"Andrew," Jeanine stops her friend before boredom kills her. "It's been two weeks since we have spoken about anything but Natalie and I think I might lose my mind."
"Sorry… I just-"
"Don't know how you feel about her?" Jeanine finishes his sentence and offers him a soft and understanding smile.
"How did you know that?"
A shocked laughter escapes Jeanine's lips and she stares at him. "Really?! How did I know? Oh God Andrew, you are in deep." Andrew sighs and flops back onto Jeanine's bed. "Make yourself comfortable then." Jeanine mutters. It's been almost an hour since he waltzed into her room, uninvited and unannounced. Jeanine had planned to get some extra work done but there is no way she can see that happening now. She mentally curses Natalie before laying down beside him.
"She's pretty, and adventurous, and she is kind." Andrew smiles just by thinking about her and it makes Jeanine want to vomit. She did think it was sweet at the beginning, that was until he wouldn't shut up about her. Oh and before she discovered that she is a mole from the bureau sent to spy on her but she can't exactly tell Andrew that.
"Why don't you actually try and have a proper discussion with her for once?"
"I have."
"Really?"
"We spoke for about a minute once."
"Jesus Christ! Andrew, it's one in the morning! Go to sleep!" Jeanine exclaims.
"Well you weren't planning on sleeping." Andrew pouts.
"Yeah well I'm me. You don't want to end up like me Andrew so come on, go to sleep." She stands and indicates to the door.
Andrew groans before swinging his legs round and standing up. He glares at her as he walks toward the door. "You are just jealous because you don't have a girlfriend." He slams the door behind him.
"Neither do you!" Jeanine shouts, not even thinking about Andrew's parents attempting to sleep.
When she is sure that he is gone, she kneels down beside her bed and pulls the covers out of her way. She reaches for a painted shoebox and pulls it out from under her bed. She holds the blue box to her chest and lets a tear fall down her cheek. Andrew is right, she is jealous, but not because she doesn't have a girlfriend. Because she does and she can't tell anyone about her.
She opens the lid and pulls out a polaroid of her and Evelyn Johnson. Despite being Erudite, Evelyn is as far down as they come. She might as well be factionless. Her father is a cleaner and was given the choice to just be factionless and almost took it, the only reason he didn't was Evelyn. A frail girl who doesn't seem to be too good at academics but has a beautifully creative and caring mind. It doesn't matter to Jeanine, especially since she was almost factionless when her parents died, but it does matter to just about everyone else. Somehow, when you are a teenager, class is even more important than faction.
She hears Andrew snoring down the hall and smiles a little. Perhaps she will tell him, he should understand. She won't do it tonight though, not when she finally got him to leave her alone. She dreads to think how many questions he would ask. She has never had a girlfriend before so Andrew would explode.
She places the picture back in the box and climbs into bed. She grabs the chemistry text book from next to her and opens it on the book marked page. She is exceptional at all subjects but Chemistry is certainly one of her strong suits. Unfortunately, Evelyn just can't seem to grasp any of it. Jeanine has been tutoring her down by the lake for two weeks; she thinks that they are getting somewhere. The plan is to allow Evelyn to make a name for herself, to pull away from her father's failure.
She looks at the little doodle of two girls hugging and traces her finger over it. Evelyn had grabbed her book whilst Jeanine went to check what a noise was and doodled in it. Jeanine had expected to find nothing but an animal or some leaves rustling in the wind, instead it was an Erudite snitch who came to collect a leaf for biology. They both sprinted away from the boy, laughing when they finally reached an alley. They had their first kiss that day, surprisingly initiated by Evelyn.