Chapter 4: Rosaline

Lysander showed her everywhere, from the halls, the classrooms, the cafeteria, the kiosk, the grounds, the greenhouse, the gymnasium. The different styles of architecture were quite breathtaking and Rosaline was so fascinated that her eyes darted everywhere trying to take it all in.

There were four wings: North, South, East, West and a central building. Lysander explained that each wing had been designed by the most talented architects that had graduated from Amoris college. And that the center was where once the original college had stood 200 years ago.

Then north wing had been built like a futuristic building. It was shaped like a fang on one side and flat on the other and had violet-blue windows. There was a massive crystal statue in the shape of an obelisk. Surrounding like a circle the whole north wing there were rows and rows of trees with lights intricately woven into them that lit up only at night or when it was dark.

The south wing was gothic to Rosaline but it was mixture of Victorian and Gothic as Lysander had explained to her. With it's high pointy roofs, big rounded windows, white walls and colorful stained glass. It looked like a unique fairy tale castle, except that there were gargoyles protecting the entrance of the building giving it a weird combination of beautiful with ugly to the building. Something beautiful in a unique way.

The central building was minimalistic. With it's white walls, polished metal gates and red tiled roofs and the smell of freshly baked bread that rose from the cafeteria in the early afternoon took Rosie on a déjà vu, remembering her adolescent years, in her true first home.

The west wing was a mix of Greco-roman style. The central building itself was a dome but supported by the flute like Greek pillars with horizontal bands that scrolled on either side making it look the horns of a ram. The peculiar thing was that there was a set of pillars at the entrance of the wing. It had a triangle shaped top with a phrase inscribe in it. Veni, Vidi, Vici. Rosie recognized the phrase it was one of her favorites. It translated into "I came, I saw, I conquered."

The east wing was the most breathtaking of them at all. It was split into two sections, one that had the Islamic architecture she had seen in her travels to the middle east. Gleaming white walls, dark green domes and the doors inlaid with the green and white bricks at the rims. There was a lovely garden around the green and white building. It was full of roses, marigolds, orchids, jasmines and millions of other flowers she couldn't recognize but they filled the place with an aroma that Rosaline associated with calm. What surprised her most was that there was a small red and black shrine beside huge lake with round rocks incrusted to the floor. What surprised even more was that there were offerings left in the smooth marble floor of the shrine. Chips, muffins, soda, pieces of cloth it was the weirdest assortment of things she had seen. She had turned to Lysander with confused eyes.

"What happens to all this?" she asked gesturing at the pile.

"It disappears." Her eyebrow rose, a look of incredulity decorated her face.

"Surely it must be taken somewhere or…" Lysander laughed softly.

"No one knows what happens to what is left here but it always disappears by the end of the day. The legend" Legend? Though Rosaline. They must be crazy. "says that the ghosts of the founders of this college take them away."

"and you believe in that?" she asked skeptically. Lysander shrugged.

"I like to believe that magic does exist." Rosaline opened her mouth and then closed it. Who was she to judge? After all she too once believed in it. She had believed that the greater good, happy endings and things like that existed.

"Must be nice." She muttered without wanting to.

"What?" asked Lysander. She looked up at him and Lysander was startled but his expression didn't show. When he saw that Rosaline's eyes were…odd. There was some sort of hidden emotion that he couldn't quite decipher but her eyes were grave.

"Nothing." But the look in her eyes indicated that nothing wasn't what she was probably thinking or feeling.

Lysander observed her in silence as she turned her back to him and walked calmly past the shrine and was surprised that she didn't try to step on it and enter. More than once he had seen a group hanging there unknowing that it was disrespectful to step on a shrine. She didn't say anything to him, no indication or any sign for him to know whether to follow or not and he knew he ought to keep his distance for it was respectful but he didn't feel like he should. He just wanted to follow her and talk to her because by everything he read he felt like he knew her already, he wanted to hear her real voice not her polite voice, he wanted to ask her about the story of the caged girl but that was something he wasn't going to do. So what exactly should I do? was what he kept wondering.

"...is it possible?" she turned with her eyebrows at him and Lysander snapped out of his daze.

"I'm sorry, what?" she didn't seem surprised if anything she seemed amused by his lack of concentration. He didn't know if she knew that her lips were curled into a devilish smile as if both of them were sharing a private secret. The mere thought made his heart stutter.

"The heavens captured your attention?" she inquired tilting her head a little.

"The angel did." He said quietly.

