Cole's POV

"You should sing something. Aren't you super talented?"

"Ha, you wish." What did she want me to do, treat her like a princess? Just because half the guys in my grade worshipped her didn't mean I did.

Seliel huffed and flopped onto the grass. The wet grass. I flinched.

"What?" she snapped, sitting up and glaring at me, her pants probably soaking up the water.

"Do you not care that your clothes are... you know what never mind," I muttered, staring at the wooden board on the stone table that was supposed to be the base of our diorama. It had literally just rained only a little more than an hour ago, and as soon as it stopped my dad told me to invite her over for the history project. It had already been about half an hour and we'd gotten nothing accomplished. We didn't even have a rough sketch.

Why did the teacher just have to choose partners for the biggest assignment of the year and give me Seliel of all people? I didn't think I'd ever talked to her in my life. We didn't really hang out in the same crowd, since her dad was the mayor and she always stuck with the popular kids.

I guess I could've hung out with them if I wanted to since my dad and his group could be considered pretty famous, but a lot of the so-called "cool kids" were such stuck-up snobs that I'd rather not. Besides, my friends were amazing. Even though they were weird. And annoying as hell half the time.

As mean as it sounded, I felt like Seliel's hair dye had probably somehow seeped through her scalp and killed all her brain cells. From what I knew of her, she was obsessed with the latest fads and trends and talked about boys way too much. Except she never dated anybody.

Not that guys didn't try to get with her. Once Kai got bored and attempted to do just that. He failed, of course. It was funny, though, and we all got a good laugh out of it.

Seliel shrugged and went to sit on the stool opposite the table from me. It was hard to not try to get a glimpse of her back and see how ridiculous it looked. Luckily my dad was off with his group doing whatever he was doing, so he wouldn't suddenly come out and think I threw her onto the ground or anything. Ever since I was little he'd always taught me to not lose face and doing something like that to the mayor's daughter was literally the definition of losing face.

"Well hurry up and come up with some ideas," Seliel said, running a hand through her bright pink hair, which only made it messier in my opinion, "We've gotten nothing done."

"Wow you noticed," I muttered sarcastically, "I wonder why that could be."

"That's 'cause you're not offering any ideas, dumdum," she replied matter-of-factly, and before I could call her out for her audacity, Seliel continued, "So hurry up and come up with some."

"Excuse me?" I asked, wondering just how much nerve she had, "I've been trying for the past half hour, and you're the one laughing at all of them. Try coming up with some yourself."

She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were joking. So I laughed. They were funny."

I kind of wanted to punch her, even though it looked like Seliel was serious. I didn't think she was smart enough to lie, and she said it with a pretty straight face. "Okay, you come up with one," I said, trying my best to keep my tone civil.

"Well, what would look epic?" Seliel asked.

"I don't know, aren't you supposed to know?" It was extremely hard to not be shouting at this point. At first I had merely been annoyed that I had to do this with someone I barely knew, but after realizing how frustrating it was to work with her, things just got ten times worse.

"Ooh, we should do one about the meteor that wiped out all the dinosaurs!" she exclaimed excitedly and slammed her hands on the table, her brown eyes gleaming. "That would be so cool! We could build models of the different species and build this giant meteorite thing on top of it! It could be light and we'd just support it using some thin, clear stuff." Seliel flipped her hair proudly. "I know, I'm amazing."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. At first I'd wanted to laugh in her face, then decided against it because my father would not approve and that would be mean. I did, however, take a deep breath in. Surprisingly, she noticed, and her expression immediately turned sour. "Okay, just admit that you're jealous that my idea is so much better than yours."

Sighing, I managed to look her in the eye. "I swear I'm gonna get a headache," I grumbled, "Anyway, the directions explicitly said that the event has to have taken place in the last five hundred years. Do you never listen?"

"Oh," Seliel said, bringing a hand up to her mouth and staring off into the sky. "They did?"

I let out a deep breath to try and calm myself down. She seemed like such an airhead that I braced myself for her to suddenly begin floating due to the laws of buoyancy. "Yes, they did. So please share some of your amazing ideas because mine are just terrible."

Hopefully Seliel would get the hint and not question any of my decisions. I honestly wouldn't mind just doing all the work since this seemed like it could be fun as long as she wasn't constantly nagging me over the shoulder.

