It was lunch time and she had gathered her backpack, her things and stalked out of the classroom as she made through her corridors. She had decided to go to the fountain after all but he was dismayed. The reason: Mr. Johansson. Well, not Mr. Johansson himself but rather the constant giggles and whispers and messages passed around that made it impossible for Rosaline concentrate in the lesson. What were they in, a country fair? She sighed, then again, even back at home they considered her much to uptight during class. Of course she seemed that way. Everybody assumed she was that way but the truth was…that she wasn't. She hated to work, to study, to do the things that were not what she liked, She hated to look serious, to pretend she was cold when in fact she was the joking type, light headed, extremely naïve, bold, childish but oddly serious and philosophical from time to time. Only her sisters knew that about her. With the rest of the world she was…stiff, putting it in a mild language.

And no one, no one was able to trespass the wall she had built for almost 2 years but coming to Sweet Amoris the wall had started to crumble. It was for so long that she could keep up her act. She was tired of it, the lies, the unpleasantness, the disdain, the stiffness of it. She just wanted to have friends. To talk to people, to be with people she loved and perhaps, if possible be loved back.

She passed the great obelisk outside the north wing building and walked towards the fountain where Alexy, Leo, Rosalya, Melody, Nathaniel, Castiel and Lysander were there sitting eating lunch, all boys and girls talking animatedly not in separate groups as she had grown up with. She stood there observing for a moment. She was different and she came from somewhere else and she wondered if she could ever fit, if she could ever really fit.

Rosalya, raised her head and upon noticing her, her face broke into a smile and she waved at her, the rest also turned and Rosie feeling self-conscious walked towards them as calm as she could, willing to not let her uncomfort show in her walk. When she reached them she sat down on cool grass beside Alexy.

"Where were you? I am starving!" he said annoyed, he was studiously ignoring Leo who was sitting not quite far from him.

"Mr. Johansson's class." She said as a way of explanation. Leo groaned.

"Oh, please, don't tell me you're in love with him too."

"I am not in love with him." Said Rosaline frowning. "he is older." She said as if that explained everything. Leo snorted.

"Well, most girls don't seem to mind that fact." Said Castiel in distate.

"You are just jealous." She said addressing both boys. Leo scoffed and Castiel snapped at her.

"You think he's hot, don't you?"

"He is certainly not a troll with a hairy mole, is he?" at that Rosalya and the girls laughed. Castiel glared at Rosaline. Lysander has stopped scribbling in his notebook and looked at her a small smile playing on his lips. She did like to argue with people.

"She got the better of you." Said Bianca looking lovingly at her boyfriend. Castiel shifted his glaring gaze from Rosaline to Bianca and his eyes softened considerably.

"But you didn't answer the question." Said Rosalya looking at her keenly.

"I am not going to say he's not handsome because that would be a lie but he isn't what I personally think of as…" she paused for a moment in search for a word. It was so hard to keep up the polite and distant act. "appealing."

"And what do you find appealing?" said Rosalya with a maniac glint in her eyes. Rosaline wanted to recoil from Rosalya if someone could peel away her layer she was certainly one of those people. She shrugged. Rosalya narrowed her eyes.

"There must be something, isn't there anything that you find absolutely hot? Something that makes you irresistibly drawn to a guy?" Rosaline stayed silent her expression uncomfortable.

"She won't tell you Rosalya." Said Alexy thoughtfully. "She hasn't even told me." he said in an exaggerated hurt tone. Rosaline, glad that Alexy interrupted knew that he was hurt. She had refused to answer that question to him so many times. She sighed.

"Do you really want to know Alexy?"she asked setting the side of her cheek on her closed hand like a fist and her elbow on the side of her knee. Alexy was surprised she said this because she was the type of person who never told a lie. He didn't know why but…it had it's advantages. The closest to lie she did was to no say anything. Whenever she didn't want to tell him something she would say "ask no questions and I shall tell you no lies."

"Yes." Rosie looked at him ruefully.

"I am not sure there is anything specific I look for in a guy." Alexy was surprised he thought that she knew what type of guy she wanted clearly.

"Why?"asked Rosalya confused.

"Because if I say I want a guy that is like this or that, if get him I won't take him because it would be way too perfect or I simply would realize that my choice would be shallow." Everybody was shocked by that, even Lysander who stopped scribbling and looked up at her.

"So you're saying that having a preference or a type of person you like is being shallow." Rosie looked up at him curiously.

"In a way it is. It's not wrong to have a preference but if you only like a certain type of person and that is the only type you befriend or search for romantically , is it not shallow? It's like choosing cereal based on appearance rather than taste. It's stupid." she leaned back on the flat of her palms. Lysander raised a little his eyebrows. That was a quote from Paper Towns of John Green. He knew because the very same quote was written in her notebook. "I don't really like quiet people but the people I love the most in this world are in fact, quiet people." Alexy couldn't hide his shock she had actually said something about herself.

