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Corrine walked in to the room she shared with Josie, her head down, shoulders slumped in despair. With a pang of sadness, she glanced at her room mates' empty bed, before dumping her books on the desk. Science club hadn't taken her mind of the problem, as she'd hoped. Instead, being in the same room with all her friends, it had just reminded her that Josie was gone, and that she might not be coming back.

Throwing herself on to her bed with a sigh, Corrine rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, her hands underneath her head. Thoughts flew through her brain, just little things, about Josie and school.

'It's too quiet. There should be music. Got homework to do. Josie should be dancing around the room right now. English report due in tomorrow. Vaughn's really upset. Got to study for math's test. Need to know if Josie's alright. Should talk to Z about chemical reactions. Josie…'

She rolled over on to her side, her heart pounding in her chest, as she fought back the tears that were threatening to spill. Her vision swam slightly with the unshed tears, and a small sob escaped from between her lips. A tear spilled over, down her cheek, followed unchecked by another.

As she finally let it all out, there was a soft knock on the door.

Biting her bottom lip, she rubbed the back of her hand against her eyes, wiping the tears away. Corrine stood and quickly straightened her skirt, before brushing a few stray hairs back from her forehead.

She opened the door, to see Marshall looking at her. He smiled softly, and Corrine opened the door wider so he could walk in.

"Um…" Marshall looked away as Corrine shut the door, before looking back at her with a wiry grin. "Did you notice that the hall downstairs seemed to be more jam packed then usual?"

Corrine looked at him in confusion. 'Why is he talking about the hall?' she wondered to herself, before nodding in reply. She sat down on her bed and picked up Mr. Bunny Pants, leaned against her pillows and waited for Marshall to continue.

Before he did however, Marshall seated himself on the edge of her bed, and picked at the small bit of fluff on her top blanket. He wasn't too sure how to tell her about the rumors. He wanted them to sound funny, to get a laugh out of her, not make her feel worse about their missing friend.

"Well… Lucas and I were walking down the hall, and we heard some pretty weird stuff," he finally said after a long pause, before looking at Corrine. Her interest was piqued, and she waved her hand impatiently for him to continue.

The whole story tumbled out, all the rumors that were flying around the school, what all the students were saying about Josie. Marshall kept glancing at Corrine out of the corner of his eyes, to see her reaction, and as his story had progressed, she had started to smile.

By the time he came to the weird theory about Josie and Principal Durst being spies, Corrine was laughing. Marshall grinned with her, feeling a lot more confident and better. The whole time Josie had been missing, he had felt like there was this big heavy cloud hanging over all of them that was weighing them down with misery. And for the first time in days, Corrine was laughing.

He felt really good that he was the one to make her laugh. Sappy as it sounded, Marshall wanted to be the one that always made her laugh, that always bought her out of her unhappiness.

She laid a hand lightly on his knee. "Thanks for that Marshall. I really needed that," she said, laughter still evident in her voice.

Taking her hand in his, he smiled tenderly at her, and reached over to brush a strand of hair out of her face. "I know."

"So what did Z say about all of this?"

Marshall laughed as he recalled the conversation he and Lucas had had with Z. "He found the whole thing pretty funny," Marshall replied. "He started to laugh about it all, made a remark about inventive students and good imaginations."

Corrine laughed again, despite herself. She felt a little guilty at the thought of sitting there with Marshall laughing, while Josie was off, who knows where, possibly in trouble. But the rational part of Corrine's brain, the part she used the majority of the time, overruled and told her that she had to have some happiness, or she'd go insane.

And then there was her heart, which was telling her that whenever she was around Marshall, she found herself instantly happy.

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Hope you all enjoyed that part! I actually just wrote it :D Thought we needed a chapter that dealt a little with Corrine, even though I'm not that great at writing either Corrine or Marshall.