Please don't kill me! I said I'd update yesterday and I'm thankful for all your lovely reviews; they made my day. However I got caught up in all my AP homework and that comes first. So here you go, a nice long chapter (4,654 words!). Hey Furry McKrill I see you've found your way to this SL story of mine. Sweet stuff. You should get an account :

Oh and yes, this is officially an M rated story.


Alanna stormed through the hallways, not believing the words of the butler. She was to share a room with Jon! It was entirely implausible that something like this could even happen. She quickly pondered over how soon Jon would find out. There too many occasions that Alanna would have to hide, everything from laundry to showering now had to be kept secret. Then there was the matter of Jon's feelings for her – she knew that Jon was gay, or bi at the very least. Alanna hated admitting this to herself but she knew she had developed a small crush on the Conte boy. Now she had no idea what to make of those feelings but neither could she bring herself to talk about it with Jon.

Obviously the gods were meddling in her life. Once she had cooled her head considerably she went to her new room and found Jon cleaning out a spot for her in the wardrobe.

"Alan," he started. Alanna flipped him the finger and went to sit on her bed. Jon followed suit and both sat through a painful silence.

They now sat on the edge of their respective beds, both looking at each other and not saying a word. Jon was nervously tiddling his thumbs trying to avoid Alanna's death glare that had been directed his way for the past ten minutes. He felt as if he should say something, anything, but he was at a loss for words. Alanna crossed her legs and turned to gaze out the window admiring the way the afternoon sun reflected against the glass and how it spread rainbows across Jon's bedspread. Finally, Jon felt that he could no longer stand this heavy silence.

"Please say something Alan," he said in the same begging tone he had used when he had been addressing her in the shower. "We're going to be living in the same room for a while. Please let's try to even things out at least?"

Alanna now was looking at the blue carpet; it had her full attention and she couldn't remember the last time the carpet had been this interesting. She tore her eyes away from the carpet and looked into Jon's sapphire eyes, bright blue in the sunlight.

"How can we even things out?" She whispered.

"Why are you so against our kiss?" Jon asked breathlessly as if he had been waiting forever to ask her. "Or are you entirely against two boys having a relationship?"

Alanna bit her lower lip and turned away. Jon sucked in his breath waiting with anticipation for her answer. Finally he might find out the true reason; he could feel it.

"I'm not against two boys having a relationship," She answered. Jon's heart beat faster, if that was possible. Alanna knew it was now or never. She would have to tell Jonathon Conte the truth.

"I wasn't against it," she began. "It's because I….."


Raoul had a strong arm around Gary's neck, grappling him in a playful headlock.

"Oh come on Raoul, this is ridiculous," Gary managed to cough out. "She texted me! I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah but I got her number first!" Raoul shouted. He then released his large friend and sat down, his head propped up on his hand in defeat. He couldn't believe the nerve of Gary! Raoul had gotten hold of Delia's number and here was Gary, flirting with her as if tomorrow never existed. He would have to talk about it with Delia later. He was biting into his steak when he spotted a boy sporting a familiar shock of red hair. He carried a tray to where Raoul was sitting.

"Hey," Alan said. Raoul waved his fork in greeting. Alan had dark circles under his eyes and looked as if he had barely slept at all last night.

"Where were you and Jon last night?" Raoul asked her.

Alanna paused briefly; did Raoul know? "We made it to the spot and Jon and I had some of his wicked devil drink." She murmured. Gary overheard this and chuckled along with Raoul.

"Eh, Jon is corrupting the youth of the school," Gary sighed and turned back to his macaroni and cheese.

"Word of advice," Raoul offered. "Don't ever drink anything Jon gives. You'll probably have three possible things happen to you."

"One: you won't remember anything that happened to you the night before." Alex said. He had just sat down next to Alanna and heard Raoul's last comment.

"Two: you'll probably wake up to someone that you most definitely did not want to wake up next to." Gary said. The table gave him weird looks. "What? That's how I lost my virginity." He shrugged.

"And finally three: you'll have the worst hang over in the history of hangovers." Raoul concluded. Alanna stared gloomily into her cup of coffee; all of those had happened to her, minus Jon next to her but he had slept on her floor so perhaps it did count.

