Alison's first class after lunch was Ancient History, and Jesus Murphy did she hate Ancient History. At the time it had seemed like a fun idea; learning about ancient civilisations and the gods they worshiped. Now that she was here however she realised just how critical an error she'd made when she'd considered ancient deities to be interesting (you learn about one set of gods then you've learned about them all).

Still though, that wasn't any excuse for tardiness, and she was still the first person in the door – something she mentally patted herself on the back for as she stepped up to the front of the class to take her seat (because yes, even in a class she resented with every fibre of her being she felt some kind of magnetic connection to the front row of desks).

She took out her books slowly, and listened to the noise behind her as other students filled in in ones and twos from the lunch hall. Finally she heard a lull fall over the room signalling the arrival of their teacher and she mentally prepared herself as Mr. Kiely strode to the front of the room and cleared his throat, signalling the start of the longest hour of her week.

She really hated this class.

They'd been learning about Greek gods for the past few weeks, and once they'd covered the basics of the Olympian and Chthonic Gods, they'd moved on to some myths that her teacher found interesting (Alison considered the man to be very easily impressed).

Today's topic, according to the board and the handout she'd just been given, was Aphrodite and Ares.

Oh joy.

"So, what do we know about Aphrodite?" Mr. Kiely began, not budging from behind his desk, unlike most teachers Alison knew, who preferred to walk as they lectured. "Can anyone give me a few facts to start us off?"

An awkward silence ensued. Either no one knew or no one cared, Alison guessed it was probably both. Apparently she was wrong though.

"Ah yes, at the back… I'm sorry I don't know your name," Mr Kiely apologised, pointing somewhere behind Alison's head.

"Uh, Elizabeth Childs, I'm new."

Alison tried to remain neutral. Tried being the operative word as her eyes went wide in spite of her best attempt. The cute new girl was in her ancient history class?

Wait no. NO! Not cute, she wasn't cute. Damn her friends!

Whatever though. She didn't care. Why would she care? Why did she care? She didn't care. Did she care? She definitely didn't care. She found herself turning slowly in her seat anyway.

She pivoted just enough to spot Elizabeth out of the corner of her eye, without actually turning far enough for it to be obvious (because as her mother reminded her time and time again, it was rude to stare). Again the girl didn't look at all nervous or phased about being the 'new girl' in the room. In fact she seemed to take it in her stride which annoyed Alison because come on, you're new, you're supposed to be nervous aren't you?

"Right, well Miss Childs, care to fill me in on what you know of Aphrodite?" Mr Kiely prompted.

"She was the goddess of love, beauty and marriage," the new girl started, her voice seeming confident and well versed, like she really knew her stuff. "She was the only deity to pre-date Zeus and that's why Zeus is subordinate to love, even though he's the king of the gods. Uh, though Zeus didn't like that, or the affect Aphrodite had on people in general, so he forced her to marry his son Hephaestus because he was lame and ugly and uh yea…" she trailed off either having said all she knew or feeling as if she'd said enough.

"Very good Miss Childs, I'm impressed."

Alison was impressed too. Elizabeth didn't seem like the kind of girl that would be as smart as she apparently was. Alison supposed it was something about the entire jock persona in general that gave her that impression – she also supposed she should vow never to judge someone again, though she knew it wasn't something she'd do a great job at sticking to, and Alison hated failing.

After that Alison couldn't help but allow herself to think about the new girl. She didn't know why she was doing it, I mean new people started every few weeks, it was no big deal. Still every now and then her mind would zone out and she'd find herself instead going over what little she knew about the girl.

Elizabeth didn't suit her as a name. She wasn't an Elizabeth, or a Liz or a Lizzie or a Lisa or a Liza for that matter.

Her personality also seemed to clash. Athletic, smart, confident and aesthetically pleasing (even in her head she wasn't willing to use the word cute, because a) the first time was just a slip up and b) even if it was just her private thoughts, she was at least 80% certain Felix would know right away). Really though, who the hell managed to get the full package and carry it off?

She found that the hour didn't seem as long as usual once she started to think about Elizabeth (though god she was starting to hate that name on her). Before she knew it her notes had turned into a bulleted list of variations of the name Elizabeth and Mr Kiely was signalling that they'd wrapped up the subject for today.

By the time the bell sounded Alison was already packed, and out of her seat as if it were on fire. She had a study class next, and interesting new girl or no interesting new girl there was nothing on Gods good earth that would keep her in this hell of a class a second longer.

She walked past Izzy (nope, she wasn't an Izzy either) on her way out and smiled briefly as they momentarily caught one another's eye. She was walking fast though, and was already past Bette (hm, closer, but still not right) by the time the other girl had a chance to smile back.

-.-.-.-

Her study class was meant to be where Alison got her homework from her first two classes of the day out of the way to free up some space in her evening for, well, anything other than homework would be nice. What the study class was actually about though was Alison getting continually distracted by Felix and Sarah who she for some reason always chose to sit beside even though for god sakes she really should know better by now.

"So anyway, long story short Cal's got a few days off college next week so if either of you have ideas on something nice I could do throw 'em my way, yeah?" Sarah explained; her geography textbook lying in front of her, long since forgotten about.