"Okay," she said, and I raised my eyebrows, slightly amused at the fact that she was actually going to try. I began counting in my head how many seconds she remained silent.

When Seliel finally spoke again, I had counted up to 520. Very small number.

"You know, I'm tired. I don't think my brain can work until I get a chocolate truffle. I'm gonna go to the bakery and get some. In the meantime, do some brainstorming. I'll be right back." And before I could protest, she ran off, her bright pink hair almost mocking me.

Her entire backside was still wet.

But only one thing was really on my mind.

The AUDACITY.

...

I never expected her to return, so when she did, one could imagine the look of shock on my face. Not only was Seliel wearing a different set of clothes (good for her), she was also carrying a large bag full of who-knows-what.

"Why do you look so surprised to see me?" she asked, setting the bag onto the table and sitting back down. The smell of cake immediately got my attention, and against my will, I could feel my mouth begin to water, even though I knew I wasn't getting any. Baked goods always got the best of me.

"I... didn't think you were gonna come back, to be honest."

Seliel frowned. "Do I look like that type of irresponsible person?"

Yes, she did. But I wouldn't say that.

"What's in the bag?" I asked, even though I could tell. A change in topic was necessary at the moment.

She grinned and took out a variety of delicious-looking pastries that made my mouth water. I had an urge to smack her on the top of the head with a frying pan since she really was testing my limits but resisted.

What Seliel said next shocked me.

"Okay, so I dunno what type of stuff you like so I just got some that I liked and their most popular ones, so just choose your pick."

It took a while for the words to register in my brain, and even then I wasn't sure if I heard her right. "Wait what?"

"What do you mean 'what'? Do you not want any?"

"No, I mean... you got some for me?" I stared at her incredulously, and she raised an eyebrow.

"You sound really surprised," she pointed out.

I didn't really know how to respond. After all, I didn't want to sound rude. "Th-thanks," I said after a few seconds of silence.

Seliel smiled and picked up one of the strawberry pastries. "Okay, so did you come up with any ideas?"

"Uh, yeah," I said uneasily, "After you left I just kinda started."

"I'm worried."

I wanted to glare at her, but seeing as she had just gotten me some food, that would be incredibly rude of me. "Hey, my idea isn't that bad," I said defensively, "And I have a really cool diorama in mind."

"Still skeptical, but I'm listening," she said, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.

"Anyway, I thought we could make it about the Revolution of 1852," I suggested, pushing my sketch across the table to her, "It was really interesting to see the extent people would go to just to silence their enemies, especially combined with the battle for the throne, so I figured that would be a nice project and we could get something cool out of it."

Instead of scoffing as I'd expected, her eyes widened after briefly looking over my skeleton outline. "Wait, oh my god, how are you so good? These are amazing! Where'd you learn to draw like that?" she asked after looking back up at me.

"Uhh picked it up I guess? I dunno," I said, realizing that this was the first time a girl other than my mom had ever complimented me. In fact, she was the only person besides my mom who had ever complimented me.

"Dang, that must've taken a lot of practicing," she said, and began to flip through the other pages of my sketchbook without permission, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to stop her. "Whoa, is this you and your friends?" Seliel flipped the sketchbook around and showed me a picture of the guys and Nya I'd drawn over a year ago.

I covered my mouth to prevent gagging. "Bruh, that's hideous. Please, spare your eyes."

"Well, then, if you don't want it, can I have it?"

"Why?"

She flipped it back over. "It's cute. And I'm sure it would rather be hanging in my bedroom where I can look at it every day instead of being on some unwanted page in your sketchbook."

"But... it's me and my friends, who you have zero association with," I pointed out.

"So? Why does that matter? Ooh ooh, can you give me all your other sketches that you don't want anymore? I'll be sure to preserve them, and if you ask me for them back I'll just give it to you, so it's a win-win situation. I heard people keep throwing away old notebooks and it'd be a shame if you forgot about these and lost them forever."

"That's... really unnecessary, though," I said, "I don't wanna burden you with my bad art."

"Oh shut up Cole, these are really good," she shook her head as she looked through more of the pages, "Why didn't you ever participate in any of the art showcases? You're better than like 90% of them, no offense people."

I felt my cheeks warming. "Um, you're probably exaggerating."

