A/N: In order to write chapter 5 of BtI, I had to figure out more of Jasmine's characterization and her interaction with Saïx, so I came up with this. SaiJaz is such complete crack. XD XD XD So yeah, this is Jasmine's POV. Oh, and Belle's just moved in, so Jasmine doesn't know her yet, and neither does Gaston. XD I reference Gaston so much…

Guys can be so dumb sometimes. Do they think I don't know when they just want me for my looks? Or to improve their popularity? Ugh, it makes me sick. It didn't take me long to figure it out. Gaston tried once – He had the nerve to just show up at my house like I asked him out. I bet he still remembers what Rajah's claws felt like stuck in his leg.

Why is it so hard to find a guy who appreciates what's on the inside? There has to be someone out there who understands…

XXX

First day of school, same old routine. By junior year I had it figured out: scope out the room to get an idea of what the teacher would be like (the class was Trigonometry, so I doubted any teacher could make it very interesting), then take a look at the other students.

Most of them were familiar faces. Rapunzel was brushing her hair, which I could understand since it was even longer than mine, all the way to the floor, and she probably didn't have time to before school. Lexaeus was silently fiddling with a Rubik's Cube, Zexion reading a large book at the desk beside him and looking so tiny in comparison. Ferb was sitting and… being Ferb, I suppose. He's at least a grade younger than me, but he's always been uncannily smart. Actually, I was surprised he and his brother Phineas weren't in Calculus already. Then there was Kim and Wade, who had already brought out his laptop, whispering secretively.

That covered everyone I knew. More students were still trickling in, but I had already checked schedules with Meg and Mulan, so I knew that they didn't have first period with me. I needed to find a desk before I ended up stuck between Lexaeus and Ferb and smothered in silence until the teacher came up with a new seating chart. I looked around again…

…Who was that, with the blue hair in the back? I couldn't see his face since it was stuck in a book almost as large as Zexion's. I claimed the desk next to him and set my backpack on the floor.

"What's your name?" I asked. He didn't react at all. Either that book was pretty intense, or he was ignoring me… which I had to say would be a first. "Hey, I asked you a question."

He might've grunted. Maybe.

Grinning slyly, I stuck a pencil into his slightly spiky hair. He pulled it out, calmly set it on his desk, and turned the page in his book.

I frowned. "What are you reading?"

Was he mute? Or deaf? Still no answer. But at least I still had plenty of newly-sharpened pencils. I stuck them into his hair one by one, and he pulled them out in the same way until he finally slammed my last one on his desk and put a bookmark in his book.

"Leave me alone." He glared, finally giving me a look at his eyes. They were an amber-gold, so similar to Rajah's. Only Rajah's eyes weren't nearly as deep and mysterious.

"You have pretty eyes." I smiled innocently.

He looked confused and a little flustered for a moment before annoyance set in again. "I don't suppose you have anything better to do than pester me," he said.

"I was only trying to start a conversation. What's your name, anyway?" I was now more than curious about him and his strangely attractive eyes.

"Saïx," he said, apparently having realized I wasn't going to leave him alone until he told me. "Here are your writing utensils." He placed my pencils back on my desk, straight up-and-down so they wouldn't roll off.

I was going to ask why he spoke so stiffly, but I had already been a little rude. Sure, he had been rude too by ignoring me, but I wasn't going to make him like me by being rude back.

"My name is Jasmine. Are you new here?"

"No." His nose went back into his book, but I could just barely see his eyes behind his hair, and they weren't moving across the page.

I smiled. "Oh. I don't remember seeing you before."

"In a school as large as Radiant Garden High, I doubt you are familiar with every face."

"Touché." I smiled. There was something intriguing about his voice, too, even when he wasn't looking at me or being very polite. "Speaking of faces, how did you get those scars?" I had seen them when he glared at me, but his eyes had caught my interest first.

He raised an arm immediately, as if afraid I would touch them. "…I'd prefer not to talk about it."

That was a little personal, but still, so mysterious. And he still hadn't looked at me since that initial glare. Maybe I had already made him hate me. Nice going, Jasmine.

"Okay, then. I'm sure you have lots of other interesting things to talk about," I tried, not wanting him to go back to ignoring me.

He snorted.

I put my hands on my hips, which was a little awkward while sitting in a desk. "Don't tell me you're going to be like Lexaeus and Ferb and say all of ten words the entire year." That would be just my luck, wouldn't it…

"Just because I have no interest in social formalities doesn't mean I don't speak." His hair fell further in front of his face, and he made no move to push it away. It looked almost like he was hiding behind it.

"…So you just don't want to talk to me." I crossed my arms. Surely one little joke with pencils wasn't that bad. Maybe he had other issues. Maybe he was from a completely different world. How was I supposed to know?

"I never said that." He looked up from his book, and his eyes met mine again. This time he wasn't glaring, and his eyes really were pretty. And still impossible to read. "I simply don't want to talk to you at this very moment. Please let me finish my novel in peace; I'm sure my English teacher will assign a massive literature project today."

"But it's only the first day," I pointed out.

"Exactly." He went back to his book and refused to elaborate.

Well, at least he didn't hate me. Probably. And if he did, I still had the rest of the school year to change his mind, and to figure out what he kept behind those pretty cat-like eyes.

A/N: I'm still experimenting with this pairing, and the entire purpose of this chapter was an experiment, so hopefully I kept Jasmine and Saïx in character. That was my main goal. I don't know if I did that, with Jasmine sticking pencils in Saïx's hair and all… It just amused me so much I wanted to use it. ^^;;

Kim and Wade are from the old Disney Channel cartoon Kim Possible (Wade is usually just seen on his computer screen). I think everyone else I mentioned is self-explanatory.

I don't have the story of how Saïx got his scars completely figured out yet, but I have an idea. That story will eventually end up in this fic.

I think I mentioned it in the main story, but the cat-eye references are to Raberba girl's story "Eye's Like a Tiger's".