"So, when my mother told me that I had to come here, I was like 'No way!' and she was like 'Way!". And I had to admit I didn't really like this school at first but then, I realized, what's not to like? Am I right?"

Mina nudged Anna in the shoulder, who had been doing very well blocking her out. Anna blinked and looked at the preppy girl. "I didn't hear a word you said," she said honestly, looking away.

"Of course you didn't." For some strange reason, Mina didn't sound annoyed. She just took a deep breath and Anna felt the hair on her skin rise in trepidation, knowing full well her pigtailed roommate was going to begin again. "I was saying..."

Anna couldn't take it anymore. She thought she could bear it, block it out, tune into the professional side of herself that was only on this tour around the school for the sake of the mission. But with each moment that passed, and with each word that fell out of Mina's mouth, she felt her resolve slip away. Even as the girl rushed into another detailed explanation about her feelings, and such, Anna had to keep herself from kicking her down the stairs they now ascended, just to shut her up.

She held her foot in check. "How about you actually tell me about the school?" she suggested. Really, she did need to know about school, escape routes, ways in and such.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't even notice my mouth had drifted off like that." Somehow, Anna doubted that. This girl was a blabbermouth – the worst case of them all – and she knew it too. Not for one second was Anna fooled into thinking Mina didn't jump into another story with both feet and a mind hell bent on landing safely. No, Anna knew she was aware, just as she much as she was unaware that Anna knew she knew.

If it was one thing Anna knew how to do, it was keeping her thoughts to herself. And that meant, a normal, okay expression. Not too expressionless as that would only give off suspicion. Someone might think she had something to hide and that, she knew, never played out well. Still, she made sure she didn't give away too much either, even if what she was 'giving away' was false. That would raise suspicion too, although that might only be in the most observant of people. Though, Anna knew there was more of them lurking out there than others cared to believe.

So, she did the same now, cloaking her face in an average expression, giving off just the right amount of interest as Mina finally pointed out the sights and locations around her. She even nodded along, taking everything in and storing it in her mental library. Mina jabbered on ceaseless, pointing to the different classrooms, offices, and clubrooms as they went down the hallways. It was a slow process. She felt the need to give her a detailed explanation of the life of every student that passed them too, but Anna waited patiently each time for her to finish her descriptions and move on.

She was good at this game. Pretending until even she herself felt a part of the world she was in, up until she remembered who she was and why she was here.

"And that girl," Mina plowed on, shifting her body around to point shamelessly on a nondescript girl that walked by. The girl saw her pointing, even heard when Mina addressed her as 'that girl', and ducked her head before quickly scurrying out of Mina's line of vision.

Anna felt a sliver of pity course through her. The poor girl. Mina's obvious display probably made her feel self-conscious and talked about. Anna knew that wasn't a nice feeling. She may not have felt that herself, but she wasn't oblivious to normal, human feelings. "That girl is daughter of this bigshot oil tycoon. She has big bucks, I'll tell you that."

"That's wonderful to know," Anna murmured a bit absentmindedly. She didn't really care at all where that girl got her money. But, she was a bit curious where the talkative girl walking beside her got hers. "And you? You're the daughter of an oil tycoon too?"

"Nope, but I look it, don't I?" Mina flipped her pigtail. "My father owns a multinational corporation but, to be completely honest with you, I don't really remember exactly what it does."

"And your mother?"

Mina frowned quizzically. "What about my mother?"

"What does she do?"

The question seemed to baffle her. Anna looked over at Mina to see her eyebrows scrunching themselves together before smoothing out, and then scrunching right back up again. Her eyes traveled up the ceiling, obviously in deep thought, before she shrugged. "I don't know. I guess she just stays home, or goes out with her friends to shop. I never really saw her work before."

Anna didn't answer that. For a moment, they were in complete silence, something that hadn't happened since she met Mina. But that didn't last long and she was a fool to think it would, even for a minute. Mina recovered from her previous confusion and began talking about people again, pointing to everyone that passed her by. This time, Anna was completely, one hundred percent not listening to a word she said. The independent woman in her was still on the clichéd fact that Mina's mother didn't do anything and that it was her father that brought home the mansion sized bacon. For once she wanted to hear that it was the mother than ran the business, the mother that brought home the big bucks, the mother that everyone knew and respected and was on the cover of Times magazine. Just once.

