"Lost in the memory as it shakes up the corners of my heart
Was it my mistake?But I, I know that a love like this won't last forever"

-Kodaline

Five minutes earlier…

"Sir!" Grainne jumped in front of the teacher, heart beating fast. "I," she took a deep breath, "I wanted to talk about my P.E. mark."

The tall and buff man blinked down at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well," she gave a hopeless smile, "I missed a lot of classes and I have never really participated, which means that…well I know I will be getting a horrible mark."

Alex the Great, as he was called by his students, stopped in his tracks, meters away from the dreaded room, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Shouldn't you be in class right now, little lady?"

Grainne laughed, "Technically, yes. But!" She grinned, "You see, my parents will be very upset with me if I get a bad mark in this class…it would really affect my overall standing and my current position would drop drastically."

The red-head laughed, that hearty, wholesome laugh that was ever so contagious. "And what are you supposing I do about it?"

Stalling was harder than she ever had imagined. "I… was hoping we could, uhm, make an arrangement of sorts." Grainne was still trying to find the reason to why she was trying to cover up for Arturia and Diarmuid. She had seen Arturia wandering about and she decided to follow her, finally confirming that there was at least something happening between her beloved teacher and the annoying and very short student.

"An arrangement?" He raised a bushy eyebrow. "It's the end of the school year, there is no way you can save yourself from this. Just accept the mark as it is." He stepped aside, heading back towards the weight room. "Sorry about your standing!"

Grainne jumped in front of him once more, breath caught in her throat. "Uh, what about a…er, a payment? Yes, a payment! My parents are wealthy, and they can compensate for…anything?"

Alex's chest rumbled, and he burst into laughter. "Are you bribing me, little girl?"

She shook her head, "Oh, well—no, not…really. Just, just saying it would be beneficial to both parties."

"Beneficial?" He moved past her, steps away from the door.

"Yes!" She nodded, trying to hold back her anxiety as his hand landed on the doorknob of the wretched room. If only the door would have disappeared out of existence.

"Grainne, you can't buy—"

Grainne stopped herself from screeching.

They were caught red handed, Grainne could see from the small crack of space between the buff teacher and the door frame. Maybe she had hoped deep down that this really wasn't what was happening. Everything felt as if time stopped, she stood in shock as Diarmuid pulled away from Arturia's lips. Grainne felt her nose sting and a knot in her stomach, her fear was confirmed, and it hurt—horribly.

Whatever you might think of Grainne is probably right, but her feelings for Diarmuid were true and thus, she felt the tears in the corner of her eyes and her heart sink deeply into the pits of her being. She was frozen, but Iskandar snapped her out of her trance.

"Miss Mac Airt, step inside and close the door." His voice was stern, like nothing she had ever before heard from him. He seemed tense, jaw clenched, and arms flexed.

She couldn't move; she just couldn't. She only watched as Diarmuid held Arturia's face in his hands and whispered something to calm her, something sweet but unheard by Grainne.

"Miss Mac Airt," Iskandar stressed, and she obliged, albeit a bit shakingly.

Grainne saw that Arturia still held on to Diarmuid's dress shirt, as if trying to stop him from doing something she wouldn't like. Her eyes pleaded with him, but he paid her no heed. He took her hand and pushed her away, accepting his fate as it would come.

"What is the meaning of this?" Finally, Iskandar spoke through the thick silence that flooded the room.

Diarmuid fixed himself, "Mister Argead, I take full responsibility of this action and am prepared to accept the consequences. I have taken advantage—"

"Dia, what are you saying?" Arturia had already jumped off the desk. "No!" She faced the gym teacher. "I was the one who started this all. You know that Dia would never do something like this. I was the one who forced him and gave him no choice and, and—" she ran out of breath, "—he did nothing wrong."

Grainne could feel the desperation in Arturia's voice, she could see her shaking frame. Whatever resentment that she felt for Arturia had subsided in that fraction of a second, but the pain in her chest reminded her of her feelings towards Arturia.

"Arturia," Diarmuid hissed and everyone was shocked. He had never been so harsh to anyone as far as the three of them knew. "As I was saying, I was the one that took advantage of Miss Pendragon knowing that I was in a position of authority. I… used her for my own gain."

"Diarmuid," she pleaded, tears in her eyes, "That's not true, stop, stop. Please, just—"

"Mister Ua Duibhne, is that what you wish for me to hear?"

Both the girls couldn't believe that Arturia was being ignored.

"Yes," he nodded, "it is."

"No, please, please," Arturia took his arm, "no. Tell him the truth, tell him about what I said to you. You can't take the blame for this, you can't get arrested; it's not your fault." Her lip was quivering and she could feel her nose stinging an her eyes were blurring over with tears.

