Disclaimer: Sarah J Maas.

[Edited 2/04/17]

Aelin usually took most things in her stride. One front in front of the other, walk with swagger and a pretence that nothing could and would ever hurt you. Nothing ever got past your guard yet... sometimes it did.

She will never speak of those times again, thank you very much.

Aelin shook out her blonde hair and grinned at her reflection, her eyes — a kaleidoscope of colors sparkled and looked unusually bright. She was currently sitting in front of her room desk, her make-up box open and spilling out various products.

She was one of those girls that used a good amount of make-up but she looked good and actually knew what she was going do in order to look even better. Well, that's what all her instagram followers told her. They were kind of rude at times. Always saying that Aelin probably looked terrible without make-up which was a lie because at least 60% of her selfies on Instagram were no filter or make-up. All natural and everyone knew she was just one of those people. Beautiful, refined and scarless.

Sadly, they had no idea how scarred she actually was. Her back was an array of whip marks that never healed properly.

She never wore anything backless unless she was out with Dorian, her best friend, and they had to be alone in a secluded area, otherwise the chance was close to nothing... It was actually nothing.

Her room door opened and a girl, around her age, walked in. The girl was someone almost ethereal. She was that beautiful. She had exquisite hair, long and almost moon white hair. Aelin couldn't seen the girls' roots. Aelin met the other girls' eyes and was trapped in its gold like quality.

"Manon, right?" Aelin said, breaking their silence staring contest. More like a checking-out-how-good-the-other-one-looks contest.

The girl—Manon—grinned. Manon tapped her long silver finger nails on her silver neck chain. It was more a chain than a necklace, which indicated something dainty but this was chunky. It was pointy and sharp, like shark teeth but it wasn't. It wasn't boring metal beads but it was like nails. Sharpened and flat. Aelin assumed it matched her personality. Cutthraot. Not that she knew the girls personality yet. She just guessed, really.

"Aelin. Who knew that such an...odd name would actually suit such a pretty girl?"

Aelin smiled at Manon. She liked her already. At least she didn't have a lame roommate. Aelin could tell Manon and her would be a handful together.

"Same could be said for you."

"I'm not pretty. I'm ferocious. Vivacious. Eccentric." Manon grinned, showing off her white, straight teeth. Gods. Everything about Manon seemed perfect. "Anyway, I'm curious," Manon purred. By the wyrd, even the way she spoke was purr-fect. She spoke as if she was enticing someone...to let Manon have her way and Aelin found that pretty damn awesome. "How did you manage to become a teaching assistant in your first year?"

"Easily." Aelin teased. Not that it was easy. It required a lot of motivational essays and recommendations. It was a hectic journey but it would hopefully be all worth it as she claimed her position as helper. She had enough credits for English anyway but she wanted this on her CV. It wasn't as if she was planning to find a career using English but job experience could never lead you astray. Speaking of which, she had no idea what she was planning to do with her life.

"Aelin! Aelin!" Her little sister called. Well, Elide wasn't her biological sister but she had grown close to the girl in a matter of two years and three months. Her adoptive mother followed in Elide's wake. Elide limped toward her, a result of a car accident that left her without the proper usage of her leg and her father's life.

Manon took a step back and started to unpack. Marion, her Mum, clapped her hands together just once and said, "well we better get going. Will you walk us out?"

Aelin glanced at Manon and and told her, "I'll be back in a few minutes. If a boy comes — named Dorian — beware of his flirting. He's my best friend so do tell him that this is my dorm." Manon nodded. "Thanks!" She exclaimed as Elide dragged her off.

Once they were out of range of her dorm, Elide said in a quiet tone. "Your roommate is so pretty."

Aelin bit back her smile as Elide continue to speak about the girl she had not even said one word to. In fact, Aelin had thought that Elide had not even noticed Manon but it seemed to be otherwise. The seventeen year old was a little too interested in Aelin's roommate.

"Elide, come now. We need to go." Marion spoke in a gentle tone.

"Yes, Mother," was her reply. Her eyes filled with tears and Aelin felt so guilty for leaving the little girl, but there was nothing she could do. It was inevitable.

Aelin wrapped her arms around Elide and gave her a tight, long squeeze. "Don't worry, I'll message you every day. Please stop crying, Munchkin."

"I'm crying?" Elide said with a laugh and her tears spilled down her face. "Well now I am." Elide sighed but took her mother's key and opened the car to get something.

Marion looked like Aelin with said hopeful eyes. "I'm sure your parents would be so proud of you."

