"Everything?" Annabelle repeated, her dazed gaze trained on the Cullens.  "Like popularity system - everything?"  I nodded broodingly over my bowl of soup.

 

"And some background information on Kris," Grace added.  I frowned at her, mouthing, 'What the hell?'.

 

"Kris..." Annabelle's interest was riveted away from the 'Cullens' and back on Grace.  Her intelligent eyes studied us.  "Kris and Tao are rivals.  They sort-of split the whole school into two divisions because of their rivalry.  Alpaca, and the Black Cats."

 

"Old news," Grace flipped her hair.  "Tell me something I don't know."  Her words were merely playful.

 

"Game on."  Annabelle's grey eyes sparkled with excitement.  "Kris and Tao were best friends."

 

Grace and I shared an amused glance, and a 'NO WAY!', followed by a 'You're kidding, Ann!'.  I hadn't seen Tao yet - he had yet to turn up for school this week, but as rumours went, he was as bad as a delinquent teenager could get.  Kris was perpetually late for class - I think he did that on purpose, but he never missed a single one. They were on opposite ends of spectrum.  There was no way they could possibly be anything remotely near friends.

 

"But I thought... Luhan and Kris are best friends?"  I gave a faux glare in Grace's direction.  She was the one that told me that yesterday.

 

"Yeah, they are. Currently." Annabelle said.  Grace stuck her tongue out at me, and did a mini victory dance.  I sulked.

 

"Again, another crack pairing," I muttered under my breath.  "Luhan's so friendly, and Kris's a first class douche bag."

 

Both Grace and Annabelle snickered at that.  I didn't see what was so funny.  I was merely stating the truth.

 

When Annabelle had quit snickering, she pointed out, "One misconception there.  Luhan wasn't that nice previously.  He acted like the rest of those 'Ancients'."  Annabelle some bitter hand gestures towards the 'Cullens', who were currently laughing over their food.

 

I noticed how she didn't correct the 'Kris being a first class douche bag'-highly-accurate-assumption.

 

"You mean, the Cullens?" I clarified.

 

"What?" Grace asked.  Annabelle obviously got my gist, because she smiled.

 

"Twilight.  Gorgeous people.  Don't talk to ordinary, ugly people, like us."

 

"Yeah, something like that," Grace said, grinning in agreement.  "Just that here, we call them 'Ancients', because all those people there belong to families that have lived here for over a century."

 

"And that 'family thing' automatically gives you a free ticket there?"

 

"I know," Annabelle threw her hands up in the air, "it's stupid, but most of the time, yes.  Unless you're dead ugly.  Or dead annoying, like Pita."  She said the word with so much venom, that I decided that it wasn't a good idea to ask.

 

'Her boyfriend' Grace supplied to me in a whisper.  Don't ask.  

 

"So," Grace tried to change the touchy subject.  "We were talking about Luhan... right?"

 

"Oh." Annabelle blinked a couple of times.  After blinking her anger away, she nodded, "Oh, right.  Something happened.  I'm not too sure-"

 

"The Resident Gossip Queen NOT TOO SURE?" Grace made exaggerated gasping sounds.  I followed suit, giggling as I went about it.

 

Annabelle crossed her arms.  A tiny smile had graced her features.  "I could stop here you know, and leave you two hanging for all eternity."

 

"Pretend we didn't say that," I said quickly.  Grace nodded along.

 

"So... Luhan dated some girl that wasn't from the Ancients."  Annabelle's voice dropped to a whisper.  I leaned in to catch the maximum amount of gossip I could milk from this conversation.  "Kris wasn't very happy about it-"

 

"Since when's that asshat happy about anything?" I felt it necessary to insert.

 

Annabelle nodded.  "True.  But Kris legitimized their relationship anyway.  He was wary, but Luhan loved her.  And Kris couldn't really stand to see his best friend suffer."

 

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief.  Kris showing any signs of human emotion towards anyone?  Pigs could fly.  I looked around for any signs of flying pigs in vicinity.  There were none.

