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Not My Place

Chapter 4: The Crusades

The day had gone by without event, Marian sat in class, raised her hand, aced her test, but all she was rally concentrating on was avoiding Robin, for real this time. She hadn't been mean to him earlier per say, but she had been rude maybe…gruff. It would be so easy to go and apologize and smile winsomely up at him, and he'd forgive her in an instant, it would be so easy.

She contemplated this as she walked with two of her new friends Bitch and Barbie, otherwise known as Devina Vaisey and Anni Clun. Devina was fiercely gorgeous, and had immediately approached Marian the first time she saw her saying that they just had to be friends since their looks complimented each other, which strangely was true. Devina had this platinum blonde hair and dark brown eyes that were nearly black while Marian had ink black locks with ice blue eyes. They made a stunning pair, especially since Devina was always scowling and whenever Marian was around her she was scowling at her own misfortune, so they looked doubly as intimidating. Anni however had strawberry blonde hair and absolutely no brain cells, at least Devina was slightly manipulative, which made her a little interesting. They gossiped as they headed towards the library.

"So Maz," Marian cringed at the nickname, "There's this killer party this weekend. The whole groups gunna be there, so will you of course." Devina's tone made it clear that Marian had no choice, and she was still too new to be challenging the pre-existing authority in the group.

"Of course D, looking forward to it," Marian smiled and Devina's eyes shined with approval.

"Oh My God!! What are we going to wear??" Anni asked excitedly, "We have to coordinate girls!" Marian resisted an eye roll, but shot a look to Devina who smirked in agreement with Anni's ridiculousness.

"Come over to my house before and we can all get ready together, it'll be perfect," said Devina as they walked through the doors to the library. Inside was the hushed silence of academia and the smell of books, Marian nearly shivered in delight.

"Come on, let's get the books we need and go, this place gives me the creeps," Devina said not bothering to keep her voice down. Marian shook her head in wonderment. They had been assigned a project for history class, Devina was the War of the Roses, Anni's was Serfdom in the Middle Ages, and Marian had the Crusades.

Luckily they were all in the same section and as they perused the shelves Marian caught a glimpse of an occupied table a few stacks away, and seated there was none other than Robin. It was almost like fate kept throwing them together. Marian had a slight internal debate before taking a step towards his direction.

"Going to have a chat with your boyfriend?" Devina's harsh voice mocked. Marian stopped in her tracks; she hadn't heard Devina approach at all.

"Not if your ready to go, I already got the books I need, so I figured I'd go over and say hi," Marian explained trying to appear casual.

"The look in your eye says that what you'll doing is more like sexually assaulting him in the stacks," Devina said with a still mocking tone. Marian laughed, but inside she was seething, "But I'd try and resist the urge if I were you."

Marian asked, "Because of Djaq?" regretting it the moment the words were out of her mouth.

"Not really, I've got nothing against people looking outside their relationship for enjoyment, I do it myself quite often," Devina replied, the mocking tone gone and replaced now with a more calculating one, "But it's more that fact that it's Robin. All I'm saying is don't waste too much of your time on him. He's got eyes for Djaq and cant see the rest of us. Lot's of girls have tried, most prettier than you, and failed, so just keep that in mind."

"Speaking from experience?" Marian asked a touch smugly.

"As a matter of fact I am. See you at my house around 7," Devina said before walking away taking Anni with her telling her that Marian had to stay and finish up.

Marian took a deep breath before heading towards his table. "Mother F***er!!" she heard him exclaim throwing his pencil against the opposite wall before slumping back into his chair and running his hands through his hair. Marian couldn't hold in the laugh that threatened to bubble up, but managed to contain it to a quiet giggle.

His head swerved around to see her, his lips twisting up into a grin when he saw who it was. "Hello there Maz."

Marian groaned and set her books down on the table, gracefully slipping into the set cross from him, "I swear to god I will castrate you if you ever call me that again."

"But I could swear I heard the Sheriff calling you that earlier today, and I thought to myself 'Maybe Marian will dain to talk to me again if I call her Maz because she seems to love her new nickname so much' and look at that, it worked," he said playfully.