Aelin sucked in a breath. "Thank you Mum, for everything you have done for me. It means the world to me."

Elide returned with a small present. It was medium sized and Aelin guessed it was book. She loved reading. Aelin took it from her and opened it in a flash. The gift wrapping was gold little bows on a plain black background.

She unwrapped it and found that it was a box. She frowned. Damn, they had fooled her into thinking it was a book. She lift the the lid and found a necklace. It was intricate and delicately made of three circles. One larger on and two inside. Where the two smaller ones met, a blue gem hung.

"It's beautiful. Thank you so much." Elide kissed Aelin's cheek and Marion engulfed her in hug.

Aelin waved goodbye to her family with a sad smile but she had to be brave. She was beyond excited to start university. She walked back to her room.

Imagine a new beginning. Completely new. Her story was buried, now over and it was a heavy load lifted off her shoulders.

She wasn't paying attention so it wasn't surprising when she walked into someone. Though Aelin did not expect him to be holding scalding hot coffee.

The man she walked into hissed. Snarled really. He looked extremely pissed yet Aelin could see that the man was extremely handsome. The man scowled at his shirt then at Aelin.

"Can you not walk straight?"

Aelin was so tempted to flirt but she refrained from doing so. The man was pretty angry. Also he was just plain pretty, Aelin noticed. He had bandages on his arms, and Aelin thought that he had probably gotten tattoos recently.

"Sorry. I'll buy you another one?"

The man snorted. "Clearly you don't know who I am. I'm a professor here."

"I wasn't asking you out. I was literally saying that I would buy you a coffee for spilling yours on you, not date you. I don't wish to date just yet."

The man—the professor man—snorted again. Aelin could feel the arrogance just roll off him. He was probably one of those men that had woman falling to his feet and Aelin could see why. He had a bit of white hair, cut very short so she really couldn't see it that well in this lighting, but mainly it was his eyes that interested her the most. Moss green.

The man started to walk away when Aelin called out to his retreating figure, "do you not want me to buy you a coffee? Or something..."

"We'll see, Aelin. We'll see."

"Wait!" She called out. "How did yo..." She trailed off, unsure of where he had gone and how he left so quickly.

How did he know her name?

Manon stood leaning against the wall when Aelin had walked in. Manon didn't seem disinterested, she was wary and looking around, Aelin knew why.

Dorian.

He was sitting on Aelin's bed just staring at Manon. They—Dorian and Manon—seemed to be locked in some type of stare down. Aelin hoped it wasn't they weren't hating each other but she also hoped they wouldn't get along too well. The last thing she needed was Dorian hooking up with someone who would inevitably break his fragile little heart. She had to protect that boy. Both Chaol and her did but now it was just Aelin as Chaol went to a different college. Not too far from here but far enough that he didn't constantly worry Aelin.

Aelin silently snorted. Her best friend and sister have crushes on Manon, though she could understand why. Manon was clearly a beautiful force to be reckoned with.

"This is your roommate?" Dorian asked with a smile. He was a bit too happy and therefore Aelin was a bit too suspicious.

"Yeah, Manon. Please try not to kill each other because I suppose you will see a lot of each other."

Dorian stuck out his tongue at Manon and the girl glared at him. Oh gods, they hated each other. Aelin sighed and said, "so I walked into one of the professors just now."

"Already causing trouble, Aelin?"

Aelin sent Dorian a scathing look. "I didn't mean too, although I might have walked into him resulting in him spilling his coffee on his shirt." She looked at her on top. "And a bit on mine." Aelin sighed, it would be easier to change in her room... Deciding on not delaying the inevitable, Aelin found another shirt and took off her own. She heard Manon suck in a breath but other than that, nothing. She turned back to the two and Manon shrugged but changed the subject.

"Speaking of professors," Manon said. "Apparently the English teacher is all the rage right now and it's only his second year."

"Professor Whitethorn?" Dorian said.

"That's the one."

"Isn't that the one Aelin's the TA for?"

Aelin who went quiet for some time frowned. "The same one."

"The teacher you dropped coffee on doesn't have almost white hair and startling green eyes, does he? Plus a pretty harsh attitude. He's also really tall. Otherwise you truly aren't going to do so well..."

The dots connected in Aelin's mind. Oh rutting hell, so that was how he knew her name. She had spilled coffee on the teacher she was supposed to be helping and she wanted to flirted with him. Aelin grinned to herself.

This might get interesting. A little too interesting