In the college cafeteria, there were undoubtedly tables where certain people sat.

        There was the popular table, where Daphne and a subdued Nathan held court. There was the goth table, which was having some sort of black nail polish swap tonight. There was the musician table, full of barely talented wanna-be's and the ever annoying Brona in the middle of it all. There was the emo table, that barely talked to one another. There was the rebellious table, with pink and blue streaks through their hair and menacing knuckles. There was the feminist table, where they were all listening to an Emma Watson speech. There was the slacker table, where they were avidly comparing notes on how best to avoid doing work. Then there was the loner table, current population one.

     Due to my involvement with Fiona, I had rather unfairly been labelled a geek. But the geek table was currently unoccupied tonight, although Fiona had sent me a text saying they'd be back tomorrow morning, which meant that Julia would have plenty of time to prepare for winning the quiz. But although my worries about the quiz were settled, I was still feeling a little worried when I realised that I had nobody to sit with.

So I was rather glad to be saved, even if it was by Fergie.

"Hey, Rosie! Over here!" She yelled from the other side of the room, making me wince as everyone turned to look at her and then me, my plate piled greedily high with shepherd's pie and chocolate pudding. I wormed my way through the bunches of tables pressed close together, sucking in my stomach to pass my chairs sticking out and pressing myself up against the wall. It took a lifetime to navigate the maze that was the cafeteria, and Fergie was looking impatient by the time I sat down, my shoulders slumping with relief.

There was several small tables pushed together into a giant one to accommodate all the paper and plans spread across it. It was carefully organised chaos.

Between a mouthful of pie Fergie gestured to the seating plan right in front of her. "Help me out?" She asked weakly. "I'm trying to get the teams you put together in places where they won't clash with other teams." She sighed, brushing a stray piece of hair aside. "I hate cliques and stereotypes, but they seem to rule how everything in this college works."

"Yjo thyge pit." Fergie's eyebrows crumpled confusedly at my unrecognisable sentence, and I swallowed the mouthful that was currently residing in my mouth. "So change it." I explained. "Who cares if they all clash a little? We can't let that rules how we organise this." Then, as Fergie sat frozen, I moved the members of the gloomy goth table beside the perky musician table. Fergie's eyes grew frantically wider, and she waved her arms about in full panic mode as if I'd just committed some kind of treason.

"No, no!" She shrieked, snatching the plan in my hands and rearranging it. "You can't do that?"

"Why not?" I asked reasonably. "You were just saying the same thing yourself."

"But that was just talk!" She wailed, running her fingers through her hair in a distressed manner. "Everyone complains, but you don't do anything. Nobody ever does anything!"

"Well; I just did." I firmly took the seating chart and to Fergie's horror I began to change the entire thing around. "Who cares about playing by the rules? They're stupid rules anyway. Let's be brave, do our own thing. Let this be the quiz that's remembered for something other than fantastic prizes." I grinned, handing back the now completed chart. "There. We just did something. Does that not feel good?"

Fergie, albeit very slowly, nodded. "Yeah." She said in a cracked voice. "I... I guess you're right. Sort of. Not completely. It's a very vague point."

I patted her on the back. "Good for you. Life lesson over. Now, let us eat cake."

***

"We're back!" Fiona bounced through the door excitedly, followed by the others. She was wearing a large rainbow flag wrapped around her shoulders and tied at the front, which nearly strangled me when she went in for a hug.

     I dragged a smile onto my face. "How was it?"

     "Well, the meeting was good, but the gay parade we went to after in New York was terrible." Harriet's cheeks had a spot of deep red in each and the lines in her forehead were creased. "The news reporters there were horrible. There were only a few of them too, and they only filmed for like, a second. The time Nathan's friend attacked us actually got more publicity as this! Apparently a scandal like that is more interesting than people trying to make gay marriage legal!"

    Harriet's rant about the news continued on for several more minutes. Julia edged out sideways during it, muttering something about needing to study for the quiz tonight, and Finn managed to disappear without anyone noticing. At the end of her rant, Kat flicked her hair over her shoulder and picked at a nail, unimpressed. "If you're so angry about it," she said, in a bored tone, "then you should just become a news reporter yourself and try to rectify this." Then she whispered something to my brother, who went pink, and she trailed him out the door practically drooling.

     I closed my eyes and tries to get the scene out of my mind. Nope. It was stuck in there forever.

     Harriet didn't seem to notice their sudden departure, instead staring thoughtfully at the place where Kat has been. Then she left herself.

***

     "I can't believe you're helping Fergie to run the quiz," Julia said disbelievingly as we made our way towards the quiz hall. "Nobody ever volunteers. It's pretty much an unwritten rule."