 

"And... the girl screwed Luhan over.  Cheated on him, they said."  Annabelle shrugged nonchalantly, like it she were telling a story, instead of a real life historic event.  I didn't take it as well as she did.  Even though I had known Luhan for at most three days, that boy had rubbed off me, and I found my knuckle heads twitching, wanting to give that -girl a taste of it's power-punch.  How could anyone cheat on Luhan?  It wasn't just that he was cute, it was more that he was so innocent.   

 

That girl was a witch.

 

"Where's that girl now?" I wanted to know.  Smoke was spewing from my ears.  I needed to get my hands on her, now, and maybe skin her alive and make a human-skin-coat for myself.

 

"Kris made her leave," Annabelle sighed.  When I asked her to explain, she continued, "Made her vacate this town, this school.  He has his... ways.  He was jumping mad, I tell you.  I would think the girl cheated on him, not Luhan."

 

"And Luhan became a better person, right?" Grace asked.  "I guess that's something positive to look to in such a gruesome tale."

 

"And that's why..." I whispered with realization.  "That's why Kris is so overprotective of Luhan."

 

"Yeah," Annabelle agreed.  Her eyes narrowed in concern at me.  "That's why, when Luhan waved at you yesterday, I didn't think you would be arriving in school today.  Did Kris... do anything to you?"

 

"Yes, we talked.  You know, gave me the usual protective older brother speech," I supplied.  And I ed at him for looking down on me - that he wouldn't let me befriend Luhan because of that!  When it wasn't even because of that!

 

I felt like slamming my head against the cafeteria table a thousand times.  I was the , not him.  How could I jump to conclusions like that?  

 

Hello, guilt.  Yep, I give you permission engulf me completely, I deserve it.

 

~0~

 

"What is this?" Kris demanded as he approached me with a note clasped tightly between his fingers.  There were two guys beside him - both unfamiliar (and pretty), and I winced.  With the formation they were walking in, one would think that they were about to beat me into oblivion.  

 

I wouldn't be surprised.  Kris was leading them after all.

 

"It says it's from you."  He raised a single eyebrow in my direction. "Now, why would a lowly peasant write a letter to her Supreme Ruler?"

 

Oh, so the asshat was still using that against me.  I nearly regretted writing the letter.  Nearly.

 

"Maybe it's a love letter." One guy waggled his eyebrows at Kris.  

 

"Keep dreaming," I told all three of them.  "And... it really has not been a pleasure meeting you guys, so I'm just going to walk in the opposite direction."  With that, I spun around like a practiced , and slid off in the opposite direction.

 

"Wow, that kid has spunk." I heard the second guy say not-so-conspicuously from behind.

 

I was about to make it past the three meter mark (away from those guys), when laughter from behind - sounding suspiciously like the three guys I had just had the bad luck of meeting - severed my thoughts.  I ignored them and pressed ahead with my journey, when Kris called:

 

"Lowly peasant, I summon you."

 

Pah!  Summon me, my .  I'll summon you all the way to the sickbay by kicking your if you continue with your .  

 

I kept on going.

 

"Sophie!" Kris yelled again.

 

I sighed, and turned.  Why I actually entertained this , I really I had no clue.  I yawned, "What?"

 

Kris flashed me the letter I had stuck on his locker.  He had just unfolded it, and on it, was one large, colourful blocked word 'SORRY' scrawled over the entire page.  It had seemed like a good idea at that time - I had written it during Arithmetic, which never failed to make me brain dead-, but now, I realized it's flaws.  Sorry for what?  I needed to explain why to him.  

 

If only I had written it down.

 

"Oh, um." I retraced my steps till I was four steps way from him.  I rubbed my hands together nervously.  "Um, I-I uh, heard about Luhan."

 

His face remained impassive.  "Why? Finally decided to back off?"

Stupid guy number one (I shall call him that for now) scratched his head, "Luhan?  You guys know each other?"  Then he glanced at Kris nervously, as though expecting the boy to burst into flames any moment now.

Kris didn't, to my relief.

 

"Yes to that guy, and no to Kris.  Y-You see, I heard about... a-about the girl and all," I said, keeping my voice neutral.  "A-And I know why you're so protective over him.  So I was wrong about you looking down on me-"

 

"Actually," Kris said coolly. "You were right."  I ignored him.  Or tried to.

