Amber's POV

    Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

    Amber let her eyes rest on the wall clock hanging in front of the class.

    Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

    She glanced over to her right. Luna scribbled something into her notebook and then continued to listen to whatever lecture the teacher was giving.

    Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

    She gave out a sigh and looked back to the clock. She stared at the long second hand, seeing it move from one number to another. She counted in her head every time the hand moved. When she reached 34, she felt a sharp poke on her right arm.

    "Shouldn't you be listening in class?" Luna whispered and then bit of the of her pen.

    Amber turned to face her classmate, "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

    "It would be if you were the one taking down notes as I glaze my eyes over to the wall clock," Luna shot back.

    Puffing her cheeks, Amber titled her head to the side. "But it's so boring."

    "Aish, this kid," Luna shook her head.

    "It's the first day of school," Amber adjusted back to her previous position, "Give me a break."

     A break definitely wouldn't hurt as Amber was feeling a little bit more than annoyed on the first day of school. She was, what was the word again? Oh yes, giddy. She couldn't pay attention in class no matter how hard she tried. Even when the teacher announced that they were to have a "Welcome Back To School talent show to spice up the starting of the school year, she only managed to word out a monotonous "cool" as the rest of her class boarded the spaceship to the moon. Her mind only had one place to be, and that was wherever the girl with those pair of eyes was at. 

    Amber found it rather interesting that a mere pair of familiar eyes could cause such a distraction. When she wasn't thinking about them, she was thinking about the brown locks that kept appearing before her eyes. She admitted that she had this tiny obsession over hair, especially those that looked silky, smooth and just downright beautiful, but this was different, or at least that was what her mind was trying to tell her. Oddly, she could feel it in her somewhere that something was about to happen, and that something was the reason for her giddying-up, but what could it be?

...............................

    "Where's Amber?"

    The school cafeteria started to get crowded with students. Many were lined up by the counters waiting for their turn to pick up their food, chatting with their fellow schoolmates as they wait. A clique of four sat around a round-shaped table somewhere around the center of the cafeteria, an area reserved for seniors and seniors only, unless the students were given the green-light by their senior friends, then exceptions were made but that rarely happened. 

    Henry took a huge bite off his ham sandwich and munched hungrily, "She swhay she hadtch chupee."

    "Dude, don't talk with food in your mouth. That's gross," Luna swatted her hand at Henry's arm.

    "And it's not like we speak dorkamese," Key rolled his eyes.

     Swallowing his food, Henry reached for his apple juice and then took a gulp. "I said, she said she had to pee."

    Everyone hummed in response, biting and munching on their lunch as they waited for their blonde friend to show up.

    "You know," Key started, "Vic's back cause she got a job."

    "A job? Where at?" Henry chewed.

    "Here, dimwit."

    "Here?"

    "The school, you mentally-challenged moron." Key said, rolling his eyes. 

    "Quit it, sass-," Henry beamed, his face showing signs of annoyance, "What is she, a janitor?"

    "Oh, my god," Key turned to face Sulli, "Is he for real?"

     Sulli laughed lightly, shaking her head in disbelief. Sometimes her fair-complexioned friend can be quite the idiot, but still he was lovable in his own idiotic way.

    Key threw his head backwards and sighed, "Do you see her running around wearing yellow boots, Henry? She's a sub. A. Sub."

    Amused by the gay-and-straight-boy quarrel, Luna and Sulli couldn't do much but sit back and laugh. Key was in the midst of explaining the difference between a sub and a teacher when Luna spotted a familiar face in the crowd. She left the table and made a run towards the girl she had saw walking around the cafeteria, obviously wondering which table to sit at. With one arm linked onto the latter's, Luna dragged the surprised girl back to her own table where she could begin her introductions of her new friend to her old ones. "Guys, guys, guys," Luna called as she approached the table, "There's someone i want you to meet."

    The boys turned and found themselves looking up at a new face. A new and very, very pretty face. Luna placed one hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled the brightest smile, "Guys, this is Krystal!"

    Krystal had her usual poker face on as she looked at the two boys sitting in front of her. She glanced from one another, keeping silent the whole time as she wasn't sure how she should be greeting them. Henry starred at the new girl with curiosity-filled eyes. A moment passed before any of them showed signs of reaction. Key, being the diva of the crowd, broke the awkward silence by doing the thing he did best-- showering people with love.

    "Krystal! What a pretty name!" He jumped out of his chair and boldly reached out to cup Krystal's cheeks.

    "Oh, my god. You are so pretty. And your cheeks, they're adorabllllllllllle." He turned to the rest of his friends who stood around with shocked faces as they didn't know how the newbie would react to Key and his, well, his gay-ness. 

    "Isn't she just adorable?" Key focused his attention back to Krystal again, hands never leaving her face. "And your skin, wow, you're fairer than Henry." He tapped lightly on her face, feeling the elasticity of the skin.

    Before Key could give Krystal a full-facial massage, Luna interrupted, snatching away his hands from causing more damage. 

    "Keep your hands to yourself, homoboy. Don't wanna scare the girl away with your Key-ness," Luna flicked Key's hands off hers and looked back to Krystal."I'm sorry he assaulted you, but I promise this will be the last time his dirty hands come in contact with your skin."

