*Grace's POV*

"Are you sure you've got everything? And you know how to get to your class?" I swear Karma is sounding more and more like Mom the older we get.

"Yes Karms, I'm fine," I reply but her concerned expression doesn't depart.

"You know we can just do this together, we don't have to go it on our own," Karma continues and I sigh before turning to face her.

"Karma, it was your idea to find new friends this year and try to live our own separate lives," I remind my sister and she reaches up to fix my hair absentmindedly.

"I know; I'm just a little bit worried is all. Just let me have this moment, my little girl is growing up," Karma replies softly with a teasing smile.

"I'm older than you, you dork," I remark with a smile and her eyes light up before she drags me towards the mirror.

"Not this again Karma," I plead but she plants me in front of the mirror and looks over my shoulder at our reflections. It really is remarkable how identical we look feature wise, we have the same facial structure but my eyes lean more towards the darker side of hazel and hers are more towards the greener side. Our hair colour is the same as well although hers is curled to the degree of perfection and mine falls in softer waves. Our clothing is another stark difference between us, Karma prefers dresses and all things floral whereas I much rather jeans.

"Alright Gray, do me proud. What do you see?" Karma gives me a slight squeeze of encouragement.

"Alright fine," I sigh deeply before tapping into the sappy, self-loving sort of thing Karma wants me to talk about.

"I see a smart, funny, beautiful, young woman, with a kickass personality and an above average talent on a guitar," I look at my twin expectantly and she smiles at me before replying,

"Great job, now describe yourself," Rolling my eyes I turn and whack her lightly on the stomach while Karma just laughs at her own lame joke.

"Can I leave now? I want to check out the campus a little before my first class," I ask once my sister has composed herself.

"Alright, you can go. Seriously though, Grace, try and make some friends. And for the love of Netflix, don't eat your lunch alone. Befriend a teacher's assistant if you must, just find someone to spend lunch with," Karma eyes me, knowing I'd much rather just find a nice quiet spot and eat alone.

"I'll try," I mutter to appease her before grabbing my book bag and leaving our shared room.

Wanting to please my sister I scan the quad looking for somebody that looks at least a little bearable, even a TA wouldn't be out of the question at the moment. I'm so determined to find someone I almost don't notice a voice calling out, "Hey you, Little Red,"

Turning to look around I locate the source of the voice, two admittedly attractive guys were lounging at a table not far from where I was standing. Judging from the look on the face of the more 'fabulous' looking guy of the two, they were definitely calling out to me. Dredging up a smile I grab the strap of my book bag and make my way over to them. Even from my slight distance I could see that both guys had dark hair and dark eyes but one had a more boy next door type of vibe going and the other exuded a sassy gay friend sort of vibe.

"Hey there, I haven't seen you around before," The guy who called out to me speaks again.

"Yeah, I'm from upstate but I just moved down for school," I respond and try not to notice that the guy's friend has remained silent but is openly checking me out.

"I'm gonna guess you are a freshmen, I'm Shane by the way, Shane Harvey," the guy, Shane, outstretches his hand for me to shake and I do so lightly. The other guy chooses this moment to stop ogling me and introduce himself, "Liam Booker," He too reaches his hand out with a cocky smile, holding on just that little bit too long.

Remembering Karma's words I force myself to remain polite and despite Liam's obvious multitude of douche I force myself to ignore the fact that he rubs me the wrong way and pay attention to the physical side of things. Liam really does look like quite a catch, if you can ignore the previously mentioned character flaws. Knowing my sister will flip if I actually found friends this quickly let alone a guy worth dating I decide that this guy is as good as any to try my luck with.

After a moment I confirm my decision and turn on the charm, "I'm Grace Ashcroft, it's nice to meet you both," Both guys smile and I let my gaze linger just that little bit longer than necessary on Liam and I can tell he is enjoying my sudden display of interest.

"Mind if I sit?" I gesture in between them with a sweet smile, channelling the flirty behaviour I had seen my sister pull of multiple times. Liam and Shane are delighted and jump to accommodate for me, Damn, I should really look into acting courses later. After a fair amount of talking on Shane's part I find out that both he and Liam are sophomores, they are also two of the most popular guys in school and have been since the years they ruled their old high school together. I don't really need to be told that my earlier suspicions about Shane being gay were correct, seeing his check out the asses of at least three guys that walk past only confirm it even more. Not that I have a problem with it or anything hell, my sister is gay after all, I'm hardly going to judge him for it. Noticing the time I quickly excuse myself from the two and make my way to my class. Karma is going to love hearing about my adventures with the popular kids I'm sure, I'm glad I'm out of view of Liam and Shane now though.

I can finally drop the friendly smile I've had on my face for the last 45 minutes and the relief is instant , I've still got a fair walk to my class but I'm making good time. I find that my smile returns, only genuine this time, when I look up and see a cute guy with overly large nerd glasses and an adorably dorky smile, directing said smile at me as I walk past. I find that even as we pass each other I don't want to break eye contact just yet, I turn my head to look at the boy and he does the same. In my peripheral vision I see that the poor guy is about to run into somebody. Miraculously the guy turns just in time to sidestep enough for him to only mildly collide but by the time the incident is over I'm at the door for my class.

It's refreshing to know that not every smile is going to have to be faked and I sigh a little bit, I don't know how Karma does it all the time, this being friendly and attractive shit is exhausting.

It's currently 2:44AM so I'm sorry if this is horrible but I really wanted to start on this before I go back to school. I hope you guys like Grace, it took me ages to find a name I liked that sounded like it came from the same people that named their children Karma and Zen. But anyway, I feel like I'm going to have a lot of fun with this story and I hope you guys like it too. -Zahli