Emily and Katie were walking to their classes. The hall was jam packed with students and Katie was running ahead to catch up to that Effy girl while Emily dragged along behind her in her shadow. She wasn't paying much attention to their conversation. She was too busy worrying about who might have gotten a look inside her box of pictures. She was trying to figure out what to do. She couldn't exactly confront anyone about it in case they hadn't had a clue in the first place, so she just waited in silent dreaded anticipation.

"Stop fucking following me will you!?" Katie shouted at her suddenly, snapping her out of her worrying daydreams.

"I wasn't! I was.." She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence and explain what she was doing because Katie stormed away.. but the fact was that she was following her after all. How pathetic she thought to herself.

The students were dispersing and the hall wasn't so crowded anymore. She turned to head to her class, but just then she heard someone speak to her..

"Strange place this college." He said with a sigh.

"Sorry?" She wasn't quite sure what he had said and wasn't quite sure if he was even speaking to her. He was a janitor and sweeping the halls, but he appeared very young. He was around her age.

"Everyone is loud and they care about nothing." He said as a matter of fact. He had a distinct accent that she suspected was African.

"Yea, you're right." She confirmed in a depressed nonchalant tone. Needing to get to class and figuring that was the end of their small talk, she turned to walk away.

"You're the same as your sister." He remarked amused. She halted in her tracks and turned to give him a look of disgust.

"I'm not the same as her." She spat. She hated the thought of being compared to her sister. She knew he only meant appearance-wise because they were identical twins and all, but it still stung. It was a sensitive topic for her.

"No?" He said a bit surprised. He appeared thoughtful for a moment and then he grinned widely, looked her up and down, then smiled and said in a flirtatious voice, "Maybe a little more pretty." Emily began to pout but she couldn't hold back a grin. What a sweet boy she thought to herself.

"Cheeky." She chided him with a smile, and turned to head for class feeling a little less glum.

School just ended and Emily, Katie, Effy, Pandora and Thomas, the boy Emily had spoken to in the hallway were going to meet up with JJ, Freddie, and Cook. Effy had invited them all and the Fitch sisters were still waiting to see what the surprise was. She wasn't telling them everything and they knew so.

"Girls! We were just discussing breasts and there you were!" Cook said to the girls chuckling. Katie greeted him flirtatiously while the rest of them exchanged their own casual greetings. Effy then began to speak up.

"This is the guy you're gonna help out tonight." She said in a business like tone pointing out Thomas to Cook who was holding a plastic bag. He was from Africa and he had just come to England recently for school. His skin was very dark, but his mood was always very bright. He still had a lot to get used to in England but he had a great attitude. This was the boy who spoke to Emily earlier in the hallway. Emily gave him a smile of recognition.

"So glad.." He responds with a smile and shakes Cook's hand. Cook laughs back in greeting. Pandora then quickly chimes in..

"Thomas has got to get 300 quid by Desperate Housewives, and that's tomorrow! Otherwise Johny White's gonna make him.."

"Johny White!?" Freddie interrupts, hardly believing his ears. He didn't want anything to do with him. This was the man who ran the private party they had gone to the other day and Cook had ruined it. Cook ruined Johny White's daughter's wedding party and no doubt anything further that had to do with them and Johny would only bring trouble.

"He's got 13 ounces of weed in the bag." Effy clarifies, as if that amount of weed would justify anything short of murder. Cook gasps and the rest of them are shocked. That was a lot of dope.

"If you'd help me, I could give you much." Thomas says with a great big smile on his face. He looked very excited to start selling this fine product. "And it is excellent weed.." he begins to gush, but just then Naomi approaches the party giving them a curt wave and a smile.

"Hi!" she says cheerfully, but her smile turns into a weary face when she sees and hears Katie begin to sulk.

"Oh Christ, not again. Who phoned her?" She says, glaring directly at Emily who was standing beside her. Naomi and the rest of the group were exchanging greetings.

"Please Katie, don't.." Emily responds to her with a grumpy scowl, but Katie wasn't about to listen.

"Hi, sorry I couldn't find a bus, you said somebody needed a hand?" Naomi says, looking around at no one in particular.

"Yea, you like giving hand, don't you Naomi?" Katie sneers at her. Cook chuckles at that too. The rest of them try not to grin out of politeness, but it was funny.

"Cya.." Naomi says in an annoyed tone and turns to walk away. If this was how they were going to treat her, she wasn't about to hang around. Effy was observing the situation intensely. This was going to be a very amusing year she thought to herself.

"For fuck's sake!" Emily cusses irritated. "She didn't kiss me okay?" She says looking into Katie's eyes.

"Yes she did, she practically jumped y-" Katie began ranting, but she didn't have a chance to finish because Emily was quick to interrupt her with a shocking statement of her own.

"I kissed her!" Her face was one of desperation. She stood there looking into Katie's eyes, gauging her reaction to what she had just said. Naomi halted in her tracks and Cook burst into raucous laughter. Emily wasn't about to say that she was gay though. Quickly she gave them all an excuse. "I was drunk.. and.. someone gave me MDMA!.. and... I felt like fucking kissing someone! Satisfied?" Katie looked at her stunned. She didn't know what to say. Katie knew it was true. She had seen what happened before anyone else that day, but she didn't want it to be true. She even convinced herself until now that it wasn't true. Emily was right now ruining everything. Emily hoped she wouldn't regret saying this, but at that moment she didn't because Naomi had rejoined their group for the night.

Effy had been watching the whole thing, more interested than others. She didn't know why, but she found the display of personal dramas extremely satisfying. She loved the drama when it didn't involve her. Not the fake soap-opra drama on the tele, but the real live drama. She didn't like it only for the drama, she liked seeing how people would react. Maybe something was wrong with her she thought, but she didn't care. She was just different and to be honest, she liked being that way.