      I grinned, mostly to myself. I've broken so many rules it's unbelievable. I've even broken the very rule of existence, instead coming back into the world dead. I wasn't afraid of rules, not now, and the fact I'd broken one was only another thing to add to the ever growing list. "Everyone needs a bit of help." I admonished. "Fergie was completely snowed under, and she wanted to give out socks as prizes. Imagine!"

     Julia looked at me in complete horror. "What sort of prizes have you gotten Jessica?" She asked carefully.

     It took me a moment to realise she was talking to me; after all, everyone called me by my normal name. So after I realised she was talking to me, my second realisation was that I must be in trouble. "Perfume, aftershave, a date for two..." I trailed off uncertainly as I saw Julia's stricken face.

     "You do realise," she said calmly. "That everyone is going to kill you."

     "But why?" I complained. "Those prizes are far better!"

"The people that win these things are geeks. And geeks prefer fluffy socks." She explained. "You should go change the prizes."

"No!" I said, a moment of panic seizing me. I hadn't helped Fergie out so much just for Nathan and Julia not to get their date. "I... I can't. It's too late for that."

Julia shrugged, as we entered the hall. "It's your death wish."

The hall looked great. There was a large banner at the top of the stage which proclaimed in bright colours that this was the annual quiz night. There was the table of ballot prizes and the winner's prizes up on the stage, and a mic for Fergie. Julia grabbed my arm and dragged me over to where everyone was gathering. A pin board displaying the seating chart was what was drawing their attention. Julia scanned the board with practised efficiency.

"Oh, there I am!" She said excitedly. "Table twelve. Yes, I'm with Finn and Owen!" I had did that on purpose because Finn himself had recently got a girlfriend called Brona, so they would be unable to have a date with another person at that table. Of course, that was banking that their table won, but with Julia there the odds were excellent. "There's two girls I don't recognise... Oh, wait, they're the school's open gay couple! Maybe Harriet will be openly gay soon! And the last person is..." Her face fell. "Nathan."

She turned to me in panic. "I can't sit beside him! Do you think you could change me?"

I shook my head sadly. "I'm sorry, but it was Fergie that did the tables, not me."

Just then I felt two hands clap my shoulders and I pulled away in a moment of panic. But it was just Fergie. "There you are!" She beamed. "I just wanted to congratulate you on the tables! Everyone seems very happy where they're sat! Good job!" Then she hurried off to talk to someone else.

Julia crossed her arms across her chest, unimpressed. "You lied." She practically spat the word out. "Why do you want me to sit beside Nathan? Do you not remember what he did to Fiona? Do you not remember what his mate did to me?"

She pulled me back into the hallway, and then lifted up the bottom of her top. I winced at the sight of the blue-black bruise, trailing right up from under her skirt. It looked pretty bad, and some of her flesh had even peeled off. "Harriet wasn't the only one who got hurt that night." She traced the bruised skin gently, then yanked her top down again. Her deep blue eyes were flashing dangerously. "Change the tables." She walked back into the hall, leaving me standing out here, gut wrenching.

How the hell could the Wings Agency do this to me? How could they give me a choice of saving a broken friend, or fulfilling my dream of becoming a Cupid? I couldn't let Julia get hurt again. I couldn't let her sit beside that monster. I had to change it; it was the right thing to do.

But I knew deep down that I didn't have the guts to go back there and change it. I didn't have the guts to let Nathan and Julia go their delegate ways again. Julia would never approach him herself, and Nathan didn't even know who she was. If I let this opportunity slide, they would never get together, and eventually Nathan would find someone else, who he would never be happy with because Julia was his only true match.

Julia looked at me expectantly as I came back in, but I kept my eyes to the floor, trailing unnecessarily around the room so I could avoid her.

I sat backstage during the quiz, listening to Fergie rattling out questions and answers. As I had predicted, Julia's table streaked far ahead of anyone else throughout the whole thing, and after the ballot was over they all went up the stairs to the stage to receive their prizes, which I had come out for.

The girl couple went for the more girly items, and Owen and Finn went for the other items, not wanting to betray their girlfriends by going on a date with someone else. That left Nathan and Julia to receive the date prize, as planned.

Nathan looked surprised and grinned at Julia, who turned her head away disgustedly. "Shall we say Monday night?" He asked cheerfully. "Seven o clock?"

Julia shrugged. "If I have to." She said sharply, and turned to go back down the stairs. But on her way, she whispered four words underneath her breath, which were undoubtedly meant for my ears and my ears only.

"You're dead to me."

It's been ages since I've written a chapter, please forgive me! I'm now back to school, so I have less time to write and I've started a Selection RP which take who most of my time. Don't worry though, I'll still try and update, maybe just once a week.

Zoe xxx