Athalis is running through a long dark corridor as fast as her feet will carry her. Her nightgown is completely covered in blood and she is crying. In the distance she can hear people screaming as they are fighting for their lives. Eventually she makes her way into a large bedroom where she sees a man lying in blood nearly dead. He waves his hand at her and with the last of his energy he says "Athalis go and hide. Forget who you are and begin life anew" And with that a blinding blue light surrounds her body...

Athalis shoots straight up in bed blinking into the sunlight coming from her window. "That dream again! I don't understand what is going on with me I have been having this dream every night since the last day of school." she says out loud. She climbs out of bed and pulls on a white sundress trimmed in black. She pulls her hair back into the usual ponytail and then walk over to the mirror and looks at herself. I wonder if I should wear my hair down just in case I see Hieronymous. I wonder if he would like my hair being down? After all he has only ever seen me. She pulls her ponytail holder out allowing her hair to fall. Her hair is golden blonde, wavy and falls to her hips. "It looks pretty good today. I think I will wear it this way for a change." She murmurs.

After a little while of looking at her reflection in the mirror she decides to go looking for Professor Potsdam. I wonder if there is a music room around here with a piano for me to play. She wonders. After a little while she finds Potsdam in the kitchen eating lunch alone. She looks up at Athalis as she walks in. "Joyous day to you Athalis I hope you feel better after your nap. Also you look very lovely today." She says smiling. "Sooo..." She pauses and smiles, "I did not see you at the dance last night." She giggles a little bit before continuing, "Were you with Hieronymous?" She looks at Potsdam with her mouth hanging open. Potsdam then giggles and says "I thought so! So did anything interesting happen?"

"Uh.. w-well... We talked for a while. He said I need to move on and find my own young love and I may or may not have told him I already found it." She says as she looks down at her feet. "A-and then he said You CANNOT be serious." She looks away. "I ended up telling him I had never been kissed." Athalis stops and looks at Potsdam.

"Ooh and then what?" Potsdam asks slyly staring at her with a huge grin on her face.

Athalis found her voice after few moments, "Er.. oh yeah! I wanted to ask you if we had a music room with a piano in it." She asking trying to change the subject. Potsdam looks at Athalis with her lips pursed together and nods. She smiles and then tells Athalis where the music room was. "Thank you!" She says as she hurries out of the room.

"Oh so he kissed her! How sweet!" Potsdam chirps happily as she continues to eat her lunch.

Athalis starts to run as fast as she can down the hall. "I cannot believe I was about to tell her that he kissed me! I mean it isn't like he actually likes me! He only did it because I said I was sad that I missed out on my first kiss." She is thinking. She feels tears starting to pool in her eyes. After a while she runs out of breath and needs to stop. She looks out the window next to her. She can see the clear blue sky and the trees swaying as a gentle breeze blows through their thick branches. "What if he never likes me!? What if he only felt bad for me and that is why he kissed me!" She yells in her mind.

She starts crying at the thought of him not actually liking her and she starts running again and this time she doesn't stop until she gets to the music room. She opens the door and peers inside making sure no one is in there. Not like there would be it is summer break after all. The only reason she is still here is because her parents never showed up to pick her up and Potsdam said she could stay here at the school.

"You can stay here and get to know your husband better!"Those are the words Potsdam spoke to her when she gave her the choice to stay at school or give up her magic. Athalis chose her magic for the soul reason that she doesn't want to lose her memories of all the people she has met at Iris, and besides even if she is giving up her parents she has a new family now. Well a husband to be with anyways.

She shakes the negative thoughts out of her head and walks over to the piano. Letting out a deep sigh she plops down on the stool and runs her fingers over the ivory keys, after a few moments she starts playing. Athalis loves the piano, She had taken lessons growing up because her parents said she had a wonderful gift and it should not go to waste. As she is playing her emotions guide her hands into creating beautiful music.

Meanwhile...

Hieronymous wakes with the sun is gleaming through the window and onto his face. He rubs his eyes and sits up. He sighs when he looks at the clock and sees it is noon and that Athalis has long gone home by now. He did not even get to tell her goodbye like he had wanted to. He climbs off his bed and decides to go take a shower to help wake him up. As he is walking to the shower he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. "Why would she like me?" he asks turning to face his reflection. He touches his face. "She is far to beautiful and young to want to be with a man 14 years older than her." He sighs again. "I am not even that great when it comes to looks or personality. I wonder what she sees that I nor anyone else can see?"

