A few weeks had gone by, none of which were easy. After what Lysander said, I didn't want to risk talking to Chris, so I stayed away as best as I could every day until we would inevitably meet in physics. Even then, I kept our conversations casual and to a minimum, especially since Lysander ended up joining the group right behind us. He'd been so irritable lately, I didn't know what would set him off, so I decided to spend more time with him like he wanted. Hopefully I could bring out more of that gentle side I knew he had in him somewhere. I had to...Chris's fate depended on it. In the meantime, I tried to keep living my life as normal. I went to school, sat with my friends at lunch (save Chris, of course...), and went home, where I would do my homework and then relax for a while until it was time for bed. The only difference now was that I was accompanied by Lysander to and from school, and he always made sure to call me to say goodnight. While I hated his threats towards Chris, I had to admit the company was nice. But I had to stop thinking that way. It was just...wrong.

Caught up in a battle between my heart and mind, I stumbled through the school hallways, trying as hard as I could to reach my locker. Thankfully I did, just in time. I grabbed my books and hurried into my classroom right as the starting bell rang out, and sat in my usual seat. I opened my backpack to get out my notebooks and things for the lecture, though I had no intention of listening to any of it. There was no way I could get any work done with my mind as it was. All I could do was stare at the whiteboard and try to process my situation.

"Hey," one of the students said as he came up to me. "That's my seat."

"What?" I replied, confused. "No, this is my seat. I always sit here."

"I don't think so. I always sit there. I don't even know who you are."

"Well yeah, but–" And then I noticed...the teacher standing at the whiteboard wasn't my teacher.

Oh no!

"Mr. Clark!" the student called out. "There's a random girl in my seat, and she won't leave!"

Then the teacher turned back and looked at me for a moment. "I'm sorry, young lady, but I don't believe I've seen you before. Are you sure you're in the right class?"

I looked at him for a moment, and then at the rest of the students in the classroom, only to realize I didn't recognize any of them. "Oh...um...actually...I'm sorry! My mistake!" I exclaimed as I gathered my belongings and rushed out of the room. I looked around the hallway, trying to figure out where I was. As it turned out, I had entered the classroom next to mine.

Oh god. Why did I have to do that? Why...? On top of everything else I was feeling, I was now quite a bit embarrassed too. Great.

I snuck into my own classroom as discretely as I could, so as not to alert anyone, and sat down at my desk; thankfully this one was actually mine. Once again, I got out my notebooks and things, and stared blankly at the board. Hopefully through all this madness, I could retain something...anything. Still, like I said, Algebra II was not the best thing to have first thing in the morning – far from it. Once class was over and I had packed my head and notes with as many equations as I could, I quickly put everything back in my bag and tried my best to escape from the room, lest I got in trouble. Alas, 'twas not meant to be.

"Just a moment, Miss Chama."

Uh-oh... I turned around. "Y-Yes, ma'am?"

"You were late to class today. I hope you didn't think I wouldn't notice you sneaking into my class earlier."

"W-Well...I mean...I dunno..."

"Well, whatever the case, I'd better not see more of this behavior from you."

"Oh, you wo–"

"I mean it. I hope you learn from this, young lady."

"I-I will! Thank you!" What's with the "young lady" treatment today?

"You're welcome. Now go, get to your next class, before this happens again."

"Okay, see you tomorrow!"

Thankfully, I was able to reach my next class on time, but I was still really rattled about what had just happened. How could I be late? I was never late. Of course, I knew why...and there was nothing I could really do about that. What I could do was try and figure out what was going on with Nathaniel. He had this...distant, dark attitude now, and I wanted to know why. Unfortunately, that would have to wait; there was this thing called "school" and I kinda had to attend it at the moment. Afterwards though...I had no other plans, so I could think about it later. Until then, I carried on with my day as usual. I sat through the usual first few classes, only to find out that I was assigned an essay in history and English. For history, we were supposed to describe the events the Columbian Exchange and how it signified the beginning of the New World. The English essay was supposed to be a research paper about any topic of our choosing, but it had to be at least 3 pages long, single-spaced.

Kill me...

They weren't due for quite some time, so I didn't have to worry about them yet. Still, I had a lot of research to do, and I knew this nagging feeling I now had wouldn't stop until I did. At the same time, I didn't wanna do it just yet; after all, researching anything enough to write detailed essays is a lot of work, and I already had enough on my plate as it was. For the time being, I decided to bring some of my notes with me to lunch so I could review what we learned in class over the past few weeks. I thought that would at least give me an idea of where to start to write a clear, proper essay. Unsurprisingly, my mini-study session captured too much of my attention, and I almost didn't notice the last of the students clearing out of the cafeteria. I quickly cleaned up my area and rushed out with them. I couldn't believe I was gonna let my nonexistent attention span make me late for class again! To my relief, I did get there in time, but I really had to stop doing that today.

