It was just the two of them. Everyone else was in class and Cammie couldn't help but think that she had never missed class as much as she had in the last two days.

It was an insignificant thought, the kind you get absently when you're in a situation you wish you weren't. And Cammie certainly wished she wasn't standing across from Ramsey Stone, after a significantly stressful meeting and significantly detestable morning. To make matters all that much worse, he seemed to have been waiting for her to come out.

His eyes dropped briefly as he took in her little pink dress, white cuffed ankle socks, and light green sneakers that matched the glass buttons up the front of her dress. She immediately felt self-conscious, and her insides warmed at the clear appreciation in his eyes.

She cleared her throat and he immediately snapped back to her eyes, "Sorry." He murmured and had the balls to smile sheepishly. She scowled in response. She would not be falling for Ramsey Stone's charm these days.

"What are you doing here?"

Ramsey glanced around without even bothering to correct the way he leaned against the wall like one of those models on a Times Square billboard. Irritation flared within her. Whether it was because of his attitude or the comparison her mind just made she wasn't sure.

"I'm here to get a diploma, which is expected of me in order to gain acceptance into even higher education from an institution, that bestows itself the title of "liberal arts", so I may eventually garner respectable prospective job opportunities to begin paying off the debts that such high education bestows upon me since they actually mooch and perpetuate off a capitalist system, they teach their students to hate." He paused with a smirk, "Why, what are you here for?"

Cammie hadn't thought her day could get any worse, or her frustration any more acute. Apparently, she was wrong. Ramsey Stone could make anything worse.

"I'm here because the state mandates it." She muttered smartly, hoping to irk him even just a little bit.

Deciding she actually didn't care to know the real reason he was standing outside the Principal's office she turned on her heel to head to the girls bathroom and hide away until the end of the period in an attempt to avoid entering late in front of everyone. Hopefully she'd be able to keep her head down and avoid eye contact with anyone for the rest of the day.

Ramsey was probably there for some reprehensible reason that she had no desire to corrupt herself with. Unlike Cammie, Ramsey was not unfamiliar with Principal DeRosa and hearing his name on the loudspeaker.

"Ivy, wait!" he called, amusement still clear in his tone. She rolled her eyes and briefly thought that talking to him. A moment longer might cause them to disappear into her skull forever. Ramsey Stone was truly a health and safety hazard to her.

Wasn't he upset with her yesterday? Annoyed by her clear hate of him in her diary entries for some unknown reason.

"In case you were still wondering, responses like that are exactly why I think you swallowed the handbook on how to be a cliché high school asshole."

She heard a harsh sigh of frustration and a brief pause before a large, warm hand clasped at her wrist. God, what is it with guys thinking they could man handle me this morning? Still, she let him pull her to a stop.

"I'm sorry, okay. I can't help it, you're so easy to rile up, it's hard to resist."

Clenching her teeth, Cammie resisted the urge to snap at him as it would only prove him right. She recalled the way he used to tease her when they were younger. He'd always liked doing it. Except they weren't children anymore and it wasn't harmless.

"I wanted to talk."

Again she said nothing.

"About, uh, about your situation."

She raised her eyebrows.

"You know, the one where you end up with no friends or social life for the rest of senior year?"

She snatched away her wrist that was still cradled in his warmth. His words were a slap to the face. She wasn't friendless. She wouldn't be friendless. Gemma and Jace were... they would understand. Just as soon as she managed to speak to them about it. Her confrontation with Jace had been a few minutes and it felt like a lifetime. It was abundantly clear he wanted answers and she had no doubt that Gemma would be looking for the same. Although she would probably be the one to approach her friend who was not the best at communicating her feelings when she was truly upset. At the heart of it all though, the thing Cammie was desperately trying not to think about but also desperate to know, was who had done this to her? And why?

"You are truly terrible at talking to people. I can't imagine why Alana would have broken up with you." she snapped. Her heart was heavy and nasty right now and Ramsey Stone, the boy who was known for being infallibly indifferent may just be the best punching bag for her weak fists.

Alana and Ramsey's break up had been all over the school the first week of school. Unlike Jace and Gemma they had apparently broken up right before classes began again. And unlike Jace and Gemma they had remained that way. Cammie had been surprised; they had been the It couple of their grade since sophomore year. A part of her, the average angsty teen part of her that everyone her age had, was curious as to why. Who had broken up with who? Did they still talk? Did they call each other at midnight and talk amongst the darkness that they could both claim to forget when they woke.