"I'll definitely be following that advice next time." If there even is a next time; she thought bitterly of the freedom she would have if she had attended the all girl's school. She might have had to wear a skirt but at least she wouldn't have to hide it.

"Well then, since it's already one o'clock, why don't we go ahead and leave for the city already?" Alex suggested.

"What Corus? Really?" Alanna asked with as wide eyes as she could manage that morning.

"Of course," Douglass said. He drained his orange juice and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "You wouldn't expect us to sit around at school the entire weekend would you?" No she hadn't, but with this morning's chaotic events she hadn't even given a fleeting thought to a trip to the city.

"Alright then it's settled: we're leaving for the city in fifteen minutes." Raoul said and stood, swiping a few pieces of fruit and bread into a napkin for later. "Oh Alan I heard you're to share a room with Jon for the rest for this year. Do you think you could go get him?"

"No need," Jon's clear deep voice carried easily as he arrived. He gave her a bright smile, happy that Alanna had told him what he thought was the truth. Alanna's heart sunk. What she had told Jon was a complete lie and nowhere near the truth. She said that she had once been in a terrible relationship just a few months before and was having trouble moving on. Jon had accepted her explanation as a reason for her reluctance to enter any sort of relationship with anyone else.

"Great we can leave immediately." Alex said brightly.

"What?" Jon asked incredulous. "I haven't even eaten breakfast!"

"Then you shouldn't drag freshmen into the forest in the middle of the night and get completely wasted and sleep away half the day the next morning." Alex retorted. "You can eat in Corus; now let's go!"

There was much argument over who should drive and what car they should take. Gary eventually settled it by asking a school chauffeur to drive them in one of his father's limos. Alanna sat back against the dark leather of the luxury vehicle and happened to be seated in between a very talkative Gary who was still arguing violently with Raoul over who should date Delia, and on the other side of her sat Jon, happy to be there next to her. Alanna rolled her eyes and wished for the umpteenth time that she did not have this gods-cursed headache. She mostly ignored Jon's attempts at conversation and busied herself with texting Thom, who was engrossed in designing a new building for the senate, or something along those lines. A text from Coram once again asked if she could pick up any alcohol in the city. Alanna shuddered at the thought of what mess alcohol caused and couldn't understand why people enjoyed it so much. The drive to Corus was perhaps ten miles from the school but was lengthened by the many twisting and turning roads they took. When they reached the outskirts of the city, Alanna pushed Jon out of the way so that she might catch a better glimpse from the window.

She sight took her breath away. The whole city seemed to be a jungle and maze of shimmering glass and steel, tall skyscrapers piercing the blue sky. Bridges connected buildings to another and gigantic columns supported an entire causeway bridge above the ground level of the street. Alanna looked upon the urban wilderness taking in giant art sculptures, spewing fountains and multitudes of people. The people were as varied as you could ever possibly see. Gary noticed Alanna's astonished look and laughed.

"I guess you've never seen Corus before?" he asked as they crossed the wire suspension bridge over the churning waters of the river that separated Corus into two sides. "Wait until we cross the bridge; we just drove through the lower city and it's nothing compared to Northern Corus." Gary was true to his word and the other side was even more spectacular. Alanna also noticed that this was where the majority of the temples of the gods were. The chauffeur dropped off the boys and Alanna in front of a glass fronted shopping mall. The day was warm and Alanna wished she could wear only her T-shirt. She had settled for her favorite Metallica T-shirt and a blue vest to go over it, hiding her chest. She thought that it was odd to see her friends in clothes other than their uniforms. She wasn't surprised by Alex's skinny jeans and emo band shirt as he had vehemently complained of the school's uninspiring dress code. Raoul was dressed in a striped rugby polo and board shorts, Gary dressed similarily only with a logo shirt. Jon had chosen a Guns 'n' Roses concert shirt and skinny jeans while Francis and Douglass had opted for simple logo T-shirts and cargo pants. Although Alanna hated to admit it, Jon could really pull off his skinny jeans.

"So what should we do first?" Raoul asked. There was a moment of silence and then the group each yelled out their individual wants and argued over where they should go. Douglass yelled at them to shut the hell up and order was restored.

Jon checked his watch and then straightened his top which accented his muscles nicely thought Alanna with bitterness. "How about we spilt up and meet back here in about three hours? That gives everyone enough time to do what they want." He glanced in Alanna's direction for a second and she was a bit scared to be alone in this big city with him.

