Note: thanks for the reviewers who've ben consistently reviewing! thanx guys :) I find it amazing that after three years of cancellation of HG, even though it never should have been cancelled, the fans are still as eager for fanfiction as ever. lots of luv to y'all!

Scott and Erika were in the midst of trekking through the forestland in uncomfortable silence, tension lingered between the two. They didn't so much as look at one another.

Suddenly, Erika halted, causing Scott to nearly trip as a result of her abrupt action.

"What are you doing?" Scott demanded.

"Hey, Scott," Erika said suddenly.

"Yeah?" Scott asked, turning to her.

"Sorry- for what I said about Shelby."

"What?" Scott said, taken by surprise, wondering if Erika had just indeed apologized to him. He couldn't read her face.

She looked at him strangely. "She must mean a lot to you, huh?"

"She means the world," Scott stated, staring off into the distance.





Adrian was lounging on a couch in the main lodge, sketchbook and pencil in hand. He worked at it endlessly, meticulous with his detail. The room was warm and bright, with students scattered, and engaged in conversations. The day had just begun. Daisy roamed through the room, plopping down beside Adrian.

"Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions," she announced.

Adrian glanced up from his work, and gave a tight smile to find Daisy next to him. "Hello, Daisy," he returned.

"It's expressive," Daisy observed, noting the gloomy colours that made the piece he was in the process of perfecting. The piece was a myriad of glum colours that swirled into a single shade.

"Yeah. The colours represent how I'm feeling now," he explained.

"Not good, I take it?" Daisy questioned knowingly.

"Yeah," he admitted.

Daisy shifted in her seat. "Well, do you want to know what will become of it?" she asked.

"What?" Adrian asked, uncertain as to what she meant.

"Do you want to know what my tarot cards have to say?" she said bluntly.

"You read tarot cards?" Adrian asked skeptically.

"Yeah, and?" she replied defensively, removing the cards from a front pocket. She rested the mystical cards on her palm, and Adrian stared at them, transfixed.

"It's just that.. I've never even seen Tarot Cards before," he managed.

"Here," Daisy held out her prized deck to Adrian. He took it cautiously. "Take a look," Daisy continued. "There's 78 cards that make-up my deck, 22 major arcana, 56 minor arcana, and the fool."

"Wow," Adrian commented, studying the cards. "The illustrations on the cards.. they're fascinating."

"Indeed," Daisy agreed.

"Where did you get these?" he questioned suddenly.

"From my good friend Ezra," Daisy replied, breaking her gaze with Adrian. As her eyes drifted back to the artist, she found him studying her face curiously. "What?" she asked, furrowing her brows.

"Friend, huh?" he said, smiling.

"Yes. Do you want to hear what they have to say or not?" she said, irritated with the antic.

"Alright," he replied, handing her back the tarot cards.

Daisy laid out her cards on a nearby table. She shuffled them, and placed them in a single stack. She cut the cards to the left and restacked them. She flipped over the card that was at the front of the deck. It was revealed to be the image of a man that hung upside down with a bright glow at his head. "Interesting," she commented.

"What is it?" Adrian questioned nervously.

"The hanged man. It signifies release."

"Release?" he replied skeptically.

"Release," she repeated. "Having an emotional release, accepting what is."

"So that's what's coming? Release?" there was a strange note in his tone.

"Release. What, would you have preferred The Tower, or better yet, Death?" she questioned sarcastically.

"How do you derive release from a hanged man?" Adrian inquired, still skeptical.

"We see in the Hanged Man the dependency on the Cosmic Tree of Life," Daisy replied simply.

Adrian chuckled at her response. "I won't pretend to understand that," he said.

"Good," Daisy affirmed. "I'm not amused with hypocrisy."

"Truth advocate?"

"With everything I've done, I've done it truthfully," Daisy began. "When I decided to hide from the world, I wore a mask for all the world to see. What did I care what they thought. I didn't hold back when I vented my anger on my father. Hypocrisy isn't my style."

"Neither is it mine," Adrian reassured.

"You couldn't hide yourself if you tried," she said, knowingly.

"How so?"

"Art- it reflects life. Art is truthful, whether you want it to be, or not. Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life. Even if you hid yourself from the world, your art wouldn't," she explained. Adrian paused to think, and glanced towards the piece he had been working on. "Yeah, I could agree with that," he said finally.

"Let's see it," Daisy said, motioning towards his sketchbook.

"You want to see my art?"

"Yes."

Adrian gathered his book and placed it on her lap. "Here," he said.

Daisy flipped through the book idly, glancing towards the artist as she paused at certain pieces. She finally stopped at a bold, strongly coloured, hard-stroked piece that poured with emotion. She turned to him. "I was right, wasn't I? About all of it," she said sympathetically.

"Yeah, you were," he said quietly.

"Producing art is just another way of keeping a diary, it reflects life. This one.." she began, motioning to the piece she had stopped at, a depiction of a child weeping. The colours were sombre, and the mood was gloomy. The background was fogged up. "This one is almost painful to look at, not because it's badly drawn- but because it's so brutally honest."

"Since when are you an art critic?"

"I'm not. I just have eyes that can see. And eyes that can see what will come," she tapped the tarot cards. "You must have been in absolute anguish when you produced this one."

"I was.. In the worst misery you can imagine. It was the night my mom- when she committed suicide. I didn't knew what to do with myself. So I did the only thing I knew how to do. I drew. And cried. Endlessly." Adrian continued, "The child there," he said, "it's me."

"Loss of innocence," Daisy whispered.

Adrian looked away from the girl who could discern everything.

"You know what it was, don't you?" she said, empathetically. "It was release. Art is a form of expression. This is a piece that's boiling over with emotion. You sacrificed accuracy of form to emote expression."

"Thank you," he said genuinely.

Daisy shook her head. "It's mere truth."

Adrian smiled slowly. "Thank you, Daisy." he repeated seriously. "It means a lot that you could interpret my art like that."

"Well, you're certainly welcome. Although I find it more than a little depressing, that one must be thanked for speaking the truth."

"Not everyone doesn't believe in hypocrisy," he said.

"True enough." Daisy agreed. "But that's just the hard truth of reality. The world is polluted with endless problems that we, as a society create, that lies, and false hopes create. Not everyone is well-intentioned. Not everyone understands the importance of truth."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one," he said.

"Truth- the one purity in life."