At her snippy words, the corners of Ramsey's mouth tightened, "If I were you I wouldn't be passing any judgements right now."

She could tell what she said had upset him and it tugged at the part of her that had always tried to preserve a soft spot for Ramsey. She'd thought she'd failed at that though. Against her better judgment she decided to hear him out. She checked the time on her watch and saw that class would be over in less than twenty minutes.

With a sigh she reached out and took his hand. His eyes popped open comically before she shushed him and began to lead him towards the school's side entrance. Surprisingly he didn't say anything and let her lead him away.

✎

Ramsey let her drag him out of the room. He watched her little hips sway and felt her hand wet and sweating in his. Her fingers were cold and clammy. Cammie continued to drag him further down the hall and outside. There was a breeze that said that Fall was coming, the leaves were ever so slightly turning yellow and brown at their tips and edges. She stopped them under a Maple tree out back. He eyed it in wary amusement. It was known as the Kissing Tree for the initials and hearts carved into its trunk and branches, branches that stretched out above them, protecting them from people's sight. He knew around the other side his and Alana's initials were there, held together by a crude heart she had added when he wasn't around. The leaves danced in the wind ready to be set free and float to the ground in a few weeks, when Autumn finally came and claimed its time of year.

Cammie dropped Ramsey's hand and wiped her palms on her dress. She tucked her hair behind her ear and closed her eyes. They both stood in silence, Ramsey watching Cammie in front of him, studying the creases on her face. She must be feeling so much stress to look like this. He thought. There were lines on her forehead and around her mouth. She seemed lost. She seemed like him.

"So?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

"So, what?" Ramsey asked, confused and lost in her trembling form.

Her eyes bugged at his words, "You said you wanted to talk so, so talk." she made a cute little gesture with her hand before tucking it back under her armpit for warmth.

"Oh yeah," he bit his lip and sighed "I wanted to make you a proposition of sorts..."

Cammie couldn't help the shock that shook through her body, the indignant violent offense. Proposition? Who did he think she was? She may have been on the verge of becoming a social pariah but she certainly hadn't fallen low enough to –

"Oh shit- uh no! That's not what I meant at all. God, I'm sorry Cammie." Ramsey had the decency to share her shock for a moment before it shifted to amusement and he chuckled, "I'm a little insulted you'd think I'd have to stoop so low for such a thing. I can hook up with any girl I want."

Embarrassment and annoyance crept up her neck in the shade of a blooming rose, "Spit it out before I walk away, Jr. Romeo." Cammie muttered looking away from him with a bit of shame. Between this and her conversation with Principle DeRosa she was having a terrible morning. It was only a matter of time before she started crying again. And here she was thinking she'd dried out her tear ducts last night.

Ramsey decided to give up on trying to make her laugh. He didn't even know why he wanted to in the first place. The words he'd read about himself had come from her mind and it was clear she hated him. He would never admit he'd sifted through the hundreds of pages in the stairwell to find anything that had his name on it. He had found one that described his eyes in vivid detail and it was burning hole in his back jeans pocket as they spoke. It was the only thing that gave him the confidence to speak his next words.

"I want you to be my girlfriend." he blurted out. He wasn't going to lie, he was expected her to gasp, to squeal, to punch him, maybe even laugh in his face. What he didn't expect was silence that stretched between them to the point where he wondered if she had heard him. Cammie didn't even turn her head to look at him, but he saw her face turning red even from the way it was turned to stare out at the bleachers where people ate lunch during the spring.

Slowly her gaze turned to him and she had tears in her eyes.

"What is wrong with you? Is this really that much of a joke to you? Did you do this to me?" She asked and though her voice was soft he could hear the hurt and venom coating her tongue and teeth.

Yeah, certainly not the reaction he expected.

"What, of course not. I would never do something like this. Why would I print all those terrible things you said about me and hand them out to all the jerks at our school to read? They don't exactly make me look like sunshine and rainbows." he paused as he took a tear that was rolling down her cheek, he added softly, "But I also would never do that to you. To anyone."