"What?"

"Nothing." Rosaline raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. Instead she started walking in silence with him towards the South wing quietly, without saying anything to each other. It wasn't a comfortable silence. There was tension in the dark haired girl and Lysander could see it. They passed central wing and Rosaline paused only a moment to look at the plain white building with red tiled roof and smell that reminded her of home before she clenched her jaw and fists walking determined not to look at it. To not let the memories ripple to the surface of her consciousness and make her fall on her knees crying like a little child.

Lysander did noticed the change in her gestures out of the corner of his eye and decided it was perhaps better to distract her for a while she looked like Castiel and Rosalya when they both started over thinking things.

"Have you liked the college so far?" he asked and it seemed to bring the girl out of her daze.

"It is quite an impressive work of architecture. I like how they blended different styles into one."

"and have you found the people to your liking?" he felt as if he were asking her what was her opinion about him. She turned her head and peered into the distance.

"I am withholding judgment. I don't think that I can give a valid opinion after just one day in this place." Lysander's lips parted slightly and she whipped her head face back to him to hold his gaze steadily for few seconds before turning again to the front.

"Alexy told me that there was a fountain here where we were supposed to have lunch." Lysander was startled by her using the first name of Alexy and not his last.

"Yes it is by the north wing but it isn't an obligation to go there to have lunch, there is a cafeteria in the central wing where you can take your own lunch or buy it."

"Then why did he tell me that the fountain was where you had to eat your lunch?" she said more to herself than to Lysander.

"Probably because there is where all of us eat lunch together." Rosaline didn't say anything to that for moment.

"You seem to know each other." Lysander looked at her. "Alexy, Miss Rosalya, Miss Melody, Miss Bianca, Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Fairchild and you. All of you seem to me like childhood friends."

"We have known each other since high school." Rosaline looked at Lysander surprised. Why was this the case? He couldn't figure out. Lysander didn't know that it was because Rosaline always moved from place to place so she didn't have the experience of growing up with a group of people of having a group of friends she knew for a long time. She wasn't used to having what people called friends forever because that implicated having known each other. And that was something didn't excel at. Knowing people. It wasn't something she hadn't grown up with.

They continued walking in silence while Rosaline's eyes darted everywhere trying to take it all in. It was beautiful and though it was beautiful to a certain extent Rosaline was fascinated not because she had never a chance to see such beauties but because she never had the chance to look so freely, without needing to look down or control herself, or see such a unique mix.

She could finally say whatever the hell she wanted and she loved that but she knew words had consequences. She could finally wear skin tight clothes but she didn't know how to wear them. She could finally use make-up but she didn't know how.

Lysander was just starting to feel uncomfortable with the silence he didn't know that the girl beside him had been lost in her head and was just beginning to come out of her daze. She stole glance out of the corner of her eye and saw Lysander fidgeting a bit hands. Rosie gathered courage and talked.

"Mr. Ainsworth, may I ask a question?" he looked at her and smiled.

"You just asked one but you may ask another one if you want to."

"Is there a library here?"

"Yes, of course, do you like to read?" she hesitated which Lysander found very odd.

"A little bit." She said meekly, she cleared her throat. "Um…that is… I am sorry if I was a bit rude to you earlier."

"And why are you saying that?"

"Because, I…I was just rude."

"You lost something that was precious to you." she looked up at him in surprise.

"How did you know?"

"Your expression, when you finally got your ring." She seemed upset by this. Though why, Lysander couldn't tell. He didn't realize that it was because Rosaline didn't want anyone to know who she was.

"And mr. ainsworth." He arched an eyebrow delicately. "yes?"

"When I read that page on your notebook that I scribbled on, there was a poem. Well, a fragment from a poem."

"Did you?"

"Yes. And if I'm not wrong it's something you didn't write yourself?" Lysander was surprised at this.

"No I didn't. Can you recognize from who it is?"

"Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? That's from Alfred, Tennyson."

"You read poetry."

"I don't. I read that quote somewhere."