    "My hands are not dirty!" Key gasped, placing one hand on his chest.

    Krystal looked at the two friends as they continued their argument mentally. Yes, no words were said, they were just remained glaring at one another, using their eyes to express what their mouth didn't. She her lips, willing herself to say something, but nothing came into mind. She wasn't usually that awkward with people and had always resented those who made things awkward, so she finally settled on a decision. Softly letting out a breath, she then opened to speak. "I"m-"

    "Sup, peeps? I-" A cuss word was emitted from the throat of the person who had come knocking into Krystal as she was trying to speak. 

    Krystal, after getting pushed, found her head lying safely against the chest of Key whom she had stumbled into. She quickly got up and bowed in embarrassment at the boy who had broke her fall. She turned around to face the culprit and found herself staring at another blonde.

    "YOU AGAIN," Both Amber and Krystal said together when their eyes found their way to one another's. 

    Amber chuckled, then brought her hand up to the back of her neck, "Why do we keep meeting like this?" Although she wasn't entirely sure that she was familiar with the face of the girl she had bumped into, but there was one thing she knew for sure--- she had most definitely seen that hair before.

    Krystal stared into the face of Amber, who looked very much amused at their incident, but unfortunately, the feeling was not mutual. Her stare was immediately transformed from looking to full-on glaring. In her head, she imagined grabbing Amber by the neck and then shoving her head onto the round cafeteria table. She did it over, and over, and over again. There was no stopping her attack on Amber, at least not until the blonde-haired apologized, which she didn't, both in the real world and in Krystal's mental world.

    Meanwhile, all movements at the table seated by four ceased. They looked at the two girls who did nothing but look at each other, well, at least one of them was looking. The other one was practically stabbing Amber in the chest with a kitchen knife, judging from the glare that she was giving. The table was silent, the only noises heard were the ones that came from their surrounding, after all, they were in the school cafeteria but if they weren't, they might as well be in a graveyard in the middle of the night.

    Luna cleared , distracting the rest from whatever staring contest Amber and Krystal were having with each other. Seeing that no one had even glanced her way, she decided to be the one to break the silence. 

    "So, you guys know each other?" She asked, looking from Krystal to Amber.

    Krystal rolled her eyes then looked away from Amber, finally putting a halt to their intense staring battle. She exhaled heavily, letting the air and steam, escape from her nose. She had hoped that the blonde jerk would get the hint and leave her alone before she bloew up from annoyance. She was also partly pissed because the latter had not apologized for knocking into her. 

    "Well?" Key pursued, moving his hand in a circular motion. He was nudging them to give him and the rest the story behind their acquaintance, but none looked like they were anywhere close to being ready for an explanation. 

    After having Krystal turned away, Amber still hadn't stop her staring. She looked at Krystal, really looked at her and tried to get a shock of realization to spark up somewhere in her. The brown-haired girl looked familiar, now she was sure, but the part where Amber just couldn't figure out was where she had met or seen her. And those eyes.

    "Will someone please have the decency to explain some things to me because I is much confuzzled," Key said a little louder than he normally would have.

    Amber reluctantly broke away her gaze from Krystal who still stood at the side of the table looking anywhere else but at her, and shifted her eyes towards her group of friends. Seeing that the brown-haired girl wasn't going to give in and start explaining anytime soon, she opted to be the mature one. "Guys, I-"

    "You're the ert from last night," the voice that sounded like it had been coated with layers and layers of ice came from across the table. 

    Amber's jaw hung loose. What did she just hear?

    "I'm sorry, what?" Luna beamed, not believing what her ears had heard. 

    "Hyung, what exactly were you up to last night?" Sulli added, shifting nearer towards Amber.

    "Yes, Amber, what did you do last night after you left Henry and I at the Club?" Key asked, his voice layered with sarcasm.

    After Krystal's monotonous yet horrifyingly cold statement, all eyes were on Amber. Everyone looked at her as she eyed Krystal with still hanging open, vulnerable for flies and other insects to enter. Her face was blank, and so was her mind. She tried to think of a comeback to counter-attack whatever lie that had just escaped from the brown-haired girl's mouth, but all her mind would think about was the fact that she had been called a ert.

    She who still had her first kiss intact and safely tucked away in a deposit box somewhere six feet under the ground; she who wouldn't even dare to look up at anyone who did not have a top on, be it a girl or guy; she who thought that the very idea of a man and woman sharing the same room was mad and dangerous; she who still slept with the night light at the far corner of her room because the dark frightened her. The same girl who had her eyes tightly shut whenever an inappropriate scene comes onto the television screen had just been branded, a ert.

    A ert? A ert.

    A ERT?

    "Jeez, no need to be yelling at us. We were just asking," Henry said. Apparently, Amber's thought had made its way out her lips and into ears of her friends who surrounded the cafeteria table.

    She smiled weakly at them, showing her white pearlies before turning to Krystal who had finally turned to look at her.

    She lifted her finger and pointed it at herself. "I'm a ert? You think I'm a ert?" She scoffed, tilting her head slightly backwards, "I don't even know you."

    Krystal raised both her eyebrows and and then blinked slowly.

    "Yeah no, I'm pretty sure you do."