"Miss Pendragon," Iskandar spoke up, "Do not interfere."

"But—"

Diarmuid cleared his throat. "I will turn myself in and—"

"Let's stop here." The redhead lifted his hand. "First of all; Arturia is over the age of eighteen and you are not her direct teacher this semester and I assume this romance begun after she turned eighteen—do not tell me otherwise, I will be kept in the dark of that with a clean conscious. I think," he breathed, "I need to hear the entire story. Who was it that started this, who did what. Please do not lie, I do not want to be forced to alert the authorities if it is going to ruin everyone's life."

And so, begun the retelling of this very story until that point in time. Nothing was left in the dark from the knowledge of Iskandar. Everything was said in honesty and truth, just exactly as it happened, how our characters met and how their fate was built upon by the decisions that they took and how they changed their very lives—whether for the best or the worst it was to be decided by the gym teacher.

With the thick silence that hung in the air, everyone waited patiently for Iskandar's verdict. It was a frustrating and stressful situation. Iskandar himself was deep in contemplation, he was trying to make the right decision but not a soft one. The problem was serious and delicate and deserved the proper attention and repercussions. His face had hardened, wrinkles forming on his forehead and eyes as he searched his mind for a moral answer.

He ran a hand through his (already very) messy hair. "What happened here will remain a secret between all of us—Miss Mac Airt, this includes you." Iskandar spoke, a solemn tone.

Grainne jumped at her name. "I-uh, yes, of course." She nodded.

"Mister Ua Duibhne, you will not turn yourself in; I think that we can all settle on that. What you both did was wrong and reckless. When you became a teacher, Ua Duibhne, you had pledged that nothing like this would ever happen and I am disappointed to say the least. We…" The man was trying to search for a solution and just punishment.

The girls were kept silent, staring at the two teachers, hoping that whatever Iskandar had thought was not going to ruin Diarmuid's reputation and life.

"You will resign. Yes, that seems adequate. You will resign and leave school immediately. Your relationship with the young lady will end today and no one will ever know. This never happened." The agreement was straight forward and very merciful.

Diarmuid nodded, sighing in relief. "Yes. Thank you."

Iskandar stepped aside, allowing Diarmuid view of the door. "It would also be best that you resign today."

Diarmuid nodded. He looked back at Arturia who stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to reach for her or at least bid a farewell; a farewell for the moment, and he would soon see her again to ease her mind and her heart. She watched as he gave her a curt nod, as if they were nothing more than a random teacher and a random student. Then, he turned and opened the door, Grainne stepping aside as well.

What felt like a lifetime passed, all the three remaining people kept silent for a few minutes. "Girls," Iskandar spoke, he seemed to be the only one willing to even start a conversation, "I ask—"

Arturia's heart had sunk too low that without even thinking anything through anymore, she launched forward, running after Diarmuid with as much speed as she could gain with blurry eyes and the pain in her chest. She was quickly followed by Grainne, who tried to stop her from making another huge mistake in her life.

"Arturia!" Grainne called out to her as the halls echoed with their rapid footfalls.

It was not much of a surprise when Grainne caught up to the blonde; she was the least athletic, but it seemed that Arturia had lost the will to give it her best. Grainne grabbed her by the arm, holding her in place as they both suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway.

Their pants filled the space around them before Arturia's sneakers squeaked against the tiled floor while she turned to face the brunette. "Haven't you done enough?"

"Arturia, are you insane? What are you thinking? Mister Argead just let you two off the hook—he saved your reputations why are you going after him?" Grainne hushed over, hoping she could talk some sense into the blonde.

"Shouldn't you be happy? Isn't this what you wanted? To break us up?" Arturia violently shook her hand from Grainne's grip. "Shouldn't you be laughing at me?"

Grainne's nose stung. "Happy? You think this makes me happy?"

Arturia's face twisted in anger and her eyes were lit with fury. Her voice came out like a croaky hiss, "Oh please, Grainne, don't act like the good girl. All you've wanted was to ruin our relationship and now that you have it you're acting like it hurts? This is what you signed up for; you ruined our lives."

"Maybe, Arturia, if you stopped thinking for a single second about yourself you could see that I am not happy! And yes, it hurts, because you are the one that caused this; not me. To think I was trying to protect you from getting found out and here you are treating me like this."

"What were you expecting? A trophy?"

Grainne scoffed, "I never wanted Diarmuid to quit or be demonized. You never once thought about his life, about his reputation. You only thought of yourself!"

