Theta was avoiding her; Ariana knew he was, much to her concern and frustration. It had been four weeks since the mountain incident, since she had very nearly ended up being killed for their stupid attempt at a fun adventure, not that she blamed Theta for any of it. They were just as at fault for the whole ordeal and while the adventure certainly could have ended a lot better than it had with Ariana ending up in a healing coma, it still could have been a whole lot worse. She was perfectly fine now with only a small scar left behind, barely visible in her hairline of her left temple, after taking a week away from school upon her physician's advisement and her parent's displeasure, but that had been three weeks now since her return to school and still, Theta continued to avoid her, skipping meals and somehow managing to find a way to avoid her even between classes in the hallways, much to her annoyance and confusion, not understanding how he was able to seemingly just disappear into thin air.

She just wished to speak to him, to reassure him that she did not blame him for anything and that regardless of what her family might say, she refused to give up their friendship after some silly incident. She desperately wanted to also know that he was okay, physically she knew that he had managed to come away from the mountain with only some mild bruising and abrasions, but what about psychologically and emotionally? It surely couldn't have been easy for him to witness her fall and near death, and she knew that he had been greatly distressed, according to her maid. She hated this distance between them, missed their easy, carefree friendship, how he was the only one she could speak to freely without fear of judgment.

She released a heavy sigh, gazing miserably across the large, open dining hall towards the massive entranceway, ignoring the soft babble of the other students around her, her own food left to go cold. She had little interest in food right now, not while she was unable to stop herself thinking about what a poor state her friendship with Theta was right now, it was even starting to impact upon her studies, though she tried hard not to allow it to. If her parent's even suspected for a mere second that her studies were being affected by Theta…well, it would only make matters all the more worse than they already were. Relations between the Great House of Lungbarrow and the Great House of Blyledge had not been so tense in centuries, all because of one idiotic accident between herself and Theta.

"Would you please stop that?" Ushas cool, annoyed voice broke through Ariana's thoughts.

Ariana blinked in surprise and turned her head towards where Ushas was watching her with narrowed, irritated eyes, "I wasn't aware that I was disturbing you from your meal," she said dully, returning her eyes back onto the entranceway, just wishing that Theta would make an appearance so she could speak to him, "I apologise".

She rolled her eyes, sniffing haughtily, "This behaviour is sickening," she told her, picking up her spoon to return to eating her meal, "Do you have idea how foolish you are making yourself appear? Moping after a boy, honestly…"

"I am not moping," she frowned at her, her head snapping back around to her, "He's a friend, I am merely concerned for him. He's been avoiding me".

"He always has been a coward".

"Ushas!"

"She's not wrong," Koschei remarked casually, seemingly barley even paying attention to the conversation happening across the table from him, peering at his open textbook beside his empty plate.

Ariana looked between them, quite shocked and appalled that Theta's so called friends would be speaking about him like this, calling him a coward and not even attempting to defend him in any way. She knew, of course, that the relationship between Theta, Ushas, and Koschei was always a slightly odd one, she never did quite understand how any of them had remained friends given just how completely different their personalities were, Ushas could barely stand any of them and only seemed to put up with them, while Koschei could be downright cold and cruel at times, and Theta…well, he was so bright and playful. She didn't think she had even seen him snap at anyone before in the five years she'd known him, so how did they all end up as friends? Koschei she could understand better, they had known each other before the Academy, but Theta and Ushas was still a mystery to her. Either way, the fact that they seemed to be perfectly fine calling their so called friend a coward like that didn't sit right with her.

"That's awful," she shook her head, her expression still aghast, "How can you speak of Theta like that?"

"It's really rather easy," Ushas shrugged carelessly, taking a mouthful of her food and chewing without even glancing at her.

Koschei actually smirked at that, while Ariana shot her a dark look, "You don't know him like we do," he said lightly, drawing Ariana's attention back across the table to him. He continued smirking at her, leaning back in his chair, arrogance practically radiating off him, "He always runs away, any time something serious happens, he turns and runs away, rather than own up to it," he shrugged again, while she frowned at him, "He's always been like that, a coward".

Ariana straightened in her chair, narrowing her eyes as she folded her hands together neatly on top of the table, "So what are you suggesting?" she asked with a slightly aggressive tone entering her voice, feeling as though she needed to defend her friend when he wasn't present to do so himself, even if what they might be saying may hold some truth. She still didn't believe that they should be speaking of a friend like that behind his back.

He rolled his eyes at her, leaning forward towards her, mimicking her posture, "What I am suggesting is that Theta is merely acting as he always does," he replied, "He thinks you're cross with him, so he's avoiding you to save the inevitable were you decide to no longer be friends," he scoffed, falling back against his chair again, almost sneering, "He'd claim he was trying to be noble and save you from having to do it".