At least I could relax a little in floral design. All we were doing was studying flowers, after all. I'd never been a huge fan of art classes because I was never good with my hands, but with everything else getting more difficult, I thought that maybe working with flowers wouldn't be so bad. Learning about flora sounded a lot more interesting than learning about wars or old Shakespearean plays, and this class was all about it! Why couldn't I have done an essay about this instead? I thought to myself as I carefully studied the flowers Mrs. Hana had put on my desk.

"Okay, class!" Mrs. Hana exclaimed. "We've been looking at many different types of flowers for a little while now, and I hope you know a fair amount about them by now, because next week, we're going to start making them into beautiful bouquets!"

The class murmured a bit, with different reactions. Some students were excited about this new activity, while others were dreading it. As for me, I was kind of neutral. I knew I was a very clumsy person and that things would only end badly, but still...it was better than everything else at the moment. Arranging flowers sounded a little difficult, but also relaxing and maybe even a little fun. At the very least, it would make a nice distraction from everything else that was going on at the moment. I was even starting to smile thinking about it.

"Oh, look at the time! The bell should be ringing any second now. You all did a very good job today, and I'll be looking forward to seeing your work on the bouquets next week. Well then, class dismissed!"

My smile immediately dropped again, right when I was starting to enjoy something too. I knew full well what class was next, and I wasn't looking forward to it one bit.

"Well..." I sighed to myself. "I guess it's time for the class I don't like." And with that, I picked up my things and made my way to physics.

It didn't take me long to get there, since my next class was located nearby, but I wish I could've had more time to myself before I had to deal with it. Nevertheless, I quietly walked into the classroom and sat down at my lab table. I just stared at it, not bothering to look at anything or anyone.

"Hey...are you okay?" A friendly voice whispered over to me, concerned.

"Yeah...I'm okay."

"Are you sure? You don't look okay."

"Hey, I've told you before and I'll tell you again – I'm fine, I promise. Thanks, Chris."

Chris looked at me in disbelief and slouched back in his chair. I knew he wouldn't believe me, and I hated lying to him, but it's not like I could just unleash all of my troubles onto him right now, what with Lysander sitting nearly back-to-back with me. He needed more time to process my relationship with Chris, and I needed more time to convince him that Chris was not a threat to the little "relationship" of our own. I knew I had to stand up to him eventually, but first I had to kill him with kindness. Maybe then he'd realize that Chris and I were only friends. I mean, that's all we were...right? Just...really good friends...that's all. Lysander was ridiculous to assume we were anything more. Still, it was awkward having to communicate with my really-good-friend-on-hold without really communicating with him. This new "professional" relationship was so stiff and robotic, as if we were complete strangers who simply had the common goal of getting through physics alive. It wasn't natural, and it didn't feel right. Nothing about this was right, and Chris and I both knew that if things were bad now, they could only get worse. The longer we went on this way, the stronger the wedge between us would get. But I couldn't think about that right now. This was partially my fault, and I was going to fix it; I owed him that much. I refused to let Lysander ruin our friendship this way.

Once that nightmare of a class was over, I could finally relax again, although I felt that someone was missing...

Oh! Jasmine wasn't here today! I wonder what happened to her?

I was curious now, but I knew I would have to ask her later. It might seem a bit strange, but my walks through the hallway (as rushed as they usually were) tended to calm me down. They gave me the space I needed most of the time, which gave me some time to think. Of course, none of the thoughts I had at the moment were any good, but at least I could drown out the voices around me. This ability was my gift and my curse, but right now, it was helping more than anything. The last two classes I had left were nothing special, but nothing too intense either, which I was more than thankful for. I had a lot of fun singing with my classmates in choir, and my gym teacher – err...coach, I guess – had us all play dodgeball today, which was very tiring, but still kinda fun. I made sure to ask Jasmine why she wasn't in physics today, but all she could tell me was that something was wrong with her schedule, so she had to transfer to a different physics class. I was sad, but I understood the situation.

By the time my last class ended, I was exhausted and very much looking forward to going home. I was walking through the halls on my way towards the exit and had barely passed the principal's office when I heard something peculiar. Out of curiosity, I stopped and turned around. I noticed immediately that whoever went in there last had forgotten to close the door all the way, and even though it was just the tiniest bit open, I could hear everything they were saying.