The bell rang, releasing the many students from their classes, making them flood the halls, causing Arturia and Grainne to lose themselves in the crowd; and most importantly, cease their arguing. Arturia tried to fight her way towards the office, but by the time she reached it, Diarmuid was nowhere to be seen. She dug into her blazer for her phone and dialed his number repeatedly, but never once did he answer.

That day, she called and called, and he did not answer. She even went by his place and he was not home, he was nowhere to be found. As if, by the words of Iskandar, he had fallen out of existence, as if he was nothing but her dream and her very wish.

"Arturia," the soft voice of Jeanne mumbled into the dark room. The curtains were shut, the light of the sun was barely visible and there was a huge lump on the king bed. "Artie…"

There was no response from the heap of blankets that was Arturia Pendragon.

Jeanne gently stepped towards the bed, sitting down next to Arturia and patting her barely visible head between the fluffy pillows. "Artie, please, it's time to get up. We have exams in a week and, and we still need to attend grad and…please."

"No," Arturia grumbled, snuggling deeper into the sheets. "No."

"Artie, it's been a few weeks now. Let's just get through the end of high school on a good note, sweetie."

Again, there was no response.

"Babe," Jeanne whispered, "please, let's at least get something to eat." Ever since Diarmuid had returned to Ireland, Arturia did nothing but shut herself up in her room, barely eating a thing and spending her days solemn.

"Grainne was right," she sniffled, "I ruined his life."

Jeanne patted her head again, "Hey, hey, it's going to be okay."

Again, she snuggled deeper into the blankets and did not want to leave the room, not even if she was to fail her exams. She couldn't stop thinking about Diarmuid and the way he just up and left without a word. She understood, as hurtful as it could be, she understood why he had done it and why he did not so much as bid her a proper farewell. "We both know it won't get better."

Jeanne sighed, "It won't if you keep acting like this. Arturia, it's not healthy to be in your room all day. You know this is bad for you. You also know that Dia wouldn't want you to act like this."

"What do you know, Jeanne? You're happy with Cú and everything is butterflies and daisies for you two. Why can't you just let me be?"

"Arturia. You aren't a child. Get up and get ready, we're going to school today even if I have to drag you all the way there. No way are you going to stay in this room another hour. Get up, now." She stood from the bed, pulling the covers off Arturia and pulling her out of bed with all the force she could muster up—swimming had come in handy after all.

Arturia was in no disposition to even fight against Jeanne. She let herself be dragged for as long as Jeanne could take her. She was shoved in the bathroom and forced to get ready after Jeanne had given her a time limit.

The day at school had gone gloomy, to say the least. Arturia had single-handedly ruined all her friends' days with her sour mood and uncanny expression. She ignored everything that was spoken to her and her long face could not be helped. The week went on like this, Arturia as sour as she could be and her friends as miserable as they could get around her. Nothing seemed to change and before they knew it, it was already graduation and Arturia's mood had lightened slightly for her pregnant sister and her husband had come to see her and congratulate her.

"Can you believe it? My little sister is now officially an adult! This is truly a milestone in our family," Morgana was smiling and hugging the blonde after they had left the restaurant. "This is such a happy day," she grinned while she pulled back a coil of loose hair.

"University life will be no different," Arturia frowned, rolling her eyes slightly. "I don't understand why you would want to celebrate something as trivial as a high school graduation."

"Well, Wednesday Addams," Morgana sighed, "you needn't be so bitter and unwelcoming. Now," she turned to her husband, a wide smile on her face, "should we go get some ice cream?"

Merlin nodded and so did Uther as they all strolled down the busy sidewalk to get to the ice cream shop on the other block.

A huge step in life offered fear, but it also brought confidence and assurance of what was to come. It might not seem like it, but a high school graduation is a big step in a person's life; their future could be decided at this point. The friendships that were made in high school could grow and become life long friendships, or they could crumble with the years. Thus, as a last goodbye, the group of friends met once again in their hideout for the last day of their life as high school students. They huddled around the television and binged a few movies, filling themselves with chips and soda.

Jeanne stood from the floor and stepped in front of the television, covering the view of the current movie. The teenagers whined, even Arturia, as Guin jokingly threw a popcorn kernel at her. "Hey," Guinevere groaned, "We're watching."

"I need to say something important." Jeanne spoke up and Gawain immediately stopped the movie, earning a light punch from Guinevere.

"After the movie, babe," Cú smiled up at her, extending his arms towards her, hoping she would walk to him.

Jeanne shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest and her lips stretching into a straight line. "It's now or never."