"But I'm not upset with him," she shook her head quickly, feeling even worse at hearing that Theta apparently thought she would be, or that he thought she would wish to end their friendship. Of course she didn't want to stop being friends with him, not over something so trivial, and it only made her want to speak to him all the more, "Why would I be upset? The whole mess was both of our faults; we were both idiotic enough to actually believe that we could climb a mountain with no experience or previous lessons".

"Theta is hardly the brightest," Ushas remarked, pushing her now empty bowl aside and reaching for her schoolbag beneath her chair.

Ariana reached up to rub her forehead in a rather uncharacteristic sign of frustration and annoyance with both Ushas and Koschei and their constant downgrading of Theta, was it truly impossible for them to say one nice thing about their so called 'friend?' Sure, Theta might not really try when it came to school, but she knew that he was clever, far more so then anyone ever gave him credit because everyone seemed to believe that the only form of intelligence was academic, even their professors seemed to view him as an idiot. It probably shouldn't annoy her as much as it did, but for some reason it did, perhaps because she just wished people could see what she did in him, all of the potential that he actually did possess, if only he was given the right motivation and means to express it.

"You two…" she closed her eyes tightly, gritting her teeth as she resisted against the urge to throw her entire plate of untouched food all over them both right now, not even caring to much about the punishment that she would receive for doing so, "…are completely useless," she cracked eyes open, finding Koschei and Ushas simply looking at her expressionlessly, though Ushas did raise her eyebrows as Ariana huffed loudly, glaring now, "I need to speak to Theta, I don't care about anything else but speaking to him and clearing up this whole mess, because despite what he might think, I happen to still wish to be his friend. So…" she paused, taking a deep, calming breathe as she struggled to maintain her composer, "If either of you have any idea of how I might do that, please, I implore you tell me now".

Silence settled over their table, Ariana looking back and forth between them with a hopeful and expectant expression. She had enough of being patient, of simply waiting for Theta to approach her or hopefully trying to speak to him after class, since they currently didn't share any classes with each other. She was starting to realise that if she wished to have something happen, she was going to have to take matters into her own hands and just simply do it. She didn't care if it might not be completely ladylike or proper for a girl of her birth, if her near death experience had taught her anything it was that she didn't wish to live her entire life ruled by rules and others opinions on what she should or shouldn't do, she wanted to live her own life as she saw fit because life could so easily be shattered in a second. It was such an odd concept, she had never stopped to consider just how fragile life truly could be, Time Lords so rarely needed to think about it, that was something that species like humans constantly had weighing upon them, but she had experienced how easy death could come to touching someone. It was an experience she would not take for granted.

"Oh, you must have some idea," she sighed in annoyance when two minutes had ticked by without a single utterance from either Koschei or Ushas. She crossed her arms across her chest, raising her eyebrows at them both, "As you claimed before, you know Theta better then I, logically that must surely mean that you also know how best for me to speak to him when he seems determined to avoid me".

Koschei's eyes glimmered darkly and the corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk, eyeing her closely, "There may be a way…" he began slowly.

Ushas laughed suddenly, earning a frown from Ariana, not understanding the joke, "Oh, you can't be serious?" she shook her head at Koschei's, a knowing and amused expression crossing her face, "She'll never go for that, you fool. She's far too good and proper," she looked over to Ariana and gave her a mocking little smile, "The mere mention of it will scandalise her far too much".

"What are you talking about?" Ariana questioned cautiously, feeling horribly confused, though the back of her neck was already starting to warm. She wasn't entirely sure if she truly wished to know now, not if it apparently amused Ushas so much and made Koschei have that strange, rather disconcerting glimmer in his eyes as he continued to eye her from across the other side of the table. But then she remembered why she was doing this and her decision to ignore what others thought or said, if she intended to start living her own life the way she wished to, then wasn't this a chance to do just that? Go against her parent's wishes for her to give up her friendship with Theta and do what she wanted, which was speak to Theta and reassure him that she in no way blamed him.

Koschei folded his arms and placed them on the table, leaning closer towards Ariana, who automatically leaned closer to him too, "You've surely heard the rumours of secret tunnels built around the school," he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper as Ariana blinked, struggling to hold back her own curiosity. Of course she knew the stories, everyone did, but no evidence had ever been found to suggest that it was true. He smirked, almost smugly as he seemed to know what she was thinking, "Oh, it's very true, I assure you. This place is full of passageways; they lead everywhere, even into the Citadel…"

"That's not possible," she cut across him in a soft voice, frowning deeply at him, how absurd it was to think that there would be secret tunnels leading all the way to the Citadel, "The Capitol is on the other side of the planet, miles away from here, no one would bother to build tunnels that far".