After a few moments of staring at himself he continues to his bathroom. He is still wearing his clothes from last night. He starts the water in the shower before he undresses allowing the water to warm up before he get in. He starts removing his clothing starting with his wrinkled cape. He then pulls the rest of his clothing off and he climbs into the shower. He is standing under the water allowing it to soak his hair. He looks up at the ceiling and pushes the hair out of his face. He lets out a deep sigh as the memory of last night floods his mind and he drifts off thinking about it.

Athalis ended up coming to see him instead of going to the ball last night. This made him feel like he had taken yet another thing away from her. She claimed that she didn't mind not attending the ball. She she stayed with him and they talked for a while. After a little while she scolded him for being "grumpy" all of the time making him notice she was not just some stupid little girl after all. It was then that he realized she truly was his wife. She confessed that she has feelings for him even though their marriage was not "real".

"There is one thing I'm sad I missed out on" she said looking at him.

"What's that?" He asked her.

She looked down at her feet and said. "I still have never been kissed" She fell silent looking down with her cheeks flushed pink.

He smiled because he knew she wanted him to kiss her and he wanted to, but he hesitated fighting himself on whether he should do it or not. He knew he has feelings for her. At first he thought perhaps it was inappropriate but now he wasn't so sure after she had stated earlier that it is NOT inappropriate because they ARE married and it is NOT wrong to have a connection with your spouse. He looked at her face as she was looking down. He had never actually taken the time to really notice what she looks like. She did not wear makeup but she didn't need it, because she was so attractive that one might even say she is beautiful. This made him want to kiss her even more to the point that he gave it to her hidden request. His heart started to beat faster and faster and he could feel his face turning red as he looked at her.

It took him a moment but he placed his finger under her chin making her look up at him. He looked into her eyes and he noticed they were green with hints of browns, blues and yellow this added to her beauty. He leaned down and wrapped his mouth around hers. Her lips were warm and soft to the touch and it made his heart jump when he kissed them. It may not have been a passionate kiss or a long one, but it meant a lot to him because it had been so long since he had kissed anyone. Violet was the last person he actually cared about or even touched like this. He realized that he has someone that cares about him as much as Violet did. Athalis did in fact care about him and he knew that but she was different because unlike Violet she was completely pure when their "relationship" started. She had never been touched but anyone until now. He was the first person to ever kiss her and that made him happy.

He wanted her to stay with him during summer break but he knew she missed her family so he didn't even bother trying to talk her out of going home. She stayed with him for a little while after they kissed. They talked about his father and the fact that she was now a noble. She is very intelligent but in America they do not have such titles so she knew nothing about these things. She has agreed to write him during the summer before slipping out and heading to her own room.

After she left he fell back on his bed and let out a deep sigh. He felt like a teenage boy who had just kissed a beautiful girl for the first time. "What has that girl done to me?" he had asked himself before drifting off to sleep.

Hieronymous snapped back to reality when the water suddenly got very very cold. He jumps back as the water stings his bare skin. He quickly turns the hot water up. After a moment the water was hot again. He sighs once again and then says. "I already miss her and she just left today." He drops his head and lets the water run over him. "Why do I feel this way? Not even 6 months ago I was scolding her for running in the hall and giving her detention." He rubs his eyes with his right hand and then looks at his left hand. It was bare, he wears no wedding band.

"Maybe I should buy a ring... Everyone already knows we are married so why should I try to hide it from the rest of the world? I wonder if Athalis will want a ring. I can get her one for her birthday... When is her Birthday? I am married to her and I don't even know her Birthday or anything about her! She always asks about me but I have never asked about her! I am truly a fool! I have an Intelligent and beautiful woman by my side that cares about me and yet I have never shown her that I care in these least little bit!" He yells at himself. "Wait... Maybe Petunia will know. If she does know then maybe I can get Athalis a ring for her birthday. But wait... How will I give it to her when she is not here? It is not as if I can simply stroll up to her parents' house and say "Hi I am the old man that married your teenage daughter and I wanted to give her this for her birthday." I do believe I should think this though before I do anything."

"I'm nothing but a teenage boy at heart just like Athalis said." He says with a sigh.