"My dad hosts them, remember? I'm forced to go to every one of them, so I think I'm pretty good at figuring out who actually has talent. Half of those people just do it because they have nothing better to do and want to look like they actually have a life, again, no offense. I have no life either, so I think I'm justified in saying that."

Unable to help myself, I felt the corners of my mouth twitch upwards.

"You know what, take the whole sketchbook if you want. There's still blank pages left, and if you like art so much, you should try it yourself. I have more blank notebooks in my bedroom," I nodded towards my window on the second floor.

"Omigosh, really?"

"Yeah, why would I be joking?"

"Okay, you can take all of these," she gestured to the desserts, "Sorry I ate one already. And if there's one you don't like I'll eat it."

"I'm more than happy to trade," I said with a grin.

...

"Okay, how's this?" Seliel asked, pushing over her drawing of some guy with a mustache. "Gimme some criticism though."

"Nice," I said, "Okay, um, you could make the nose a bit smaller. You could also maybe smooth out the edges of the jaw area. Of course, these are just suggestions, and if you like it I'm cool with that." Since we had somehow managed to finish the project four days before the deadline, Seliel decided to use the extra time to do some drawing instead, and I was happy to give her some pointers.

"Do you like the eyebrows?"

"Very bushy," I commented.

"Remind you of someone?"

I frowned. "Not really?"

"It's supposed to be you when you're older, you dummy," she said, then burst out laughing.

"Nah, I think it looks more like you right now," I teased, giving her a quick shove on the shoulder.

"Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot to draw the defining characteristic. There won't be any confusion now," Seliel said, laughing even harder before grabbing a red pen and drawing two horns on the person's head. "Perfect."

"That looks nothing like me."

"If you're so good, draw yourself, then," she laughed, her grin widening with every word.

"Oh, I will," I said, picking up my pencil and ripping out a sheet of paper from my notebook.

"Draw me too. I'll pose."

"Oh god, I think if I look at you for too long I'd lose my lunch. Blegh," I made a face and pretended to throw up.

"Nah, I think it's more that you like looking at me but you just don't wanna admit it 'cause you wanna act cool," she joked, and suddenly, I felt my face warm a bit. Though I could never let her know, recently I'd begun actively searching for her bright pink hair in the crowds at school, and it was the highlight of my day if I caught a glimpse of it. Whenever she saw me and waved my stomach would flutter, and I would quickly send one back then look away so that Seliel wouldn't see me blush.

And besides, there were so many guys in our grade who liked her that it wasn't like she'd ever be into me. Not that I was pursuing any sort of relationship with her outside of maybe acquaintanceship, or maybe friendship.

"Uh, you okay?" she asked, reaching over to push my hair out of my eyes.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," I said, "I just, uh, suddenly remembered that Jay said he wanted to meet up later this afternoon. I almost forgot about it, and if I didn't show up he'd probably be pretty pissed." That was a lie; Jay and I didn't schedule anything.

"So should I leave early?"

"Nonono, it's pretty late, actually," I said, "So don't worry about it."

"Okay then," she said, the smile returning to her face, "What pose do you want me to make?"

"Just be as ugly as possible."

"Shoot."

"What?" I asked, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

"I don't look like you."

"Ohhh I see," I said with an eye roll, "You actually think I'm extremely attractive but you refuse to admit it so you prefer saying I'm ugly instead." My voice cracked slightly at the end, and both of us knew I was attempting to mimic her relentless teasing of me, except she was actually good and I was lame.

"Nah, I don't refuse to admit guys are hot," she said, "You know Kai? He's hot."

I frowned, suddenly not liking the idea of her thinking Kai was good-looking.

"He tried to get with me once, but it's not like we have any chemistry so eh." I was well aware of the first part and not surprised at the second.

"So you still find him attractive?"

Seliel shrugged. "He's alright, I guess, not exactly my type but I can see why girls like him. Anyway, when I said 'hot' I meant hot temper, fire powers, all that jazz."

I let out a sigh of relief. "What's your type then?"

"Ooh, I see you're strangely interested in my love life," she pointed out, "Why is that, Cole? And you need to answer several of my questions before I answer any more of yours. You gotta girlfriend? She jealous of me?"

"Been single all my life," I said, shuffling nervously in my seat and worried that she'd immediately judge me. "And I was just wondering, you know, since a lot of guys in our grade like you, and uh... yeah."

