The desk was larger than she first thought. At first glance, she thought it was simply a rather tall, rather large desk, but now, sitting behind it, Anna saw that it was way more than that. The surface of the desk right before her was littered with papers, none of which concerned her overly much. She didn't care about what inventory the nurse needed to sign for or about the report on student health so far. She pushed those papers aside and set about searching for what she really needed.

Allowing more space for her get down to business, her sharp eyes quickly scanned the rest of the massive desk. No first aid equipment in sight. The only things that occupied the desk were folders stacked on top of each other, papers thrown about haphazardly, pens, pencils and a stapler.

Anna switched course, reaching up into the top half of the desk. Here it seemed there were actual compartments and Anna mentally berated herself on not checking up here first. As if the nurse would have medicine just laying around on her desk. In a school filled with bored, rich kids no less. There was bounded to be some pill popping student heading down the wrong path and desperate to keep going that guaranteed having these things under lock and key.

And under lock and key it was. The slide-apart compartment door remained fixed in place when she tried pushing it aside. The keyhole she had ignored earlier suddenly seemed to become stark against the light coloured wood. Did the nurse really leave treating her up to her when she had locked away the material she needed? Without leaving a key? Did the Headmistress even realize what an idiot she hired to be the school nurse?

"Dumbass," she murmured, rolling her eyes. Getting into the compartment was no hard job. She would be in no time. It was the very thought of having to go through the trouble that had her cursing the green scrub wearing dumb shell of a woman. Or maybe she was being too harsh. Maybe the woman had left the key and she hadn't seen it when she had searched through the desk drawers. It was highly unlikely but still possible. After all, Anna was well aware that she wasn't perfect. She could make mistakes.

So she dug around in the desk drawers again, even got up and looked around the room to see if the nurse had hung it up somewhere. But it was to no avail. No key showed up and by that time, Anna was feeling too pissed off to curb the curses and profanities that ran through her head, directing every drop of word at the nurse. She plopped back down in the leather chair, closing her eyes and breathing a deep breath of fresh, cold air before she pulled a bobby pin from her hair. With a sigh, she straightened the pin out and set about picking the lock. It took less than a minute before she was in, sliding the compartment door aside and revealing the holy grail of nurse's office medical items.

Anna didn't waste any time getting what she needed. Not that she was in much of a rush to get anywhere. Now that Mina had abandoned her to walk to class with her crush, she was left to her own devices, to do as she pleased. And doing what she pleased is exactly what she intended to do. Yes, she'll make sure not to break any rules while she was at it, but, after patching herself up, Anna intended on taking a tour of her own around the school, one not hindered by the oddly keen eyes of her new roommate. That sad excuse of a tour Mina had assembled did nothing for her mission. Times to take matters into her own hands.

She pulled out the rubbing alcohol and a bag of cotton balls. Stripping on a pair of latex gloves from the box she found in the corner of the compartment, she took up a cotton ball and partially soaked it in alcohol.

She heard when the door opened and closed, just a few bated breaths of seconds after. She heard the soft tap of shoes on the floor as whoever it was made their way up the desk. She heard the person clear his throat softly. But she didn't look up until whoever it was decided to stand right before the desk and let his shadow fall over her. Even then, when she looked up, it was only for a quick second before she resumed what she was doing.

"That looks like it hurts."

Anna glanced back up again, only to give a small shrug. "Not as bad as you would think."

"Yeah? Alcohol on bleeding cuts? That should sting like a bitch."

The shadow disappeared and the soft taps on the floor sounded again. Soon, it was accompanied by the soft sound of rubber being dragged across the shining, tiled floor. The sound ended abruptly but was replaced by the sound of the person plopping down in the wheelchair that he pulled up beside her. Anna stopped what she was doing and looked up.

"Did you drag that instead of just pushing it?" she asked him, resting her arm on the desk and raising a brow in question.

Jessime Beaumont grinned at her. She blinked at the brilliance of the smile, much, much better in person, up close, than it was in pictures or at a distance. "Yeah, I did," he answered.

"Why?"

He raised his shoulders in a noncommittal shrug. "Couldn't bother to open it and pull the lever up and push it then push the lever back down and all that boring, long stuff." He rolled his head around as he emitted a loud groan. "Way too much work. Seemed easier this way."

"You mean using up more muscles to drag it across the floor?"

His grin was back, this time sheepish. "Well, when you put it like that..."

