AN: So, this is not my usual kinda thing at all because I wrote it as a school project rather than as a fanfiction. In fact, I changed the name to Gwen because I originally had something else. Still, I thought I'd put it up here so that maybe I can get some feedback, and besides I rather liked it :)

So, anyway, I'm thinking the story is a modern AU, told by Merlin about Gwen and Arthur in a high school setting. This will likely be a one shot, but if anyone likes it, I can go more in-depth with the AU universe maybe? Idk, we'll see.

When I used to think of Kansas, images of corn fields, Toto, and scary old women on bicycles popped into my mind faster than a country farm house can land on an evil old witch. Now, despite Dorothy's perfect voice and miraculous discovery of Buena Vista color, another kind hearted girl from Kansas also steps into my memory. Gwen from Kansas was the new girl at my school in my junior year. I doubt I ever would have met her if she hadn't been the only other junior in my Physiology class. Being the only two without graduation on the horizon, it was only natural that we came together to try to pass the vocabulary heavy course. Starting out, we knew little about one another beyond the fact that she was as scared of earthquakes as I am of tornados. As time passed, however, I was surprised to learn about this intelligent, quiet voiced girl.

For reasons beyond my understanding, Gwen had fallen in with the wildest party kids in the school and miraculously she had become the girlfriend of the party king himself. He was most famous for hosting the functions where no one needed an ID to get anything, nor did half the people care who anyone else at the party was, only that they knew how to keep down their dinners. Gwen, on the other hand, was most famous for arriving and being odd, quiet, and not his type. Though the year, I learned more than I'd ever dreamed I would about this Gatsby lifestyle, but stranger than learning of the party-goers ventures, was hearing it all from the soft spoken Kansas native.

As the year passed, Gwen began to change and the only way I can describe it is that she became depressingly hopeful.

"I love him," she'd tell me when she spoke about her Romeo. "But sometime I wish we'd take life slower. He could just buy me flowers. We could have a laid back Friday night dinner and then take a walk, arriving at a little bench and enjoying the star light. We will, someday, I'm sure. I just don't know when."

Later, the sad hopefulness grew to encompass not only the never changing party king, but also the gossiping entourage that she called her friends. It seemed that they, too, were showing her that she wasn't in Kansas anymore.

"They seem so nice," she told me one Monday after having some deep secret of hers spilled around the school. "I'm sure this was just a onetime thing. I'm sure they were just joking around. I can still trust them, right? After all, they're my friends."

On more than one occasion, I offered to introduce her to acquaintances that I had in a multitude of places. I even offered up my own little group, though we frequented the library more than we did big parties. At first, the idea made her shocked; she told me that she couldn't possible betray her friends. After a while, however, she accepted my offer, and yet she never showed up at lunch. The next day she told me that Romeo hadn't wanted to, and she couldn't leave the boy she loved. Anything he didn't want to do became forbidden territory. Despite being a Capulet amongst Montagues, it seemed that's where she thought she best belonged.

It wasn't until near the end of the year when Bonny and Clyde were found in the school bathroom doing only rumors know what. Long story short, Gwen was quickly falling apart. She seemed even quieter, sadder, and softer spoken then when I had first met her, despite her new experience with raging parties. Her so-called friends were the ones spreading most of the rumors and her perfect Romeo was about to break up with her. Finally, she decided that she would change something in her life, as there was very little left of what had once been her flowering kingdom. She sort of disappeared for quite a while, and no one really asked any questions. It seemed that the friends she'd so trusted had a newfound interest in fawning over her former boyfriend. He, meanwhile, didn't seem particularly concerned with keeping a steady girl by his side at the moment. Beyond that relatively small group of pre-senioritis lovers, it seemed that very few people even knew of Gwen's existence, and those who half remembered the small new girl who'd hung around Mr. Popular made few moves to see what'd become of her. For over a week, she didn't show up to Physiology, and I was left to fend for myself around a haggle of seniors a week from graduation.

On the day of the final, Gwen dutifully appeared. It was only a couple days before the end, and the senior were all squirming. The test was short and sweet, allowing time for watching Finding Nemo, which apparently was zoologically relevant enough to get the teacher out of having to control the summer fever in the room. On the last day of Physiology, which doubled as the last day of school, Gwen and I were the only two in the class, which cancelled itself when the teacher didn't show up. Gathering my fairly empty backpack, I bid the girl goodbye, but was stopped when she cast me a warm smile.

"Do you want to go to a party?" she asked me, relatively glowing with pride. "My boyfriend and I are back together, and he's throwing a pool party after school. I thought it'd be nice if you could make it."

I politely declined, but asked her to have a good time for me. When I arrived at my friend's own backyard summer bash, the smell of bbq was on the grill and the taste of watermelon was soon on my lips. I sat quietly for a while, enjoying Martinelli's Gold Medal Sparkling Apple-Grape Juice instead of joining the wild water balloon fight which had my friends soaking, screaming and laughing loud enough to be heard down the block. I couldn't escape forever, though, and when I found that someone's water balloon had made me it's mark, I leaped to my feet and joined the exciting endeavor of pummeling whoever it was who'd hit me.

I never really heard about or from Gwen after that year. She might have been there when we were seniors, but if she was she'd disappeared into the background once again. Without her in my class, there was no reason for me to ever see or speak to her. I wondered about her sometimes when I walked into the science wing, remembering how we'd studied aquatic creatures over by the tank now empty of goldfish and full of something I didn't recognize. I heard her name once or twice, I thought, but then I could have been mistaken. When she deleted her Facebook profile, she disappeared from my life completely. I can't say and will likely never know what become of Gwen from Kansas, but somehow I hope she found her Oz, somewhere over the rainbow.

AN: Please critique about the writing cause I have a couple days before this is due and it's still in a rough draft stage lol. Also review about the fanfic as a whole hehe. Hope you enjoyed!