"I don't see the point of even having a boyfriend, though, unless you do anything. I dated Oliver once, don't know if you know him, but anyway he was lame. And we didn't even do anything, it was just a stupid label 'cause he didn't care enough to take me on even one date."

"Okay?" I didn't know Oliver, but he and Jay used to be friends and were now mortal enemies.

"Yeah I know, I probably sound really shallow and materialistic, I guess I just feel like a relationship should actually mean something more than just a title, ya know?"

"Uh, yeah, that makes sense," I agreed, "But I'm not exactly a good candidate for relationship advice since I have no romantic experience whatsoever."

"You're a good listener though," Seliel said, mindlessly doodling some scribbles on the paper, "Sometimes I just wanna vent to somebody, and it's not like my friends listen, so... I think they're more concerned with what type of bracelet is trending rather than my dumb problems. Sorry I had to drag you into this; you probably have better things to do."

"Actually, no," I said, "Feel free to go on, I'll draw you and doing it with no noise in the background would be pretty boring."

"Wowww did you just call me noise?"

"Oh, sorry, I―"

She playfully punched me in the arm. "Don't be so serious, I don't get offended that easily." Seliel rested her cheek on her fist and scribbled some flowers on her paper. Her eyelashes curved slightly upward, reflecting off the rays of the afternoon sun, and suddenly inspiration hit. I began to draw.

"Wait wait," she said, noticing and turning to face me, "I wasn't ready!"

"Too late," I laughed, though I had only drawn a light circle so far, "Either that or nada."

"Oh fine," Seliel stuck out her bottom lip in a pout, "Go ahead."

...

I could see her bright pink hair running up to our table long before her face was clearly defined, her hands raised high above her head in victory.

"Yay we didn't fail!" Seliel exclaimed, beaming.

Kai raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to make of this situation.

"Oh really? Cool," I said, trying to sound casual in front of the guys, despite the fact that I had a sudden urge to give her a hug. Last year we'd had a similar project and I'd gotten a C, mostly due to my garbage partner. Seliel actually put in a lot of time and effort, contrary to what I'd expected when we'd first been assigned as partners.

"Congratulations," Zane said with a smile.

"Wait how'd you know already?" Jay asked, worry written clearly all over his face.

"They're displaying the top scoring projects in the history wing and I saw ours. Anyway, bye!" She gave me a wave before hurrying off to her table, her brightly colored hair dancing as she went.

Luckily the guys didn't think too much of it and returned to their lunches without saying another word, or I would never have heard the end of their teasing.

While I was glad that we'd gotten a good score on our diorama, a part of me couldn't help but be disappointed that this meant Seliel and I wouldn't have a reason to hang out anymore. Somehow her coming to my house to draw was now the norm for me, and with the guys helping their parents out with various chores (which I didn't have since my dad hired a housekeeper), I could only lounge around in my room, bored and having nothing better to do as usual.

I found myself missing the jokes she constantly made at my expense already, even though it wasn't even the afternoon yet. Of course, Seliel was still visible from my vantage point, but I had to strain my neck to see her, and if I did it for too long the others would notice. So as usual, I kept my head low and focused on eating instead.

By the time school was nearly over, I had been called out by my teachers at least twice for not paying attention as I did usually. Oh whatever.

As soon as the bell rang, Jay left my side to find Nya and I wandered into the crowded halls alone as always. Then I spotted the familiar head of pink in the sea of more "normal" hair colors and squeezed my way through the people between us, which didn't turn out to be too hard due to my height.

I tapped her shoulder and she jerked around, a grin quickly spreading across her face. "Ooh, I have been noticed by the almighty Cole!"

Feeling my cheeks warm, I bent down slightly so that I could whisper in her ear. "Do you have time this afternoon?"

"No, why?"

For some reason that statement upset me more than it should've. "I just thought... you know, maybe we could hang out or something I dunno 'cause I just wondered since I'm free and I thought you were free and... I'm rambling, aren't I?" My head was pounding so loudly I could barely hear myself.

Instead of answering, she pushed past the people in front of us and away from me to talk to a girl with dirty blonde hair, making my chest tighten. Of course Seliel was more interested in hanging out with her friends instead of some bored guy she did one project with. Sighing, I pulled my hood over my head so that if she turned around she wouldn't recognize me and laugh. Then again, if she did recognize me, she'd laugh harder.