Anna looked at him a while longer before looking back down at her cuts. Slowly, she lifted her hand again and resumed cleaning away the blood on her arm. This time she didn't feel the stinging sensation when the alcohol met the wounds. She was too preoccupied with slyly watching the boy sitting beside her.

She was only too aware of the fact that he was watching her. In fact, not only was he watching her but his smile was still frozen on his face too, although it had diminished from a full blown grin and was now a small quirk of the lips, but a smile nonetheless. He was watching her and he was smiling. That put her on edge. That and the simple, obvious fact that he had barely acknowledged her during the brief moments they've met yet here he was, in the nurse's office, smiling at her when he should be in history class.

"Are you sick?" she asked him, not looking up from her task.

A few seconds clocked by before he jerked in his seat, bringing her eyes up to his. "Um, what?" he stammered out, blinking profusely.

Anna frowned. "I asked if you were sick," she repeated. This time she kept her eyes on him, watching him as he ran his hand over his face and shifted in his seat uncomfortably before returning back to normal. Well, back to what she deemed normal for him although she was beginning to doubt she had him successfully pegged. This was a completely different Jessi she had seen on those few occasions.

He waved a hand. "Nah, I'm fine. But if anyone asks, I had a serious case of anemia and I was taking a nap."

"You don't just get anemia in thirty minutes."

"Yeah? Who says? I could have one of those relapse cases, or something like that." After a moment, he added: "Anemia has those stuff right?"

Anna threw the bloody cotton ball aside and picked up another, dousing it in alcohol. "I wouldn't know. I'm not a doctor."

"Yeah, well, you seem to be doing pretty well with your cuts over there. Where is the nurse anyway?"

"She's out taking care of some business. She gave me the get-go to take care of myself before she left."

"Really?" He leaned forward, enveloping her in the smell of citrus and leather. Anna's eyes reached upwards, staring at him as he looked at the inside of the desk. "That's weird. Doesn't she usually keep up there locked?"

"She opened it before she left," she replied, still staring at him. His face was close. Too close. She's never had someone so close to her before and, it's not that she didn't like it but she didn't know what to do with it. Push him away? Punch him? Let him stay? What was the answer?

She settled on ignoring him until he got bored with whatever it is he was looking at and leaned back. So she continued cleaning her cut, her senses slowly tuning back in to the stinging pain the alcohol caused on the cuts. It took a full ten seconds of busily cleaning before she realized that he hadn't let up.

Anna looked up to see Jessi looking at her. He wasn't smiling, but his face was filled with interest, his eyes scanning her face as if trying to capture and analyze every detail.

"Move."

"Okay," he pulled away immediately and his grin was back, "Hey, maybe after you're done you could tend to me."

"There's nothing wrong with you."

"Sure there is," he drawled easily. "See, I'm feeling faint right now. Why do think I'm in a wheelchair?"

"Because that was the easiest chair accessible to sit beside me?"

"Well yeah that, but I really am feeling tired."

"Then go lie down."

"Where's the fun in that? I need Nurse Annabelle to tend to me or I won't make it."

That made her frown and she looked at him more closely. He was still wearing that foolish, goofy grin. He was relaxed in the chair, his legs spread out before him and his elbows resting on the armrests of the wheelchair. The way he smiled at her, it was beginning to make her very confused. The question of why he was even here when clearly nothing was wrong with him was immediately answered when she realized that he probably just wanted to get out of class. But did that explain why he was sitting here talking to her when he barely knew she existed before? And why he kept staring at her and grinning like a fool?

Maybe he was just bored and wanted company, her mind told her. Maybe he had come in to get away from class, saw that it was her sitting in the nurse's chair and not the nurse herself, and decided to pass the time talking to her. Maybe he had been listening when they stood in the hallway and that's why he knew her name. All these 'maybes' sounded plausible.

"As I said before," Anna replied, throwing the second bloodied cotton ball on the desk next to the first. "I'm no doctor."

"Yes, yes. So you've said. I heard you the first time. Still you seem to know what you're doing."

"This is basic," she said, pausing to look right at him. "All I'm doing is cleaning my cut with some alcohol. It's not as if I'm doing open heart surgery."

"Sounds just about the same to me."

"Of course it would," she murmured to herself. Louder, she leaned back in the comfy chair and asked, "So history class was too boring for you that taking a nap in the nurse's office was a better substitute?"

