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[@Grim][/center][hr][hr]

It was the start of a new semester for the students of New York’s Columbia University. Marissa Guerrero sat quietly in the back seat of the Cadillac SUV, watching the city through heavily tinted windows her way to breakfast. The young woman had flown back to the Big Apple from Monaco the past afternoon, and getting a good night’s sleep had been rather difficult. Funny things like that happened to her when her body clock was still on European time, and it was because of that very reason that Marissa had found herself awake a few hours before her first class was scheduled.

She'd decided that a good way to start her day was to get a hot drink with a pastry on the side. The question was: what was a good place around town to find those two items? The answer was plain, simple and obvious. The place to go was none other than the Upper East Side’s crown jewel: Sprinkles Café and Bakery. And that's where Marissa was heading on this cold, yet sunny morning.

After a twenty minute wait, Marissa exited Sprinkles and was once again inside the back of the Caddy. It was a short drive to Columbia, so there wasn’t much time for thinking this time around before her driver was notifying her of her arrival to campus. The raven-haired young woman thanked the man and left the vehicle, heading in the direction of the school.

Hot chocolate in hand and banana nut muffin neatly tucked inside her handbag, Marissa now made her way around the lush greens of the university’s vast campus. Even in the wintertime the grounds remained beautiful, as if unbothered by Mother Nature’s mood swings. She walked slowly, taking in every detail of her surroundings: the lilac flowers growing in a nearby bush, the thick trunk of the tall oak tree in the quad, the many faces of fellow college attendees in various locations and actions… 

Marissa was passing through the bleachers when she noticed a familiar face sitting alone in one of them. Alexander Bryant had been one of her classmates in last semester’s World History class, and even though they didn’t speak much beyond the occasional chatter of class-related things, the young woman felt she could approach him without seeming weird or too forward. She wondered why he was looking so sad and lonely, and decided on the spot to offer him some company. After all, she still had about an hour and a half before class.

[color=orchid] “Good morning, Mr. Bryant. [/color] Marissa said cheerfully, offering the young man a kind smile. She always used Mr., Mrs. or Miss and the last name when referring to people outside her inner circle. Maybe it was just one of those Monaco things that stuck.[color=orchid]“Would you be open to some company?”[/color] she asked softly, pointing to the empty space beside him.