This was the earliest indication that my junior year at Alexandrina Academy was when all hell was going to break loose: Elizabeth Midford, the fiancé of the Phantomhive boy, practically kicking down the door to my dorm and nearly giving me a heart attack in the process.

You see, I'd been straightening the room out for when my roommate decided to show up. I'd had the summer to settle in already; since there were so few students that actually decided to take advantage of the summer courses Alexandrina offered, each of us was spared the burden of having a roommate and given our own dorms instead. So, from early June to mid-August, I'd had a two-person dorm all to myself.

I guess it was a little lonely. In my opinion, the room was far too spacious for one person. Then again, before I came to this school, I was accustomed to never having more than a closet-sized space to call my own. Having such a big room all to myself just seemed wasteful and extravagant. Still, staying at the school year-round was my best option: it gave me the chance to enrich myself academically and not have to be shuffled to another foster home for the two and a half months between terms. I kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Anyway, since the break had passed and I was expecting my roommate to make her appearance at any minute, I figured it'd be nice to clean up for her. The spoiled kids at Alexandrina were used to having everything in order for them. They were all rich enough to have a separate maid to clean each room in the gigantic mazes they called houses. (Hell, I'd bet that some even had maids to lift their fingers for them.) Having me as a roommate was already unfortunate in the eyes of most of my peers- they had no idea how to interact with lower-class people, who'd actually had to work for everything they had. I didn't want to 'inconvenience' them any further.

But cleaning was exhausting, so I took a break to get a head-start on some of the required reading for 11th grade Lit. this year. I got so lost in Elizabeth's romance with Mr. Darcy that I didn't notice my new roommate desperately banging on the door… that is, until the door literally came off its hinges and flew across the room, landing uncomfortably close to my head.

I'm usually not easy to startle, but that near-death experience made me jump a good yard into the air. I was literally shaking, for God's sake. I turned toward the now-empty doorframe, wondering who was strong enough to send the door flying and fearing for my own safety. I wondered if I'd been unlucky enough to end up with Deandre Baker as a roommate this year; Deandre's mother was an Olympic athlete with as many gold medals as I had pairs of socks, and Deandre was just as ridiculously strong as she was. She also had that same cocky attitude, like the world owed her victory and success at anything she tried. As endlessly pleasant as the rest of my peers are to be around, I'd rather have Satan himself as a roommate than Deandre.

But, thank God, it wasn't her. I was surprised to see that the girl who'd broken the door down was relatively normal looking. Pretty, even, with long blonde waves and green eyes rimmed with eyelashes that were longer than I thought was humanly possible. She didn't even have that much luggage with her, and at Alexandrina, it's not that unusual for students to have entire jets full of luggage to unload.

That was when I noticed the posse of servants behind her, each loaded down with a ridiculous amount of suitcases and bags- all of which were pink, I might add. Well, so much for her seeming relatively normal.

"Sorry," my roommate started to apologize, "for breaking down the door. I couldn't open manage to open it, for some reason, no matter what I tried. So I eventually just kicked it down. I can't believe I actually managed to do that in these shoes!" She was wearing a pair of white kitten-heeled sandals that looked fairly hard to walk in, let alone break down a door. "I'll get it replaced really soon, I promise!"

"It's fine," I muttered in reply, mainly to get her to stop babbling. I was still freaked out, honestly.

"Thank you for being so understanding! I won't do that it again! Oh, by the way, I'm Elizabeth Midford." As she said this, she shuffled into the room, the servants trailing behind her. She motioned for them to start unpacking her stuff, and they obliged.

"Hi, Elizabeth," I said, half-looking at her and half-watching the servants trying to find enough space to put everything. They were going to have a tough time. "I'm…"

"Oh, I know who you are!" She cut me off. "You're the scholarship student, right?"

I wondered how she knew that already. Granted, it was probably obvious to anyone who got a good look at me. I mean, I was wearing a gray tank top and some denim cutoffs, my dark hair was messy, and I lacked any accessories that probably cost enough to feed a small African nation. I didn't exactly radiate luxury.

"Yeah," I confirmed. She looked kind of proud of herself for getting it right.

"Adrianne, right? My fiancé Ciel told me about you," she paused, biting her lip, like she'd just told me something she wasn't supposed to have revealed.

Which, to be honest, she probably shouldn't have. Because there was only one Ciel that I had heard of, and he was certainly not someone I'd like to encounter again.

"Ciel…?" I asked her. "As in Phantomhive?"

She nodded, suddenly looking a little bit bashful. "Yes. That Ciel."

Before I could say anything else, though, one of the servants interrupted our pitifully awkward conversation. I'm not much of a touchy-feely person, but at that moment, I could've hugged that servant girl.

"Miss Elizabeth?" The servant girl asks, pushing a pair of round, thick-lensed glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I don't mean to bother you, but there doesn't seem to be enough space for all of your things."

Elizabeth's bright green eyes dulled over a bit. Part of me kind of wanted to see this rich girl who clearly was used to getting everything she wanted go without something, for a change. But I did intervene on her behalf, in the end. I wish it could say that was because I was secretly a generous person, but it was really more because I didn't want to witness another stupid tantrum by one of the spoiled brats I called my schoolmates.

"There's two wardrobes in here. I know that one's full, but I've got some extra space in mine. You can stick some of your clothes in there if you need the extra space."

Elizabeth's eyes lit up as the bespectacled servants thanked me. "That was very nice of you, Miss Adrianne, yes it was," she said, as if re-affirming her own statement made it infinitely truer. "Now we can get Miss Elizabeth's stuff sorted and go help Master Ciel arrange his things, yes we can!"

God, these people were annoying me. "You go ahead and do that, Miss," I replied, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. "If you'll excuse me, I've got all my stuff ready, so I think I'll go see if my friend Morgan needs any help. Nice to meet you, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth and the servants said something else, but I can't remember what it was. To be honest, I wasn't really listening. I was out of the dorm within seconds, trying for the life of me to figure out why Ciel Phantomhive was here at this school. More importantly than that, why did he care to know anything about me?