"History class used to be just fine until your friend decided to shack herself up beside Dan and chat his ear off. I had to get out of there before I snapped at her."

"She's quite the talker, isn't she?" Anna said with a tiny wry smile, ignoring the reference he made to Mina being her friend.

"She's probably nice and all but I couldn't take another second in there. I'm just surprised the teacher didn't run her out."

"Your friend didn't seem to mind it."

"Yeah, well Dan's just super nice to everyone he meets." He dismissed her words with another wave of his hand.

"Birds of a feather really do flock together then." Anna crossed one leg over the other, staring at him until her words registered and his smile slowly grew back. All that was left for her to do is to put on the bandages and be on her way but she felt too comfortable in the AC'd air and the leather chair to move right now. Not to mention the insightful conversation she was having with her target. She was learning the specifics, the hidden information she needed to protect him efficiently, not just what she read on paper. And so far, she saw that he smiled a lot. A whole lot.

"Aw, is that a compliment from the new girl?" He held his hand up to his heart and he made a mockingly glad sound of surprise. "What an honour."

That brought a smile to her face, albeit a small one, and she shrugged. "Just stating the obvious."

"I'm not super nice but thanks again. And while we're at it, I want to say that you're super nice too."

This time she rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "We both know I'm not."

"Yeah, but it's a super nice thing to say, isn't it?" They both shared a laugh, Jessi's loud and full and Anna's just a small chuckle. Then they descended into silence. Anna felt the smile fall off her face as quickly as it came and, in turn, so did Jessi's. But his eyes never left her. Even when she began frowning at him, he didn't let up.

Releasing a silent sigh, Anna sat up and said, "Stop being creepy."

"I'm not," he protested.

"You are." She rummaged through the compartment again and brought out a box of bandages. She had ignored the roll of white bandages since the wounds she had weren't serious enough nor were the big enough for that, but when she saw the bandages she had to use, she almost groaned aloud. It was a Disney princess themes box of bandages. Pulling one out, she saw that, through the clear wrapper, the bright yellow dress of Princess Belle shone back at her.

"Cute," Jessi commented, his voice laced with humour. She merely shot him a glance before digging into the box and pulling out a few more. She pulled the wrapper off and pasted the bandages over each cut. Soon, her skin was decorated with the blue, yellow, pink and green of the Disney princesses. Her eyes shot back up to Jessi when he stifled a laugh.

"Real cute," he said behind his hand. Anna didn't even bother to reply. She pushed the wrappers aside and began repacking what she had used. She slid the compartment door close, gathered her garbage and discarded it in the wastebasket behind the chair. Then she stood.

"Aw, leaving already?"

"Get your rest," she said lightly.

"I think I'm better now," he said, springing up from the chair. "Let's go.
Anna's eyebrow raised at him teasingly. "I thought you had anemia?" she taunted. "We wouldn't want you to faint, now would we?"

"And we both know that was a lie."

At that moment the door opened and the nurse stepped inside. Her eyes betrayed surprise when she saw Jessi standing at her desk.

"Jessime?" she asked, coming closer and setting her things down on the top of the desk. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"Just here to escort my friend here back to class, Nurse," he lied easily, jabbing a thumb at Anna. "She's new and doesn't really know how to make it back by herself."

"Oh, that's so sweet of you!" The nurse smiled warmly at Jessi, then turned to Anna who stood watching the interaction. "You're lucky you got yourself Jessime as a friend. Such a sweet boy, he is."

"I'm sure," Anna muttered but the nurse didn't seem to hear. She had turned her attention back to Jessi.

"Jessime, if you don't mind, after you've put back the wheelchair, could you go spread the beds for me? I'll give you merits for it."

"I really have to –"

"Don't worry. She looks like a smart girl. I'll direct her wherever she needs to go."

"She can't really –"

"No, Jessi, come on." This time it was Anna who spoke. She was done with watching the two talk and, now that she had finished what she came here for, there was no need to linger. She had other things to do that was way more important that watching the nurse cajole Jessi into helping her spread beds. "I can make it on my own, don't worry. The nurse here needs help."

She stepped out from behind the desk and passed by him, giving him a short simple pat on the back as she walked by. She turned to the nurse, cutting off his protest, "Looking at those arms he can do some heavy lifting too. Use him up."

Then, with a salute with her fingers, Anna left the gaping Jessi behind and closed the door behind her.