Mara's PoV

It's a Saturday morning on campus, the birds are happily singing their sweet tunes and few students are out. Most are either sleeping in, returning from graveyard shifts, or heading out to early morning shifts. Though Victor can be a grouch he does let us come into work in the late afternoons on Saturdays. I highly suspect Trudy goaded him into that but I still appreciate it nonetheless. As for me, I like to enjoy my lecture free Saturday mornings with a walk around campus. After I finish I'll probably head back to my dorm room and enjoy some breakfast and reading.

But a familiar face interrupts my thoughts, Mick Campbell rushes past me, nearly knocking me over.

"Mara!" he exclaims, panting heavily, "Gosh, sorry, didn't even see you there!"

I push my hair out of my face and smile diffidently up at him, "No harm done."

"Argh," he grunts, smiling ruefully, "You're just too nice, Mara."

"It's a curse and a blessing," I rock back and forth on my heels, "So…how about you make it up to me by joining me for a walk?"

"Fair enough," he says as we start to walk, "My workout is over, anyway. I'm doing special training for our upcoming tournament down in the states."

"Exciting," I nod, my mind elsewhere, "Where will the team be going?"

"California," he answers cheerfully, "Been there before with my dad, it's real nice."

"I imagine so."

"Mars?" he cocks his head to the side, "Everything all right?"

"I just…have a lot of my mind. Can we sit?"

"Yeah, yeah," he looks perplexed but leads me by the arm towards an empty bench. Sitting down, I inhale sharply, mentally practicing my speech for Mick. Last night I couldn't stop thinking about how Joy's predicament's with Fabian is so similar to mine with Mick. Ever since she met him, Joy's been star struck with Fabian and I feel the same way about Mick. When I first laid on eyes on that giant sport playing, goofy grinning, teddy bear I was instantly smitten. Joy's never told Fabian how she feels about him and now he's got his eyes on Nina. She's going to lose any chance with him if she doesn't act soon. It got me thinking, now that I know Mick is interested in Amber I ought to tell him how I feel before he goes after her. Otherwise, I'll be left in his dust, forever regretting keeping my mouth shut. What if I'm attending his and Amber's wedding and the minister says 'speak now or forever hold your peace'? In a way, if I don't speak now, I'll forever have to hold my peace. Now I know that's a bit extreme but it's now or never.

"Mick," I say, inhaling slowly, "I'm not sure how to articulate my feelings very well on this subject, but here goes. I really like you. You're funny, you're nice, and we get along quite nicely. I may not exactly be the sporty girl you're looking for but I think we could make this work. Would you fancy going out on a date with me and giving it a go?"

"Mars," he says finally, looking uncomfortable, "I like you too, Mara, but only as a friend. That's all I can ever view you as. And I don't want to ruin our friendship by doing something like this, what if something goes wrong and we don't ever talk again?"

Of course.

How could I be so stupid?

I should have expected his unaffectionate response.

"You're right," I tell him, my voice catching, "Sorry I even brought it up. Forget I said anything."

"I'm glad you understand. Friends?"

"Friends," I repeat numbly.

"Great," he grins, "See you around?"

"See you around."

And then he stands up, unaware of how painful it was to me to see him so quickly dismiss my feelings, and jogs away, not even looking back.

Then come the irrational tears.

They're not tears of sadness, just ones of frustration at myself.

So I just sit there on the bench, making a complete fool out of myself by crying. All my life I've read about heroines in books, strong female characters who no matter hopeless the situation are never helpless. And of course I've wanted to be like them, but now I realize I'll never be somebody special. I'm Mara Jaffray, too shy and nice for her own good. The girls in the books I read are strong and unyielding, never crying about something as silly as this. That's the problem with books; you get this glimpse of a better world with better people. But you're looking through glass and no matter how hard you try, you'll never get to reach out and touch them. Look, don't touch. Reading books makes you ache yet you still keep reading them.

So for a while I sit there, having my own personal pity party. It's pathetic, I know.

"Mara?"

I look up to see a familiar face and I hastily wipe my tears away.