She sighed wistfully to herself. Mina's blabbering was nonstop and Anna tuned back in only when she was pointing out an actual physical site and not someone's hairstyle.

Suddenly, she stopped. Anna stopped too, feeling oddly out of place now that the drone in her ear was turned off. For a second, she just stood there, confused as to what was off. Then she saw Mina, mouth open but no words coming out. That shocked her more than the fact that she was staring ahead of her like a star struck fan.

Following her gaze, Anna saw exactly what she was staring at. Or, more precisely, who. And she also managed to catch everyone else staring too, although they were trying harder to be more discreet than Mina was. Mina was just standing there blatantly staring without a care in the world. As if she didn't care she might get caught. Seriously, this girl was surprising her more and more.

Anna looked back in the direction of the source of everyone's sudden freeze to the ground and watched as her target made his way down the wide hall. He was talking and laughing with his blond friend – the one that had kicked the ball in her head – and looked completely unaware of what was going on around him. Either that or he was just very good at ignoring it. Either way, he wasn't looking at anything but his friend, whose eyes were staring straight ahead of him, alight with humour yet obviously wanting to get where he was going without tripping onto his face.

"That's Dan Slater," Mina murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What was that?" Anna asked, craning her neck to hear if she got that right. Did she say Dan Slater and not Jessime Beaumont?

"That's Dan freaking Slater!" Mina practically scream whispered it into her ear this time, shoving her to the side and out of the way. She must have overcome her shell-shocked state by now and decided that staying out of the way while the two boys walked down the hall was the best thing to do.

Anna allowed herself to be shoved to the side but she kept her eyes on Mina. Not Jessi, but Mina. Not the gorgeous, soccer playing boy who was also her target and the obvious actor in every girl here's fantasy but Mina, her blabbermouth roommate who seemed at a loss of words while she stared at the blond boy walking beside her target. Mina's nails dug into Anna's skin the closer they came, a soft squeal coming out of her mouth and gaining volume.

"Calm down," Anna tried to say but Mina's manicured nails in her skin was making it hard to concentrate on her words. "Hey!" she exclaimed, ripping her hand away from her. She looked down on her arm to see crescent shaped wounds on her skin, all spilling blood.

"Hey, it's you!"

Anna froze, her head snapping up when she heard the familiar voice sound behind her. Mina had gone into cardiac arrest by now and Anna looked at her to see she was slowly becoming a hollow robot. Her eyes stared straight ahead, lifting just a bit higher as the blond boy who she stared at came closer and closer.

Anna turned just as he reached her. All eyes were on them now. The boy smiled, his grin full, wide and bright. Just like Jessi's, she thought suddenly.

"You're the one I accidently kicked the ball at, aren't you?" he asked, a bit too perky.

Anna nodded, slowly. She was only too aware that Jessi had slowly made his way up behind his friend. Her eyes shifted to him and she saw that he wasn't even looking at them. He was scrolling through his phone. Her eyes made their way back to the person actually speaking to her. "You mean that ball that kinda knocked my brain around in my head? Yeah, I'm her."

The boy, Dan, laughed. "Again, I'm sorry. But hey, no harm, no foul, am I right?"

"I suppose you are."

At Anna's solemn reply, the boy chuckled again. "So, are you new here?"

"Have you ever seen me around here before?"

"No, but there're a lot of students here. I won't know every single one of them, will I?"

Anna liked the way he put it. It's as if he wasn't actually that popular guy who didn't care about anyone else but himself, his friends and whomever ran in his ranks. Even his smile seemed genuine although Anna knew, from all the TV movies she'd seen, not to trust it.

That was what she was going off of. Those teenage movies were the Intel for surviving this mission until she got it done and, so far, it hadn't failed her yet.

"That's true," she replied with a nod of her head that sent her long hair shaking vigorously. "Yes, I'm new. Just enrolled today."

"Sweet! So, I guess I'll be seeing you around a lot huh?"

"I guess you will be." Then, after a moment, she guessed no harm would come from what she was about to do next. "This," Anna grabbed Mina's hand and pulled the stiff girl forward. "is my roommate, Mina."

