I swirled my milkshake around nervously with the curly straw. Kat slid into the seat opposite me in the booth.

     "Are you ready for me to tell you the story of how Owen and I met?" She inquired politely. I nodded. "It all began freshmen year, the morning of my first day at high school.

     "'Miss Katrin, do you want me to drive you to school in the Rolls Royce?' Harry asked. I considered carefully for a moment. I didn't want to make a bad impression on the rest of those arriving there, but I didn't want to take public transport. However, if I was to fit in at this new, public school, and to make friends with those who were are less fortunate than myself, I realised that I had better give up the Rolls Royce, at least for the time being.

     "'No thank you, Harry." I answered. 'I would prefer for you to take the Mini instead.'

"Harry looked quite perplexed. 'Are you sure?" He checked. "I thought the idea was to make friends at this new place, Miss. Won't they look down their noses on you if I drive the Mini?'

     "I began to explain to him for the eighth time. "You see, at this new place there will be people from all different backgrounds, not just millionaires like us. They would feel rather overwhelmed to see such a grand car being driven in through their badly painted gates. My father won't allow me to stay if I don't fit in, as he thinks this whole idea is a mistake. But I must try it." Henry still didn't look too pleased, but the Mini was still a gorgeous car."

     I didn't really want to interrupt Kat, but her story was becoming very long winded. I didn't need to know what she said to her chauffeur the morning she went to high school. After all, I had been there. But perhaps she noticed the look on my face because she suddenly stopped describing the colour of her Mini and hopped straight into arriving at school.

     "The room which I had been directed to was full to the brim of noisy teenagers. I was unaccustomed to the brightness of the walls, which were filled with paintings and worksheets. It was a big difference to the stark grey walls back at my old private school. I looked around in wonder at the work which was displayed with pride, even though some of it was done in illegible handwriting.

     "Then I began to notice the people. How different they were to the uniformed, pristine girls I had grown so accustomed to! All people of different religions, races and backgrounds had been easily welcomed, and the range of personalities were so diverse. However, there were a few particular students that caught my eye.

    "A girl with dishwasher blonde hair and a pug like nose was sitting on top of a desk in a very confident manner, and she was holding court to about three or four girls who could only be described as the popular crowd. They were almost exact replicas of each other, with supermodel thin bodies, luscious hair, captivating eyes and designer clothing. Even from behind, the girl on the desk visibly did not fit in with the others in terms of looks, but she was so confident and talkative that she easily worked her way in. They all looked at her in rapt attention and often laughed at her remarks. The most beautiful one of all sat by the girl's feet, looking up at her in complete adoration. I suspected the girl was rather enjoying all the attention.

     "What with such friends as those, I didn't think she would pay any attention to me, so I thought it would be alright to perch on the edge of a desk nearby and listen to her. At once I realised exactly why she had captivated them so. She had a natural sarcastic tongue, paired with the ability to never shut up. She always had an opinion on something, and it was usually quite a funny one. At times she so badly understood a situation that they would fall about laughing even though she had not said anything of great value.

     "At one stage, she started telling a particularly funny story about how her cat had gotten hold of her homework. 'I was well known for never handing in my homework back at middle school,' she was saying. 'My teacher was all like, 'What excuse is it this time?' My face was deadpan as I kept trying to convince her that the cat had actually gotten ahold of it, and had used it to relive itself.'

"I couldn't help myself from laughing. It was a tiny giggle, but one of the girls happened to have astounding hearing. She shot around like a bullet, and soon I found all the girls staring at me.

"'Well,' the blonde haired girl said at last. 'If you want to listen, you could have just asked to join us!'

"I thought I had ruined things already. The girl seemed to hold a lot of sway, and I had no doubt that if she told the class I had been eavesdropping, they would all take her side. 'I'm sorry,' I started to apologise, but the girl laughed.

"'No need to be sorry. I know, I'm a very interesting person.' I honestly couldn't tell whether she meant it as a joke or not, because she had a completely straight face. 'But you can come sit with us, if you like.' She continued, although the girls around her didn't seem too pleased. They were an exclusive bunch, apparently. 'I'm Rosie,' she added as I slowly moved myself over.

"'I'm Katrin Hughes.' I replied, and then all the other girls pounced on me, having heard of my family. Although Rosie was the girl who got me into the the popular crowd in the first place, it was overall my wealth that kept me there, although I liked to hope that some of the other girls considered me an actual friend."

"Just so you know," I couldn't help but blurt out, even though I was interrupting. "Rosie probably meant it's a joke. She's not the type to blow her own horn. From the sounds of her." I added quickly, seeing as Kat's eyebrows were shooting up again.

"Probably not," she answered. "Rosie loves to toot her own horn."

"Loved," I corrected her, somewhat hypocritically as Julia had been correcting me on this ever since I came here. "After all, she's not alive anymore."

"No." Kat stated, but her next words sent a shiver down my spine. "But I believe in reincarnation. I'm sure Rosie is still out there. Perhaps she's even listening to me right now."

Kat knew. No she didn't. Yes she did. She couldn't possibly. I hated this, the way she seemed to be able to tell it was me and she was sort of confirming it yet she couldn't possibly know about the Cupid system. Or did she? I was in deep, deep trouble.

"Anyway." I tried to make light of the serious mood and her words that were seriously creeping me out. "You were saying?"

"Well. It was Rosie who led me to Owen. Obviously, as her friend I had met Owen a few times when I was over at her house, but the first time I actually talked to him was in sophomore year, at Rosie's sixteenth birthday party.