"Sounds fair enough," Alex agreed. He went off with Francis, Raoul and Douglass while Alanna dragged a surprised Gary along, with Jon hurrying after them.

Thirty minutes later…

"Don't be ridiculous Gary. You can't lose someone. He just wandered away."

"Yeah probably because of the evil way you keep looking at him." Alanna hit Gary with her shopping bag and muttered something about an imbecile.

"What is that?" Gary asked brightly, cupping an ear. "Do I hear a lovely compliment of my amazing personality?"

"Never mind," Alanna grumbled. They had been walking in circles around the mall for the past ten minutes after noticing they had lost sight of Jon. One second he had been simply standing next to them and the next second he was gone. Gary had immediately started ranting on about conspiracies to kill the head of the Conte family but Alanna was glad to have Jon out of her sight. He was old enough to look after himself so she wasn't particularly worried. What she was worried about was the young man looking at her curiously whilst leaning casually in the doorway of a music store. He was tall, slim but toned, had short cut light brown hair and was wearing a faded Daft Punk shirt and ripped jeans. His hazel eyes twinkled impishly while a small mischievous smile played along his lips. Overall he didn't look like much of a threat but you couldn't tell with these city folk. Alanna held his gaze for a few moments and then turned to Gary. He was engrossed in his cell phone so the red-haired girl took hold of the boy's sleeve and dragged him into a random store as she still watched the young man with hazel eyes stare at her. She had hardly noticed where she was going and ended up walking straight into another women. Alanna fell and dropped her shopping bags while the surprised woman fell on top of Gary.

The woman had beach blonde hair and an enticing curvaceous figure. Gary stuttered out an apology as the beautiful blonde picked herself up and walked haughtily and hurriedly away.

"Ye need help there lad?" A pleasant baritone voice sounded. Alanna looked up to stare directly into the eyes of the stranger with the impish eyes. He stretched out a hand to her and helped her up. Up close, she could see that he was good-looking enough, his nose perhaps a tad big for his face. He was taller than she had guessed, the top of her head coming up only to the middle fo his chest.

"Thanks," She said softly. The stranger admired her briefly before Gary coughed, still on the ground.

"Up ye go then!" And the hazel-eyed stranger helped Gary up. "Nice to meet yer, me name's George Cooper." Alanna and George introduced themselves, George perking up when he heard Naxen.

"Are city people always this nice?" Gary asked playfully.

"Only the handsome ones." George answered, winking at Alanna. She blushed for unknown reasons and momentarily thought she was becoming a magnet for bisexual and gay men lately.

"You boys from that fancy Conte school?" Gary and Alanna answered affirmatively. "Haha this be no place to enjoy the fine sights of the city," George said and gestured around the brightly lit mall with the glass dome. "If ye be willin' to come to the other side o'Corus I'd show you a sweeter and more honest side of Corus."

"Of course, we'd love to go." Alanna said quickly. She had taken a liking to George Cooper already, admiring the aura of honesty of him, even though she had thought him unnerving the moment before. She had also spotted Jon in the distance who, from the quickening of his pace, seemingly had spotted them as well.

"Well what're we waitn' for." George smiled and led them out of the mall and to the metro station, talking nonstop the entire time. He pointed out various people and sights on the way and talked during the whole ride. Gary was able to keep up with him and their chatter gave way to a lively conversation. Alanna laughed and nodded in the right places and ignored the angry texts that Jon was sending her. She just wanted this day away from him to collect herself so that she wouldn't shoot him on sight that night. They stopped at a metro station of the other side of the river, the train having gone through a tunnel that was located on the riverbed. The "Lower City" as it was called, was a more colorful place than the richer side. George led them to a club called the "Dancing Dove" and gave a small nod to the bouncer at the door. The bouncer stared at Alanna as she walked up the steps and into the dark interior of the nightclub as if sizing her up. The "Dancing Dove" was more than a nightclub, as she soon realized; it was a gathering place of the inhabitants of the secret underworld of society.

She saw gang members with the insignia of a dove in flight, relating to the "Dancing Dove"; there were Skin Heads with clean shaven heads who were smoking heavily from a tribal pipe; the Technos were there in the corner with their advanced phones and laptops, god knows what new product they were designing; Joko girls, who always dressed in black leather and were trained in various forms of fighting and were the secret, unofficial police force at night of the Lower City, were sitting at another table; then there were your regular burly biker men, artists, authors, bounty hunters and every possible social outlet of people scattered throughout the club.