"Hey, Jerome," I give him a small smile.

He sits down next to me and I breathe in and out deeply through my nose, trying to put on a happier face.

"Were you crying?" he asks innocently.

"Is is that obvious?"

"Kinda," he shrugs, scooting closer to me, "Want to talk about it?"

"Not at all."

"Is that girl code for I really want to talk about it but I prefer to hint towards it?"

A small laugh escapes my mouth, "When did you get so smart?"

"It helps to have a little sister," he smiles genuinely, "So tell me Jaffray, what low life broke your heart? And where might I find him so I can beat him up?"

Joy's PoV

The sun leaks in through the open window and falls on my face. Yawning, I lazily stretch and pull myself upright. One of my roommates, KT, is still fast asleep in the mattress adjacent to mine. She's snoring softly. My other roommate, Willow, is standing in front of the window with her back turned to me.

And directly to my right, her camera shutter keeps flashing, meaning that it's continuously taking pictures of me.

"Willow!" I shriek, yanking up my covers to hide my sleepwear.

"Good morning," she says pleasantly, turning around, "Did you sleep well?"

"Willow! Why was your camera taking pictures of me sleeping?!"

"Oh, that," she looks at camera pointed at me with great interest, "It's for Professor Botworthy's class."

"Is it?" I say sarcastically, "Oh then it's totally fine."

"Fabulous-"

"That was sarcasm! Of course it's not fine! You are not allowed to do that while someone is sleeping without their permission!" I hastily turn off the camera and scowl at her.

"Sorry," she shrugs lightly, unabashed, "We had an assignment to do time lapse photography. Obviously everyone is doing a flower growing or clouds moving. So I thought I'd do something different," her smile brightens, "Like people sleeping!"

"That is a total invasion of privacy," I moan.

"It's a unique approach!" she counters loudly, causing KT to stir.

"Unique or not, I will not let you hand in a video of me sleeping," I snarl, "Or KT for that matter."

KT grunts and slowly sits up, facing us with groggy eyes, "Wha?"

"Willow thought it would be okay to film us sleeping for a time lapse photography assignment," I tell her promptly.

"Because nobody else is doing that!"

Sighing, KT collapses back onto her bed, "Joy's right, just do something else. You could maybe do a city throughout the day? Or maybe people on a street?"

"Those are all being done," Willow pouts, giving me a pleading look.

"Originality is dead," I shrug, uncaring.

She sighs dramatically and flops onto KT's bed, "How am I supposed to be a creative filmmaker when others are always tearing my ideas down?"

KT sympathetically strokes Willow's wildly curly hair, "You'll figure something out. Creativity has no restraint and should not be torn down by others."

I roll my eyes, recalling when I first met my insane roommate. Dad had wanted me to be there first, so I was the first to arrive at my room. It was empty, so full of possibilities. I'd never met my roommates, only heard their names. So we began to set up my colorful bedspread and a few posters, then we said our tearful goodbyes, and my dad was off. I felt so worried that I'd be homesick despite the fact that the London Film Academy was only a few hours away from my home. Finally I met my first roommate, Kara Tatianna Rush, aka KT. We hit it off instantly when she complimented one of my posters and we quickly began to discuss our favorite directors. I thought that maybe I'd be okay, I could survive with someone as great as KT. Then came the quirky Willow Jenks, a girl who has no boundaries and an intense love for Mother Nature. At first I was ready to strangle her but over time she grew on me, her unusual methods and tastes become easier to deal with.

"Yeah," Willow mumbles, rolling over to face me, "I'm sorry, Joy. I just wanted to have an interesting project."

I exhale slowly, internally calming myself down, "It's alright, Willow. Just ask next time, yeah?"

"Willow do," she then giggles at her own mistake, "I mean, will do."

I throw a pillow at her and we both burst into a fit of giggles.

KT, who must be tired of being the diplomat, smiles between us, "I'm glad you two settled that. Now can we-"

An obnoxious sound fills our room, the ringtone my phone plays whenever Fabian calls. I resist the urge to slap myself when my heart skips a beat but I answer it anyway.