Cú furrowed his brows and dropped his arms, blinking up at her in slight curiosity. "What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath, feeling small under the eyes of the five teenagers. She found her courage in a short time and gathered confidence before she looked back at them, finding the words. "I'm leaving for France next week."

"What?" Arturia pushed up from the couch, lip twitching and eyes narrowing. "For vacation?"

"For how long?" Lancelot asked, watching her intently.

"Well," her gaze dropped, and she looked at her rosy flats, "that's the thing…I," she breathed, looking back up at them, Arturia in particular, "I have decided that I would join the military academy. I think it—"

"What?" Arturia frowned, shooting up from the couch.

"I-I," Jeanne stuttered, "I think it's my calling and I thought it would be something that I'd really love, and I wanted to do something for myself for once and I received an acceptance to the academy and-and—" she gasped for breath after Arturia's face fell with anger. "And I finally know what I want from my life."

"Why are you telling us this now?"

"I… I didn't want t-to—"

"To what? Warn us before you ditched us?"

"What the hell is your problem, Arturia?" Gawain shot up from the arm chair.

Cú seemed to be in another world, as if he was still processing what Jeanne had said and Guinevere and Lancelot were speechless as they watched the exchange.

"My problem?" Arturia scoffed.

"Yes!" Gawain raised his voice, "You've been sour and rude and outright nasty these past weeks, what the hell? I get it, Dia left but that gives you no excuse to treat Jeanne so harshly. She's telling you something because she trusts you and cares about you and this is how you treat her? You should be supporting her, telling her to do her best and that you'll always be there for her! This decision was hard enough for her to make, you aren't supposed to make her feel guilty. Aren't you best friends or something?"

Arturia did not say anything else, instead, she gave Jeanne one last glance before leaving the hideout, heading off.

Jeanne followed her, catching up the her at the bottom of the building and stopping her before she crossed the street. "Artie, please, can we talk?"

Arturia did not so much as look back. "I want to be alone."

"We need to talk," Jeanne took her by the arm and turned her around, seeing the red eyes and tear stained cheeks of Arturia. Arturia was never one to let anyone see her cry, but it seemed as if her whole world was falling apart bit by bit and everything she ever wanted was being ripped from her arms.

Slowly they made their way to a park, the stars in the sky lighting their path and the warm breeze keeping them silent. As they sat on a bench, they looked up at the sky, digesting the warm summer night before them.

"I'm sorry," Arturia sobbed, "I just…I don't know."

Jeanne wrapped her best friend into a tight hug, patting her head ever so lightly. "It's okay."

They sat like this for a while, Arturia crying and Jeanne hoping to comfort her. Arturia poured out her feelings, about how she felt about Diarmuid's leave and how she would miss Jeanne. She was in pain, a lot of it, to see many people leaving her so suddenly. But, Jeanne and Arturia were best friends, and they always would be. Of course, they went through their struggles, as it happens in every relationship, but they grew to understand each other better. They always supported one another and would never let the other feel lonely or scared. The bond of friendship is very hard to break, and so very beautiful to maintain and keep alive. They promised to keep in touch as much as they could and hopefully see each other at least once a year, whenever they could.

That last summer brought laughs, breakups and so much more. Two months were nothing for the teenagers.

Lancelot and Guinevere went on to Oxford for Political Science and Journalism respectively; their relationship continued, and they were married a few years later.

Gawain and Bedivere became athletes and were on their way to stardom. Dinadan too made his life, a happy and satisfied one, where he got to practise what he wanted but worked hard for his father.

Cú and Jeanne broke up as a result of distance, though, they remained great friends and continued to meet often. The military life required all of Jeanne's commitment and with her faith, she had also decided to remain celibate for the time being; her studies were the most important thing until the time would come when she would find someone.

And Arturia…

Arturia received a letter that summer, a letter that arrived on a rainy Monday morning, when the days felt long and there was nothing to do at home. A white envelope with nothing but her name and address on it. No return address but, as soon as she saw the post stamp, her heart fluttered but hurt at the same time.

She sat on her bed, staring down at the letter as she gathered the courage to open it and read it. She was afraid of what it could contain, of what lay within the envelope.

Reaching for the soft envelope, she hesitatingly opened it, slipping the letter out and closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, opening the letter and opening her eyes. A dried wild flower fell out of the page and she finally brought herself to read it.

My dearest, Arturia,

The time we shared, the memories we made; I shall never forget. I've hurt you, I know, and I ask for your forgiveness, although I know I do not deserve it.

I wish you all the best in University and I hope that one day we will meet again on different terms and in a better situation. I wish you only happiness, my love. You were a perfect dream I wish I never lost.

Eternally yours,

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne

fin