After the incident with Ralon and Dain, Alanna was sent to the school nurse who in turn called a lift for her to be taken to the hospital. The nurse was able to clean the cut on Alanna's arm but didn't have the equipment to give her stitches. At the hospital, Alanna avoided the questions that the nurses asked and only told a little white lie when it came to the various bruises that covered her face and body. She knew the nurses didn't believe her story of having fallen down the stairs but she wasn't going to admit that Ralon had beaten her up. As much as she hated Ralon, she wasn't a snitch and she wasn't going to rat him out as much as she would have loved to see him squirm.

She arrived home, after a long and silent car ride spent thinking about Jon, to find Thom and Coram sitting in the living room looking worried. Unsurprisingly, her father was no where to be seen.

"Where you been lass? We've been worried sick!" Said Coram as he rose to his feet upon Alanna's entrance. He shot an anxious glance to Alanna's bandaged arm and the bruises he could see clearly on her exposed arms and face that were beginning to show, before meeting her eyes again to hear what her excuse would be this time.

"What happened to you?" said Thom before Alanna could get a word in. " I was waiting for you at the end of the day , when that Jon guy came up and told me that you had had an accident in athletics and were at the hospital."

"I'm fine! I was cut in athletics class today by accident. Nothing a few stitches couldn't fix. I'm fine, honest!" And with that, she headed up the stairs towards her room.

Dumping her bag on to the floor, she turned on the radio full blast and then sat down at her desk to do her homework. Studiously and silently, she completed her relatively easy homework (being the daughter of a professor meant that high school work wasn't all that difficult) and then laid down on her bed to mill over the days events.

Ignoring the slight pain in her arm, she let her mind wonder back to the confrontation she'd had with Jon. She honestly didn't mean to come off as such a bitch, but it was just easier being hated than having your heart broken when she and her family would inevitably move again. She had had enough heart break to last a life time. Heart break that no matter how much time she allowed her self, it would never fully heal. But did Jon have a point? After all, she didn't have to be friends with him- they just had to be civil toward one another. She knew Thom and Coram would be the first ones to tell her that she needed to let more people on the inside, not that she would ever admit to anyone that she was considering doing just that.

She couldn't help but think about what her life would be like if her mother hadn't died in the crash that night. Her father would no doubt still be a book worm, she knew that as a fact, but perhaps he wouldn't be so cold. He would definitely still travel the world, but she and Thom could stay with their mother and Coram at their estates. She might not have been so cold now and, as much as she hated to admit it, so like her father.

Deciding that lying in her bed wasn't going help any, she decided to go for a run to clear her head. No matter what the problem was, running had always given her a solution. Even when she was younger, she loved to run. Her mother had always said that she would be a marathon runner one day and really famous. When she died, Alanna had probably run the equivalent of ten marathons.

The thudding of her feet as they hit the pavement and the beating of her heart quickly drowned out her thoughts as she found her rhythm and soon the world around her disappeared and was replaced by images of her sitting with Jon, Gary and Raoul at lunch and hanging out with them after school. She pictured laughing with Jon just having a good time and not worrying about a thing. Strangely enough, she liked what she saw. She liked the feeling of having fun and the freeness that came with being able to just be herself. She knew what she had to do. Tomorrow she would apologise for her behaviour and ask to sit with him at lunch.

The sound of a second thudding of feet brought her back to her surroundings and she slowed to a halt before turning around to find Jon standing in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. The t-shirt, heavily soaked in sweat, clung to his body revealing his extremely well muscled arms and abs. He had been listening to music but had taken his earphones out as he approached her.

"Fancy running into you here." He said with a sly grin on his face. "I had no idea that you were a runner. Then again I shouldn't be surprised. If I have learned anything at all about you these past few weeks is that you are one mystery after another."

"Yeah, well there's a lot you don't know about me!" She said it with a serious tone but the small smile that she gave showed that she was joking. Jon felt immensely relieved as he found that he had finally been able to break the ice that had resided between the two since Alanna had arrived. Alanna wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing but if she was truly honest with herself she would discover just how tired she was of acting like a bitch. "Hi, I'm Alanna Trebond. Nice to meet you." And with that said Alanna held out her hand. Jon seeing this as an invitation to start over without all the hostility, smiled a smile that reached his sapphire blue eyes and shook her hand.

"Hi. I'm Jon Conte."

The next day started of the same as every other day except for two things: 1) Thom was ill and 2) Alanna didn't actually mind going to school for once. She would never admit it but after the chat she had had with Jonathon the day before, she was actually looking forward to seeing him again. They weren't friends, they weren't close in any way, and there was still a life time of things that were unknown about the other, but Jon was the closest thing to a friend she had had in a long time. But she had made a promise to herself long ago to never open up her heart to anyone again. No matter what her heart told her was right from beneath its icy prison, she couldn't allow herself to get close to him or anyone else.

With a resigned sigh, Alanna threw off her duvet covers and began to get ready for school. They were doing running in athletics so as well as her school books, she packed a pair of running trousers and a plain white t-shirt. As much as she liked the t-shirt, it was quite tight and would show her…curves quite clearly. She didn't particularly want to wear this t-shirt in an all boys (except her) class with a male coach but unfortunately she didn't have time to look for another due to the fact that most of her belongings were still in boxes and because she had slept in. The drugs given to her the day before by the nurses at the hospital to relieve the pain in her arm had finally kicked in late last night causing her to sleep through her alarm going off. It was only the extremely loud yells from Coram downstairs that had woken her up.