"Oh ho ho! That is fine, yea! It'd be even better if you showed us!" Cook said still laughing.

"Shut the fuck up Cook. You promised me a party. Where is it?" Effy said in a careless manner. That was enough. Even though this was very amusing, she knew that this was a fragile situation and she didn't want things erupting clumsily. This was like an art. Things had to tie up together in the end like the perfect story. She was like the conductor of this symphony and she was going to apply her light touch where she could, and influence how things turned out. She did this in a nice way though. She figured that Emily and Naomi were interested in each other and she didn't see why they shouldn't be happy together. Hopefully she could end up helping them. Cook stopped his laughing and got more serious.

"Can't you feel it kids?" He said looking around at them. The rest of them just stared blankly and confused. "It's the sound of the underground!" He jumped up with glee then bent down to pull back a cement tile underneath his feet. From there shines a bright light and blaring music is heard. They all climbed into the party, all pumped up to sell some weed!

They had been at the party for around an hour when Emily saw Naomi in a more isolated part of the room. She walked up to her. Naomi's back was turned to her and Emily stood there, getting herself ready for a moment before tentatively saying to her,

"How much did you sell?" Naomi just turned around and stared at her glumly, not saying anything. She simply looked her up and down blankly, not giving away any of her emotions.

"I've done three bags. 10g each." Emily kept looking at Naomi, trying to figure out what to say. Naomi didn't say anything, but she then turned away from Emily's attentive stare and spat, "I don't even know why I'm fucking doing this." She did know though. She knew she wanted to see Emily, but she wouldn't admit it to herself. She didn't want to want her. Emily looked a bit disappointed but then said,

"Thanks for keeping strong." Naomi glanced at her and then looked away again. She glanced at her once more before saying,

"I don't care what your sister thinks." Naomi admitted. She looked away again. She wasn't able to hold eye contact. She was far too nervous for that. This was the girl that was making her feel things she didn't want to feel. This was the girl she couldn't seem to push out of her mind. She hated her and she loved her. In her mind was nothing but turmoil.

"Yea, well.. I do. So thanks anyways." Emily responded sincerely. She was making good progress she thought. This was going pretty well. "I didn't take MDMA that night." She blurted. "I just wanted to kiss you.." She paused for a moment to gauge her reaction to the words coming out of her mouth. "I want to kiss you now." Naomi's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before she regained her composure and tactfully peered at her as she asked with a testy voice,

"You're gay?"

"No!" Emily replied quickly, heart racing. "No, I just.." she looked down and then back up into Naomi's eyes and softly squeaked out, "Sorry.", uneasily holding her icy blue gaze.

"Yea, me too" Naomi replied looking her over once more, this time, with a look of dissapointment tinted with disgust. Emily stood there as Naomi turned her back and walked away, confident that she had fucked this up.

"Shit... Shit!", Emily cussed under her breath. She turned to walk back into the partying croud, determined to distract herself from the tense situation that had just unfolded, only to walk directly into Effy's bemused yet polite stare. Before she could even figure out how to ask her if she saw anything, Thomas came rushing up to her.

"Which are you?" He inquired in a gentle voice, although you could tell by his beaming face that he was having a great time.

"Gay!" fuck, she thought, "I – tch! I mean Emily!" She whined out exhasperatedly, quickly trying to cover up her massive freudian slip.

"Emily, I already have 175 pounds, my weed is cheaper, my god they love it!" He said, barely able to contain his excitement.

"I got 80." Effy chimed in seemingly out of nowhere. There she was again, observing everything in the background and she didn't even notice she was there. She knew she should be concerned about her dangerous knowledge, but her gut told her that Effy wasn't typical. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew that her secret was safe with Effy.

"Oh this country's so great.." Thomas sighs gladly. At that moment, a pale man with blue eyes and blonde wavy hair emerged from the croud behind Thomas and placed his bony fingers hauntingly on his shoulder. Thomas slowly turned 'round to face the ghostly figure. The man was Johny White; beside him, his two muscle men.

"Hahh!" The sound was one of mock surprise. "T-T-Thomas! You're on my t-t-turf!" He continued in his mocking threatening tone. "And making profits! So you gotta pay.. and we only accept.." He begins counting on his fingers, "..cash.. and pain" Poor Thomas couldn't do anything but stare frozen at Johny and then to his two sidekick thugs. Menacingly they stared back. Thomas, panicked and taken by surprise bolts and is lost in the croud; Johny and his gang quickly diving after him.

Emily and Effy were left alone. staring after the space that was rapidly being filled on the fringes of the packed croud where Thomas and his persuers had just ducked in through. Slowly they turned to look at each other. Emily stared, wide eyed, mouth slightly agape, unsure of what to say. Effy stood there smiling at her in a friendly manner, yet her usual bemused expression was still very much detectable which made Emily feel as though the documents of information kept within the depths of her soul were being sifted through and analysed. With a slight head bob and awkward smile Emily turned away from Effy's eye contact and dissapeared into the croud. In the back of her mind as she danced to the blaring music was her concern for what might have become of Thomas, but right now the focus of her attention was Naomi. She couldn't stop thinking about her. Her thoughts didn't take place in the form of so many words, or she would have to look at this logically. She simply let the strange mixed feelings wash over her.. remorse, longing, anxiety and attraction. Though through all of that, all she really wanted was another chance to speak to her.

Sorry it's been ages since I've updated. I'm a bit surprised with how well I was able to write the first chapters upon coming back to the story now. I hope I can keep it up, but I'm not so sure. Anyhow, enjoy. Comments and reviews very much appreciated thanks.