Chapter 2: Making new friends.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Rebecca Sugar and her wonderful Crewniverse; none of it is mine.

A/N: Readers; read and review. I appreciate the comments. Thank you very much.

Lapis waved her parents and two younger twin brothers off in the car as they drove away and proceeded to walk back when it was finally out of her sight. She stuffed her hands deep into her pockets and cracked her neck muscles- her back hurt slightly from carrying all her things way up to her room on the fourth floor. D-A5-43; that`s Dorm: Block A, fifth floor, Room 43. In total there are seven blocks in the campus altogether. That's about five floors in each block and about 10 rooms on each floor. Lapis made the mental calculations in her head as she walked. So that would mean that there's exactly 350 rooms altogether. And 350 multiplied by two is 700.

So per semester there's more or less about 700 students that will be studying in Crystal Gem U- Lapis widened her eyes and breathed out nervously. She doesn't exactly know what the average total of students studying in universities in the country are but to her 700 is a very big number. You could practically build another small country with that total number of people! A very small town could have an average of at least 15 people living in it. Why, Beach City had practically about 15 permanent residents living in it!

Lapis sighed again. There was a whole new journey ahead of her and she didn't even knew where to start! Her roommate already hated her for some reason or another; or at least, that's what it looked like back there. Lapis had always been awkward with company. Don't get her wrong, making friends had been easy, back in the days when she was still a little girl and the drama hadn't started. She was cute, and somewhat polite. She had no problem attracting people, no.

Her problem with having friends was keeping them with her as she grew. People say things change as we grow older and Lapis completely agrees. Lapis used to have many friends when she was little- when she had been the best swimmer in her kindergarten class and did quite well in her studies among her peers, she had been the centre of their attention. First grade, and she was even in her class' top three and her school's best in English and Maths. Then it all went wrong.

Her parents were proud of her, her teachers were proud of her; it was supposed to the highlight of her life, but why did something felt… wrong? It'd all started when her then best friend, a girl she'd knew since she was five, asked for her pocket money. A loan, she said, and after a few days she'll give it back. Back then when you're young and innocent you think nothing could go wrong. Lapis trusted that girl; even her parents knew her… right? They should, since Lapis does. Lapis tells her parents about her friends all the time.

Lapis never asked for her money back- she'd trusted her friend blindly that the girl will give it back when she's ready. She didn't tell her parents about it- it was no big deal. But soon the girl asked for more and more. One day Lapis decided to ask her where all her money went, but all she got in return was some huge-eyed, innocent look.

"What money?"

Lapis thought she'd heard it wrong, so she explained again with a brief summary for all the times she'd given the girl her money. The girl laughed at her and looked at her funny.

"Lapis, you're going crazy. I never borrowed your money for anything."

Lapis' eye twitched. She was supposed to be saving her money for that new bike she saw at the shop window near the school! Lapis clenched her fist and asked again, but the girl shook her head. Lapis rarely lost her temper, though her parents did say that she had been a temperamental little child. Supposedly she grew out of it, but bits of it still remained. Lapis' mouth twisted into an ugly snarl. Her eyebrows narrowed and she clenched her teeth. The friend took a step back with a worried look on her face.

"Lapis?"

"You lied." She said softly and the girl had been too scared to say anything against her. Lapis grabbed onto the girl's shirt collar and hoisted her up and glared into her eyes. The girl gulped. Lapis could easily see the tears the began pooling in the girl`s eyes.

"I-I didn't-"

"GIVE ME BACK. MY MONEY!" Lapis shouted to the girl's face and the other instantly began wailing. Of course, the both of them were sent to the headmistress' office, and both sets of parents were called into school. Lapis' parents had looked livid- they were called off their job with reports of their only daughter bullying another for money.

Lapis was terrified. When the girl's parents came, they immediately pulled the other in for a hug and soothing words of 'it'll be alright, we've got this.' All she got from her parents were stern, disappointed glares and silence. The headmistress was a round woman with square glasses and a warm gaze. She'd looked at Lapis then at the girl and explained to both sets of parents of what had happened between the two.