"Can't believe you two are actually making this work," Felix commented, his tone somewhere between disbelief and impressed.

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?" Sarah slapped him playfully on the arm.

"Just… you were always so wild before you met him, not that I'm complaining, I was getting sick of bailing you out of the slammer."

"Yeah well what can I say, I'm a changed woman, ain't I… on the straight and narrow now," Sarah replied, rolling her eyes at Felix's statement.

"Jesus that'll be the day," Felix snorted.

"Fuck you," Sarah drawled, deciding to change the subject before this became a 'remember the time you…' kind of conversation. "Ali, any suggestions for something romantic?"

(Bizzy? No. God no, seriously Alison what the heck? Elizabeth was better than Bizzy). "Sorry what?" Alison's head snapped up and all thoughts of re-naming the new girl (how the hell had that even become a thought again?) fell from her mind.

"Suggestions for some romantic shite I could do for Cal?" Sarah repeated.

"Well for one maybe don't call it romantic shite," Alison suggested dryly. "Also why are you asking the only single person in our group of friends?" She added as an afterthought.

"Hey, wow there, I'd like to make it clear I am tied to no man," Felix interjected urgently.

"I'm asking you because you're the perfect middle ground between like romantic and realistic ain't yah," Sarah explained, ignoring Felix. "So it'll be all romantic, but nothing too ridiculous or expensive."

"Why do you even care so much?" Felix huffed (I mean god, it was bad enough when he had to hear about their sex life).

"He asked me to prom… Told me that even though it was my prom I deserved to be asked properly an' all that," Sarah explained, smiling goofily at the memory until she caught the disbelieving look Felix was sending her way. "So y'know like payback or whatever," she shrugged roughly (good save Manning, good save).

"Well I'll see if anything comes to mind before he gets back," Alison told her, having no real intention of giving too much thought to the issue (seeing as last time she checked Cal was Sarah's boyfriend and not hers).

Sarah was about to thank her (or the nearest thing Sarah every got to thanking someone), when something else behind Alison caught her attention. It seemed to perk Felix's interest as well and Alison was about to turn in her seat when she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

"Sorry…" The voice was familiar, very familiar. "Are you Alison Hendrix?"

Alison turned slowly in her seat, knowing before she even made eye contact with the person behind her that it was Beth. (Wow hold on a second. Beth. Beth. BETH. That's the name that suited her. New girl was a Beth! Holy fishsticks how had she thought of Bess, Betsy and Bizzy yet not Beth?).

"Uh yes, that's me," Alison confirmed with a tight smile, coming face to face with this new girl for the first time.

"Cool and you're in AP English, right?" Beth (yep, that was definitely the one) asked in such a way that it didn't actually sound much like a question.

"Uh yes… I am?"

"Right well me too," Beth smiled, pausing for a moment. "I'm Elizabeth Childs by the way." (No you're not, you're Beth Childs).

"Oh, nice to meet you." Alison widened her smile and nodded her head tightly, though the confusion on her face must have been clear.

"Right, I should probably tell you why I'm here before you start to think the new girls crazy," Beth laughed, and again, although it probably should have (and maybe it even intended to) her statement didn't come off as being in the least bit awkward or apologetic. "I went to talk to Miss Dillane about the material we'd covered so far this year and about catching up on it, and she said you might be willing to help me?" For the first time what Beth said sounded vaguely like a question.

"Oh?"

"Yea, she said you were top of the class, and her best student so I'd be in capable hands," Beth informed her, with a smile that could almost be misread as some sort of second hand pride for Alison. "But I mean it's totally cool if you're not able to do it, I'm pretty decent at English anyway and –"

"No," Alison cut her off, realising just how negative her 'oh' must have sounded. "No, no it's okay I'd be more than willing to help you."

"Really?" Beth was smiling now; it was a very loose and optimistic smile that Alison found she quite liked.

"Yes of course. Not today though, I've something after school and quite a bit of homework, would tomorrow suit?" She offered.

"Yea, tomorrow's perfect, and I've got the reading lists and stuff so I should be able to get all the books I need by then as well," Beth nodded, still smiling confidently.

"Right," Alison nodded, turning to pick up her pen and scribble her address on a piece of paper. "I would suggest the library but there's no central heating in there, so this is my home address instead."

"Cool, what time will I come over at?"

"Would six suit?"

"Sounds good to me," Beth nodded, snatching the piece of paper out of Alison's outstretched hand.

"Right well, see you then," Alison concluded as she watched Beth begin go walk away from her backwards.

"You're damn right," Beth agreed with one final grin, before turning on her heel and striding across the room and back to her seat beside Paul.

"Oh, new girl swears," Felix teased, and Alison jumped having forgotten who she was sitting beside.

"What do you mean?" Alison sighed, turning to face her friends.

"He means you once turned down a part in a play cos of swearin' so how yah gonna cope?" Sarah chimed in.

"I deal with you two, I'm sure I'll manage," Alison retorted coolly before turning back to the work in front of her (to be honest, for some odd reason swearing seemed to suit Beth).