I smack my forehead with my hand when Aquaria brings up the subject of "schoolwork".

"I meant to do it, I really did!" I exclaim.

She taps her foot on the ground. "You had a week to do it."

I groan, wanting to shoot myself for my idiocy. "I forgot! You can't blame me!"

She gets even more mad. "About that! Who am I supposed to blame? Cor?! Gem, I do not want to see your picture on the news because you were executed for your crimes." The natural pink strips in her hair are so defiant against her aqua colored eyes.

She was a colorful person.

She was also a pain in my everything. "I'm sorry." I say desperately. "As long as nobody finds out—"

"As long as nobody finds out," she mocks, "Of course the Elders are going to find out! Capri will tell on you faster than you can say tattle-tale."

I sigh, knowing she's right. Capri is just begging for an excuse to get me away from her. She hates me so much.

"Gem. I couldn't have asked for a better roommate." Aquaria sits besides me. "Whatever happens, I'm here for you." She rests her hand on my knee and smiles at me. "That and I feel bad for ruining your relationship with Arius."

I scoff. "I never thanked you for that."

She frowns at me. "Why would you think me?"

I tell her all about Arius's little visit to our dorm and his attempts to get inside. I told her about the perfect class, and everything I knew.

She was an outside thinker.

"That's uh— that's a lot to take in." She gulps. "Well at least we know why they didn't kill Leoana and Leo."

I tilt my head at her. "What do you mean?"

She gives me a dumbfounded look. "For someone who claims to know things, you aren't very smart."

"Hurtful!" I joke, slapping her arm and smiling. "I try. Just not very hard."

Aquaria laughs, rubbing her arm as if I had actually hit hard. "Anyways, they can't execute any of us obviously, otherwise who would take over? So they didn't kill Leoana or Leo, but they did do something that made them not want to see each other again."

I need to talk to Leo.

I've been meaning too, but I haven't gotten around to it. What am I supposed to say? "Hey, thought I'd ask what happened while you were imprisoned, sorry if it brings up bad memories."

"Times are changing, Gem. Kind of like your personality." She adds, looking up.

I let her insult slide over me as I stand, getting an idea. "Aquaria, you're a genius!"

She frowns. "I am? I mean, I AM! I am totally a genius!"

I shake my head. "If me and Cor can stay a secret until we're elders, we can change the rules! Then, it won't be illegal!"

He can finally let Genny live in the real world. Of course, I don't mention that part to Aquaria. That is a secret I won't be sharing ever.

We can change everything.

Times are changing, just like the elder positions.

"Come with me to talk to Leo." I grab Aquaria's wrist and together we head to my car.

***

My hand raps loudly on Leo and Sage's door.

I haven't been here since— since the party.

My mind drifts off the Chancler and why he did what he did that night. Eight hundred dollars for him to do that to me?

I'm only worth eight hundred dollars?

That's depressing.

Sage opens up, wiping his eyes. "Gem? Aquaria? What are—" I push past him and I hear his body hit the floor as we run through their posh living room.

I run straight to Leo's room and slam open the door.

Grand entrance, I suppose.

I glare when I slam on the light, two forms groaning and cursing at Sage.

"Man, turn off the damn light." A pillow is thrown in my direction but I easily catch it and throw it back.

"I need to talk to you, Leo. I suggest you get the hell up." I say, authority ringing in my command.

Leo sits up, squinting his eyes. "Gem? What are you doing here?"

Sage stands behind me now, and he sighs. "I'm going back to bed. This is ridiculous, waking me up at nine in the morning on the weekend." He slams his door and I hear him collapse onto his bed.

"Gem, you should go." Taria says, standing up. A shirt to big for her falls past her hips as she walks aimlessly to me.

Her thick brown hair flowed to her chest. Her lavender eyes almost reminded me of a Leo, but hers were lighter, almost ghostly.

I hated this person more than I hated Capri, and that's saying something.

I was headed into dangerous waters.

"I should, shouldn't I? I also should have completed my essay, but I didn't do that either." I blink at her, giving her a dumb look.

Leo stands up from his bed and I can't help but look at him.

He was, well, the Leos in every class were always the best looking.