"Fabes?" I ask, trying to keep my tone even.

"Hey Joy," he chirps brightly, "Are you coming in today?"

"Of course, my shift starts at one."

"Yes, good! Great!"

"Fabes?"

"Yeah?"

"Any particular reason that you're asking me?"

"Oh! Yes, I er, need some advice."

"I don't mean to sound rude, Fabes, but couldn't you just ask me right now?"

"That's the problem. I need you as sort of an instructor slash prop. Well not prop, that sounds rather worrisome. Shall we say, someone to practice on?"

"Okay? Would you like me to come in early?"

"Yes that'd be brilliant! Oh thank you Joy for being so helpful."

"My pleasure. I'll see around…noonish?"

"Lovely!"

"Bye, Fabes."

"See you later!"

Sighing, I press end call and turn to my friends, slightly embarrassed they had to hear how desperate I sounded.

"And that's what 'done with liking Fabian' sounds like?" KT looks dubious, she and Willow know the whole Fabian story. Which consists of me meeting him, falling for him, realizing that he has zero interest in me, and then deciding that I'm no longer chasing after him.

"Mhhmm," I say unconvincingly, pursing my lips together.

"Oh Joy," KT clicks her tongue, "You're fooling yourself if you think that you can just get over someone like," she snaps, "that."

I hug my knees to my chest, "I know. But I can try, can't I?"

"It takes a long time to stop wanting someone," Willow interjects, "To stop thinking about them all the time, to stop looking at them to see if they're looking at you."

"You sound like me," I tease.

Her eyes are faraway, "I used to be you. I met this guy last summer; he was deeply handsome and had the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. Gosh, I thought he hung the moon."

"Was it a summer romance?" KT asks expectantly.

"I wish," Willow looks wistful, "We just hung out a lot. I always thought we had something special, but he never even gave me a second glance. When the summer ended he kissed me on the forehead."

KT groans, "Oh, what a jerk!"

"That's further than I've ever gotten with Fabian," I mutter under my breath.

"Anyway," Willow continues, "We kept in contact throughout the school year and guess what he talked about the most? This amazing girl in one of his classes; gorgeous, intellectual, and about everything I wasn't."

"I'm sorry-" I begin to say, but she interrupts me.

"Don't be. I learned a valuable lesson, guys are stupid."

"You got that right," KT agrees cheerfully, "So Joy, are you still going in early to see Fabe the babe?"

"Yes," I say quickly before they can protest, "So I can tell him the truth about pretending to share his interests and start to quit liking him."

"You keep saying that but somehow I don't think you can do it."

I stick my tongue out at her, "Either way, I'm going."

Sitting up, I go over to the mirror to try and brush through my hair. It's always a mess when I sleep on it wet and today is no exception.

"My hair looks like a bird's nest," I complain, vigorously brushing through a knot, "Not that I am trying to look good for Fabian."

Willow suddenly perks up, "Joy I've got a great mixture of natural ingredients that are great for-"

"I'm good," I use my free hand to wave her suggestion off.

Frowning, she quickly springs up. Then she darts over to me and steals the hairbrush out of my hand, yanks a hair elastic off of her hand, and hastily gathers her hair into a sloppy ponytail.

"I just realized," she says breathlessly as she quickly opens her door, "That I ought to do some yoga. Yoga is rejuvenating and gets the mind juices flowing. You two may join me if you'd like!" grinning, she dashes out the door. She's still barefoot, exposing her brightly painted toenails and her wild hair is falling out of her ponytail in wayward curls.

"Oh Willow," I shake my head.

So it's been a while...sorry about that. I lost inspiration for a long time and summer's busy. This is the shortest chapter and honestly it isn't really a chapter at all but I figured you guys deserved something. Look it's Willow and KT! I added them in, though I still need to finish season 3. I'm planning on continuing this fic but for now I'm taking a break. No writing or worrying about writing for a while. So sorry you guys have to put up with my disgusting updates. Hope you like it and please review! Until next time...whenever that is.

ALSO I went through and fixed hopefully most of the errors in the previous errors. Why not read them again?