Lapis felt tears start to form in her eyes when the girl's parents had reprimanded hers over the way that she had been raised and called her a 'bully'. Her parents did nothing to defend her, only that they'll make sure that Lapis receive proper punishment over her actions. But then the headmistress asked the girl for her side of the story. The girl sobbed off to them of how Lapis had suddenly demanded her for money, and when she didn't give it to her, Lapis got angry and grabbed her collar and yelled in her face.

Lapis was silent. She could feel when she had lost. She could sense their anger and disappointment with her and it was the heaviest thing that she had felt over her shoulders. When they had turned to her for her side of the story, Lapis couldn't find the words to defend herself. Her gaze was locked at the girl with traces of anger mixed in with fear. She gulped.

"I-I…s-she lied." Lapis eventually whispered softly.

Her audience looked on in disbelief. The other's parents had immediately called her statement absurd. There was in no way their daughter would do anything such as that! She was a perfect little angel! And Lapis didn't give any sort of explanation or witness or evidence. There was nothing. And then it was over. She was assigned to month's detention and was grounded for two months. Lapis felt weak, even too weak to fight. She`d went along with it because she didn't feel like she could win. Lapis lost her friends, her parents' trust, her teachers' trust, and that was everything. She was alone.

Her personality changed drastically over the course of one week. She no longer smiled or laughed, she kept to herself, she never paid any attention to anything anymore and her movements became forced. Nothing interested her. She easily became tired and emotional. Then she was called again to the office. Her classmates jeered at her as she walked past and Lapis hugged herself to try and block out the negative emotions from overflowing.

When she had entered, the first thing she noticed was that her parents were there, and her ex-friend and her parents were present as well. She bit on her lip as fear began taking over her body. Did she do something wrong again?

"Miss Lazuli," the headmistress called. "You're here. Please, take a seat." Lapis silently obliged and turned her gaze down to her feet.

"I called you here today to right a wrong." The headmistress explained. "As you know, over a week ago, you were called in here because you were charged with a serious bullying accusation by your uh, friend. However, a few days ago she came out with the truth to her parents and they had in turn told me. I realized that we had made a terrible mistake."

"Miss Lazuli, I hereby take back your offence record and clear you of any detention." Silence. "Do you have anything to say?" she asked gently. There were tears threatening to fall from Lapis' lashes. She rubbed an arm over her eyes and sniffed. Then she shook her head. Lapis flinched slightly when she felt her father's firm grasp on her shoulder.

"Lapis, you should have told us about this. You are our daughter. We would have believed in you. We could've helped."

When Lapis did nothing but shrug her shoulders, her mother sighed. "Well," Lapis heard her say. "At least we got this thing over with. Thank you dear, for telling the truth." Lapis' mother said to her ex-friend. Then her mother went up and hugged her. Lapis did not return the embrace. She didn't know what to feel. She was a bit angry over her father's words- if there were any truth to it then a week ago they wouldn't have been so quick to decide that she was guilty. She felt a bit relieved- she won, after all. She was innocent, and now everyone knew about it. Lapis knew the right thing to do was to move on and forgive the girl. But she couldn't do it.

The headmistress excused her from school for the rest of the day and her parents took her to her favourite ice cream parlour and treated her to a grand scoop of her favourite flavours. Then they took her home and Lapis went straight up to her room. She pulled her white curtains close and laid on her bed.

Her head felt heavy, and she almost instantly fell asleep. Since that day Lapis never really trusted anyone anymore, she got over the whole incident but she changed entirely. She eventually laughed and smiled again, but she was never truly happy.

Lapis began falling into a silent depression. Everything she ever did in her life became responsibilities and obligations that she never really agreed to have. She lost herself in the madness of the world around her. She was trapped and there was no way out. She kept her distance from people; even those that wanted to help her because she was scared. Her relationships fail because she did not trust her partners fully to tell them the truth. She was not close with anyone because nobody was patient enough to stay and peel away her layers. Her friends come and go, and she was alone.