"Her parents willingly left her alone that night, so she decided to throw a huge party to celebrate. Of course, I was there.

"'Hey, Kat!' Rosie greeted me upon swinging open the door. 'This is going to be the best Saturday ever!'

"I smiled to myself, thinking about the plane tickets to Australia I had bought her for her birthday. I had a feeling that when I sprung that surprise on her that summer it would be an even more exciting Saturday.

"Rosie was dressed to impress, as usual, in a lamé pink minidress over a pair of skinny gold jeggings, with a stripy scarf weaved through her hair. Somehow, she managed to pull it off perfectly.

"Ophelia was already in the living room, looking equally stunning in just a simple green dress and no make-up. 'She's so beautiful. I'm so jealous.' Rosie hissed as Ophelia got up to greet me.

"'No.' Was the first word to come out of her mouth. 'You cannot wear jeans and a t-shirt to a party.' She sniffed. 'Gosh, Kat, have you no standards?' Bumping me to the side, she linked an arm through Rosie's.

"Ophelia was jealous of me, that much was plain to see. Her and Rosie had been best friends back in middle school, so she disliked that I now got on better with Rosie than she did."

Wait - Ophelia used to be jealous of Kat?! How did that happen?!

"Anyway, later on the party was in full swing. I did like parties in general, but in this particular one several guys had already tried to hit on me, and I had just discovered the reason why. The guys had bets going as to who could kiss me first, as I was the only girl in class that had never been kissed.

"I just needed to get away from it all, so I went into the utility room, which, needless to say, was empty of pupils. I was alone at last.

"Only... I wasn't. Owen was sitting on top of the washing machine, absorbed in a book. He looked up as he heard the door open.

"Sorry,' I grimaced. 'But can I crash in here for a while? Those guys out there are kind of annoying me.'

"'Um, sure.' He shrugged, setting his book down.

"'Don't stop on my account!' I hastily assured him. 'Just pretend I'm not even here.'

     "His mouth curled into a grin. 'How could I do that when you're the most beautiful person in this house?' He teased, but the tips of his ears went a little pink, causing my own cheeks to flush, taken aback by the unexpected compliment.

     "'What's that you're reading?' I asked, hoping to change the subject. 'Divergent?'

     "His ears went even redder, if that was possible. 'It's stupid, I know...'

     "'No, it's not!' I said encouragingly, grinning at him. 'I love those books!'

    "And that was that. All feelings of awkwardness vanished as we spent the next few hours talking about books and films and TV shows. It seemed weird, but even though I connected on so many levels with Rosie we didn't share very common interests, i.e she didn't read any books and only watched rom-coms. However, with Owen we just shared so much that was actually surprising. Which is why I couldn't help myself asking him out at the end of the night. And which is also why he said yes.

"But on one condition. We had to keep our relationship a secret. 'I don't want Rosie to know I'm going on a date with you,' he added. 'She'd be furious.'

"'Well, that's fine with me. I can't let my parents know either.' I replied. So that was that. We began to date, and the first few times it felt exhilarating to have a secret relationship. But, as it went on, I couldn't help but want everything to be out in the open.

"He showed up for Rosie's funeral a few weeks ago. I was so happy to see him again, especially in my senior year. It was cool to date a boy in his second year of college, although nobody knew about our relationship. He took me out on a walk around the park, and about halfway round he said out of the blue, 'I like you Kat.'

"I was a little surprised at his sudden outburst, but I supposed it would be acceptable to admit my feelings now that we'd been dating over a year. 'I, um, like you too.' I said, and the words tasted foreign on my lips.

"We walked a few more minutes in silence as I waited for him to say something. 'You know, Kat.' He began suddenly. 'I thought I'd have all the time in the world to find the girl of my dreams. I thought this was fun, hiding around, keeping everything a secret. But it's not, is it? Is this thing we've got going here worth anything unless the people we love know? And, Kat, what the heck is this we're doing? You're a senior now. Don't you think it's time for something real?'

"'This is real-'

"'No, it's not!" He burst out angrily. "If this is real, why are we sneaking around? If this is real, why are we ashamed to be seen out in public? If this is real, why haven't we even kissed yet?'

"He had a point. I was saving my first kiss for someone special, and I think I'd known for a while now that person was Owen. After all, the other guys I'd dated had broken up with me over my refusing to kiss them. But Owen hasn't complained. Not once.

"'Owen Parker, will you be my boyfriend?' I asked. "Everybody will know. We'll tell your respective family and friends. You can come to dinner with my family, and I'll travel up to your college for a few days to meet your friends and tell them our story.'

"The moment he happily agreed I stepped forward and gently placed my lips on his. That night, we-"

"No!" I spluttered, specks of milkshake flying out of my life. "I really don't need to hear the details of you and Owen's romantic life."

Kat rolled her eyes, as if she'd been wanting to share that story for quite some time. "Yeah. So that's why I'm here. Because we're having a proper relationship now."

"But there's one thing I don't get," I couldn't help to say. "If Owen was involved with you all this time, why did he talk about Fiona all summer and claim he was in love with her?"

Kat shrugged, looking faintly suspicious that I knew this. "I don't know. To throw people off the scent maybe?" But her next few words completely threw me off balance; I sat shocked for a few minutes, before making my excuses and running out the door. Kat's words pounded around my head madly, the words which destroyed all hope of me becoming a Cupid:

"But he couldn't love her. After all, they are cousins."

So... Surprised? Fingers crossed I'll update before the end of the week, a chapter to sort of explain this and say what's next for Rosie.

Zoe xxx