Juliet put down her phone. She wiped her bleary eyes and yawned. Usually she hadn't much to do around here, as Death only allowed a certain number of Cupids, which meant there was usually only a few in training at a time. At the minute, it was only Rosie and another girl, who'd been in training for the best part of three years now. She reckoned that it would only take her another year to complete her final few matches, and a year was nothing to somebody who would never age again.

     Not for the first time, Juliet felt unbearably guilty. All the heads of departments were handing it in different ways. Mae was so worried about the whole thing that she hadn't been working as fast as usual. Kelly kept taking impromptu trips to Earth that did nobody any good and was really just leading up to a big blow up with Death. The head of the cover up department was treating it like a war; Juliet had heard her saying the other day, "My team have been in military training all their deaths. Now that this is upon us, we are using the textbook operation to get them to where Lea has been captured as a prison of war. We're very close to locating the concentration camp." Zora, head of Cupid Searching, seemed to be alive in the first time in years (she had very little to do. If Juliet had her way, she wouldn't have even made her a head of department. More like head of tiny office and telephone to speak to Death.) And then, of course, there were all those mysterious below cloud level workers and heads. They covered the more scientific side of altering appearances and the like. Juliet had never even met any of them.

The others had no reason to be guilty for all these happenings, though, unlike her. The others said not to be guilty, that Lea being caught was not her fault. But Lea was caught because of her extra-long phone call with her, whenever she wasn't even her boss anymore. They had usually ended their calls in accordance with the six minute rule, but Lea had been excited. She had discovered something big, and she needed to share it.

     Juliet had known during the call that they were pushing it; although many bent the rule from time to time, they knew that if they had a phone call longer than fifteen minutes to Earth whoever who was down there was in serious danger. Thus why this was the first time a Cupid had even been caught by call.

     Juliet had meant to end it just before fifteen minutes, but when Lea had revealed her news she was just so astounded that she forgot all about the limit. Lea had changed how Juliet had thought for all her life and death, and Juliet knew at once that she could resolve all her issues. She had been prepared to go and ask Kelly for a few weeks off work, then beg Death to let her go down to Earth for a while. In fact, she was just about to hang up and do just that.

     Whenever Lea had screamed and the line went dead.

***

Fiona picked up the ring, staring at it like it was too good to be true. She whipped her hair from side to side, as if to see if anybody was watching. Then, tentatively, she slipped it on.

From the security room where we were watching all this take place on the security cameras, Harriet scowled. Begrudgingly, she slid the ten dollar bill across the table to Julia. "I did tell you I knew that was Fiona's ring size."

"But she is such a tiny person!" Harriet protested. "How could her finger be so ginormous?!"

I wasn't so much interested in the size of the ring as opposed to the look of it. I was really happy with the ring, and of course I'd picked it out myself. I wasn't about to trust two geeks to choose the most important piece of jewellery girls could ever wear! It was a really gorgeous ring, with tiny little diamonds (that are REAL, mind you!) placed in the shape of a heart on a shiny silver band. It had cost an absolute bomb but I reckon it was worth it just to see it perched on Fiona's finger.

Mental note to self : Be sure to steal the ring back for myself after the engagement falls through.

And who could really call this burglary seeing as it was me who so kindly purchased it in the first place? (Well. Technically it was WA that paid for it, but I'd be more than happy to be their representative in taking back what's rightfully theirs.)

"Oh my gosh." I could barely hear Fiona's mere whisper over the bickering of the other two (Harriet should really know by now not to make bets with Julia, we are talking about the girl who knew every random fact possible) and the slight crackling of the camera, but as soon as we caught the words there was silence.

"I can't believe this!" Her voice rose a notch in excitement. "Oh Nathan, baby, I love you! And I'm so glad you love me back! I have to admit I did think that perhaps you were just using me, but I know this isn't the truth now!" Her face was shining with such overwhelming happiness that for the first time I felt a flicker of guilt at misleading her. But then my face set determinedly; after all, this had to be done.

Fiona seemed to have finally realised that there's no Nathan waiting for her here, so she thrusted the doors wide open and ran (well, wobbled. She was wearing heels) out screeching hysterically, "YES! YES!"

Harriet smiled approvingly. "Mission accomplished." She high fived me, and I tried to mirror her mood, but I still didn't feel quite right about this. The expression on Fiona's face when she tried on the ring replayed over and over in my mind. This was perhaps the worst trick I'd ever played; but surely it was for the best?

