The library here was much better than the one at my old school. It was bigger, and the books weren't as old. Not that there is a problem with old books, but you get sick and tired after a while of finally finding some old tattered book to find half the pages missing, after them having fallen out. And then sometimes the spines were so cracked you couldn't make out the titles and authors. Here, there wasn't a battered book in sight. It was brilliant!

I pulled another book from the shelf and tucked it on top of the pile I held in the crook of my arm. I decided I had enough and went back to the table I was sharing with Matt. He was writing a paper already for his first class today, Biology I think. I just wanted to pick some books to read, and also to get the few I hadn't read for the set list in English.

He glanced up as I approached him, and his mouth dropped open.

"Have you got enough there?"

I looked at the pile I was desperately trying not to drop, and ducked my head.

"Yeah I think so." I replied, getting to the desk just in time. The pile folded in half and spilled onto wooden surface, making quite a bit of noise for the relatively quiet library.

I looked over at the nearest table of students and saw only one of them looking over at me. It was a blonde girl, who was typing away on a small purple laptop.

"Sorry." I mouthed over to her.

She nodded and went back to doing whatever she was doing. I looked back at Matt who was trying not to laugh.

"Shut it." I jokingly told him, and sat down next to him.

"What are you doing then? Emptying the library?"

"No. Just getting a couple books that I haven't read from the set list in English. And then the others are just what I want to read."

"I gather you like reading then." He said, drinking some water.

"Actually no, I prefer eating the books."

Matt snorted and almost spat his water out.

"Sorry." I apologised.

He waved it away, and picked up one of my books.

"City of Bones? What's this about?" He flipped it over to read the back.

"What are Shadowhunters?" He asked before I could even speak.

"They're these people that are half human, half angel. They're like warriors. They use weapons that have to be activated by naming them after an angel. Like, there's this one weapon called a seraph blade, so if you were using one you'd have to call it, I don't know, Michael, to get it to work. Then it lights up with this sort of angel energy and they use them to fight demons. Their world overlaps ours. That one is based in New York. It's awesome."

I stopped speaking and he stared at me. I felt my cheeks turn red. I cleared my throat "So, yeah, that's what that's about." I mumbled, settling back in my chair, tucking my hair behind my ear. I fixed my eyes on the desk, focussing on the grains of wood. I knew I'd end up blowing it…

"That sounds pretty cool, actually." Matt spoke softly, shifting his chair closer to mine. I jumped slightly as he placed a hand on my arm.

"Amelia, look at me." He insisted.

I sighed softly before doing as he said. His blue eyes were sparkling in the sunlight that flooded through the window beside us.

"I'm sor-" He cut my words off by placing a finger over my lips.

"If you are about to say you're sorry, I don't want to hear it." He lowered his finger and I went to speak again. He raised an eyebrow though, before I could get anything out, so I shut my mouth.

"From what I can understand, you had a rough time at your last school. I won't pretend to understand but I can promise you one thing. I'm not going to say anything to you that might hurt your feelings, intentionally anyway. I think you're pretty great, and I hope you can trust me and let me get to know you better. You seem like a girl that could be a really good friend, and I'm not just saying that."

I sighed again, and gripped his hand. "Thanks Matt, truly. I needed to hear that. I'll try my best, I guess, to stop shielding how I act and speak. I really want to make good friends here, so I think I'll have to trust you."

"You can trust me, and my friends. I think you'll like them a lot. And I don't think they'll take anything sitting down either, so just prepare yourself for that."

"Ok. I look forward to meeting them. At lunch yeah?"

He nodded, turning back to the table, pulling papers back towards him. "We usually all manage to meet up somewhere. You'll meet a couple of them at least, if not all."

"Cool. What's your paper on? If you don't mind my asking that is."

"No not at all. It's for Biology."

Ah I was right.

"And it's kicking my ass."

"Oh." I glance sideways at him, and see his brow is furrowed. I look at his paper and see there is only a title, including a sentence that he'd scrubbed out. He's been on this for 15 minutes. Something is wrong.

"What's it on?"

"It's our first topic, anatomy. I was never any good at that. It was a fluke that I managed to pass Biology and Chemistry last year to even be able to get into the AP course."

"I'm sure that's not true. AP anything is a pretty massive step. You have to be good at it! Anyway, anatomy is pretty vague. Is there a main focus?"

"We get to pick it. But I thought, since I don't know anything off the top of my head, that I would just expand on what we did in class this morning. But I don't even get that."

I lean forwards and read the title. Muscle and Bone Structure: How they relate to one another.

"What don't you get?"

"Anything. All of the names for all of them are just so complicated. This isn't even the main body of the course yet, just the introduction, so how am I supposed to manage then? I am so not gonna graduate."

