To all those people who have stayed with me all this time (years?), thank you so much! I admit I haven't been to (or the internet, for that matter) for a while, and when I did have time I found myself avoiding my own stories! They aren't the best writing, but I will finish what I started. I just hate it when authors delete stories just because they think they're awful, so I'm not going to delete these stories (even if I want to totally remodel them). Once again, thank you to all you wonderful reviewers who pushed me to continue writing!

So, uh, just for my peace of mind, let's not overly dramatize about these, what, one, two years of incapability? Please. I'm awful with guilt trips.

Standard Disclaimer: This was meant as a humbling device. Authors who write fanfiction usually don't own their main characters. That is why it is called FANfiction. And it is quite true in my case.

High School

Chapter 6

Rath closed his eyes, taking a big whiff of the autumn air. It smelled decidedly crisper, he thought, with a hint of something sweet he couldn't name. He slowly inhaled, then started to hack and cough, his eyes watering as he tried to regain the breath he just lost. It seemed having your eyes closed while walking in a public high school was a bad combination. Concerned amber eyes filled his blurry vision and a gentle wind wiped the tears from his eyes. Once Rath regained his breath, he looked up and locked eyes with Cesia.

"Y-You!" Rath sputtered, a crimson stain forming on his cheeks. That girl again!

Cesia looked him up and down (was she checking him out?), then nodded. "Sorry for ramming you over like that," she said, putting her hand behind her head out of embarrassment. "I guess I wasn't looking where I was going."

Rath opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, and then realized that she thought it was her fault they had collided. He closed his mouth. Let her think that. She didn't need to know he had his eyes closed and wasn't looking either. He only felt a little stab of disappointment that she hadn't been checking him out like he thought. Oh well.

Cesia fell into step beside him. "So, um, do you think you could show me where we get our semester schedules?" She turned hopeful golden eyes on him with a matching brilliant smile. He almost blushed under her gaze. Almost.

"Why do you need to know?" He asked gruffly. How could this one girl affect him so much?

"Well…" Now it was her turn to blush. "I, uh, still can't remember where the admissions office is."

"Alright."

"Great!" Her smile lighted up the hallway and relaxed tensions he didn't know he had.

"Cesia, Cesia! Over here!" An energetic Kitchel waved them over. Or, she waved Cesia over and Cesia chose to drag Rath over. "What d'you have? Do we have math together? No? Social studies? YES!" Students walking by suddenly looked over at the noise and quickly walked the other direction.

Cesia turned to Rath. "Do we have anything together, Rath?" Dare he hope that she sounded a bit hopeful?

He was saved answering by the appearance of Rune and Tintlet. "Hi you guys!" Tintlet's quiet voice permeated the group. Kitchel's eyes lit up. She was just about to exchange class period information when her schedule suddenly disappeared from her hand.

"Mua ha ha ha! It is I, Thatz, who has now so righteously delivered justice!" Thatz appeared at Rath's elbow and flaunted Kitchel's schedule paper. "This is what you get for stealing my answers for the directions test!" He childishly stuck his tongue out at her.

"Why you…" Kitchel glared at Thatz with a murderous flame in her russet eyes. Her fingers twitched, and Thatz moved out of the way just in time from her ill-judged swipe. The reason it was ill-judged was because when she missed, she lost all momentum, and ended up falling on top of Thatz in a very promising position. The force knocked the paper from Thatz's hand and it fluttered innocently onto Cesia's outstretched palm.

"Well, aren't you two lovebirds lucky. It seems you have five whole periods together." Cesia smiled evilly.

Kitchel and Thatz looked up from their position on the floor, both with identical horror struck faces. Then they desperately began untangling themselves, both thinking, 'How will I ever stand school again!'

"Let me see that." This time it was Rune, and he held everyone's schedules out to see. "Hmm. So Rath has that…, Kitchel has…, and …this is great!" He beamed at them all. "Tintlet and I have all of our periods together except for period four!" Tintlet blushed, but smiled back at him indulgently. Everyone else backed away.

Rath groaned while walking to his math class. His Biology class was a failure. The teacher, Shyrendora, kept shooting looks out of the corner of her eyes at everyone, as though they were all plotting against her. It probably didn't help that Kitchel was also in his Biology class and got into constant arguments with the teacher. Trust Kitchel to make sure his workload was fat.

His Algebra I class was all the way across the school. When he finally got there, tired and out of breath running should he be late, the teacher turned out to be the same as his last.

"Students," he said, as the bell rang, "My name is Shydeman, and I will be your Algebra I teacher." He looked at Rath and his lips curled in a sneer. "Lykouleon's son, eh? Why aren't you in your seat? The bell rang. Detention." Great. His least favorite teacher had and evil twin.

As he turned in to go to his assigned seat, he saw Cesia sitting behind him. She smiled, a bit awkwardly because he had just been assigned detention, but it was a real smile nonetheless. And it was just for him.

YAY! The fruit of two years' hard work. Yeah right. Oh well, I hope you all forgive me. prays Please Lord, I don't want to die! Please save me! I have nightmares! sobs pathetically I AM SO SORRY!

I will continue my other stories as soon as possible. I just felt I had an obligation to this first because this was my first piece. Thank you all so much!

Yes, and I have just changed my penname to Faerie Wind.