"...concerning the upcoming election."

"Yes, ma'am?"

It sounded like the principal, Chris, and a few other students were discussing the student body presidential election, as usual. Nothing odd about that.

"I realize this is a little unusual, given that the candidates were already nominated for this year, but it appears we have a new student joining our election."

What? Really? Now that was a bit strange. Usually once the nominations were over, no one was able to enter the ballot. How did someone get in now?

"This young man only just recently arrived at our school, yet he readily volunteered at the opportunity with much enthusiasm."

Wait...could he really mean...?

"So, without further ado, I give you your new candidate for student body president, Nathaniel Thorne."

I knew it. I thought I heard his voice earlier in the conversation, and this confirmed it.

"Thank you, ma'am."

I wasn't so surprised to find out Nathaniel wanted to be the student body president, since from what I could tell back at Sweet Amoris High, he seemed to live and breathe that role. He was very responsible and good at his job too, and I would've gladly rooted for him, but not before Chris. Chris worked very hard just to get nominated, so as his best friend, I was going to support him above anybody else. But anyway, I figured I probably shouldn't be there for too long or someone might find me. Besides, I really did want to go home, so I backed away from the door before anyone left the room and headed towards the exit again.

"Had enough eavesdropping for one day, Darling? You know spying is my specialty."

I looked up to see a very smug Lysander with a somewhat-annoying smirk on his face.

"I wasn't eavesdropping...and I really don't think you should be proud of that!"

Lysander chuckled a bit. "Oh, c'mon now, it was only a joke." I stared at him.

Was it though? Was it really?

"Please don't look at me that way." he said, the expression disappearing from his face. "I'm not that kind of man anymore."

"We'll see..." I replied and looked away. There was no way I was going to believe that. He was exactly that kind of man.

"I can prove it to you. Please, allow me to walk you home. I know it may take some time, but...even if it takes the rest of my life, I will show you that I've changed."

"Like I said, we'll see," I said, looking back at him, "but I guess that's a start."

He smiled and took my hand, and we exited the school together.

"So," he said as we made our way towards my apartment building, "how was your day, Darling?"

"Fine." I replied hesitantly. "Same as always, I guess. How 'bout you?"

"Good enough, I suppose...although school's never really the most fun thing to do."

"Yeah." I chuckled. "It's really not." We both fell silent after that, but it didn't take long before it got awkward. Somehow the silence killed me more than it did to talk to him, so I gathered up my courage and tried again to continue our conversation. "Um...do you have a favorite class though? I can't really decide between floral design and choir–" I immediately stopped myself from saying any more, but it was too late. Lysander was already grinning at me.

Why? Why did I have to say THAT?

"Oh, you're taking choir? I didn't know you liked to sing."

"I...uh...nevermind! Forget I said anything."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, my dear. You just told me everything I needed to know."

Agh, me and my big mouth! I can't believe I forgot he was a singer! .

"We should sing together sometime."

"Uh...I don't think so."

"Actually, we should perform together sometime. I would love to sing on-stage with you."

"I REALLY don't think so."

"Oh! You know what? I think I'll write a song for us to sing at the school talent show this year."

"Stop getting ideas!"

"What? I think it's a great idea."

"Do I not get a say in this...?"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. There's nothing to be nervous about."

"That's not really what I meant..."

He clearly wasn't listening, but it didn't really matter anyway. We'd finally reached my apartment at that point, and I was more than happy to be home. Lysander might have been off in his own little world, but for once, I wasn't. I headed straight for my door as soon as I saw it and unlocked it as fast as I could. I opened the door, and–

"Hey...wait." Lysander took my arm and gently pulled me towards him. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Not that I know of..." I replied somewhat-harshly, making sure he knew he still wasn't welcome, but I couldn't forget my manners either. "Oh...well, I guess I should thank you for walking me home. So...thanks."

He sighed, "You know that's not what I meant," and pulled me closer to him until we were locked in a warm embrace. I said nothing as I stood there in his arms – just listened to the soft, gentle sound of his heartbeat. For whatever reason, even though I knew what kind of person he was, being with him like this always calmed me. It was my biggest weakness, and I think he knew that too. After a few moments, Lysander pulled away from me, gave me a quick kiss goodbye, and left. I wanted to go inside, I really did, but...I couldn't move. It was as if my heart took control of my body, in spite of my mind, because it wanted nothing more in that moment than to stand there and watch him leave. It was sickening, knowing what I really wanted and what I had to do. And yet...

I didn't want him to go.