He opened his blue eyes slowly and raised his head from the desk. His head was spinning and his back hurt like hell, but that didn't stop his mind from waking up on time by its own.

Armin had fallen asleep once again over one his top ten favorite books. He had been hoping for a week to get some free time to re-read it, but hadn't had the chance 'till last night. Last time he saw the clock, it was 02:48 am.

He entered the bathroom and washed himself before smarten up a bit. Not that there was much to do since he had to use uniform for school, though they were rather simple: jeans (or a denim skirt for the girls), a t-shirt and the school's jacket.

He prepared dinner for his grandfather and himself, and ate alone before leaving for school. Rose's Academy wasn't far from the Arlert's house, but the boy preferred to leave early; that way he could stop as many times as he wanted to contemplate the changes on the road.

But today he couldn't concentrate on them, so he arrived rather early to the building. Dragged himself through the halls and up the stairs to the second floor. He opened the door 3A and dropped himself over his chair. He was tired as hell.

He laid his head over the desk and tried to close his eyes, but the grinding of the door made his eyes go wide open again.

A short blonde girl had just entered the room. There were 3 girls from the classroom that had those qualities, but only one of them had that shade of blonde and a pronounced nose: Annie Leonhart.

Armin straightens up to greet the girl; but she didn't even look back at him. She sat at her place in front of him and took out her note book.

He watched as she solved her math homework over her shoulder. "You got that wrong" he let slip. He bites his tongue and looked away, but a heavy noise in front of him made him look back. Annie had dropped her notebook over his desk, she was waiting. "Th-That's not the formula you need for this equation" he scribbled at the top of the paper, "start with this one" he said "the rest is just about clearing the x".

The blond girl showed her final result to Armin once she was finished. The boy nodded and helped her with the next one. By the time they were done, the room was full of chatting people.

They started the day with chemistry with Hanji. Next he had history with Zakarius. It followed philosophy with Hannes, free hour, literature with Ral, math with Levi and language with Shadis; a good and normal day.

By the end of the day he had been assigned three more projects: one for chemistry, literature and math. But he didn't want to think about it, he was exhausted and wanted to go to bed so badly.

Annie stood up and waited by his side. After she stared at him more than 2 seconds (her average) he knew something was off. "Be my partner for math's project?"

He wasn't expecting that. And, at any rate, he would have had expected it in the morning, in an inbox. He tried to rub the sleep from his eyes and concentrate. Armin had never paired with her, and she didn't look Jean-like (do the work and put my name on it-like), so why not?

Besides, she made him kinda' curious. That dedicated girl who always isolated herself, but was kind to him; who tried to hide, but couldn't handle guilt; and he didn't know why. If Armin could easily read people like books, why did she remain a mystery to him? That's what made him curious.

"When do you want to start?"

"Today". Crap.

Annie lived quite far from the school, so they had to take the subway. Armin sat by her side, feeling sleepy... sleepier with the wagging of the transport and the murmur of people.

He didn't know if to regret accepting going to the Leonhart's place to work on math, or if he should regret reading one of his top ten favorite books 'till late night. Now, he didn't want to do that, but blaming Annie didn't seem fair.

A light weight hit against his arm. The blond girl was leaning against him, head on his shoulder. "A-Annie?" Her fringes hided her eyes from him, but guessing on the rhythm of her breathing, she seemed to have fallen asleep.

"Annie?" He called again in a murmur. She was really sleeping against his shoulder, something Armin would have never imagined. "You really are a mystery" he thought out loud.

At what stop did she say they had to get off? He couldn't remember.

Zzz