Marian rolled her eyes and said, "Well its good to know that I have a stalker," he smiled, "And coincidentally, I am sorry about my freak out this morning, lack of caffeine makes me a bit of a bitch."

"Oh darling the caffeine has nothing to do with it," Robin said, and Marian slapped his arm with one of her huge books on the Crusades, "Jesus woman it was a joke!" he said laughing causing her to laugh too. For some reason talking to Robin always made her feel giddy and light s if she could just float away.

"Sorry, it's not my fault someone mistook the Crusades as something interesting and then decided to write a book that weighs more than I do on the subject," she said putting the book down. "I am truly offended Marian," Robin said his elbows on the table and his hands clasped under his chin, "The Crusades are arguably the most interesting even in all of history,"

"I pray to god that's a joke," Marian said.

"Not at all, seriously I'm not really a history buff, but the Crusade's are fascinating, you're so lucky to get that as your topic, I got stuck with England's relationship with Ireland through the ages."

"That's way better! The Crusades were awful! Every time I even think about it I get mad at the stupid men who left their wives and families to go off and chase glory! It was so stupid! So many of them died for no reason at all," Marian exclaimed.

"It's the exact opposite! They were being brave! They were defending their King and Country. And okay maybe they wanted glory, but think about it if they hadn't gone to war you wouldn't know anything about them, this way they made their mark on the world. King Richard was a great king, one of England's best, and if he hadn't been killed before returning home I'm sure he would've ruled peacefully," Robin said confidently.

"Most of them didn't even know what they were fighting against," Marian said shaking her head contradicting Robin.

"You can't prove that, there's no evidence to suggest that they didn't educate themselves while they were there. You're basing that purely on the assumption that the townspeople they turned into soldiers were idiots, which they weren't," Robin said.

"Oh please, most of them couldn't even read, let alone read the Koran, but what they could've done was stay at home with their wives and children and provided for them, but no they left them to starve," Marian protested.

Robin let out a laugh and said, "Marian I know I said I wouldn't do it, but you have to join the debate team." Marian laughed realizing her face was red from their argument. "Maybe I will, but that's enough about the Crusades, what were you doing before I came in all my gloriousness and interrupted you from?"

Immediately Robin's playful expression turned dark and he shot the most hate filled glare to the notebook in front of him, she hadn't though he was capable of such a mean look, she hadn't thought anyone was capable of it. "Trigonometry," he said darkly.

She laughed, "That's what all the cursing was about? Robin," she smiled shaking her head.

"Don't get all condescending with me Marian," Robin said a bit harshly, "This is difficult." Marian hid her inner smile; apparently the golden boy didn't like being bad at something.

"If it's so difficult why don't you ask for help? I've always been good at math, and I'm offering," she suggested.

"I can do it fine on my own, thank you."

"Maybe, but I am very concerned for the welfare of your pencils if you keep trying on your own," Robin glared at her, "For God's sakes Robin I'm only offering to help, its not an insult, its me trying to be nice, take advantage of it, I doubt it will happen again any time soon."

Robin gave a big sigh and said, "Fine," and Marian laughed as she moved over to his side of the table, so they could sit next to each other, "You'd think I was making you submit to Chinese Water Torture or something,"

"You might as well, it'd be just as bad." Robin grumbled. She rolled her eyes and began explaining.

An Hour Later

"Now was that so terrible?" Marian asked as she packed up her books. Tutoring Robin had been an interesting experience. He was a very quick learner, but stubborn as hell. His problems stemmed from the fact that he was convinced he was bad at math rather than from any lack of skill.

"Yes, but you made it bearable. The least I can do for all your hard work torturing me is offer you a ride home," and Marian accepted.

Once they were in the car Marian asked, "So are you going to that party tonight?"

Robin was driving but he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes and said, "Yeah, you?"

"Uh-huh, Devina sort of demanded it," she grinned ironically, "So at least there'll be one friendly face," she said and the grin turned into a real smile. Robin knew she meant him.

Her mood swings were giving him whiplash; one moment they were friends, the next she couldn't stand to be around him, and the next it seemed like she was flirting with him. He couldn't figure her out, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.

They pulled up to her house and he said, "I'll see you tonight then," before speeding off.

I've decided that the next chapter will be partly in Robin's POV