It was the first day of 7th Grade and Éponine could not wait to finally see her friend, a young boy named Marius Pontmercy. He was her only friend at school, it had been this way for a couple of years now, after she had been pushed away from her other friends all she had were her siblings and Marius. He was a nice boy, a kind boy, and Éponine couldn't help but hope that one day he would realize how much she liked him. There were days when she dreamed about dating him, about being high school sweethearts and eventually marrying. If you looked on the inside cover of her English notebook it was written in fancy script all over the place "Mrs. Marius Pontmercy", "Éponine Celine Pontmercy", and other such things. When she finally saw him on that first day of seventh grade after not seeing him nearly all summer her heart began to soar.

"Marius!" she greeted him smiling brightly, she hoped he did not notice that her hair was not done very neatly, or that her clothes were not very new. Anymore her family kept plunging into depths of poverty and were barely scraping by on what was left of her father's unemployment, and her mother had no time to plait her hair this morning.

"'Morning 'Ponine!" he smiled at her, "did you know there's a new girl at school?"

"No..." Éponine replied, what was he talking about? A new girl?

"I met her the other day for just a bit, she seems nice," he shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"What's her name?" Éponine asked, perhaps she could try and become friends with this girl.

Marius paused to think for a moment, "I think it was Cosette."

Éponine stopped, Cosette? Cosette had been in the name of the girl who had lived with the Thenardiers in a sort of foster care arrangement (it was in all senses illegal since it was not through social-services or any such place). She was the girl who she and Azelma always used to blame their wrongdoings on, and then she had been taken away, and they never saw her again.

"apparently this is the first time she will be going to a public school in three years," Marius continued.

"Really?" Éponine asked.

"Yeah, I think you'll like her she's really nice!" Marius was grinning wildly.

Éponine's heart sank, she was sure Marius never talked about her in such a happy and glowing manner and now it seemed this Cosette had all his attention.

"There she is," Marius pointed to a girl who was approaching them, "hey Cosette!" he called to the girl.

She smiled and her blue eyes sparkled, then she looked at Éponine and her smile seemed to fade in an instant. Éponine did not greet the girl, one look and she knew this was the same Cosette of three years back. The only difference was that they were both slightly taller, and Cosette was much prettier then the last time Éponine had seen her on Christmas of 2003.

"My name is Cosette," the girl introduced herself to Éponine shyly.

"I'm Éponine," Éponine replied, she looked the girl up and down even though she hardly knew her,something about this girl irked her.

Marius could sense tension between the two girls, "'Ponine? You okay?" he asked.

Éponine didn't respond, and her jealousy remained for this new girl who was to be joining her grade at Myriel Middle School.

"I'm sorry Cosette, she isn't usually like this," Marius apologized.

"It's alright," Cosette tried to smile, she wasn't sure how much she really wanted to get to know Éponine anyway. She looked like the eldest daughter of the Thenardiers, the family she had lived with until her father had finally found her.

"Should we go inside?" Marius suggested to the two girls, they didn't say anything but entered the school so they would not be late on their very first day.

During their lunch break Marius approached Éponine without Cosette, "'Ponine, what's wrong with you today?" he asked sounding frustrated.

"I don't like her," she told him flat out, "things are gonna change between us with her."

"Oh come on, it's got to be more then that," Marius prodded.

Éponine sighed, she had hoped to never tell him about this, afraid that it would make her seem bad in his eyes, "I know her," she spoke barely above a whisper.

"What?"

"I know her," Éponine repeated slightly louder then the first time.

"Know her?" Marius was confused, "but how."

Éponine swallowed, "she lived with us, for a long time..."

"What? But you never told me about any-"

"I didn't want you to know," Éponine responded, "if you knew what happened I thought you wouldn't like me anymore."

"What happened? 'Ponine, what do you mean?" Marius asked.

"I..." Éponine stopped, "never mind, it's not important."

Marius sighed, "'Ponine, you know you can tell me anything, I'm your friend."

She considered for a moment telling him about what she had done to Cosette in a time not so long ago, "no, I can't."

"Okay, well if you ever want to tell me you know you can," he tried to smile at her but Éponine did not return his gesture.

From that moment on Éponine's relationship with Marius became somewhat strained, and because of that he started becoming closer with other boys like Jehan Prouviare, and with Cosette. This left Éponine alone once again and she could not bear it, one night she came home and cried about it. Her mother had tried to console her while her father slapped her and threatened that he would give her something to cry about.

Marius could sense the change in the girl who had once been his best friend, and he started feeling bad pushing her away because he knew that meant she was alone. Still he never understood why the two girls had such a sort of dislike for each other, he knew Éponine would never tell him so he decided to ask Cosette.

"Cosette how do you know 'Ponine?" he asked her one day.

"I lived with her family for a long time, I can't even remember my mother," she explained, "but one day my father came and took me away."

The whole story sounded a little weird to Marius but he did not question it, "so then why can't you be friends? Surely you were before-"

"We weren't," Cosette replied, "I had wanted to be but Éponine did not, she always did what her mother did, and even when we got to be a little older... Well it wasn't good."

Marius frowned, "that doesn't sound very much like the Éponine I know, she can be really stubborn sometimes but most of the time really nice."

Cosette was confused, the description of Éponine's personality was hardly like what she knew her to be like, was it really possible for someone to change so much? "She's changed?"

"She must have, you two really should get to know each other," he suggested, not only did he not want to see bitterness between two of his friends, but Cosette was almost as friendless as Éponine.

Marius looked about and noticed Éponine sitting by herself in the school yard, "come on," he nodded to Cosette, "I think she could use a friend."

Éponine had a cloud of sadness hanging over her because of the slap she had received from her father the night before, she was so lost in her own misery she didn't notice Marius approaching with Cosette.

"Éponine?" Marius called to her, she looked up, her brown eyes looking sad, then she noticed Cosette standing beside him and she frowned.

"Why is she here?" Éponine asked sharply.

Cosette looked taken aback but she didn't move because she hoped that deep down Éponine had changed as much as Marius said she had.

"Éponine, please, what has she done to you?" Marius asked.

When he said that Éponine felt extremely embarrassed, but she didn't dare look at Marius face again, she looked at her hands instead.

"'Ponine, could you just try being friends?" Marius asked.

Éponine looked back at him, so he hadn't really abandoned her, he still cared, she thought about what he was saying, then looked at Cosette who tried to offer her a friendly smile. "I guess..." she shrugged her shoulders.

Marius smiled which in turn made Éponine smile as well, soon the three seventh graders were smiling happily. Marius put his arms over the two girls, "I'm glad we got this sorted out."