 

"Alright," I considered that option reasonably.  "Maybe that was a reason.  But now that I know the main reason-"

 

"He's out of your league."  Was that ever going to let me complete any of my sentences?

 

"Just so you know," I snapped, definitely pissed now.  "I don't have any romantic interest in him, whatsoever.  We're friends.  And I won't screw him over.  Even as a friend."  Kris wasn't saying anything, I added, "So, my point is..." I wrung my hands anxiously.  This was going to be difficult to force out, but I was willing to give it a go.  "I'm sorry for misunderstanding you earlier.  Maybe we started out on the foot.  So perhaps we can start all over again?"  I winced at my words.  Cliche, I know.  But that was all I could come up with at this point of time.  

 

I glanced up at him for any indications of a yes or no.

 

Kris stared at me for a long time, so long, that for a moment there, I wondered if he'd turned to ice in a fit of anger.  I waved my hands in front of his face.  He blinked.

 

So he didn't turn to ice.  Pity.  I would prefer him as an untalking gorgeous ice sculpture than as a talking gorgeous human.

 

Kris looked at me disdainfully.  "I'm happy with our relationship at this point."  He turned away.  "-Having no relationship."

 

"Okay." I shrugged, not feeling a drop of hurt or pain (and proud of that).  "Actually, it's the same for me.  But just so you know."  I began to take my leave.  Talking some sense into Kris was like trying to convince a cat to go for a swim.  "Luhan's my friend too.  And he's staying that way."

 

~0~

 

A finger prodded me in the back.  Hard.

 

Making sure that the teacher was occupied with the white board, I turned, only to have a grinning Luhan greet me with a paper ball to my face.  Not exactly a cheer up after two periods of Arithmetic huh?  So, snatching up the paper ball which had ricocheted from my face and into the my lap, I tossed it back at him, marvelling at my talents as it bounced harmlessly off his chest.

 

I grinned triumphantly when he rubbed his chest with a puppy sulk.  Ignoring that - it was pretty hard to ignore something that cute - , I spun around and focused on the empty worksheet before me.

 

Pop!

 

A paper ball collided with my head again.

 

"You're kidding me right?" I muttered, turning abruptly and thumping on Luhan's desk, highly incensed.

 

"Mrs Reinhard," The teacher's eyes darted to my face.  "Is there a problem there?"

 

"No Mdm," I quickly said, suddenly finding my boring worksheet unusually interesting.  The moment her head was turned, I spun around and hissed to Luhan, 'What's your problem?'.

 

"Are you mad?" He whispered back, cringing in the face of my fury.

 

"What do you think?"

 

"Aww, c'mon, don't be mad.  I'll buy you a cookie."

 

At the mention of The Cookie, I perked up.  My anger had already begun draining.  "Five cookies," I bargained, grinning.

 

"You little minx," Luhan chucked.  "Oh, it's a note by the way."

 

A note.  I glanced at the crunched up paper ball that was lying innocently on my table.  But I knew better.  This was the little monster that had whacked me in the head twice.  Glaring at it, I scooped it up, and began unwrapping the note.

 

Strange huh, a note.  And I thought only girls wrote each other notes. 

 

On it, in Luhan's fat, huge handwriting was:

 

You're still coming this afternoon right?  PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

 

I remembered Kris's dark, brooding expression as he warned me to 'Stay away from Luhan'; I remembered the way the 'Ancients' (mostly Kris) watched me like a hawk when I had any forms of interaction with his best friend; and I knew, if I didn't heed Kris's words, hell would befall on me.  One look at Kris, and I knew that he did have that power.  And rumours didn't lie - only sometimes.

 

Or a lot of times.

 

And, besides...  I glanced back at the note and counted the number of excess Es in Luhan's PLEASE.  There were forty-one Es.  He must have spent A LOT of time writing that 'please'.

 

So I wrote:  DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, with forty-one excess 'H's behind.

 

A/N!: Comment please!  I want to know if I should continue this... :P