ShadowRose18: uh… thought this while day-dreaming in the middle of a maths test xD

Yes, I'm very bad. I know (sighs) Anyway, here it is.

This is birthday gift for Twilight-Fangirl-Saf (I was originally going to post this after I finished Tanma…but yeah… oh well) So, Happy Birthday Saf! :D

Oh yeah, if all you reviewers out there tell me your birthdays, I can try to post chapters as presents XD

Short summary:

Emma Tolly's love life was like a lolly. Bittersweet. TracyTancredEmma. (Ends up as TancxEm). Minor CharlieOlivia, LysanderLauren, GabrielOC, FidelioOC, BillyOC and AsaOC

Long summary:

Emma Tolly's love life was like a lolly. She dreamed and wished and longed for the sweet taste in my mouth. But when the time came, she found that it was bitter. She then had two options. Keep it and hope for the best, or leave and never find anything like it. But she discovered something. If she kept holding on, through all the bitterness, then under the bitter layer, there is something even sweeter than she had imagined. The sweetest taste of all. TracyTancredEmma. (Ends up as TancxEm). Minor CharlieOlivia, LysanderLauren, GabrielOC, FidelioOC, BillyOC and AsaOC

Chapter 1 – The Flower of Hope…Begins to Wilt

Emma Tolly didn't understand why Tancred Torrson was the way he was, but she did know one thing. She was uncontrollably in love with him.

She would sit with a book, often under the huge oak in the garden, and just watching him laugh with Lysander or see his hair sway in the wind (whether it was his own or natural, it didn't matter). She would always sigh, and day dream of running her hand through that hair of his. But it would never happen. They were friends and nothing was going to change that.

She thought that it was easy. Locking away her feelings. Keeping them hidden, so that no one, not even herself, would know that she had a feeling even slightly more than a friendship. She was fooling herself. She knew that, but it was the only way to stop herself from hating every single girl, just because they even glanced at Tancred. And to help her ignore the ache she felt when she remembered that Tancred would never see her as more than a friend.

But it didn't last. When Tracy Morsell had shown up, and made Tancred go goggle-eyed with her, her heart broke. The glass box, keeping the feelings in, shattered. Her real feelings surfaced and she couldn't stop it. She told herself to ignore it, just keep her feelings in. Just like she had before. But she couldn't, because every time she mended the box, she would see Tancred and Tracy together again and the mending would go to waste.

So Emma distanced herself from her crush. She didn't sit next to him, or opposite him in the King's Room, ignored when he called out to her at the Art Cafeteria, and didn't meet up with the others at the Pet's Café if she heard that Tancred was coming.

All her friends understood, Olivia especially. She constantly complained about Charlie, her own crush. She would always be dropping small hints, big ones sometimes even, but the "thick-headed idiot" (as Olivia called him) would never understand. Olivia herself wondered why she had fallen in love with an idiot. Emma's comment was maybe she fell in love with Charlie because he was an idiot. Olivia had just folded her arms, given an annoyed 'hmph' and turned away from her friend.

Emma distanced herself, making more time to pity her own helpless state. When Charlie got detention, Emma had used her aunt's bookshop as an excuse, but, in reality, Emma needed to be alone. Every time they spoke about the 'gossip on the latest of Tanc', it always drove knives in every part of her body. She would stiffen and then leave, giving the others a question think about.

Emma was broken. Mentally and emotionally. Nothing could fix her. No glue, no sticky tape, no kind words. Nothing. Because she was like broken glass, like shreds of fabric, like an angel without wings. She was like a flower, wilting in the poisoned wind.

ShadowRose18: okay, sorry this was kind of short. This story is going to be a lot more emotional and stuff, so it'll test my describing skills. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and please review :D