Alanna's eyes grew wide again when she passed a girl with tattoos over every visible part of her body and a snake affectionately wrapped around her body. The snake girl smiled with her tongue sticking out, revealing a pierced tongue. Alanna hurried to catch up to George and Gary who were ordering drinks at the bar counter.

"What'll it be purple-eyes?" George asked Alanna. "Whiskey, wine, cocktail?"

Remembering the night before, Alanna shuddered in disgust. "Lemonade will be fine." George laughed, a pleasant sound to Alanna's ears. They settled down in bar chairs and observed the various people that walked past. They all seemed to give a respectable nod to George. Gary noticed the oddity and brought it up.

"Well now lad," George grinned and took a sip of his beer. "What da ye know of the underworld?"

"Nothing much," Gary admitted. "All I know is that they're usually led by one man who calls himself the Rouge..." A lightbulb went of in Gary's head as George's knowing smile spread wider across his face.

"No," Alanna gasped, now understanding the situation. George couldn't be! The Rouge himself sitting so casually in front of them was mind-boggling. "You look too young to possibly be the Rouge."

George threw back his head and laughed hard, looking even more handsome. "That's a bit funny coming from such a wee lad like yerself." He sat there and wiped his eyes while Alanna scowled and drank her lemonade.

"How did you manage to become Rouge?" Gary asked.

George lowered his eyes and said in a serious tone. "How do ye think we gets rid of people that we don't like about here?" He shifted in his seat and Alanna could see the handle of a small gun tucked in the Rouge's pants.

"You killed the last Rouge?" Gary whispered.

"Killin' be a harsh word to use, Master Naxen." said the barkeeper. His deeply lined face broke into a smile at the Conte student's astonishemnt. "We'd rather be callin' it 'disposin'' more than anythin'. And yeas, I be a'knowin' yer name, I know yer face from them newspictures they're always a'printin'. Yer and yer father always be in there some time or another." He waved to them and went on to serve his next customers.

"Don't be worryin' about old Solomon," George assured them both. "He's my trusted man there and it'll take quite a beatin' to get anything from him, though I hope it might never come to that."

"So what did you do before you became the Rouge of Thieves?" Gary asked, now curious about this young man.

"Well first off, I used ta' attend a high school hereabouts but dropped out when I was sixteen. Figured I'd learned enough to keep myself alive. I used to deal crack and drugs there so I's continued for a whiles. It was too messy, too dange'ous I realized ta keep doin' that for a livin' so I got a job here at the Dancin' Dove and the rest is history." George winked at Gary. "I guess ye could say I discovered a talent!" He chuckled as he drained the last of his beer, leaving white foam at the bottom of his glass.

"Why'd you decide you wanted to become the Rouge?" Alanna chirpped in.

"It t'was time for a change laddie," George said philosopicly. "By the way, how old are ye now?"

"Me?" asked Alanna incredulously. "I'm fourteen, going on fifteen this December."

"No bloody way mate. And here I was a'thinkin' you were thirteen at the very most!" Alanna wished she knew George long enough to punch but settled with an angry sat in short silence when Alanna's phone rang. She saw the caller ID and recognized it as Raoul's.

"Hey Raoul," She answered. "No, I'm with Gary, umm where are we? Well we're in an, an, an old record shop on the other side of Corus. Opps, lost Jon? I thought he just wandered off, no tell him I'm going to be doing the punching, yes we will be there in twenty minutes. Ok, bye." She flipped her phone shut and turned to Gary.

"Raoul and the others want to meet up at school. Apparently there's some kind of emergency going on and they need us back as soon as possible."

George sighed. "And here I was meetin' two great lads and then ye be havin' to go. Here take my number and I'll show ye back to the metro." Gary and Alanna were escorted by the Rouge to the station where they said good-bye to their new friend.

"Well that was an interesting day," Gary remarked. The train began moving and Alanna waved at George as they left the station.

"He was nice though but awfully mysterious," Alanna commented.

