"Girls, are you going to bed? It's getting pretty late for your first day at school." Aunt Ellen had walked into Iris' room, where she Auriana and Talia were sitting around the floor. Tomorrow would be their first day of high school, so they decided to have one last sleepover before the end of summer.

Iris responded, "Almost Aunt Ellen, just give us 5 more minutes!"

"Oh alright, but in 5 minutes I'm shutting the lights off no matter what." Her aunt smiled as she left the room.

Auriana spoke up first, "I'm so excited for tomorrow! We'll be at a new school with new teachers, new classrooms, new people, and new boys!" At the last part she threw her pillow in the air and flopped onto her sleeping bag.

Iris and Talia giggled. "What happened with you and Matt?" Iris teased. Matt had been Auriana's longest standing crush for the past two years. They didn't really have much in common and only spoke a handful of times. She basically just admired him from afar, but Auriana never minded. It was still fun to dream without being in a relationship.

"I mean, I never got to know him. And now that I haven't seen him all summer, it's kinda worn off." Auri answered.

"Ouch," Iris put a hand to her chest, "That's all it takes?" And the room erupted with laughter once more.

"Boy craze aside," Talia made a joking face at Auriana, "I'm excited for tomorrow too. It'll be fun to start over at a new school."

"Yeah, it's a lot of new, but as long as I'm with you girls, we'll have a blast!" Iris added.

Talia continued, "I really hope I got into the creative writing class. I signed up early, so there are really good odds of me getting it."

Auri groaned at the thought, "English is going to get so much harder."

"It's not hard, you just have to plan it out ahead of time."

"Easy for you to say, but I'm not really good at that stuff. That's why you're here to help me out!"

Talia rolled her eyes and smiled. "I can't tutor you forever you know. What if we go to different colleges? Or one of us were to move away, what if I have too much work of my own?!" What she meant to start as a tease turned into a mini panic.

Now Iris and Auriana were the ones giggling. "Don't worry Talia, I'm sure Auriana won't need your help so much anymore."

"Yeah besides," Auriana added, "you're thinking way too far ahead. There's no need to worry yet."

"Maybe not," Talia continued, "but my point still stands. I don't mind you asking for help, but you can't rely on others and expect them to do everything for you. You need to be more responsible- more mature."

Auriana's smile faltered, "She has a point Auriana. You put a lot of faith in others, and that may be okay now, but one day it might not. We just want you to be able to stand on your own, and as your friend, I'd rather you hear that from me."

Talia added on to Iris's words, "We don't want to hurt your feelings, but we also don't want you to get hurt in the long run. We're just looking out for you."

Before Auriana could think of what to say, Aunt Ellen walked in, "Alright girls, I gave you my word, now it's lights out! Good night!"

"Good night Aunt Ellen!" The three said back. Auriana slipped into her sleeping bag and closed her eyes. All she could hear was their words. Words that may be true, but it didn't make them any easier to hear.

~~

"Auriana! Wake up it's 7:45, you're gonna be late!" Auriana opened her eyes to see Talia standing over her. Startled she looked up at the clock, and sure enough, there were only fifteen minutes left to get ready and walk to school.

As quickly as she could, Auriana threw on her skirt and shirt. Then she ran to the bathroom to tie her hair and brush her teeth. She put on shoes, grabbed her bag, ran into the kitchen and-

Talia and Iris were sitting around the table eating breakfast. Aunt Ellen stood at the stove making pancakes, "Oh good you're up! Just in time for breakfast too! Sit down and let me make you some, you've still got an hour before school!"

"What?" Auriana asked, and looked at the clock in the kitchen. Sure enough it said 7:08. "But, the clock in-"

Talia interupted her, "Yeah, so I may have changed the clocks just a bit. I wanted to make sure you weren't late today, and since you always wait untill the last minute, I figured it was best to make you think it was." As she spoke, she kept her eyes to the floor not wanting to meet Auriana's.