Completing her usual outfit with her base ball hat, she ran down the stairs jumping the last two and grabbed a piece of toast from the kitchen table before making her way out the door where the driver was patiently holding the door open for her. She said a quiet thank you before getting in the car and soon they were approaching the school. Stepping out of the car, she took a deep breath. As much as she adored her brother, it was nice to have some space every now and then. She thanked the driver again and then headed into the school for her first class of the day, which just happened to be athletics.

Making her way out to the running track at the back of the school, she walked over to where the rest of the class was gathering. She could hear sniggers coming from the group as she approached them and instantly knew that they were coming from Ralon and his cronies as they saw her bandaged arm but she grinned inwardly in satisfaction as she noticed that Dain was no where to be seen. Pushing him out of her thoughts, she turned her attention to the coach who was busy explaining what they would be doing.

"All right everybody that's pretty much what we'll be doing today. Now go and get changed and then we'll warm up." As all the guys headed over to the male changing rooms she noticed Jon looking at her. Giving him a small wave before she headed into the female changing rooms she took out her clothes and began to change. Feeling the twinge in her arm coming back form the previous day she took two of the tablets she always carried in her bag. Fishing out her water bottle to help the tablets go down she made her way back out to the track, taking a deep breath before pushing the door open. Seeing that all the guys in the class had their backs turned to her she slowly went up to where Jon, Gary and Raoul were standing.

"Hey guys what you talking about?" Raoul and Gary jumped at her sudden appearance and it took them a minute to get over the fact that she was talking to them before they noticed her all too apparent chest. Jon however noticed immediately and his eyes became the size of saucers as they roamed all over her body, taking in every inch, resting longer than what would be deemed normal for a hormone fuelled teenage boy on her breasts. Alanna ducked her head to hide the blush that crept on to her face, thankful when Gary swallowed the lump in his throat before deciding to break the silence.

"So you really are a girl! I must say I was beginning to have my doubts. You don't exactly act like the other girls around here." The four of them laughed, the three males thinking about just how true that statement was.

"Well, maybe I'm just not one of those OTHER girls you all seem to be always going on about." She said exaggerating the word 'other'.

"To right." said Jon. He was about to say more when the coach interrupted. He set them all of on a slow jog around the track as a warm up before splitting them up into groups of five to carry out races. Jon, Gary and Raoul invited her to join their group but that was only four people and unfortunately for them, the only person left was Ralon.

"Well lookie here. That's a mighty fine cast you've got there. I hope it doesn't hamper your running. Are you feeling okay?" Every word that oozed out of Ralon's mouth was dripping with sarcasm and she could tell that he obviously thought that he was a better runner. "You were okay at the other stuff we did but I own the track so I wouldn't even bother running." He said with a smug smile. She was about to say something back but Gary beat her to it.

"Even if Alanna did suck at running, which I highly doubt," Alanna had to smirk at Gary's statement, "Jon is the king of the track, and you along with everyone else here knows it!"

One by one, the groups of runners were set off around the track, each having to do 10 laps and each group being timed to see who was the fastest. Finally, there was only Alanna's group left to run and the five of them were getting themselves ready at the starting line. As much as she wanted to beat Ralon, he was far from Alanna's mind as she let herself get lost in her running zone-where nothing existed apart from her and the track. When the coach blew the whistle for them to go she started running at a casual speed. While in her zone she was relatively unaware of her surroundings but she was very aware that Ralon was already up front battling it out with Jon. They weren't even half way round the track yet but after having seen Jon run the previous night, Alanna didn't think that 10 laps would bother him too much. Ralon on the other hand, she could tell was already struggling for breath. It was all too obvious to everyone watching that he had started out to fast, trying to show off, and Alanna couldn't help but wonder if he would complete all 10 laps. As the rhythm of her footsteps hitting the concrete below her, her mind couldn't help but wander as she lost herself in running. Running always brought back memories of her mother, but as she moved on to thoughts of the future, she was surprised to find that Jon, as well as Gary and Raoul, seemed to be in that future. Her thoughts of Jon jolted her out of her trance like state and she looked forward to search for the real life man, only to find that she was level with him. A quick look over her shoulder told her that Raoul and Gary were about 200 metres behind herself and Jon, both fairing pretty well and not to out of breath. Behind them, and not looking in as good shape as the rest of them, was Ralon who was sweating profusely and struggling to breathe. She couldn't help but smirk at the sight of him but was able to control herself from laughing out loud and turned back to face front. Looking to her side this time, she took in the state of Jon and while he wasn't sweating that much his breathing was becoming a little heavy. It was only then that Alanna realised that he was attempting to keep up with her, while she was unconsciously increasing her speed. Passing the starting line where the coach was standing, she heard him shouting that they had one more lap to do. Turning to Jon, she gave him a half smile to show that it was nothing personal, before taking off at an incredibly fast pace for someone who had already done 9 laps. Having the wind rush past her, she felt the familiar excitement take over and she yet again pushed herself to go even faster as she came around the final bend. Ignoring the cheers and claps from the coach and fellow students, she continued past the finish line, gradually coming to a stop before turning around to face a scarily grinning coach.

"That was amazing Trebond, your pace, your control; I mean…you're not even out of breath. Not to mention you just knocked almost 2 minutes of Conte's record." Shaking his head, he walked away while writing notes down on his clipboard. She turned her attention to Jon, Gary and Raoul as they came up to having just crossed the line, and took in their sweaty, dishevelled, out of breath forms, before tossing them each a water bottle.

"Hey Jon, no hard feelings about your record?" she asked Jon hoping that he wouldn't be upset.

"Course not, no worries. That record has been around a long time. If it had to be beaten, I'm glad it was by you."

Standing around talking with the three young men, Alanna recalled her earlier thoughts. And as she looked around at her three new…friends, she found herself liking the idea of having a future with them in it.