I want the one word that you refuse to say to me. You're so good at giving me responsibility. I wash my hands clean and let you watch me as I go. I'm sorry for you, just so you know.
"Say You're Sorry" – Sara Bareilles

Ollie watched Grace at the party before Third Year, the one that started off with her telling the group she couldn't wait to watch them rip each other apart and ended with her pushing Tara's cake into the pool. He could see right through the blonde; she was nothing more than a spoiled little girl who used her meanness as a defense mechanism for a mother who left her too soon and a father who never loved her enough. Girls like her were a dime a dozen in the ballet world, and other than her emotionless talent, there really wasn't anything special about Grace to the naked eye. However, Ollie saw more than that when he looked at her; he saw himself.

"You know, they'd probably forgive you if you just ask," he murmured to her while he stood just behind her. She was looking down at the buffet area where Christian and Ben were laughing with the girls. "They're actually pretty great friends."

Grace rolled her eyes and glanced at him over her shoulder. "Why would I want to be friends with them?"

"Because you're back in Sydney," he pointed out. "You could have chosen any school in the world, and you chose to come back to the Academy. You wouldn't have done that unless you wanted a second chance. I have to believe somewhere in there that you're looking for redemption."

She spun on her heel, hands planted firmly on her slender hips. "I came back for revenge," she shot back. "They made my life hell last year, totally humiliated me. I was nothing but a friend to Abigail and then Tara. Neither of them could bother to be supportive of me when I actually needed someone to stand up with me."

"You mean they wouldn't lie for you?" Ollie asked rhetorically. "Tara never told us why you left the Academy, so I'm not exactly sure why you left. But I know what happened with Abigail, the tricks you tried to pull with Ethan and then on Kat. You can play the Poor Little Lost Girl routine with someone else because I'm not buying it."

"Why do you even care?"

"Because you're lonely, and no one should go through this life alone," he shook his head sadly. "Look, I used to be like you and think that I didn't need anyone or anything. Sammy showed me that I was wrong, and after I lost it, those people were there for me. No one else cared. They're my family now, and I think you want them to be yours too. People like us are messed up, Grace. We're driven by something different, something darker. My own family couldn't bother to care on the best day, let alone the worst."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"I know everything about you," he corrected her, "and I'm only trying to help you. You're not here for revenge. You don't just decide to change your entire life because you want to get back at someone. I can't believe that even you are that much of a wreck. You are so talented, Grace, and it reminds me of how cocky and selfish I was before I met Sammy. I thought that everything was everyone else's fault. I couldn't get why these things always happened to me."

"And let me guess? You realized that they happen to you because you cause them," she retorted cockily, her eyebrow perfectly arched. "Cut the psychobabble, Ollie, I don't need you to analyze my motives. I assure you that they're completely transparent."

Ollie shook his head sadly and looked down at her. The blonde was all faux bluster, and it was almost pathetic how much she was protesting in vain. "Grace, it's okay to want people to care about you," he assured her. "Even after everything, you know that they still do, especially Tara."

"They'd never forgive me…"

"They forgave me," he countered. "After how I treated Sammy and the things that I said, they still accepted me back into the circle. They let me mourn with them, kept me together when I just wanted to fall apart. So trust me when I say, they'll forgive you. You just have to ask. I'll even go down there with me. I know it's scary, but you've got me."

Grace timidly looped her arm through Ollie's arm as he led her down the cement staircase to where Tara, Abigail and Kat were chatting happily with Christian and Ben. While Kat and Christian's defenses were instantly up, Abigail just looked at her with a general sense of distaste and Ben smiled nervously. As always, it took Tara stepping up to get the ball rolling. After Grace apologized and Ollie explained that the blonde wanted to make things right, the others slowly came around a little. By the end of the party, they all had soft plans to go to the beach that weekend. It wasn't much but it was a start. Everyone deserved a second beginning, and Grace was grateful that Ollie was there to make sure that she got hers.

For me because everyone needs a little redemption sometimes, and I think Ollie and Grace deserve theirs.