"Happy?" she said looking at Alexy. Before Alexy could answer Rosalya took the bait.

"But surely there must be a type of person you don't like."

"I just don't like that people lie." She said darkly. "Other than that I don't mind what type of person the other is."

"Even if they are a troll with a hairy mole?" asked Castiel sarcastically.

"Even if they are a troll with a hairy mole." She said solemnly.

"What about guys that like to read? Do you like them?" Rosalya asked.

"I…like to read a little." She said. "so I guess, yes I like guys that like to read."

"Do you like fashion?"asked Rosalya.

"Yes." She said without hesitation.

"But she doesn't know much about fashion." Ssid Leo without nastiness. Rosie didn't seem bothered.

"What do you think of tattoo's?"

"I like them. I think it takes bravery to get one."

"What about music? Do you like musicians?"

"I don't know much about music but if someone can sing or play an instrument well, I respect them."

"Just because you can't." said Leo mischievously. Rosie smirked.

"I can sing." She said lightly.

"Not better than me." said Leo. Alexy snorted and looked at him. Leo returned his gaze was pleased finally he seemed to acknowledge his existence. Alexy quickly looked away.

"You sing awful." said alexy still not looking at him.

"Do you like guys that are shy?" Rosie shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't know."

"do you…"

"Rosa, I think you're making her uncomfortable." said Lysander quietly. Everybody looked up at that, Lysander didn't seem to notice it he was looking at Rosalya with an eyebrow raised and the other descended on his emerald green eye. Rosie had to resist the temptation to say something nice, or worse…stupid. Rosalya looked sorry but was in fact satisfied, Lysander knew as much.

"I'm sorry, I'm much too curious." She said turning her eyes to Rosaline, who couldn't think of anything good to say.

"I…" she started to say something but then closed her mouth. She couldn't say it was alright it wasn't she didn't like lie, so she closed her mouth. Fortunately Alexy saved her by saying.

"Rose, I'm starving can you please pass me my lunch." Rosie took the bag she was holding and took out three plastic boxes with the respective lunches of the three of them. They were the remains of last night's dinner. Ravioli with mushroom and shrimp sauce, with extra spice just the way Alexy and Rosie liked it. For Leo, rosie had prepared a veggie sandwich for he had claimed that he was on a diet. Rosie suspected that he didn't like spicy food and spicy food was her favorite and what she cooked most of the time. Alexy opened his lunchbox and the smell immediately flooded the air, it was spicy warm and strong.

"Did you heat it?" asked Alexy, pleasantly surprised.

"Yes I went to the cafeteria before coming here." She passed him a fork and passed the other lunchbox to Leo who opened it and started chewing his sandwich, never taking his eyes off Alexy. After that Rosie started eating in silence, listening to the incessant chatter between Rosalya and Alexy, Leo burning holes in Alexy's neck until a blush appeared. Rosie didn't notice Lysander looking at her from time to time, wasn't aware that he had started to sketch a dress. A dress for her.

When she was done with lunch, Rosie leaned against her palms, her legs pulled in front of her. They weren't visible because of the long skirt she was wearing. She listened to the conversation drifting in and out her thoughts, silently making remarks until Alexy sighed frustrated and looked at her.

"Do say something Rosaline." He said in a mock serious voice. She looked at him and smiled a little.

"I prefer to listen." She said quietly. Alexy raised his eyebrow.

"Speak louder. I can't hear you."

"I said that I prefer to listen." She repeating raising her voice a little.

"I think you prefer to lose your head in the clouds. Not that I can blame you." said Alexy smirking knowingly, looking over to Lysander who seemed to be in a deep conversation with Castiel and Nathaniel, the three of the bent over Lysander's notebook. Rosie blushed.

"I don't lose my head in the clouds." She said in a little strained voice.

"Sure you don't." said Leo this time. "You don't drift out of the conversation when we are in the middle of the street. You don't stop to stare at books when we're passing by the street, you don't stop to stare at the bakery down the street, you don't…"

"Oh, shut up." said rosie retorting. Leo laughed and as he did so the bell rang indicating the end of the break and the start of a new class.

The writing class.

Rosie, took several wrong turns before turning up to Mrs. Agatha class. When she arrived, the room was crowded and there were only two empty seats, she mumbled an apology and explained that she didn't know her way around the place. The teacher, after giving her a smile assured her that it was okay. Rosie was glad that the teacher didn't get mad like Mr. Dawkins.

As she walked towards the desks she realized that one of them had a messenger bag slung over the chair so Rosie sat in the other table, glad that no one was sitting on it. She set her messenger bag on her lap and took out a special notebook. One that was blank and in which she planned to write lots of advice she could take out to improve her book. For the first minutes of the class Mrs. Agatha was slow. She showed them the syllabus. Rosie absorbed in the class took notes furiously, wearing a very serious expression, occasionally frowning, pressing her lips together or biting them. When the teacher was done she turned to the class.