"Ooh, I'm gone for two seconds and you're all emo boi now? Is this supposed to be considered hot? Should I be an emo girl to match?"

I looked towards the sound of the voice to see Seliel grinning up at me.

"Wait, I thought you left..." my voice trailed off.

"Nah, I just told Tarina that I wouldn't be going to the jewelry store with them today. Don't tell them, but you're way more fun than they are," she had to tiptoe to whisper the last part into my ear, her breath feeling warm against my skin.

"My lips are sealed," I assured her, and she smiled.

...

When I suggested that we go somewhere other than my boring house, Seliel gladly agreed. We found a small secluded clearing on the edge of town, and though it was overgrown with various weeds, neither of us cared and we both sat down at once.

She laid down the stationery we'd brought onto the ground as well as several sheets of paper, then frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Shoot, I didn't bring a stone tablet or anything," Seliel said, tucking several strands of hair behind her ear, "Darn it, I'm dumb. Coleee why didn't you remind me?"

"'Cause watch this," I said with a grin, then stood up, feeling the soil vibrating beneath my feet. I allowed myself to become one with the earth and held out my hands until the energy surrounded me as rocks began coming out of the ground. When I opened my eyes again, Seliel was standing triumphantly at the top of the tallest rock, her hands on her hips and her eyes fixed on some point in the distance as if she was some superhero with a cape about to fly off and save someone's life.

She was adorable.

"You, mere mortal, must bow down before me!" Seliel yelled, pointing a finger at my head, though it wasn't as impressive as she probably hoped, since she only stood about two feet taller than me.

"Ah, of course," I said, dropping to my knees and bending over, "How may I serve you, my Queen?"

"Umm, good question, I don't actually know, so..." She climbed down from the rocks and hopped off the shortest platform to the spot beside me. "You can get up now, silly."

I suddenly realized that if any of the guys constantly called me "silly", I'd get fed up with it soon, but somehow with her, I didn't mind all that much. Seliel began spreading everything neatly across the smooth platform I'd created as I sat back up, and soon we had a decent workspace.

"Just wondering, Cole, why and how do you put up with me?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean, like people probably find me annoying and shallow. Either that or boring, I dunno. Sometimes I wonder if I even have a personality since I just try to be loud and stuff so people will notice me and ugh whatever. Basically sometimes I make fun of people and stuff to get attention 'cause I mean... I probably don't make sense, but anyway I just think that I forged this fake personality to be popular because that's how the popular girls act, and um..."

"Uhh, you're having an identity crisis?" God, I was bad at this.

"I guess you could say that."

"Well, I don't find you annoying."

"You don't even know the real me, though, so you'll probably find her boring."

"Then who is the real you?"

"That's just it. I don't know."

We were both silent for a bit and I cursed myself for not knowing what to say to her.

"Sorry."

"What?" I asked, wanting to punch myself for being so useless.

"Sorry for ranting about this stupid stuff, I know you never asked for it."

"Nonono, don't be," I said, quickly reaching for her hand and praying that she wouldn't shove me away. And Seliel didn't. "I just... sorry I'm really bad at this stuff. I think... maybe you could try to stop caring about what other people think and just... say and do whatever you want?"

"But what if all that fakeness is so ingrained into me that I've already lost myself and I just act that way without thinking?"

I really didn't know what to say. "Um," I forced out, "I think my original point still stands, though, and even if you feel... bad and stuff, uh... I think you are being authentic. You're witty and funny, and if you think that people won't like you for it, screw them. As for your friends, if they don't appreciate you that's their loss. I personally think you're a really cool person to hang out with and I'm glad we're friends."

She squeezed my hand, and I almost forgot I was still holding hers. "Thanks Cole."

"Not sure if that made sense but yeah," I said with a nervous chuckle, "And also thanks for agreeing to hang out with me."

"Thank you," Seliel said, flipping our hands over so that mine was on top and placing her other one on it. "You're really sweet, Cole. I appreciate it." 

A/N: Couldn't figure out a good title, so I hope this one fits lol. 

I hope you guys enjoyed Part i of iii of Identity, and if you did, please vote and comment :D

Thank you so much for reading, I have tryouts that I didn't study for within 10 min of me posting this so yay! 

Anyway hope you guys are doing well and have a nice day!