His dirty blonde hair was messy and unkept, but that didn't deter his looks. His eyes were like Leona's but his had a more determined look. His jawline was straight and perfect. And his body was given to him by Zeus, but I still liked Cor's better. Cor was simpler, strong, but simple.

Nope. Not here to compare him to Cor.

"Leo, I need to talk to you." I yell.

He shakes his head. "Gem. I just woke up. Go home."

Taria smirks at me. "Sorry, I guess you'll have to run along and go back to your illegal little fling." She bats her eyes and I want to slap off her fake lashes.

I'm so close to doing it.

So. Close.

I have the patience of an Aries right now.

"If you don't move, we're going to have a problem on our hands, and I don't think you want that." I try to sound intimidating.

All of my friends could do that.

Leona spewed confidence and demanded respect. Aria was strong and got respect whether it was forcefully given or not. Cor was intimidating all on his own, because you wanted to know him and that made you want to to respect his wishes. Aquaria was funny and out going, trusted.

I was, well... I was the girl responsible for stealing a Lamborghini and dumping Arius for someone I wasn't allowed to be with.

Whoops.

"We already have a problem, Gem." She says, not stepping away from the door.

I'll hurt Leo where it hurts. "Wow, hiding behind a girl, so prideful of you, Leo." His pride.

I hated Arius for doing this exact same. He too tried to talk to me by insulting me where it hurt.

Maybe I'm no better than him.

Maybe everyone I knew held some special quality and I was just— me. I was just Gem Martin.

Friend to the hottest girl in the school. Second place to Capri in track. Ex to one of the funniest people in the class.

The girl who was always in trouble.

The backstabbing sign. The two-faced sign. The sign that everyone despises because we had our own way of thinking.

I was done with it.

I needed Leo for information. Because Aquaria was right, Cor and I were eventually going to get caught.

If I knew what happened to Leo and Leona then I could help in some way other than just being the screw up who almost died in a stupid car crash.

"If all you did was come to stir up trouble then leave." He growled, standing behind Taria.

I shake my head. "I need to ask you something. Alone. I glance at Taria."

Leo shakes his head. "Goodbye, Gem."

He starts to close the door when I say my last resort. "It's about Leona!" I yell.

The door stops and swings open wildly. "What did you just say?"

"I said, it's about Leona. I need to talk to you, alone." I glance at Aquaria who has stood silently by my side this whole time.

She's friends with Taria. She's friends with Leo. This is her group.

Just like me, Leona, Aris, and now Aria.

This was where Aquaria was over half the time. Well, probably not so much since she started dating Minley.

"Taria, give us a minute?" His voice has gone cold and weak.

What happened to them?

Taria gives him a like of anger. "What?" She spits.

He begs her with his eyes. Anyone would melt under that gaze. "Please, babe."

She doesn't seem happy about it, but she wanders off.

I walk into his room and he shuts the door.

"Is she okay?" His room is bright and I can't help but wonder who decorated. It's so, neat, and clean, and he has a really nice mirror.

I nod. "Yeah. She's fine. Well I mean she's not fine but she is, ya know?"

He shakes his head. "No, I don't know, I can't talk to her."

I pop my knuckles and sigh. "That's actually why I'm here. Leona told me to talk to you about what happened after you guys were taken."

He hangs his head low, and I swear it's the first time I've ever seen the top of his head. He never hangs it, and he's always been taller than me.

"Gem... what happened there isn't even explainable. Why do you want to know?" I give him a minute of staring at my "really?" face before he leans back, his mouth forming an O. "You can't stop it, Gem."

I take a deep breath. "I know, but I have an idea."

I tell him about the perfect class and how we're the next elders. I tell him about my plan of changing the rules.

I don't know if I should be spreading this info, but this is necessary. If there is any way I can keep myself with Cor, then it's worth telling.

"Holy Elders." Is all he responds with.

He runs his hand through his hair and taps his foot. "Gem, do you really think you can change the rules?"

I nod. "If I do, you can be with Leona again. You just have to tell me what happened there."

"You're going to want to sit down." He nods to his bed and we both sit down on the edge of it.

Leo, like Leona, didn't have a TV which I found odd. Why don't they have TVs?

Must be a Leo thing.

