Disclaimer: I don't own HOA, all the respective rights go to Nickelodeon and Studio 100 and all that jazz. I made some other references, I don't own nor claim to have come up with any lines that were in The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I also could never come up with any of the lyrical genius of Nirvana, and any lines that refer to that are not really mine.

Dedication: Boy that my friends all told me to date. Boy that took me to prom. Boy that told me he liked me too. Prove it, please.

She smiled at her boyfriend, and then it faded as he snuck a glance at Mara. They were over, she reminded herself. Over. He was hers now.

But she knew that this would not always be the case. Had not always been the case. Because Jerome was a house with shutters closed and he had opened them for her. Her. Not Joy. She knew the parts of him that Joy could never. Quite. Crack. Open. She had been there whilst he opened himself. Joy had just come along when she had finished unravelling the mystery.

When Jerome kissed her, he kissed her hard. Back against the wall hard. And when he told her that he loved her, it was real. But locked away in that heart shaped box was Mara. And her holding his hand when his dad said hello. And pictures of him and her and his sister all in a huddle.

All that was in Joy's heart was a magnet towards him. All that he was was everything she never knew she wanted and could have had. And now he was locked up again.

She could never break him open, not like Mara could.

And she knew that she was right for Jerome. Knew it in her very core. And he knew it too. But he couldn't open the box anymore, couldn't slide a wallet sized picture in there. Could never bear to part with Mara's.

And the sad part was that she would keep at it. Keep at it long after the all graduated. Long after everyone else had given up. Long after Mara had found another screwed up mystery lock to break and long after Jerome had found someone who could break him open again.

She was nothing if not persistent.

She forced another smile on her face and locked her arm through Mara's. Locked her heart up with a code like his and prayed that he would have the initiative and the will to crack it. Because if he didn't. She'd still be there. Waiting for years to know him. To understand him.

For him to let her in. Please. For the love of god, let her in.

And for every time that her friends told her that they were perfect, she wanted to hear it in his voice, confident and clear. And she wanted him to whisper it in her ear. And she wanted him to hold her waist while he said it. And she wanted him to believe it.

But she knew why he wouldn't. Because he would be lying. And he tried not to do that, not since Mara had told him that it was wrong.

That night, when he told her that she was beautiful, she believed him. And when he told her that she was the perfect girl, she believed him. And when he told her that he loved her, she believed him. But when he said that he would never let her go, she sighed.