Edmund was heading for the vending machine that usually had an energy drink. He was pretty desperate at this point, but couldn't afford the 5 dollars for a Monster drink that some of the more entrepreneurial students were selling at select locations around campus. He was camped out in the library, using their Wi-Fi and the books that couldn't be checked out to write his paper. It was getting late, and he was one of those people who would burst into tears when extremely tired if you pushed him. He really didn't want to cry in front of any of these people. And a few of the other students looked as though him crying would set them off.

The vending machines were all at the end of a hallway where there was also a microwave and some weird taped up art and flyers for student films. He turned the corner to see a slender red headed girl kneeling on the ground with her arm inside a vending machine. She seemed to be stuck. "Oh thank God, someone's here. I've been here for-e-ver. Hey, I've got my purse right here, if I gave you like a dollar would you get me a Dr. Pepper?"

"Sure, but don't you want me to call someone or something?" Edmund asked, watching her sloppily dig through her bag with one hand. She made a sound of triumph before holding a crumpled dollar bill out to him. "Don't do that. We're not supposed to stick our hands inside the machines, I'll be like, fined or something." Edmund was dewrinkling and sticking the bill in the soda machine repeatedly. "Well how do you plan on getting out?" He asked, finally succeeding and punching the code in. "I'm waiting for my arm to get sweaty enough that I can just pull it out." She said, accepting the drink gratefully.

"So not to poke holes in your plan or anything, but are you sure that's going to work?" Edmund questioned while trying to pick out the least disgusting energy drink to pour in his triple red eye. It would probably kill him but it turned out that you don't really care about being alive when you're writing a paper at 1 in the morning. "Yeah totally. I saw this on an episode of Zoey 101 once so…" She trailed off, perhaps hoping that nickelodeon wouldn't lie to her like that. Edmund shrugged and selected a Red Bull. "Pouring it in your coffee huh? How long have you got to go?" She asked with understanding and an 'oh you poor thing' quality in her voice. "Oh I don't know. It's for this political science class. It's already twenty pages. It's kind of gotten away from me." He replied wearily.

The girl let out a low whistle. "What's your major?" she asked, taking a gulp of her soda. "Oh I'm going for foreign relations with a concentration in Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy. I want to be a discrimination lawyer. And you?" The red headed girl nodded with interest "oh I'm just here for a bachelors in dance. It was this whole deal I made with my aunt and uncle. They would pay for all of my ballet supplies and travel and things while I was under eighteen, and then I had to get a college degree so I would have something to fall back on, just in case. They didn't say what I had to major in though." She replied with a good natured smirk. Edmund smiled, liking when someone spotted loopholes and used them without hurting anyone.

"So I'm not saying this is a terrible plan but I am going to give you my number so if you decide this isn't going to work, give me a call. I think there's probably something I can do to help." He said, writing his number on a piece of ripped note book paper and handing it to her. "Thanks. I'll call you if it turns out Zoey 101 isn't completely scientifically accurate. I'm Rose by the way."

"Edmund." He said, smiling at her.

"Well Edmund, you had better get back to writing that paper. Some vulture has probably stolen your seat already." She said. Her green eyes sparked at him, and Edmund felt not like they knew each other, but that they had known the same thing as each other.

Returning to his seat in the library that, miracle of miracles, nobody had stolen. Chugging his coffee and beginning to type he felt his heart rate speed up. His hands shook as he typed and he felt as though he were going to be ill. He was glad that he had not broken into a cold sweat like a few of the harried students around him. One girl kept singing a little song about interest rates over and over again. Edmund worried for her sanity. Laughter. Loud laughter. He looked around for the source of the laughter to see that it was a boy at another table. His hysterical laughing jag seemed to be descending into panicked and desperate crying. Edmund sighed. He had seen people do that before, if this boy was like them he would soon pass out mid sob.

The libraries harried frantic silence descended back upon them and Edmund could almost hear the minutes ticking on. His phone buzzed half an hour later. It was an unknown number. "Hello?" Edmund said lowly, not wanting the really strict librarian that looked like a bird to kick him out. "Hey yeah, Eddy. Can I call you Eddy? I'm gonna doing it. So Eddy, it seems that those bastards at nickelodeon made up science. I can assure you that they will be receiving some very strongly worded complaints from me. Anyway, you mentioned something about busting me loose?" A lilting feminine voice said. "Sure yeah. The words on my page are starting to move around, so… I guess that means I need a break? I'll go look in the janitor's closets for something." He said and hung up.

It took 3 closets before he found wd-40. He was trembling slightly and felt like he was moving very fast. "Sup Eddy, where ya been?" Rose greeted. Her legs were drawn up to her chest and she was hugging them with her free arm. "Had to find something to get you out. Now move over a little and hold still." She did what he said, smiling. She had a gap between her teeth and her face had a spray of freckles. Edmund lifted the metal flap and looked inside as much as he could until he saw just where to spray. He stuck the nozzle up into the machine to spray along her arm. "Wiggle it a little." He told her. She did, and he heard he arm slip free a little more. He repeated what he had done before. "Alright, now try." She yanked her arm free, and they both heard the sucking slapping sound of it. She had a candy bar in her clenched hand.

"Ugh, thanks. I can finally go home. 3 hours and all for a kit kat!" She grinned at him, revealing the gap between her top front teeth again. He couldn't help but smile back. "Wow. Don't you look exhausted. You staying?" She asked, as they both started strolling in the same direction. "No. I think I'll just head home, I'm feeling pretty… Existential crisis-y…So probably just want to head home and collapse before I have to wake up and go to work." Edmund remarked. "Oh. Where do you work?" She asked curiously. "This bookstore café called Everybody Reads. Some days I'm a waiter there and others I'm a clerk."

"Is it nice? Working in a bookstore?" She asked, unwrapping the kit kat. "Oh yeah. It's peaceful, really. I really like it. How do you pay for the tuition that is the same as the price of a private island?" He inquired. "I do some low level modeling stuff and my Aunt and Uncle help with some of it. It's hard fitting in a job with all the dancing." She bit into the broken apart candy. They stepped out of the door, shivering slightly. "Hey Eddy, you didn't mention what your last name is?"

"Pevensie. Edmund Pevensie. Yours?" He said, turning to her. The New York skyline was lit up beyond them. "Rose Reilly."

"It's nice to meet you, Rose Reilly." He smiled. She smiled back at him. "It's nice to meet you Edmund Pevensie." They turn to go their separate ways, Edmund back to the apartment he and his siblings shared, and she towards the dorms.