"Matt, stop. You're being entirely too hard on yourself, not to mention you're making this twice as hard for yourself. Did your teacher give you a sort of booklet on the course?"

"Yeah." He fished in his bag, looking thoroughly defeated, and handed me a small paper book, titled Advanced Placement Biology. Inside was the basic break down of all the topics they would cover.

"Ok so, your essay has to cover something under anatomy and physiology?"

"That's it. Anything under that, I can do."

"Well I could help you a bit, if you like."

"I would really appreciate that. But you didn't take AP Biology, did you?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I don't know about anatomy from other subjects. How greatly can you expand in an essay? Is it only to be scientific based? Or could you embellish and be a bit more…creative let's just say?"

"I guess I could, but what are you getting at?"

"Do you like drawing, Matt?"

He paused for a beat, staring at me. He blinked a couple of times, confused, before answering, "As much as the next person, I guess."

"Are you any good at creating a valid argument in an essay?"

"Er, yeah. I'm ok I suppose. Why?"

"Hang on two seconds."

I pushed back my chair and shot across the shelves opposite and hunted along the stacks for a book I'd laid eyes on, minutes before now. I spotted it and seized it, and flipped through a few pages, before lugging it back across the library; it was a massive book. I reached the desk we shared and placed it in front of Matt. He took in the title Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form, and looked back up at me, looking even more confused than before.

"This can help you understand more about how anatomy works and in your essay you could reference this book, and I don't know, say how artists capture movement, and stuff like that. Think it would work?"

He hooked his finger into the pages and opened it randomly. After reading a short paragraph on one page, his eyes widened.

"Oh thank god. Amelia, this is amazing. Thank you so much!"

I smiled a little and sat back down. "You're very welcome. Anything for a friend."

As I pulled a book towards me (Hamlet if you were wondering) he eagerly turned to the back to see the index, the expression on his face was greatly changed to what it was not even a minute ago. I sighed, feeling glad that I could help him, and then I opened my book at the first page. As I turned the first page, the girl with the purple laptop caught my eye. She was staring at Matt with a soft expression on her face, her work forgotten. She was very pretty, straight blonde hair to her shoulders, and a pink and black feather woven into a braid down the right hand side of her face.

She saw me watching her and jumped slightly. I gently raised a hand and smiled, to show her I wasn't about to tell Matt about her. She looked surprised for a second, but she soon smiled back. The girl then focussed back on her work, and I went back to Shakespeare. Today was going to be very interesting indeed.

Matt got so into writing his paper that his face was only several inches from the page as he scribbled away. His tongue poked out slightly in concentration, and he was so focussed that when the bell rang 45 minutes later, he jumped a mile, his hand jerked across the page, leaving a line of pencil.

"Oh darn it." He mumbled, and began hunting under the table for his bag.

Meanwhile I reached across and pulled the paper towards me.

"Matt, I've got it." I told him, as I started to rub the line out with an eraser.

He surfaced and grinned at me. "Thanks Amelia."

"You're welcome." I replied as I gather up the few books I had left. While Matt had worked on his paper, I'd sorted out all the books I'd picked up, and I'd decided to return a few to the shelf. I can always get them another time if I'm still interested. I was left with Hamlet, Wuthering Heights and The Cather In The Rye for English, since I already had The Great Gatsby and The Handmaid's Tale at home. And then I'd picked up The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, just to read for fun. If I enjoyed them then I'd buy them from Amazon or try to find a Barnes and Noble nearby.

Matt followed me as I carried them to the front desk to check them out. As the librarian, a tall, thin, bespectacled woman with mousy brown hair checked them out, he asked me where I was next.

I dug in my bag and fished my schedule out and saw that I was in my elective course, photography, which I'd been looking forward to.

I thanked the librarian once she'd finished stamping them all, to which she grunted, and sat back in her chair. I blinked at her rudeness, but quickly piled them all into my bag, and me and Matt left through the swing doors.

"So, photography?" He asked me, while I struggled to shut my bag.

"Yeah, I've always loved it. My mum showed me it first when I was little. She was always taking picture of me. I have albums and scrapbooks bulging with photos of baby Amelia."

"I bet you were cute." He commented, sliding past a group of girls gathered round a locker.

"I'll show you sometime, you can decide for yourself!"

He smiled again. "I'd like that. I don't get much normal time anymore."

"Oh? How come? Are you just busy now?"

"I guess you could call it that."

I saw in his eyes there was something bigger going on than just being too busy, but I decided not to push it. I'd only known him for an hour and 15 minutes.