"I know it's the beginning of the year but I thought that this should be very interesting nonetheless. Simon and Shuster is holding a contest for short stories the winner gets a chance to publish their story in a collection of short stories they are compelling from different author or even better you could get published!" and just like that it was like a bomb being dropped upon the class. Students started muttering but the teacher continued talking. "I wouldn't take this lightly because if you succeed in this you might even have a chance to publish a book since you would have already established contact with publishing company." She scanned the faces and smiled not saying anything aiming for a dramatic silence which wasn't possible because everybody was talking in hushed tones. "And to make things interesting I have decided that you shall work in pairs." She clapped her hands together and she was met with dead silence, until someone raised their voice. Surprisingly it was Amber.

"Then that means we have to share our prize?!" she said in loud voice. Agatha looked at her coolly.

"You'll be writing a story with your companion so yes you will be sharing the prize. Is that a problem?"

"Of course it is! I don't think that it should be fair. I mean, what if someone does all the work and that someone is taking the credit?"

"I don't see…" began Agatha but Rosie lost the interest in that conversation she had taken out her notebook and was starting to flip through the pages, hearing the conversation halfway, more people were starting to talk and the room was starting to buzz with conversation until Agatha took a book and slammed it on the table loudly. Everybody stopped talking at once, Rosie who was busy skimming through her pages looked up alarmed.

"Enough of this! You shall work in pairs or you can get up and walk out of that door which is wide and big, how about that, eh?" she was met with silence yet again and this time she smiled sweetly, though it was filled with poison.

"You shall pair with the person on your right." Rosie looked at her right and there was a boy with emerald green eyes, windblown hair and military pants paired with black boots, tank top and white formal shirt open. The boy didn't seem pleased to be paired with her because he frowned when their eyes met.

"Man! I though that we were going to be allowed to choose." said a voice in front of her and her eyes found a boy sitting in front of the boy on her right. He was tall with black eyes and hard jaw line. His hair was messy but it looked healthy much like Rosaline's own wild yet soft dark chocolate brown hair.

"Would you like to exchange pairs?" asked Rosaline. The boy on her right's eyes widened.

"You would do that?"

"Of course if you two want to work together that's fine by me." but she bit her lip. "but…I'm not sure the teacher would allow it." The boy with the messy hair smirked a slow, lazy, arrogant smile and said.

"Just trust me while, I can do this, the teacher loves me." he got up and walked confidently, swinging his hips a little while Rosie raised her eyebrow. She looked at the boy on her right and asked.

"Is he really saying the truth?"

"Usually all the ladies fall for him." said the green eyed boy fondly. Rose couldn't help but smile the boy in front of her was looking at her friend as if he looked at his brother. Then he realized her looking at him and blushed a little as if her were not used to that kind of thing. He cleared his throat and held out his hand.

"What's your name?" he asked her

"Rosaline Walker."

"Nice to meet you my name is Kentin."

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Kentin." She said reaching out her hand. Ken just sat there shocked for a moment before reaching and shaking her hand.

"Who is your friend?"

"Mark Kassidy." Ken expected her to laugh but she didn't. Instead she peered over to the front desk where Mark was talking to the Mrs. Agatha and though he looked like quite the playboy he didn't seem to be doing anything flirty in fact he was quite serious, confident. Rosie's other eyebrow shot up incredulously.

"Do you think he can convince the teacher?"

"Yeah." said Ken without really bothering to hide his amusement. Agatha looked over to Rosie and her eyes rested on her as Mark pointed at her and she remained as stoic as it was possible for her. Over the years she had learned to look as calm and stoic as possible and in moments like this it had quite a practical use as Agatha scanned her from bottom to top. Finally she looked away and gave a reply to Mark who seemed pleased. When he came back it was the same confident walk.

"Told ya, it's done but she wants you two to come up and tell her that I'm not lying, the usual." Rosie stood up and walked to the front with cool and calm composure while the other two boys followed suit behind her.

"So, is it true that you want to change partners?" she asked without delay and Rosie nodded.

"If you wouldn't mind miss." She said politely. The teacher looked at Rosie thoughtfully, thumb under her chin, a finger crossing her lips.

"I don't. But I warn you your partner isn't going to be easy for you to work with." She said and Rosie felt her stomach clench a little. Still, she wasn't the type of person that went back on her word so she just nodded.

"Who is my partner?" she was met with a mysterious smile by Agatha. She bobbed her head to the side and smiled a sweet yet poisonous smile.

"You have finally arrived. You missed an important announcement, you have to work in pairs. Miss Walker will fill you in." Rosie followed her gaze to see the person perched upon the doorway.

It was Lysander.