STELLA POV

It was great to be back. I'd spent the summer traveling all over Espia with my father. It'd been an amazing experience, but I missed my friends. I wondered who my roommate was this year. I hoped that it wasn't anyone too overbearing and that I'd be able to get along with her.

I pulled my million bags into my room in the Hall of Dancing Flames that evening, expecting to find my roommate. Her door was open, but she was nowhere to be found. I sighed and went into my own room to begin unpacking. I neatly piled my clothes into my drawers and hung my jackets, coats, and uniforms in my closet. I put my wide assortment of shoes at the bottom of my closet.

I heard the front door open. A few seconds later, a girl appeared in my doorway. It was just Aqua, one of my close friends. She immediately ran to hug me. She briefly explained that she'd been looking for Serah, my real roommate. "Where have you been all summer?" she demanded. "You have to tell me everything."

I smiled, then remembered something. "Are you still 'with' Ven?"

She laughed. "Of course not. Do you know how many times he asked me to hang out with him over the break?" she asked. "I cancelled on him a million times. I was with Terra most of the summer, on the beach and stuff."

"So are there any new people this year?"

"There's this guy named Noel who is really cute. He's got a little sister, Lily. And that's all I know."

"Well I suppose that I'll have to meet this Noel guy."

Aqua shook her head. "You just think that you can have anyone you want, don't you?"

I slid my phone open to check the time, then closed it. I gave her a toothy grin. "Of course I can, if I play my cards right."

Aqua shook her head again. She grabbed my hand. "Come on, I'm starving."

"But my bed's a mess. I have to finish packing," I whined. "Let me just take five more minutes."

Aqua rolled her eyes in annoyance and grabbed my arm, dragging me out of the room and into the hallway. "Let's go, Stella."

RIKKU POV

As usual, Gippal and I sat next to each other at dinner. He took a huge bite of his cheeseburger, which annoyed me. I was a vegetarian and the smell of beef, in particular, grossed me out. Ketchup dripped down his chin. "Do you have to be so messy?" I complained, picking up a napkin. I wiped the ketchup off of my boyfriend's chin.

Tidus and Yuna came to the table with Paine. "What are you complaining about now?" asked Paine with a smirk. She sat down across from me.

"Gippal's being annoying," I said, peeking at a surprised Gippal next to me.

He took a few seconds to swallow his food before coming up with something to say. "I am not! You're just jealous because you don't eat burgers anymore."

"I wouldn't eat a burger if it was the last thing I did," I argued. "Ever since I became a vegetarian, I've lost so much weight."

Gippal gave her a look of disbelief. "Please," he said lazily. "You look the same as you did two years ago. Except for your tan."

I pouted. "Do not," I mumbled under my breath.

Tidus cleared his throat and Yuna pretended to look at Paine's hair. "What?" Paine said.

Tidus broke the silence. "So Blitzball tryouts are tomorrow! Are you trying out, Gippal?"

Gippal only laughed. He shook his head. "Blitzball's not really... my thing," he replied. "I think that you'd make a very suitable cheerleader though."

Tidus' face turned bright red. "I'm the captain!"

Gippal looked rather amused. "Really?" he asked, sarcasm dripping off the simple question. Tidus looked as if he were ready to put up an argument, but thought better of it. Gippal stood up an stretched. "I think I'm gonna hit the pool," he said. Then he locked eyes with Tidus. "Swimming tryouts are next week." He planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek and walked away, leaving his garbage for me to clean up. Tidus scowled while I sighed. I picked up his tray and dumped it in the garbage.

When I returned to my salad, Yuna looked rather uncomfortable. I looked at her strangely. "Why the long face, Yunie?"

She hesitated. "If I heard something bad about Gippal, you'd want me to tell you, right?"

"What's going on?" I asked, looking at Tidus and Paine, who immediately looked away.

"I heard something about Gippal and some girl named Kali meeting up on the beach tonight," she said quietly. I barely heard her myself.

My green eyes widened. "What? No. Gippal wouldn't. He's going to the pool."

Then Tidus spoke. "Well did you ever think that he might have lied?"