Lapis' escape was the water; swimming was one of her healthier methods to stress relief. The other was dancing. She went to a number of parties because they make her feel anonymous, and she could let herself be free of the real world. People who surround Lapis would think her as confident because she was always alone and could do almost anything without being dependent on someone else. But that's just because she feels like there was no one that she can truly rely on without her getting hurt in the process.

Lapis sighed and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans for comfort. She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice the other girl walking her way with an arm-load of two boxes and a side-bag. The inevitable happened- they crashed spectacularly into each other and fell onto their backs.

"Ow!"

"Hey, watch it!"

Lapis rubbed on her arm where it hurt most from the impact before she picked herself up in increasing embarrassment. "Oh my God, I am so sorry." She apologized before picking herself up. "You know what? Let me help you with that!"

The other girl remained silent and was rubbing gently on her cheek. Her full, luscious lips were curled up in a manner of frustration, probably by the accident, and Lapis' guilt increased. Lapis could see that the girl had a head of long, untamed, lavender-coloured hair that went past her waist and a short yet curvy body structure. Her attire consisted of a white, sleeveless tunic with a thin, black belt around the waist, and it was paired with ripped, black leggings and black strappy sandals.

Lapis immediately began picking up the other's scattered belongings and putting it quickly into the boxes- she wanted to avoid making it a larger scene that it already was. The other girl eventually pulled herself to her knees and helped her to it. They finished up a short while later and Lapis breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, thanks!" The girl quipped as she slung the bag onto her shoulder again and picked up one of her boxes, whilst Lapis took the other. "Wait, you don't have to-"

"I think I do; and I will do it anyway. You really needed help with your stuff. Mine's already up and I've nothing to do at the moment, just been seeing my family back."

The girl bit on her lip but reluctantly gave in. "Well, thanks. Uh, my name's Amethyst."

"Yeah? Like the gem?"

"Exactly like it." Amethyst answered and shot Lapis a wide, pleased smile. "Great! You got it in one try! What's yours?"

"It`s Lapis. Lazuli. Lapis Lazuli." Lapis quickly said. "So, uh, where's your room?"

"Oh?" Amethyst replied, slightly flustered with the rush of the moment and the immediate change of subject. "It's uh, oh my God, I think it's in Block A? Level 5? I think it's D-A5-47."

"Hey, we're like neighbours! I`m on that floor too- Room 53."

"Cool."

The journey was quiet and uneventful but Lapis witnessed that Amethyst seemed to have known a lot of people already, and felt slightly nervous to be walking by her side when other people kept greeting the purple-haired girl with what seemed to be like close familiarity. Amethyst apparently noticed her discomfort and she gently nudged Lapis' shoulder.

"Hey Leslie? Or whatever it is your name was? What's up, man? You okay?"

Lapis hid her slightly reddened cheeks behind the box. "Oh, it's nothing really. It's… you seem to know a lot of people."

Amethyst gave her a raspy chuckle of amusement. "Dude, now that wouldn't be you; it'd be me. I dated a senior here like one year ago that's like three years older than I was."

Lapis couldn't help the mixed expression of surprise and curiosity on her face from Amethyst's claim. "It's really, really not a big deal. I'm from Beach City and she's from Beach City and we just clicked, y'know?" Amethyst explained with a heavy sigh. "I just wish people would stop looking at me and just see her. I`m not even with that chick anymore."

They reached Amethyst`s room and the girl entered and placed her stuff at the foot of the only other empty bed.

"Hey Leslie?"

"It's Lapis."

"Whatever, look. Thanks, alright? Sorry if I bored you with my junk or anything."

"Nah," Lapis assured Amethyst and shrugged her shoulders. "It's totally fine. I better get back to my room, though. See you later?"

"Right, nice." Amethyst nodded and replied calmly. "And hey, don't be strangers now, yeah?" Lapis smiled a wide grin and nodded. Make new friends; check.

"Okay, see you."

Review, review, review; tell me what you think!