"And yet our ancestors did," he shrugged, "Of course, they used science to compress the distance between the Capitol and the school, it rather makes one wonder just what the purpose for such tunnels were, does it not?" his eyes glimmered again in that disconcerting manner.

"You'll frighten the girl, Koschei," Ushas lightly scolded, laughing faintly again.

Ariana ignored Ushas remark, eyeing Koschei thoughtfully, "How do you know so much about these tunnels?" she asked curiously, suspicion growing, "They mustn't be very secret if you, a mere student is so knowledgeable of them".

Smugness and pride practically oozed off him at the question, instantly making Ariana half-wish she hadn't bothered asking, but she was terribly curious, "My ancestor helped build the school, of course," he replied, as though it ought to be common knowledge, "And the Citadel. You really should pay more attention in history, Ariana".

She felt her annoyance prickle at that implication that she didn't pay attention in class, even if Gallifreyan history truly was terribly dull in comparison to, say, her advance scientific engineering class or even chemistry classes. She knew for a fact that no such mention of anything relating to Koschei's family had been made in class, most people would likely say that it had been Rassilon and Omega who had designed and set in motion the first construction of the Academy and the Citadel, Ariana, however, knew for a fact that most of Time Lord history was based upon what society chose to believe and acknowledge, rather then what may have truly happened. Still, she didn't like Koschei's smugness of the matter, even if it could very likely be true.

"I congratulate you on your admirable family history," Ariana sighed, reaching up to rub her forehead again, just wanting to speak to Theta, not hear about ancient history, "But if you might explain to me how this has any relevance to speaking to Theta…?" she lowered her hands, raising her eyebrows expectedly at Koschei.

"As I said, the tunnels are hidden throughout the school, including the school dormitory levels".

She froze, her eyes widening in horror and her cheeks warming as it hit her just what he was implying, the mere suggestion truly was scandalise that she use these tunnels to…well, sneak into the boy's dormitory level and…Oh, no, she couldn't even finish that thought! If someone even knew that they were discussing this right now, her entire reputation would be ruined, her family shamed and dishonoured. Sure, Theta had snuck into the girl's dormitory level one evening to speak to her, but they had managed to avoid being caught that time, only because Theta was so well versed at travelling the school hallways at night. Ariana, however, was not, not to mention attempting to move through these secret tunnels that she hadn't even known existed until mere moments ago.

"No!" she half-squeaked in horror, her voice horribly high.

Ushas laughed loudly again, "I told you it would be too much for her," she said to Koschei, seeming strangely satisfied.

Koschei shrugged, eyeing Ariana with cool, assessing eyes, "She wished to have a way to speak to Theta, I provided a solution".

"That's not a solution!" Ariana hissed, shifting uncomfortable in her seat. She felt like everyone was staring at her, even though when she did check around her, she found that no one was even glancing their way. She leaned closer to Koscheir again, narrowing her eyes, "You surely can't be serious, to even suggest such a thing…my reputation…"

"So? I thought you didn't care about anything but speaking to Theta?"

"Yes, but that was before you suggested that idea, I couldn't possibly…"

He raised his eyebrows mockingly, "And here I thought you cared for little Theta, but I understand now that you are just like Ushas and I," he said lightly, eyeing her intently, daring her to disagree with him, challenging her.

Ariana closed her mouth and frowned, not understanding why he seemed to be trying to goad her into doing something so scandalise, did he intend to get her in trouble? It was quite likely, but she still didn't see what the point of that would be right now, if only for his own possible amusement. She knew she shouldn't allow herself to even consider doing it, but…she did desperately wish to speak to Theta and she needed to do it soon, she hated the thought that he might be sitting locked away inside his room right now, thinking that she wanted nothing to do with him, but could she truly risk everything, her reputation, her families honour, just to speak to him? A tiny voice at the back of her head answered for her straight away and she knew without further thought or question what she had to do.

She met Koschei's eyes, lifting her chin proudly, "Tell me about these tunnels".

Wow…so, 2016 is a very long time for no update, but I haven't given up on this story and do intend to continue writing it, just very slowly, apparently. We're finally getting to see more of the Hatter in little Ariana, she's finally starting to take charge of her own life, but she is still a long way off from the woman we know she'll become one day. She still feels greatly worried, no matter what she might think, about her family and her reputation, but she's also starting to grow more determined and growing stronger.

Next chapter we'll get that conversation between Ariana and Theta and then, possibly a time jump in the chapter after that. I hope you guys liked it, tell me what you thought. Please review :)