It had been years since started Marianne saw everything in Black and White.

The color of the sky was always gray, so was the ice cream truck across the street. Art was always bland- either black, or tinged gray- no color. No spectacular radiance of the rainbows after the rain, her dreams would bore her. She had recognized no colors since then. Sometimes, she would try her best to imagine color; but out of frustration she would always cry. Sobbing as loud as she could-her stamina for holding on was fading, and during the summertime she saw no beauty, only sadness that seemed to ruin her life. Marianne tried so hard, the roses in her bedroom were never red, only black. Black, the most painful color she could have ever seen.

She used to tell her friends this. Marianne was a spectacular artist, but abandoned the skill after the day that scared her to death. It was the day that she died. When Madeline disappeared, so did all the colors that seemed to add flavor to her life in general. At the second she noticed her absence, the colors slipped away so bitterly swimmingly.

And so it was, and how it's always been. She was starting class again soon, another year of this until her planned end. She wanted to spend at least a year before going. To at least see if anything got better in the slightest. It was her judgement year, she would give it another shot. Nonetheless, if it was still bland- she had organized the local bridge across the street. At least she could feel, that was one thing to be grateful for. She could see, but in such a painful way that broke her heart- if you were to take her colors away, might as well just take her sense of sight all together.

She had put on her usual white sweater and her pair of gray-looking jeans for her first day. It seemed to be her last first day, how she saw it. The usual, her first day as a senior. And probably her last year as a human all together.

Her first scheduled class of the year was English. Being a French exchange student, she wasn't exceptional in that class; but she still passed finals, which was good. She sat down at another empty conjoined table and put down her books, her expression as bland as how she experienced life.

As class began to start, it happened. One of the new exchange students waddled in with her books, eyes scanning a sea of taken seats, her eyes fixating on an open spot- that was coincidentally hers. The woman with long, light-looking hair in pigtails quickly put her books down, her eyes turning to glance towards Marianne. "Hi." She muttered, picking up her textbook to open it up to the current page. She had a tinge of a British accent in her greeting, and the French woman cocked her head.

"What's your name?" Marianne asked curiously- her eyes darting towards the page number to do the same. She sadly wasn't paying enough attention to the teacher.

"Oh, me? I'm Alice."

"I'm Marianne, nice to meet you."

In a bizarre moment to commence, she took a glance at the textbook again, the lining that she recognized as another grey suddenly appearing to be a light pink. Her eyes widened, gasping almost too loudly as she covered her mouth.

Alice raised a noticeable eyebrow, "Are you alright?"

Marianne realized what had just happened and she smiled widely, trying to cover the incoherent screaming in her mind that rung in her ears. She could see the color pink! "Yeah, I-I'm fine-"she muttered, a small blush covering her face from embarrassment. "I just was excited about the new lesson this year, that's all." She lied, pushing a hair out of her face. This was a major step for Marianne, she had missed the color pink for years- wondering if she would ever see it again. There it was, she wondered if they'd all come back eventually.

It was a couple days later that Marianne was sitting alone at lunch. It occurred to her that she could see the color of the peach that she was eating for lunch, and the lonely Marianne was happy. It was all she really needed- was to see. The girl whom she sat with during English, slowly sat down across from her. "Sorry, I just didn't want to be alone like you, that's all."

"You think I'm lonely?" Marianne questioned, as if Alice were teasing her.

"I could see it in your face, I'm not an idiot."

And lord, there it was again. The flourishing of the color blue in their uniforms suddenly arose in her sight; the hue of her sapphire necklace becoming known. She smiled happily, tears welling up in her eyes.

Maybe her tears were blue, she thought. Maybe she could see someone else's tears just as blue.

"What? I was right?" Alice chuckled, "Jeez, I'm sorry."

"No, It's alright. I'm just, really, really happy."

"Happy that we're friends?"

"I guess that's it."

She was right, Marianne was happy about having a friend. However, even more so that she could see the color of the skies that afternoon. Alice walked her home, conversing about her old home in London before she moved here. She told her everything about the weather, especially the rain. Also the men, too. They were disgusting, as she put. Cheeky Nandos with the lads. Marianne had no idea what she was saying. But God, was she so incredibly glad that this was all happening. The thought of the bridge made her somewhat nauseated at this point.

Marianne had homework, of course. But she loved the way she could see the coloration of the History textbook. She could see that Napoleon wore a blue jacket. Scribbling it down in her notebook, she saw the old paintbrush that was still tinged with light pink paint and wrote it down as well. This was her old art notebook, which she used to cry over as she saw nothing but silent colors and old memories from her vivid past.

Her vision was still an uncompleted puzzle, although.

It was the school courtyard, the British woman perched on a tree branch as Marianne finished sketching her French project for the last time.

"Alice, we should hang out!" Marianne asked, turning her head to face her.

"Glad you asked, because I've been incredibly bored for the past few days. Excite me."

Marianne laughed. "Oh, sure. We should go buy some books."

"Books, huh? You've noticed my reading habit?" Alice looked at her quizzically.

"Hun, you secretly read Jane Austen during math classes, I'm pretty sure it isn't as unnoticeable as you think."

"Well, you caught me. Let's go buy some books, shall we?"

