"Time, I've been patient for so long... How can I pretend to be so strong?" -A Walk To Remember

Joy's POV

I run into the hallway blindly, desperate to get to class before the morning bell rang. The door was open slightly, but, to my dismay, nobody was in the actual classroom.

I mutter a whole stream of beautiful French *cough, cough*, and walk towards the principal's office. I knock on the door timidly, still scared of all the teachers because of the kidnapping incident.

"Come in." Mr. Sweet's unmistakable voice says, piercing through the silence.

I walk in slowly, trying to come up with a sentence that would actually sound intelligent.

"Hello, Mr. Sweet. I was just wondering where the class in room 5B was." I say formally.

He gives me a small nod, and looks at the papers with the schedules for the week.

"Ah... Well, Mrs. Hamilton isn't here today, and we didn't schedule for a sub, so you should check the field. I believe everyone in your class is doing P.E. right now." He gestures for me to leave his room oh-so-politely, and returns back to his paperwork, occasionally sighing in frustration.

I run as fast I can with slippery ballerina flats to my locker, and drop off all of my things, grabbing my gym clothes. I change in the bathroom as quickly as possible, drop my clothes off at my locker, and run to the field.

I arrive there out of breath. "I'm *pant* so sorry. *pant* I didn't know where *pant* the class was."

The teacher smiles kindly at me, taking in my out of breath state nicely. "It's fine. We're starting a partner project today, and all I've scheduled for the class to do is to get to know your partner."

"Thank you." I smile, and then ask, confused. "Did you assign the partners?"

She rifles through the stack of papers on her clipboard, looking for the partner pairings. "Yes... You're with- You're Joy, right?- You're with Jerome Clarke."

I give a fake smile, which automatically turns into a grimace when my face was out of her sight.

Just great, I would've been fine with anyone, ANYONE, but I just can't work with Jerome.

I walk slowly towards Jerome, who was currently with Alfie and Willow.

"And she comes at last..." Jerome smirks, ruffling my hair.

I stay silent, giving him a little glare as I fix my hair. It was what I normally do. Whenever I'm with my friends, I act like myself, but whenever I'm with someone I don't know that much, I clam up.

Jerome and I walk to an empty spot on the field, and start talking. It doesn't matter that there was a huge amount of awkward tension, we were still talking.

"So... Um... What do you want to do?" He asks, avoiding my gaze.

"Well, it says we're supposed to get to know each other more, so... Got any questions?" I ask. Like he did to me, I avoided his gaze.

"Please," I can hear the smirk in his voice. "I already know everything about you."

I look at him in shock, saying defensively, "You don't know anything about me."

"Your name is Joy, you don't have any siblings, your have a perfect family, and you're a whiny person. Of course, there's more, but that's just naming the things everyone thinks." He says calmly.

I try to blink tears back. Was that really what everyone thought of me?

"Oh, yeah. Because that's obviously everything about me." I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes, desperate not to let the tears fall. I don't want to give him the satisfaction.

He looks at me, and unreadable expression in his eyes. The bell rings, signaling my freedom. I barely have enough time to run away before my tears start falling.

Hi there! :D Again, thank you for taking the time to read my little fanfic. It means a lot to me. Seriously, I'm getting sentimental. Nah, Just Kidding. Really, though, Thank You :D

Oh, yeah. And one more thing left to do:

Thank you to xx-AlrightHatersFloorsYours-xx for being the first (and only) reviewer. This might sound very creepy- never mind, it is creepy, but I LOVE YOU. See? I'm going all caps on you. No, but seriously. Thanks for making my day with your review.

Okay, that's the end of my little rant.

Like it? Love it? ...Hate it? :/ Please Review! And thank you. Have a good day/night everyone!

And this story is strictly Jeroy. (Jerome and Joy) I won't really focus on the other pairings, but the definite ones are Fabina (Fabian and Nina), and Peddie (Patricia and Eddie). I can't decide whether Alfie should be with Willow or Amber. Or if I should have K.T. And Willow on this fanfic.. Even though I've already added to Willow to this chapter.. What do you guys think?