Anna gasped as he caught her up simply and she had enough time, being held against him, for her heart to start racing before his words shattered what was left of her hope and he slung her aside like she was nothing... and at this point, to him, she guessed that's what she was. She gathered herself up just as he exited the gym and she sat where she'd landed and rested her head on her knees, her arms wrapped around them. She cried for the better part of ten minutes before the bell for the end of breakfast rang and she gathered herself up.

Wiping her eyes she texted a number she hadn't in years... Gunner's.

"U win, I'm done, I'll leave u alone..."

With that she let out another shaking breath and deleted his number and texted the one she'd been given last night by Rae.

"C u later?" She hoped he hadn't changed his mind...

Then, she headed down the hall towards her own room. She needed time to get herself straight before she saw anyone, right now she was in pieces.

~*~

Seb shook his head, "With them it's hard to tell how they figured it out... Sometimes I think they're having someone stalk me." He pulled the letter out of the envelope and skimmed it quickly before letting out a relieved breath.

"They don't know yet... My father is just disapproving of my having taken my Guardian to an expensive dinner last night." He shrugged, "He'll get over it."

He brushed his thumb over her knuckles, "Don't worry... If they do find out it's likely they'll have to address my mother having a heart attack before they come anywhere close to Academy," he teased.

"I don't care what they think, Serena. It's you and me... and as soon as Gunner and Anna get their heads out of their asses it'll be us and them too."

He sighed as the bell went off and pointed at her food, "You'd better eat that before you go anywhere. You need to keep up your strength up if we're going to be dealing with all this stress." He shook his head, "I'll head to the feeders after class."

He kissed her gently and then headed to the class to teach, hoping she took his advice and ate something.

~*~ THREE WEEKS LATER ~*~

Anna leaned against the wall outside Rae's class as she waited for him to get done teaching. She'd no idea why he'd taken a break from working at his father's business to come here and sub-in for Academy. Honestly, he seemed pretty bored doing it so she guessed maybe it was something his father had insisted on before he'd agree to sign over his business... Responsibility test or something. Either way, she was happier than she'd been in a long while. She'd managed to avoid Gunner almost completely lately and the few times she'd seen him she'd done as he'd asked... She left him alone, sticking to pretending that seeing him didn't still drive a knife into her heart... pretending she didn't see him at all.

It seemed mutual, his stony silence hadn't changed any since the last time she'd tried to speak with him... If anything it had gotten worse. To make things more complicated Serena and Sebastian seemed determined to get the two of them together and Anna was running out of excuses. Sooner or later, they'd have to be trapped in a room together and they'd both have to act like it was fine... that they were fine, for their friends because Anna wasn't going to let this drag her friends down.

Her relationship with Rae was a well kept secret, she was totally professional while they were on campus, but in their free time before curfew they skipped off of the Academy grounds and she let being a Guardian take a back seat. Rae did his best to wow her with all the new things he was introducing her to and he was doing a great job to be honest. They were officially casually dating now, which was probably the most serious any relationship had ever gotten with Rae and they'd still yet to do anything more than make-out which also had to be some kind of record... Anna just couldn't quite bring herself to make that last step and Rae was as patient as ever though she had no idea why. However, despite their being careful, Anna was pretty sure that Gunner had to know by now... but if he did he hadn't said a word... So maybe he didn't?

Anna glanced up as the bell rang and entered the room as the students exited, "Hello again, Mr. Costa," she said with a smile.

~*~

Sebastian had gotten absolutely nowhere with Anna and Gunner, the issues between them seemed to have gotten worse if that was possible. Now, they seemed content ignoring each other's existence completely. Plus, Anna's aura had changed... It was dingy grey less of the time and what bothered him was that when she was watching Rae or Guarding him, it flared a little with the light it had had before. Was Anna moving on? He could see she didn't love Rae but she definitely cared about him and... He had to grudgingly admit that apparently he felt something for her too.

He'd kept this information away from Serena, he didn't want anything stressing her out and besides... His aura reading had been a little off lately. Everyone else seemed fine, but anytime he looked at Serena it was like having double vision... There was an aura inside her aura. He had no idea what he was looking at but he had noticed she'd been moodier lately... He'd actually had to leave the room once or twice because she'd lost her temper with him and other times he'd had absolutely no idea why she started crying. Maybe it was some kind of split personality or the darkness affecting them both... He wasn't sure but it was throwing him for an absolute loop. He'd even considered talking to Jace, to see what he saw but he didn't trust the guy to be straight with him... and he didn't like him.

Seb was currently finishing up his class and he was exhausted. Serena hadn't been sleeping well, she'd been sick with some kind of bug that had her throwing up and running to the bathroom all night this past week. He wasn't sure when the last time he'd fed was because he'd been too worried about leaving her alone, another source of some of their arguments. Thankfully, he'd talked Serena into sleeping in today and he stopped by the feeders before he headed back to their room. He poked his head in like he was walking into a war zone, "Serena?" Best to gauge her mood before conversing.