"A book?" she looked at him surprised and nodded. "Let me guess, Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel." At that she stopped and looked at Lysander with awe, her lips parted and her eyes very wide. Lysander couldn't help but stare at her. She was beautiful but he knew that she wasn't even vaguely aware of it. Her round, almost oval face was decorated with high cheekbones, her eyebrows were thick and untamed, lips were glossy and plump. And her eyes, Oh god, those eyes. He thought. They were almond shaped, with long eyelashes half concealing the colorful eyes underneath. And he had seen people with brown eyes, of course he had but he had never seen someone with eyes quite like hers. Brown with an undeniable sweetness. Like milk chocolate. He thought. No matter how cold she tried to look those eyes betrayed her. A ring of black around the edge of the iris made her eyes odd. And her body was something, no matter how much she tried to hide it from the world. He knew that she had a perfectly proportioned body, an hourglass (he knew because he was an aspiring designer), that was obvious to him in spite the too loose shirt she was wearing and the long skirt. Her frame was one that in the fashion industry would be called "fat" but he knew that wasn't the case. She was voluptuous, healthy with very beautiful wheat brown skin, dark much like his own tanned skin.

"How did you know?" she asked in squeaky voice that he found adorable.

"I have read it."

"You have?" she asked incredulously.

"Does that surprise you?" he asked tilting his head a little. Rosaline was still surprised her mask of coldness and curt politeness was gone. Her eyes were looking at him in the way a pirate looked when he finds a treasure.

"I haven't met many people that read."

"I have never met someone who reads the same type of books I read." He said.

"What type of books do you read?"

"Classics, poetry…"

"Shakespeare, homer, Cervantes those sort of books?"

"Yes."

"And do you like authors like Caroll, Rowling, Tolkein, Lewis, Dickens and Dahl?" he had read those books of course, and he liked many of them but they weren't his favorite.

"Yes but I prefer classics." Normally when he said this even people who read raised an eyebrow to him, like seriously? But instead Rosaline gave him a brilliant smile, it was the kind of smile that lit up completely her face, her eyes crinkled at the corners, the emotion, the happiness completley visible in her lovely eyes.

"Old school? I can't say that I don't understand you there are some classics that are definitely the best books that there have been but modern literature isn't so bad either. You should read John Green or Khaleed Hoseeni."

"I have been told that Khaleed Hoseeni is overrated and sentimental." said Lysander recalling what Rosalya had told him. Even though, she didn't look like it Rosalya was a reader but she liked to read romance, fantasy, the types of books women mostly liked to read. Not that he minded but Lysander really wished to have someone with whom he could talk about the books he liked.

"Well, it's not far from the truth. It is sentimental but I wouldn't qualify it as overrated. It think it's very deep." She was gesturing animatedly with her hands. Lysander looked at her smiling. He knew that she wasn't a quiet or cold or whatever she pretended to be. Rosaline looked up and she must have interpreted his silence in the wrong way.

"I am sorry, I am blabbing." She said looking away, color rising in her cheeks.

"No, you're not. I think it's quite interesting what you're saying. We should talk about books one day." She looked at him again, her cheeks flushed, her eyes a little dazed and her lips parted slightly and he was surprised again by her smile. Lysander felt his beating fast, so fast that he could feel it in his throat.

"Indeed we should." She said. "in fact, why don't we talk about them now?" Lysander stopped in his tracks, was this girl asking him out on a date or something? He didn't say it out loud instead he chose to change the subject.

"Don't you want to see the rest of the school?"

"I meant to say why don't we talk about books whilst you show me around the place?"

"That's okay with me." he gestured for her to follow him. They walked in silence for some time before Rosaline talked again.

"Did you like Clockwork Angel?"

"Not really. It wasn't Victorian at all."

"It wasn't. Not even in pride and prejudice the characters are so rude to each other. Especially the women." He looked at me surprised.

"Do you know a lot about the Victorian era?"

"Not really. Just a little bit." She said peering at the distance looking at something no one else saw. Then she turned to him before he could even open his mouth. "But I have forgotten." She looked up at Lysander with the same cool and distant eyes. "Some bits and pieces I do remember." He looked at her, most people, especially girls had lied to him saying that they knew about the Victorian era but this girl didn't. She didn't try to impress him. She was just being truthful but that made him suspicious for some reason. He wanted to know if she was saying the truth.

"Fun fact." She said suddenly. His eyebrow rose.

"Fun fact?" she smiled a little.

"Queen Victoria gained power by marrying off all her daughters and sons to the royal houses of Europe and while that did give her a considerable amount of power. She also passed down hemophilia down to all those royal families. One of the most famous case was of the son of the Czar Nicholas II and his son Alexei who died at a young age." At that Lysander was surprised. True he did know that but he had never seen a girl (that wasn't a history student) say something like that. She seemed to shrink back as if embarrassed by what she had just said so she turned her head to the front and he was about to say something when somebody interrupted them.