Auriana was a bit shocked, but she knew Talia meant well. She took a seat next to Aunt Ellen, "Haha, that's a relief! I thought for sure I'd be late today, but now I even have time to eat Aunt Ellen's pancakes, so thanks for that Talia!"

Talia looked up again and smiled, relieved. "Let's eat!"

The three friends finished their breakfasts and walked to school. When they got to the building, it was two stories tall. "Wow, this place is way bigger than I thought! I wonder how many classrooms there are." Iris stated.

Auriana replied, "I wonder how many people go here!"

Talia added, "I wonder what the library looks like."

The three girls giggled and chatted outside a bit over what the year could bring. "Should we go inside yet?" Talia asked. "Well, I wanted to wait for Nathaniel to get here. He's my friend too, I wouldn't want to go in without him." Iris blushed by the end of her sentence while Talia and Auriana shared a knowing look.

As if on queue, Nathaniel rolled up on his bike, waving at them. "Hey Iris! Talia! Auriana!" He reached them a little out of breath, "Wow, it took longer to get here than I thought it would. Have you three gotten your scedules yet?"

"Nope, we were waiting for you to get here." Iris replied.

Auriana tacked on, "Iris insisted."

Talia covered a laugh and Iris stared at the ground again, but Nathaniel pretended not to notice.

"Oh okay then, we should probably hurry up then. There's gotta be a line by now." He locked up his bike, and the four of them walked into a new year.

~~

After they got their schedules, Auriana waved goodbye to her friends and made her way to her first class. While she was by no means a star student like Talia, math was her one exception. Her test scores were high enough to place her into a sophmore level class.

By the time Auriana walked into class there were only two seats left. One in the back corner, and one directly in front of it. The 4 kids in front of her seemed to already know each other, chatting away about their long summer breaks.

She walked up to their desks and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Auriana! Mind if I sit here?"

She pointed to the seat closest to them. The girl in front answered, "Oh, yeah go ahead."

Auriana took a seat and stuck out her hand, "Nice to meet you."

The girl in front of her looked confused, but nonetheless shook it and said, "Uh hey- I'm Olivia."

Neither girl had anymore to say, so Olivia spun back around. The four went on talking as if Auriana wasn't there. She was playing with her pencil when it got really quiet all of a sudden. Auri looked up and a tall boy with purplish hair wearing a trenchcoat filled the seat behind her. His height and wardrobe, combined with a gloomy expression was a little intimidating, but she tried not to mind it too much.

Class started and everyone was taking notes. When all of a sudden Auri heard a *snap* followed by, "Aww man." She turned around and saw the kid with the trenchcoat holding half his pencil in one hand, and the other half on his desk. She grabbed an extra pencil of hers and offered it to him. "Here," she whispered, "You can borrow this one!" He looked up surprised, and reached his hand out cautiously. But he took it, "Uh, thank you."

"No biggie!"

She didn't turn around, and watched him from her seat, wanting to say something else. The boy gave her a puzzled look until Auri decided to speak, "May I ask what your name is?"

"It's Mephisto." He was surprised that anyone had asked for his name.

"Auriana, nice to meet you." She didn't try to shake his hand this time. "Is this your first year here?"

Mephisto wasn't normally fond of small talk, but it wasn't everyday that someone talked to him other than his sister. "No, I was here last year. I'm pretty sure everyone here is a sophmore-"

"I hate to break up social hour back there, but you've just gotten back from a long break."

Auriana felt the embarassment of being called out by the teacher. She didn't think they were being loud, maybe just above a whisper, apparently not. She turned back around and saw Olivia and her friends looking down at their desks.

Maybe he didn't see us.

"That goes to all of you." This time he was definitely looking back at her and Mephisto.

Nope, he definitely did.

He went back to his lesson, and Auri couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Remembering her unfinished conversation with Mephisto, she tore a scrap of paper to make a quick note. She waited until the teacher had turned around before passing the note back to him.

Didn't mean to get you in trouble on my first day. Hope to see you around Mephisto. :)