"Me and Leona were shipped to a facility out in the desert. Two separate vans. And when I woke up, I was inside a cell. There was another guy in there, Aaron? I don't know, I hate thinking about him. But he wasn't there much longer, I got there at the end of his whole ordeal.

I was alone for days. Food came from a slot under the door and it was nasty anyways. I looked terrible, I know it. And I knew Leona was somewhere in the building, I would catch whispers of her name in the hallways.

Finally, a girl named Bri picked me up and we walked to a room with a one sided mirror— those things where it's a mirror on one side and a window on the other— and on the other side was Leona. She looked bad too, and I don't mean that in the typical Leo way. She looked deprived of sleep, food, she was so pale. I tried screaming, tried to break the glass but it was bulletproof.

Eventually I gave up and just watched her struggle to get out of restraints on a table. Bri explained that they were going to get rid of her disease, I can't even remember what it's called. But she said every time she thought about me, it would trigger pain. That if she thought about me too much she would die. I didn't believe her until the doctor came in." Leo breaks here and faces up.

His eyes water and he closes them, breathing deeply. "Gem, I know we barely talk, and I know you don't particularly like my presence, but listen to me— dump Cor. Please. I can't stand anyone going through what we went through."

Leo is full on crying by now, his eyes reminding me of a water droplet running down purple flowers during a rainstorm. Or crystals dotting a royal purple robe.

He sobbed, sucking in a deep breath and I let him get his bearings.

"Please. Leo, I know this has to be hard. What happened?" I beg.

He faces back up and wipes his eyes.

"Gem, he— he, he put her through surgery and I had to watch. Brain surgery. He messed around with her memories and I don't know what he did. I watched for hours upon hours and every time I looked away— Bri threatened to just... kill her.

After I don't even know how long, everything was done. And after that, must have been two hours but it seemed like years, Leona woke up, screaming bloody murder, Gem." He out his head in his hands, tears streaming down his face. "And I couldn't— I couldn't help her. She just kept crying, crying out for me."

Leo blinks madly. "She had to stop thinking about me or she was going to die. So they brought in Aris. Aris came in and rocked her to sleep, making her think of things, peaceful things. All the while, Bri threatened things at him and it was chaos, compete chaos.

Leona doesn't remember Aris coming in, I'm sure of it, but I do. And I've never been more thankful towards someone I hate with a burning passion. He can't talk about it, he's not allowed too, but he wasn't there on his free will.

She stopped thinking about me, eventually, and now... every time my name crosses her mind she just—"

"Collapses." I say.

I can't even imagine what I would do if every time I thought about Cor my head exploded.

It's just wrong.

"Gem. For your own safety, please, drop Cor." Leo faces the wall, his mind wandering off.

Even looking at the hottest guy in our class, my mind still drifts off to Cor.

The way he wears high top converse. His white t-shirts and dark hair. The way he protects and loves. The subtle ways he has of touching me, and the not so subtle ways of expressing his feelings to me and only me, because we all knew he was closed off.

It was the way he noticed every detail of every thing.

The way he breathed.

I could never live if we went through what Leo and Leona did.

I stand up and start towards the door.

Leo pulls me into a tight hug, I never thought I would ever hug Leo.

"Thank you, Gem. For being there for her. You didn't know it, but you probably saved her life by keeping her mind occupied." He says, and backs away, tears still streaming down his clear face.

I nod and leave, not bothering to say goodbye to anyone.

Taria stops me, however. "Is his fling okay? Did she finally choke on hairspray."

I push her into the wall. "I may not be Aria, but I definitely picked up on a few tricks." I push her harder into the wall and leave, not even caring the insults Taria throws my way.

I have to leave Cor. At least, stop seeing him until we're both elders.

So I made my very first meme because it was all I could think about when I wrote those lines between Aquaria and Gem in the beginning.

I nearly died and I just couldn't even breath when I made it even though it isn't really that funny— my sense of humor I guess.

So we met Leo, finally. What do you guys think of him? Shipping material? Are you guys still team Aris? Don't hate Aris, he was forced into helping those people plus he did technically save Leona's life.

I hope everyone keeps Manchester in their hearts and...

As always, stay happy, stay red white and blue London
-Dani_Kail