Author's Note: Hi guys! Here it is - the sixth chapter! This chapter is from Rachel's POV. I think it is very good, as it shows Rachel beginning a romance with a boy! Oh, I wanted to clarify that Rachel is eighteen as of this point in the story. I realized I made a mistake in the third chapter and I fixed that. Enjoy!

February 1943 - Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia

A year was a very long time, Rachel decided. It had been an entire year since Shelby's death, one long, torturous, anguished year for Rachel. A year spent in fear of the constant threat of deportation to one of the "resettlement" camps. A year full of rations that became more and more meager as time went on. A year full of increasing hatred that Rachel locked inside herself against the Nazis, especially against David Karofsky, the guard who had killed Shelby. If I ever survive this, Rachel thought, I will get revenge on Karofsky, but not just on him - on all of these bastards.

In that year, Rachel had changed so much. She had learned to be the woman of the "house" - if you could call the Berrich's sparse separate living arrangements a house. She had grown more bitter yet had matured. She had become closer to her father, Hiram, but she'd always clicked more with him than with Shelby. Rachel didn't know what she'd do if Hiram died too. She barely sang anymore because it reminded her too painfully of Shelby, who had taught her how to sing.

One of the only things that kept Rachel going in this miserable time besides Hiram and the idea of revenge on the Nazis was her two amazing best friends. Besides Tina, she was friends with Artie Abrams, a crippled young man whom everyone labeled as weak and destined to die on the hands of the Nazis. Tina and Artie were great. They always were shoulders for her to lean on and always knew what she was feeling, even if she didn't express it (she mostly did express her feeling, since she was a very dramatic and emotional girl). Tina would make her watery coffee, which looked and tasted like mud but was better than nothing. Artie would play her some music with his guitar, his most treasured possession.

Currently, Rachel was working in Terezin's garden, which was her main job in the ghetto. She planted seed after seed that she hoped would blossom in the spring into salvageable food for the Jews to eat. Everyone knew the best food went to the German commandant of Terezin, but maybe Rachel could smuggle a few scraps into her apron…Unless the foreman randomly noticed and shot her on the spot. That wouldn't be good. She knew Hiram would lose the will to live if she too died, so she had to keep out of trouble, if only for him.

The foreman rang the bell that signaled the end of the workday. Rachel hurried to find Tina so they could attend the mixer for young people. Tina had forced her to accompany her to the mixer. "It would be good for you, Rach," she'd said. "Maybe you'll meet someone…!" "I don't engage in frivolous activities like philandering with the opposite sex," Rachel had said, but had then smiled at Tina to let her know she'd come with her.

It had been a while since Rachel had thought about boys! She was pretty sure most of her schoolgirl crushes turned out to be homosexual (a very dangerous thing to be these days) since they were flamboyant and interested in theater and one she'd made out with had asked her what boys' lips tasted like. Eww!, Rachel had thought, that is exactly the wrong thing to say to a girl when you're kissing her! Needless to say, she had stormed out on that boy after telling him off for disrespecting her like that and being ungentlemanly.

Rachel and Tina walked gaily to the grassy area in the center of the ghetto. The two looked for cute boys, and their worries completely disappeared for the first time in ten years. Artie found Tina and asked her to dance with him. Tina looked back at Rachel, making sure she wouldn't feel left out, but Rachel motioned that it was okay. "I'm happy for you, Tina!", she yelled over the chaos. She had always thought Artie and Tina would be an adorable couple.

Rachel stood awkwardly by herself until she saw one boy walk over to her. A boy with the most beautiful blue eyes she'd ever seen. He was tall and handsome, with wavy caramel-brown hair and a smile almost as huge as hers, which was saying a lot. She wondered if his smile, like her own, had become a mask to hide all of his pain under. In this place, it was better to keep your pain under the surface.

The boy had approached her now. "I'm Jesse," he said, sticking out his hand. "Like the Jesse tree?", Rachel asked, and then chided herself in her head for saying something really dumb like that. She had never been good at flirting. To her surprise, Jesse threw back his head and laughed. He had a nice laugh, a carefree one. "What's your name, pretty girl?", he asked, obviously flirting with her.

Rachel had never been called pretty before! Annoying, arrogant, talented, yes, but never pretty! She really liked this Jesse boy. "Rachel. Rachel Barbra Berrich," she said importantly. "Wow, so official," Jesse joked. Rachel giggled, which was almost a foreign sound to her now. She had forgotten how good it sounded, how good it felt to laugh! "Are you from Prague?", she asked. "Yes," he answered. "I was born in Bratislava, though."

The two young people began discussing their lives in Prague. Jesse was the son of a wealthy Jewish banker. They had only lived a few streets away from the Berrichs, and Rachel was surprised she'd never noticed someone as cute as him before. They discussed everything from their old friends to their families to school to the sweet chimney cake they'd eaten every year at the Christmas markets.

The leaders of the mixer announced that it was coming to an end. Suddenly, Jesse pulled Rachel close…and kissed her.

Rachel surprised herself by kissing him back. He smelled surprisingly good; everyone else in the ghetto smelled filthy except maybe the leader of the Jewish council. Jesse pulled away. "Damn, Rachel," he said. "You're a really good kisser." Rachel blushed and bid him good night. "I hope I'll see you again!", she called. "Likewise," he said and winked at her.

For the first time since arriving in the ghetto, Rachel went to bed happy that night and excited for the next day. But could her happiness bloom like a flower in a place as awful as Terezin, or would it be killed by the Nazis just as a flower was killed by weeds?

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Unfortunately, I did not get the number of reviews I wanted for the last chapter, but I decided to post this anyway. Can you guys PLEASE give me 20 reviews for this chapter? Please follow, fav, and review!