I refused to believe that. I shook Tidus' theory off. Gippal loved me. He said so, many times. After debating about it for a few minutes, Paine snapped. "Rikku! You're in denial! Why not go to the pool and see if he's there? I'm sure that will prove enough."

I got up, stabbing a cucumber with my fork. "Fine!" I said through gritted teeth. "I'll go." I stormed out of the cafe, pushing past Stella-she'd just walked in with Aqua. In my hurry, I'd knocked her phone out of her hand, but I was too angry to apologize.

I gave it a few minutes before I went into the Pool House, in order to give him some time to get there and everything. Then I marched into the building, past the locker rooms, and into the pool. The lifeguard, Kairi, waved her arms from across the room. "Rikku! What are you doing! You can't be in here without pool shoes or flip flops!" she yelled. "You could slip.

I didn't care. I scanned the room for Gippal, but he was nowhere in sight. I only saw Lily and her friends splashing around in the water. Lily spotted me, waving me over. "Hey! Rikku!" I ignored her and left the pool instead. "What's her deal?" I heard one of the guys say before the door closed shut. I'd apologize later.

I sat outside on one of the benches so that I could think, but I knew that it was mostly because I was hoping that Gippal would walk this way. Maybe Tidus was right. Maybe he was lying about the pool.

I decided to go to his dorm even though, technically, I wasn't supposed to go beyond the lobby. I went up the stairs, red carpet beneath my feet, until I reached the third floor. I knocked on Gippal's door. Terra answered, opening the door wide. "Hey, Rikku. What's up?"

I put my hands on top of my head, the way I always did when I got nervous. "I just came to ask if you know where Gippal is."

"He's at the pool," he said, smiling. Either Terra was lying to protect his roommate or Gippal had lied to Terra too.

"Oh," I said. "Thanks Terra."

He smiled. "See you later," he said before closing the door. I turned my back to the door, defeated. But I didn't believe that Gippal had lied, so I went back to the Pool House, hoping that I'd missed him somehow. But when I peeked through the window, he still wasn't there.

Then I did the only thing I could do. I went back up to my room and took my binoculars out of my drawer. I'd used them the time that Yuna and I went to a Blitzball tournament and we'd had terrible seats. I smiled. The good days, I thought. Before the drama of Sacred Hearts began to take over my life.

I held the binoculars tightly as I walked out of the dorm and to the beach. We weren't allowed on the beach after sunset. But I'd already broken rules today and one more wouldn't hurt, as long as I didn't get caught. I put the binoculars up to my face and looked out into the blackness of the beach. I saw nothing. I put my binoculars down, wondering if going through all of this had been a waste of time.

I was proven wrong when I heard a laugh coming from further away. I looked through my binoculars again, only to find my boyfriend making out with some other girl. Kali, I thought. Kissing my boyfriend on the beach.

LILY POV

When I got back to my room after having fun in the pool with Ven and the others, I heard Rikku on the phone. Her face was stained with tears as she incoherently told a story to someone on the other line of the phone. "Yunie, I'll call you back," she said, snapping the phone shut with a click. Her hair was wet and she had a bathrobe on.

She came up to me and hugged me. "I'm so sorry," she said, sobbing on my shoulder. I rubbed her back.

"It's fine. It's nothing you have to cry about." I said, smiling. She let me go and looked at me.

"It's not that," she said. "Gippal... he... he's cheating on me with some girl named Kali. He told me that he was going to the pool. That's why I showed up there. And then... I asked Terra where he was and he said that Gippal was at the pool, so I went back and he still wasn't there. And that's when I went to the beach and saw everything!" she said, way too fast.

"Whoa!" I said. "Start over. Tell me everything, much slower than that." I sat next to her on the couch as she told me her story. This time I understood every word. I felt terrible. I thought that she and Gippal were Sacred Hearts' "golden couple." Apparently they weren't as "golden" as I'd thought. I hugged her. "I'll go get us some ice cream. My treat." She smiled before I left our dorm.