So I was really glad whenever Julia reminded us, "It's not over yet. Let's go watch her confront Nathan."

     "Let me guess; you've rigged up cameras in there too?" I asked sarcastically, then remembered that this is Julia we were talking about. I wouldn't put anything past her.

     Julia nodded earnestly. "It's linked up to Harriet's computer," she explained as she pulls the Apple computer out of her satchel. Harriet gave the top of it a reverent stroke before opening it up. Her fingers whizzed across the keyboard, playing an elegant little dance. I had to admit, I was a little envious, as even when I was going at the pace of a snail my fingers stab the keys like they're axe murderers lying in wait.

     "How did you even get into Nathan's room in the first place?" I asked curiously, jumping up backwards to sit on the table with my legs dangling down. Julia gave me one of her, 'I honestly can't believe you don't know this it's common knowledge are you actually serious do I really have to explain it' looks, ones she always does before letting off a stream of information including an awful lot of random facts.

     "I didn't do it," she explained, warming up. I braced myself for information overload; her mouth formed a perfect little 'o' as she took a deep breath, preparing to talk nineteen to the dozen. "Harriet did it of course. Not that I have anything against bugging people's rooms, but I simply can't do it. I feel a little weird going in and then being faced with invading their personal space. Besides, Harriet is so much more spy-like, almost a little creepily, but then when we were kids we did do a little crime-solving. I liked figuring all the puzzles out and she wanted to be in the CIA so it worked both ways. So she had no problem bugging the room, plus she's very good with electronics, didn't you know that?" Squeezing all that out in a single breath was quite impressive, even for Julia.

     "Look!" Harriet said, gesturing to the computer screen. "She's there."

     I leant forward, my eyes greedily fixated on the screen. I almost felt sucked in to the room, as the voices were so clear and the picture glossy and coloured.

     "Nathan," Fiona whispered almost reverently. "Can you explain this?" She held up her hand, where the ring is glinting magnificently. A little smile creeped across her face.

     "Well, it looks pretty," Nathan shrugged. Then he gave her a disgustingly suggestive look. "So do you," he added, patting the space beside him.

     But for once Fiona was actually resisting him. She laughed, a little hesitantly. "You left it for me, silly. It's an engagement ring. And I want you to know, that of course I'll marry you."

     Nathan looked a little puzzled. "Babes, I thought we gave up the subject of marriage. Live in the present, yeah? Let's do a little living right now."

     "But... You... Asked...?" Fiona stammered. "Marry me?"

     Nathan brightened up suddenly, a little light having gone off in that dim head of his. "We could have an open marriage!" He exclaimed, looking quite pleased with his forward thinking. "That way, I get to keep you, but sleep around with others too!"

     As he babbles on about all the good points of an open marriage, I saw a crack forming in the popular, bitchy Fiona. Through the crack I saw a glimpse of a happy, optimistic, friendly,  granny-sweater wearing Fiona. But then as the cracks began to spread, I realised that it wasn't that person I was seeing. It was a different person entirely.

      I saw a lost girl, one that had strayed so far that she no longer knew where she belongs. I saw a brokenness, a crushed spirit. I saw the hopelessness, that she'd given up everything for Nathan and received nothing back. I saw the desperateness in her eyes, that she wanted Nathan to love her, but that he never would. I saw the loneliness, her fear, that she'd never be loved, that she was beyond loving entirely.

     It's then that I finally realised that who I'd been seeing was not the real Fiona. Fiona changed herself so much to be with Nathan, but none of this was her real personality, none of this was true. Now that she finally knew she
was getting nothing out of this relationship, that act was gone. And the other girl I saw too, the girl she was at the start, was yet another mask. Her friendliness and optimism was to hide all the feelings she felt deep inside, that she would end up alone, that nobody would ever want her.

     So who was the real Fiona? Was it the broken girl on the camera in front of me? Or was it someone else? Someone she was before she ever came to college? Could she change? Could she help herself? Was the real Fiona a person worth saving?

     And I realised one more thing; as Fiona said firmly, "Nathan, I'm breaking up with you," I knew she was a person worth saving.

Exams finally over and results have been given back, so all my hard studying has payed off! Now I'm back on track again with my writing, I just want to mention to anybody reading this to please check out my new story. I will be working on both at the same time, so updates will be spread between the two of them. Please comment your thoughts on the most recent chapters!

Zoe xxx