Dan's eyes shifted over to Mina and the girl's face got redder. "Hey Mina," Dan greeted nicely.

Mina managed a stiff wave, her eyes darting away from Dan as soon as they touched him. "H-hi," she squeaked.

"She can be a bit shy if she doesn't know you all that well. She'll warm up to you soon." Anna nudged Mina, silently urging her to say something other than a shaky hi. She didn't know why she was doing this. This was in no way a part of the mission and so she shouldn't be wasting her time even attempting it, but her instincts told her to be genuinely nice for once and so she went for it. Her instincts never failed her.

Mina didn't fail her either. She stuck her hand out, her cheeks still a bit red but her hand steady as she looked at Dan. "I'm Mina Romero, a senior just like you. We're in the same history class."

Dan grinned and took the hand. "You are? How comes I never saw you before?"

"I sit near the back at the window. Don't worry, I try not to be seen." Mina's smile faltered a bit when her sudden confidence wavered and her cheeks grew even redder at their contact. Anna contemplated stepping back in but she decided to give the two some more time to talk while she stared at her target.

He still stood behind Dan but his back was slightly turned to them, evidently not interested in joining the conversation anytime soon. He kept scrolling through his phone, his thumb running back and forth. For a second, he glanced up and Anna thought he had looked straight at her, but his eyes returned to his phone soon after and she dismissed the thought. He was apparently not as interested in the new girl as Dan was.

She didn't mind much. She wasn't seeking his interest. She was here for one thing and one thing alone. To protect him from whoever posed a threat to him – although she still wasn't sure who that would be – until he gained access to the will. After that they would both go their separate ways and life would go on for the both of them. So, no, she didn't care that he was ignoring them. As long as he was in her line of sight, she was fine.

So, she continued to stare, so intensely too that she hadn't heard Dan's question until Jessi's eyes lifted and looked at her arm. A bit jerkily, she looked at Dan. "Huh?"

He pointed at her arm. "You sure you shouldn't go take care of that? It looks pretty serious."

Anna looked down. Right where Mina had dug in her claws, blood was running like a miniature fountain. She hadn't noticed how serious a wound Mina had caused until Dan pointed out and the pain suddenly hit her. Anna held her hand over the marks, putting pressure on it.

"Oh my gosh! Anna, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that at all. I wasn't thinking. Oh my, it's bleeding."

Anna held up her injured hand to ward Mina off. "It's fine," she assured lightly. "I'll go take care of it in the nurse's office."

"Do you know where it is? I'll take you," Mina offered. Her eyes were suddenly a bit watery, filled with sorry and worry. Anna shook her head.

"I know where to find it," she assured. "We passed it a while back and believe it or not, I was listening. You guys can keep talking, I won't be long."

As soon as she said the words, the bell hanging over their heads rang. Both Dan and Mina flinched in surprise at the sound. Even Jessi jerked a little. Anna didn't flinch. She just casually looked up at the ringing bell then back at Jessi who had resumed scrolling through his phone a while longer before clicking the lock button and pushing it into his pocket.

"Dan," he called, turning to them. He pushed one hand into his pocket and the other pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "We better get to class."

"But, Anna needs some assistance," Dan protested with a pout.

"Dude," Jessi pressured. "She isn't limp, she can make it by herself. It's just a small cut. C'mon."

"I can make it by myself," Anna said again, this time more forcefully. Obviously, they weren't getting it in their heads. Did she look like a damsel in distress? Jessi was right, it was just a few cuts. She didn't need anyone escorting her to the nurse to get just a few cuts dressed. The very thought made her a bit annoyed, contrasting the I'm-average façade she always kept up.

She gave Mina a nudge for emphasis but the sorry look in the girl's eyes didn't lessen in the slightest. Still, Dan looked as if he was ready to leave and the thought of ditching their little tour to walk to class with him was clearly too much for Mina to pass up. She murmured a quick sorry which Anna simple waved off. It wasn't even that serious.

Mina turned and scurried to catch up to Dan who had walked away after a quick bye and a wave of his hand. She began talking, her mouth never stopping to take a breath but Dan didn't seem bothered by it. In fact, he entertained it, talking just as much as she was. Anna almost felt a smile tug on her lips but she turned around and turned her back to the sight as fast as she could.