been a little rude and was embarrassed. It was silent between us again, and my thoughts began to wander. Who the hell was this guy? If he really transferred from RISD, he'd have to be rich. The school's tuition was almost 50,000 a year. And the way this guy spoke...it was weird. Way too formal for a college guy. Plus, he had a staring problem. He was just a really strange person.

The professor finally showed up and unlocked the door to the room. He gave a wary glance at Leo, and then proceeded into the room. I sat in my usual seat, near the back. I was a creature of habit, and I'm pretty sure that my classmate, Ian, was too. So the fact that Leo was sitting in his seat would eventually be a problem.

But that was the least of my worries. Seriously. What is up with this guy? I sincerely hoped that he didn't think we were friends or something, because I only met him ten minutes ago. Also, I had no time for friends. So he would just have to find someone else to talk to.

He never said a word as everyone else began arriving. They gave him weird looks, especially Ian. I wondered what they all must be thinking. I hoped that they were just as intimidated by him as I was, so I wouldn't feel like such an idiot. Some people stayed away, but some brave souls introduced themselves and even went as far as to strike up a conversation.

I watched him the whole time. Even though Leo was the perfect gentleman, it was all an act. Behind his facade, he was bored. He listened to whatever they had to say, (and I would like to point out that most of 'they' were female) but it seemed he'd heard it all before.

"Why didn't you tell me about your new friend?" The question distracted me from my thoughts. I looked up to see that Alison, a girl I never really cared for, waiting for an answer from me.

"Oh..." I started, trying to think of an explanation, "We're not really friends..." Wow. Good job. I really need to work on my charisma.

"Really?" Alison said smiling. She flicked her blonde, stupid hair and batted her stupid eyelashes. I didn't really know why she was even in art school. She never did her work, but always managed to talk her way out of it. Or, more likely, seduce her way out of it.

But I digress.

Anyways, I was inwardly sulking due to the fact that I accidentally made Alison happy. I guess that must have showed on my face or something because Leo decided to speak up.

"Actually, Diana was kind enough to give me a tour of the campus." I was? What? He looked at me, his face saying play along. Oh.

"Uh, Yeah." I'm not very good at playing these kinds of games.

"Oh," Alison looked slightly crestfallen. I smiled to myself. "Well, maybe some other time...?" She looked hopeful.

"Maybe." Leo just smiled politely. The professor signaled the beginning of class, giving Alison no chance to make another move. Even though my computer class was my least favorite, I found I was enjoying myself this time. Making Alison suffer, even in the slightest, had made it all the more better. Though, if I was being honest with myself, which I wasn't, the fact that he was next to me, of all people, certainly cheered me up considerably.

Despite all that, I still had a buttload of trouble with computers. This was my worst class. There were just too many tools in Adobe Photoshop. I couldn't keep track of all of them, much less remember how to use them. It was seriously dampening my morning.

"Do you need help?" I looked away from my computer to my right. Leo was alternating glances from my screen to my face. I looked his, then at the professor's, which was projected onto a larger screen. He was caught up perfectly with what we were learning. How? He'd missed almost a semester!

"No, I'm fine." I said, too proud to accept anyone's help, "I'll figure it out on my own."

"I do not think so." He grabbed my keyboard and mouse and began fixing all my errors. This seriously bothered me, but since I was terribly behind, I allowed him to continue in order to keep my grades up. Leo slid the keyboard back to me, smiling triumphantly. After waiting a few moments for praise, he gave up. "You're welcome." I sighed and I tried once again to follow along."

"You are angry with me." It wasn't a question.

"Well, if you must know," I whispered angrily, "I am. I only met you like, what? an hour ago? And you're acting as if we're life-long friends. Not to mention the fact that you have a staring problem."

"What?" He was playing dumb. I could tell by the smirk that was trying very hard not to form itself on his lips. Not that I was paying close attention to his lips...

"All you've done since I introduced myself is stare. At me. It's getting old fast."

"I'm sorry," came a louder voice from the very front of the classroom, "Is my lesson interrupting your conversation?"

"No sir...sorry." I said meekly. I shot a death-glare at Leo, but that only seemed to amuse him even further. For the rest of the class, I concentrated on what I was doing...or rather, what I was trying to do. It was harder than usual, with his annoying presence always in the back of my mind. Somehow, I managed to make through with dignity still partially intact. When the professor dismissed us, I made it a point to gather my things as quickly as possible and bee-lined for the door. I was almost free...

"Diana!" I winced. I slowly turned to see Leo catching up with me.

"Yes?" I said as politely as I possibly could. He was really getting on my nerves.

"Where and when should I meet you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"For the campus tour," He said innocently. "I really do need a guide. And you owe me."

"Owe you for what?" I almost spat.

"I could tell that you delighted in the girl's despair when I told her that you had agreed to give me a tour of the school."

"So?"

"So you owe me," He smiled widely, "How about I meet you outside your residence hall at...noon tomorrow?"

"Fine," What?! Why did I agree to that? "I'm at Peabody. Don't be late." I silently cursed my goodwill.

A/N: First chapter done! And the eve before I actually leave for school. GO ME! Up next: Figure drawing. In case you don't know what that entails, I'll tell you: NAKED PEOPLE. That should get your interests peaked.

Now review please!