"Yes that's true but it would be nice to have friends in the city." Gary thought aloud. They soon were reunited with their friends, carrying out their presumed lie of having gone to an old record shop. The weary boys and Alanna piled into the limo and Douglass and Alex fell asleep while the rest sat sleepily in their seats. Jon looked at Alanna. She knew she would have a long conversation once they got back to the school.


The emergency, ironically enough, was that Duke Naxen had found out about the friends' midnight excursion but did not know who it was. All he knew, from what he had found out from the night warden, was that a group of boys had met outside in the courtwood and had run away when the warden approached them. They also later found an empty bottle which they guessed had previously contained alcohol since there were a few drops inside. The headmaster had called this "a disgrace to the honor and dignity of the school, a perversion of youth and a corruptive substance". Alanna had been frightened when they all assembled in the meeting hall and had nervously clutched her hands in her lap. Duke Naxen warned the students that they would be expelled if found as it was against school policy and law for alcohol consumption for minors. Jon had been as frightened as she was and told her not to worry as they couldn't track it to them; whether Jon said it to reassure Alanna or himself was unclear but did nothing to relieve the nervous air between the group of friends.

The first thing Alanna did when they got to their room that night was to punch Jon squarely in his handsome face - twice.

"OW!" Jon yelled. "What the fuck? Seriously what gives Alan?"

"Don't you play coy with me Jonathon!" Alanna screamed. "First you drag me out into the middle of the night, then I get wasted and you kiss me and the next thing I know I'm awake in my bed with no recollection of the night before except you kissing me!" she didn't stop there and kept going. "And now I might be expelled if we get caught! Thanks alot! I don't have a father who's going to care enough to put me into another school! I don't have a father who has enough influence to keep me here! I don't have anything but my brother and this! And you and Ralon are messing this up for me! That's what gives!" Alanna, who had vented out the rage and anger that had built up in her over the day, sat down heavily on her unmade bed, tears now streaming down her face. A tender look came over Jon and he came to sit down next to her. He hesitantly put his arm around her shoulders, afraid of her reaction. Alanna sobbed even harder and Jon drew her to his chest.

"Shh please don't cry now. I'll promise if they trace it to me I won't mention your name. You're right, I pulled you into this mess. And yes I don't think kissing you was a very good idea under the circumstances.I'm so sorry that I've caused all this pain for you. But I care for you Alan, that's what I don't think you're understanding. I want you to be happy and I will look out for you no matter what so why can't you let me do that at least? If you don't want a relationship that's fine but can we please work things out to be friends? That's all." Jon's voice was extrememly soft and comforting and Alanna noticed she had gotten Jon's shirt front very wet.

"Oh Jon," she sighed and looked up at his face. His beautiful eyes were sad and lonely, mirroring her own. Jon pressed a fingertip to her lips for her to hush and dropped his hand. He leaned in to kiss Alanna. She didn't stop him, or hesitate. She wanted this kiss, though not under these circumstances. They broke the kiss and Jon caressed Alanna's cheek.

"Alan," he whispered with a lover's delight. He covered her lips with his own and kissed her again more passionately then before. Alanna felt a thrill course through her body, something she had never felt before. She closed her eyes and kissed Jon back, lips moving under his. Jon parted her lips with his tongue and entered her mouth, taking in the feeling and running it over Alanna's tongue. Distantly, as the kiss deepend further, she felt Jon's warm hand moving up her leg.

She leaned backwards suddenly, breathing heavily. Jon opened his eyes and it took him a few seconds to regain his breath and take in what just happened.

"I didn't mean for that to happen," he breathed out. Alanna moved Jon's hand from her leg.

"Sorry," he said as he pulled back.

"I think it's time for bed," Alanna suggested. The clock on the nightstand read 9:01 pm, too early for bed but neither of them wanted to argue about it.

Later, after undressing with the door locked in the bathroom, Alanna snuggled into bed with her cozy blankets around her. She still was confused but felt she could manage. She felt like a horrible liar but it didn't matter now, oddly. Maybe Jon would understand, maybe one day...


Ugh so tired and it's so late...sort of. It's only 9:56 pm right now but I wanted to write this cause I always try to keep my promises. I'll end here cause I need some sleep. I'm going to stop saying when I'll update next so I won't disappoint you. Sorry for any bad spelling and/or grammer I did my best when I went back and edited it over. Hope you all review! (please review o.O)