Marianne had the urge to hold her hand as they were walking. It was no denying the fact that she had developed feelings for this woman, she had helped her see again- she was used to romantically growing attached to people she was closed to. Alice was just so perfect. Everything she had ever asked for, a friend- and colors. She had gotten both, slightly.

The Bookstore was quite close to the school, which was helpful because Alice wasn't a fan of walking. She had taken the pigtails out of her hair that day, which was weird to first see; but Marianne got used to it. Her hair looked silky in the sunlight. Walking into the bookstore, Alice immediately ran to the Classics section, picking up Les Mis to see how many pages it had. "1200. I can do that."

"1200 pages? Jesus Christ, Alice." She chuckled, "I actually read a chapter of that in French, but it was quite confusing."

Alice looked to the ground in shame. "Mari, I'm broke."

"I'll pay for it. No problem, Alice."

"Really!?" Alice exclaimed, a smile erupting on her face, "Y-you really don't have to-"

Marianne took the book from her hands, walking up to the cashier. "How much?"

"Marianne—"

"30$ for paperback, 40$ for hard-back. We only have the hard-back, so that would be 40$, please." The woman in the gray uniform addressed.

Marianne grumbled before taking out her credit card.

"Marianne, Oh my god—you don't have to-"

"Thank you for shopping with us, have a nice day."

Alice's eyes sparkled. "Thank you.. So much..."

"No problem."

It was two hours later that the sun went down, and Marianne plopped on her bed. Alice had already left with her book, and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Oh god, she had feelings. It was inevitable, how was she supposed to hide this? She didn't want to creep her out and spoil the relationship, but dear lord, she wanted her so bad.

Not entirely sexual. She wanted to kiss her back, snuggle- call her cute pet names and make her dinner.

Her bedroom walls suddenly turned green.

Gasping loudly, it happened again. She could see the color green. Her notebook, green. Her math textbook was green, and it occurred to her that this was all happening for a reason. Was the reason she unlocked these colors one by one the cause of their bond? Or was it the other way around?

She silenced her screaming with her pillow, tears streaming down her cheeks in frustration.

She wanted more colors, but she knew that there was a chance of it not happening. Her sight forever an unsolved collection of colors.

Marianne had devised a plan. She had thought about on the walk to school a week later.

She wanted Alice to know that she loved her. God, Marianne loved her so much.

After the bell rung, Marianne stood at the courtyard for them to meet again, under the cork tree that had lost it's leaves due to the winter season. She could see the color of the grass. Alice missed English class that day, although. She had come to school late, missing lunch as well. Marianne hadn't seen her since the day she first saw the color green. Alice ran out from the doors to say hello, her bouncing pig tails calming down as she sat next to her. "Hey! I missed you."

Marianne smiled, her mouth gaping from the new information on how she looked. Alice had the most amazing Green eyes she had ever seen.

"What?" Alice questioned.

"I love your eyes."

"Y-you do? And you just told me this?" Alice chuckled, fixing her left pony tail as she smiled lightly.

"It's hard to explain, b-but-"

"You've been acting awful strange lately. The whole textbook incident when we first met? I could sense you were lying."

"Well, you wouldn't get it."

"Get what?" Alice snapped.

"I… I was surprised. I could finally see the color pink." Marianne's eyes focused on the ground.

"You're color blind?" Alice's passive aggression slowly mixed with compassion.

"I've been for the longest time, but when I met you-"

"You can see colors now?" Alice looked somewhat confused, but she understood.

"Ever since we started bonding, I've been able to see more colors—"

"That's impossible…" Alice mumbled, "So you're using me to see more colors?"

"No, Alice." Marianne quickly put her hands on her cheeks to see her eyes a bit better. "God, Alice. I love you."

Alice looked shocked. "W-what? I-"

Marianne's world suddenly lit up with the color red. She smiled so happily that you could breathe it. "I, I see the color red now—"

"This isn't happening, you're lying." Alice quickly moved her head away.

"Alice. No- I'm not. Ever since you sat with me at lunch, and you said we were friends- I saw the color blue in your uniform. I've been seeing nothing but Black and White ever since my foster child died, but after I met you- I... God, after I knew I loved you, I saw the green painted walls in my bedroom for the first time in years, I know this is crazy, but I feel as if my fate is connected all to you." Marianne's eyes teared up a bit. "Please don't think I'm a liar, I love you so much- Alice. I love you-"

Alice's eyes started watering as well, "So... Basically, I'm saving your life."

"Dear lord, Alice. You have no idea." Marianne's lips quickly collided with hers, draping her arms around her shoulders as if hugging her. Alice's newly noticeably green eyes widened, closing out of the overwhelming comfort she was. Alice began to cry, knowing that for once in her life she made a difference for someone else.

Marianne cried because she felt something in her chest, as if her head was being touched by God. It felt light- her sadness being replaced with joy in almost an instant- slowly breaking it apart as the second went on.

This time, there was no gray. Colors were finally boundless, she could see the purple jacket she was wearing. She could see the redness in her face, the rays of slowly descending afternoon sunlight- and the brown beneath the greenest grass she had ever seen. Marianne's eyes widened and silenced her happy sobs before collapsing into Alice's shoulder.

"Marianne… I… I love you too…"

"Alice, I don't think I'm colorblind anymore…"

"What?"

"You're wearing a purple jacket."