Hello! If you made it this far, thank you! This chapter, along with every one that will come after it, has a title from a girl in red song. This chapter in particular, "I Should Be Into This Guy," has a lyric from the song "girls" by girl in red. It's really good, and if you haven't heard of girl in red before you should definitely check her out. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a good day/night!

"Hey Zarina!" a voice came from behind her. It definitely wasn't Lyrei.

Zarina was about to turn around and ask who the heck this person was, talking to her like that, when she remembered what her mother had said. This was probably—no, most definitely—the boyfriend her mom was forcing her to date.

"Oh, hi," she said politely, facing him. He wasn't that bad looking, but Zarina knew immediately that she wouldn't be able to stomach doing anything more than talking with him.

"Of course, I already know who you are, but my name is Nylian. You might have met my younger sister, Silva Pemberley? I'm in Level 6, and I actually have two abilities: Polyglot, and Telepath." Zarina resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his emphasis on the fact that he had more than one ability.

"Um…cool…" Shifting uncomfortably, she realized there was at least a two-year age gap between them, which only made things weirder.

"I know, right?" Nylian Pemberley put his arm around her shoulders.

"Okay, maybe we should take this whole relationship thing a bit…slower than that?" Zarina said as she began to hyperventilate at the feeling of his touch. She ducked away from him, holding her hands up to stop him from doing it again.

"Nonsense!" Nylian exclaimed, grinning at her cockily. "If I'm going to end up being your boyfriend, we should get to know each other better. This is a good way to start."

Lyrei grimaced sympathetically at Zarina from across the orientation hall. Actually, it wasn't just sympathy that Zarina picked up on from her expression. It almost looked like…hurt? Jealousy? No, she was probably just imagining it.

Luckily, though, orientation was soon over, and Nylian was forced to go his separate way from Zarina.

Meeting each other in the Level 4 atrium, Zarina complained to Lyrei about her new boyfriend..

"Why is this my life?" she groaned. Zarina had told Lyrei the night before via Imparter about her mom's punishment, and ever since the friends had been attempting ways to get rid of it. Unfortunately, nothing had worked, so Zarina was stuck with Nylian until she could convince her mother otherwise.

Lunch was the worst part of her day. Nylian joined Lyrei and Zarina at their lunch table, placing himself between them so he could sit next to Zarina.

Eventually, people caught on that Zarina and Nylian were supposed to be dating, and it was all anyone could talk about. Apparently, Nylian was really popular, and cute, according to a group of gossipers Zarina overheard in the hallways. One girl even came up to her, asking how she got him to date her, and whether Zarina was willing to help her ask her own crush out on a date. Of course, Zarina refused, saying she was too busy to be a matchmaker.

Finally, the day was over. Nylian had said at lunch that he'd be waiting for her at the Leapmaster, so Zarina and Lyrei hid by their lockers. They used their home crystals to get to their homes instead.

"How was school, Zarina?" her mom asked stiffly when she walked in the door.

Rina could tell that her mom was trying extra hard to be nice. She had been ever since all of their fighting.

"It was good," Zarina replied, not wanting to go into detail about her day. She'd already had to go through that level of hell once; there was no way Zarina would ever want to experience something like that again.

"That's nice. Did you meet Nylian?"

Fighting off the urge to gag at the mention of his name, Zarina nodded and forced herself to smile. "Yeah, we talked before orientation and then again when we ate lunch," she said, trying to make her face red by thinking of how angry he made her feel. Maybe if her mom thought she was blushing, she'd stop pestering her.

It seemed to work, because her mom gave a contented "Mmhmm" and turned back to whatever assignment for the Council she was working on.

Zarina breathed a sigh of relief and headed up to her room. She and Lyrei had agreed that after finishing homework, Zarina would come over to Maplebranch and help her friend with ability detecting. Lyrei had a lesson with her ability detecting tutor the next day after school, and needed some help with the homework she'd been assigned. Apparently, it required there to be another person there to watch Lyrei do the practice assignment.

After dinner, Zarina's mom dragged her out to Atlantis so they could go shopping. She wasn't really sure why, but her mom just gave the lame excuse that she wanted to have some "bonding time" with Rina.

Coincidentally, Zarina and her mother ran into both Lyrei and Nylian at a shop in Mysterium for books and journals.

"Hey Rina," Nylian said, smiling at her. She wanted to throw up in his face, scream and punch at him, because only a few people—Lyrei and sometimes her father—were allowed to call her that. She hadn't ever said she was okay with using her nickname.

Still, she replied, "Hi," because she could see that her mother was glaring at her.

"So, I was wondering…" Nylian added, stepping closer. Zarina restrained herself from stepping away from him because her mom was right behind her, breathing down her back. "Would you like to go on a date with me?" Rina almost wanted to laugh at this, except the situation wasn't funny at all.

She made eye contact with Lyrei from across the store, silently asking What about you?

It's fine, Lyrei mouthed, smiling understandingly at her. She breathed a sigh of relief before turning back towards Nylian.

"That sounds wonderful, Nylian," she replied, although it almost physically hurt her. I have to play up the act to convince Mom that I'm actually dating him. That was the only thing that kept her from choking on her words.

"Great! I'll meet you at Mistyriver tomorrow after school is out."

Before Zarina could protest or ask how he'd get to her house, Nylian had disappeared, leaving her, her mom, and Lyrei to stand together in silence.