The night was cool. Not too hot, not too cold. The warm breeze blew, sending strands of my brown hair whipping in the wind as I walked through the ice cream parlor. It closed at nine and it was past eight, so I knew it would probably be crowded.

Surprisingly, when I got there, it wasn't crowded. There was hardly anyone in the small shop except for Noel and a girl that I didn't know. He got up when he saw me, mouth full of ice cream. "Hey, Lily," he said happily. He turned to face the girl, with light brown hair and pale lavender eyes . "This is Stella."

The girl named Stella smiled at me. "Hello, Lily. Do you want to join us?"

I shook my head. "Maybe some other time. I'm getting some ice cream for Rikku."

"Al Bhed Rikku?" she asked. I nodded. "Tell her that I said hello."

"I will," I said. "See you." I went up to the counter, ordering a huge banana split for me and Rikku to share. I gave the cashier ten gil and walked out of the shop, back to my dorm. I walked quickly, so that the ice cream wouldn't melt all over the place.

NOEL POV

Stella was nice. Definitely beautiful. She looked even better than Serah did. She was so prim and proper. So delicate... like a freshly bloomed flower.

I met her at dinner. Aqua had introduced me to her. From what Zack told me, Stella was the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Her father had companies all over Espia. I'd expected her to be a spoiled, rich, self-centered girl, but she wasn't. Zack also mentioned that she was single.

I supposed that solved the Serah problem, in a way. At least I didn't have to feel so guilty about having feelings for Serah. Zack and I had become friends and I didn't want Serah to get in the way of that. Zack never knew how I felt about his girlfriend. No one knew except for Yuj apparently.

She'd eaten with us at dinner as Zack told her all about the drama with my sister and Ven and everything else that had happened in the three days that school had been in session. Shortly after dinner, she asked me if I wanted to get ice cream with her. I would've been crazy not to agree. So that's how we ended up eating ice cream together.

"Are you daydreaming? Stella asked, taking a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. I realized that I'd been looking right at her.

"Maybe," I said.

"What were you thinking about?"

"You."

"What about me?" she asked. Her face turned slightly pink as she smiled.

"Your eyes," I said, studying her face. "They're beautiful."

"Thank you," she said, blushing a little. She put some gil on the table and got up. "We should probably get out of here." I stuck my hand in my pocket, digging for my gil, but Stella brushed her hand against mine. "My treat."

I opened my mouth to protest, but she wouldn't listen to me. She simply put a finger to my lips, enough to shut me up. We walked back to the Hall of Dancing Flames in silence, side by side.

When we got to the lobby, we both got into the elevator. The door closed, leaving us alone together. I pressed three. "Same floor as me," she said. A second later, the doors opened and we stepped out into the hallway. The halls were empty. Most people were probably already in their rooms. She turned to me. "I guess this is good bye."

"It doesn't have to be," I said.

She bit her lip. "What do you mean?"

"I want to take you on a date. A proper one."

She smiled and took out her phone. "Sure. What's your number?"

"Three nine four, seven one zero." My phone rang.

"There's my number," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow?" I slid my phone open to save her number.

I nodded and watched her go in the opposite direction, her hips swaying a little in her skirt. I smiled to myself and went to my room, where Yuj was on the phone with someone. Probably Maqui, I thought.

By the time I took my shower and came back out, Yuj attacked me with questions. "So you like Stella now? What happened to Serah?"

"Serah and I could never be, not when she's with Zack. And Stella? She's gorgeous and she's sweet and she's proper."

"I do have to admit, Stella's one of the prettiest girls at Sacred Hearts. But she never goes out with anyone. Ever."

"I must be an exception. She seemed to like me. She gave me her number and everything. My phone beeped. I slid it open, revealing a text message from my new crush: I had a good time tonight, Stella. I showed Yuj the text. "She wants me," I said theatrically, throwing myself onto the sofa. I loved this school.

Poor Rikku :( Gippal's such an ass! But anyway, I threw Stella into the story because I think she's really pretty. Maybe I'll throw in Noctis somewhere. We'll see, we'll see. Anyway, don't forget, if you want to see different character point of views, just leave a review or message me and I'll take your suggestions into consideration.