We reached our lockers and I loaded all my books in, as well as my bag. I removed my notebook like before, along with my schedule and a pen, and shut the door.

"Where are you next Matt?" I watched as he pulled a massive black kit bag out from his locker.

"Football. But I can take you to photography first if you like, it's on my way."

"Oh thanks. Have you played football long?"

We set of down the corridor and he shouldered his bag before replying.

"All four years of high school so far. I'm a quarterback, and it's my only chance of getting into college. If I don't get a scholarship I'm screwed."

I took in his broad shoulders and how his shirt strained tight on his biceps.

"I'm sure you'll manage it."

"I thought that until last year. Me and my friend Tyler both were in for a shot of it, but then Stefan Salvatore showed up, and practically took over the team."

"Maybe you'll all get one?"

"Maybe but that's still a long shot."

"I'm sure you'll be fi-hey!" Someone slammed into me, causing me to stumble.

Upon seeing who my attacker was, Matt grabbed my arm, and swung me behind him.

"Leave her alone Jake!" He cried, keeping a hand on my arm.

"Why should I? She looks like a right little freak. What with that bushy hair, and her fat ass, why are you hanging around her Donovan? Afraid that's all you'll get, huh? After Elena dumped your hide-"

Matt dropped his kit bag and threw a punch, his fist colliding with Jake's jaw. He lost his balance and crashed into the lockers next to him. It was the wrong thing to do as it turned out, because Jake quickly recovered and grabbed Matt's shoulder, pulling him round. Matt crashed against the lockers too, and all I could do was stand there. I was used to hearing those words, but hearing them here, after the great morning I've had? I thought I'd managed to get away from the bullying here, but apparently not.

The next thing I knew, Alaric Saltzman came running down the corridor.

"Hey! Boys! Break it up!" But he wasn't quick enough. Jake managed to get in a couple of punches, and Matt was soon squinting in pain. Mr Saltzman tried to pull Jake off Matt, but they were too into it.

After seeing Matt getting punched again, this time in the ribs, I decided to try and help. Bad move. I stepped forward, and grabbed Matt's arm, trying to pull him away. But with my spectacular amount of luck, I managed to get right in the way of Jake's next swing. I felt it strike my nose, and the force he'd put behind it sent me reeling backwards. My vision blurred, and someone behind me caught me, and lowered me to sit on the floor.

"Oh God, Amelia. Are you ok?!"

The person who'd caught me was Jeremy, and he'd moved round to look me in the eyes. I saw his own widen as he saw my face.

"Damn you're bleeding Amelia."

I put my fingers to my nose to find blood dripping from it. I cupped my hand underneath my chin, at least this was something I'd had before.

"Here, take these." A girl crouched down next to Jeremy, and offered me a wad of tissues.

"Thanks." I said thickly, smiling as much as I could.

"You're welcome." She smiled back, her brown eyes soft and friendly.

"Shit Amelia. I'm so sorry, are you ok?"

Matt had managed to get away from Jake, and he collapsed next to me on the ground, on his knees.

"I'm ok Matt, just a nosebleed. I've had plenty before, don't worry. Are you ok though?"

"Yeah sure. Nothing a good night's sleep can't fix."

He went to say something else but was interrupted by Mr Saltzman yelling at Jake.

"I expected better from you Mr Bryce! You go straight to the headmaster's office, immediately. I'll come and find you later. Dina, you go with him, make sure he gets there."

"Hey Elena, what's going on?"

A blonde girl appeared and spoke to the girl who gave me the tissues. Before she could answer her friend though, the girl spotted me.

"Oh my god, are you ok?! What happened to you?"

"Jake Bryce punched her straight in the nose. She was trying to break up him and Matt up from fighting." Elena told her, before offering a sympathetic smile to me.

The blonde girl winced and stepped back a little. I guess she doesn't like blood.

"You don't think your nose is broken do you?" She suggested.

"I sincerely hope it isn't" This was Mr Saltzman joining our group now. He crouched in front of me. "Here let me see." He requested softly.

He placed one hand on my elbow and one on my chin, slowly drawing my hand away from my face, but keeping the tissues underneath it to catch the drips. He gently turned my face from side to side, studying my nose from all angles.

"I think you've had a lucky escape, Amelia. But I'd go to the nurses office to double check."

"I'll go with her, sir." Matt piped up.

"Me too." Jeremy added.

Elena glanced at her blonde friend, who nodded.

"We'll go with them too, Ric."

Hang on, Ric? Why is she on first name terms with a teacher? That's a bit odd.

But I'll leave that for later. As Matt and Jeremy helped me up off the ground, I focused on the fact that I suddenly had four people who barely knew me, but who cared enough to take me to the nurse's office. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all.