She continued to eye him with gradually reddening eyes. The way she didn't try to hide her tears from him was like a stake through the heart. He'd never seen someone look so openly broken.

"I'm serious, I want you to be my girlfriend. And I'll be your boyfriend. Just for a month or two. Till this whole thing blows over. I think that we both know that you're in love with that guy."

"What guy?" she snapped, her eyes flitting away for a moment as was common to people who were lying and he knew that he had her.

"That guy, Chase."

"Jace." she corrected absently before her eyes snapped back to his and he quirked a brow at her response.

"Will you hear me out?" he asked pointedly and her reluctant silence was the answer for both of them. "He's your best friend, he's dating your best friend and it doesn't take a genius to see that this could ruin your friendship with them. You need to prove to him, prove to both of them that you don't mean what you wrote in those pages. And to do that, you need him to think that you're in love with someone else." When he finished speaking she felt like she couldn't breathe, like all the oxygen had been squeezed out of her lungs when he spoke those words out loud. He'd vocalized all her worst fears and said things out loud she'd never uttered beyond the ink of her pen. Ramsey's gaze trapped her as he watched her process his business pitch. That's what it was to him, what called it in his own head at least. His mind ran wild with what would happen if she said no. What would happen to her if she turned him down and walked back into the jungle of a high school without anyone by her side.

The image of a 13 year old Cammie, drowning in the drab Harvard sweatshirt shadows of someone in grief conjured itself into his mind. He didn't want to see that Cammie ever again.

Of course if she said no, it would mess up his own plans. Ramsey had thought about this all last night and he was an honest guy. It was because he was honest he couldn't say he was only motivated by the pure goodness of his heart. Sure he wanted to help Cammie, but only an idiot wouldn't have some kind of personal benefit. Just ask the Christian Missionaries from the nineteenth century.

"How do you know all that?" she finally asked. Her glassy eyes fixed sternly on his. He could see it then, that she was deflecting, but he took that as a good sign. She was curious. About him, about his plan. He couldn't stop the little smirk that tugged at his lips. Truth was, Ramsey hadn't known for sure until this very moment that all he said was true. He'd used some pretty blatant context clues though. It really helped making assumptions about someone's feelings and life when you had access to their personal diary and years worth of faith and emotions.

"Seriously? The whole school is probably aware of your situation right now." he added, "Although you're more than welcome to call me Sherlock if you'd prefer."

"Stop smirking." she snapped, "This is not a joke. However," she paused and looked away again, she plunged her top teeth into her bottom lip, "However I see your point."

When she glanced back at him her face had softened but she raised her eyebrows, albeit a little playfully, "I thought I told you to stop smirking?"

He raised his hands with a chuckle, "Sorry, I just can't but be a little smug right now. I do want to say though, I'm not actually asking you out. This would all be for show. Pretend. I mean you're cute and all but Alana and I just broke up and I think-"

"Let me cut you off right there before you make me change my mind." Cammie said and though she was trying to look stern all Ramsey could see was that she had stopped crying and looked like Jerry the mouse from Tom and Jerry when she was angry. It was pretty darn cute.

"Alright." silence, "So you're in?"

The wind was playing with her hair, tangling it up. It was seeping into her bones and her brain and freezing the parts of it that should have been working properly to make such an important decision. Ramsey Stone was asking to date her. To help her and it didn't make sense. His random act of kindness towards her seemed somewhat out of place considering their almost nonexistent relationship or friendship of any kind.

Her cheeks and nose were rosey from the chill now. She was probably going to have to start switching over to tights rather than socks for her dresses. And a coat would probably help too in the near future.

Ramsey jet black hair was tousled and fluttering around too. His skin had the same chilled glow to it and his hazel eyes were so focused on her that she felt a little fidgety. Any girl would be under the scrutiny of such a handsome boy. It was a terrible idea, one that would be a lot of work, a lot of planning, and a lot of lies. It was an idea straight out of her books and she hadn't even come up with it. She was probably going to regret it.

"Fake date you? Publicly? To save my reputation and keep the two people I love most in my life and prevent them from hating me forever? God this is such a bad idea, but," a deep breath, hazel eyes meeting grey-blue, "I'm in. But, we're gonna need to do it right."

Her words and Ramsey's smirk was enough to make her stomach tingle with nerves and something else she couldn't quite place.

Cammie already regretted it.