Jean was looking up at Leandro worriedly. He had seemed to be quite tense. But now that she had hugged him he was calmer. He was just staring daggers at Arcangelo as he was leaving and had clenched his jaw obviously holding back.

As Arcangelo left with Jacob. He slowly turned to Jean "Are you ok?"

She said "I am fine. Thank you. Can we... go somewhere?... Just to sit for a while?"

Leandro nodded and managed a smile "Anywhere you want to go, I will go."

She said "Can we go to the tables and benches outside?"

Leandro said "Your brother will send over a search party for you if we go too far so that is perfectly fine..."

As Jean let go, Leandro was about to walk away but then found Jean holding his hand as she was the one leading him now. He couldnt believe she was now so comfortable with him. She had hugged him and held hands with him. Maybe the ice was broken now... He recalled how Arcangelo used to say how the difficult situations brought people together... He shook his thoughts. He didnt want to think about him. It was bad enough he let him walk off with no scratch on him. Even though she didnt seem hurt but she was pretty shaken up enough for him to notice. He couldnt believe how Arcangelo had managed to scare his girl off just by two sentences.

Jean sat down on a bench and put her arms on the table as Leandro sat opposite her. He reached his hand over to her "I like holding your hand... Is that ok?"

She nodded and smiled. She knew it had a calming effect on him. He reached his hand across the table and held her hand.

Jean took a deep breath and spoke "I wanted to speak to you about what happened..."

Leandro said "Dont think too much about what happened. It wont happen again... Arcangelo knows your are my girl so he would try not to intimidate you. He is the way he is... But he can be civil."

Jean said "He didnt try to intimidate me... He was intimidating and I was intimidated... I am sorry if I made you worried about me. I am fine now... I just wanted to ask you.... Lets forget this happened..."

Leandro said "Well... I can try to forget... if thats what you want..."

Jean said "But you wont forget easily. I saw how you were looking at him... You were still angry... I didnt want you to hurt him because your sister likes him... I am worried about you too... He is scary... I dont want you to fight him and get hurt...."

Leandro couldnt stop himself from laughing. He shook his head as he was now smiling at her.

Jean said "Why are you laughing?

Leandro said with a smile was on his lips. "Well. I don't think me getting hurt was a problem and Arcangelo is harder than cement and concrete combined. Its not easy to hurt either of us. We would have been fine... It would have given him satisfaction to punch him for scaring you..."

Jean said "But he is Lavinia's boyfriend..."

Leandro's tone turned serious "He is indeed."

Jean asked "Does it worry you that he is dating your sister? I have never met anyone so scary..."

Leandro said " I am not worried for my sister. I was ... before she picked him... I know it sounds crazy and may sound wrong to you... But my sister is wild... She needs a man to watch out for her and be her match. She is not like me and my brother. Our father has raised us to be traditional and conservative. Leo has slip ups but he does agree with most of our family's moral principles. Lavinia.... she is just not like us..."

Jean said "I wont call her wild... She is so lively ..."

Leandro said "She is very liberal... She just does as she pleases. She has disregard for the rules sometimes. My parents dont mind. They would rather she can stand up for herself as their only daughter and thats all that matters. Thats why they sent her to military school. Arcangelo is her match. No one else can be. Every time I see him talk about my sister and says how he will make her his wife and make her carry his kids, I want to break his jaw... I really do... But I guess my sister could do alot worse. Arcangelo is an old friend. We go way back... He is my room mate from military school. I trust him with my life. I know he is rough but he is disciplined and wont let my sister risk her life for her wild adventurous dreams or at least some of them. I know he is genuine. I am sorry your first encounter went this way. I am sure he will behave himself next time or he will be angering me."

Leandro found himself getting closer to her. It felt good to have a conversation with her as she was relaxed.

*****

Jean was sitting in the library studying alone. She had put the events of the day behind her. She didn't want to linger in the past. That was not the way she wanted to live. She was moving on.

As the was reading from her text book and making notes, she heard someone clearing her throat. She looked up. "Hi Ingrid."

Ingrid was in her classes. She did not talk to her in any of the lessons but she stared at her a lot.

Ingrid sat down opposite her uninvited and she didn't seem friendly. She said "I heard about what happened at the football game... I don't see what's the fuss is all about? Why do you make a big deal out of nothing?"

Jean was surprised. Just when she had put this morning's incident behind her, Ingrid was bringing it up and not in a nice tone. She sounded like she accusing her of kicking up a fuss. She put her pen down and said softly "I am not sure what you have heard but ..."

Ingrid gave out a bitter laugh "You are acting like this innocent angel. Drop the act. You just get special treatment because the dean likes you. Wait after he dumps you or you dump him. Then you will taste what real life is like around here. You are wrapped around a cotton wool but not forever. Do everyone a favour and just leave. Where did you come from anyway?"

Jean had no idea where all this hate was coming from. That was all she felt. She felt her hate and contempt at full force and she did not know why. Jean said weakly "Look Ingrid. I have never even talked to you before. I don't remember ever having done anything to upset you. Why are you so hostile to me? I would like to know."

Ingrid rolled her eyes "Here we go again. Stop acting this way, so naive, so weak, so pathetic. I hope you have a big fall out with the dean and you are then out of his good books. I would love to see you fend for yourself all alone. You make me sick. You disgust me. You keep looking down. You keep staying quiet. You act like you know nothing. You do. You are enjoying your power and throwing it around..."

Jean was shocked "What power? When have I thrown around any power?"

Ingrid said "You are a great actress. Join the drama club and get a part in a play. Honestly. You are good at acting like you are all innocent. You did make use of your privileges today. You disrespected Arcangelo Rossi who is one of the prospective students who will join the football team and strengthens the reputation of this school. Yet you disrespected him and caused a rift between the dean and him. You must be ashamed of yourself. If I was Lavinia I would put a prize on your head to get beaten up. You are an awful person. Next time anyone comes at you, speak to them just like every other human on this campus. You are not special. You are just treated as special just because your boyfriend is special and treats you like this precious crystal that may break any time. Stop being a burden to everyone else here and toughen up. You want to challenge someone, then have the guts to stand by your words and fight. Don't expect others to fight for you. It's pathetic."

Jean was speechless. But she managed to breath "Why? Why do you think of me this way? I haven't done anything to you..."

Ingrid said "Enduring you with your weak act is a chore within itself. Stop pretending to be this innocent flower. You are not. You are just a lucky pathetic girl who got lucky with her boyfriend. I hope the next time you take on someone bigger than your size and social status, they crush. I wish you disappear and do everyone a favour. You are sick and pathetic. You act weak because of your medical problems. But you have a tongue to talk with. Don't you? You could argue back with Arcangelo and save a fight. But others have to fight your battles for you because you are too weak to fight it yourself. Change your pathetic weak behaviour or disappear ... The dean deserves better than you. He could have any girl he wanted. He is faithful and honourable. Girls would throw themselves at his feet to have the chance to get half the attention you get from him. You of all people caught his attention. He likes you but I hope it's not for long. He deserves a stronger girl who is not a burden like you." She then stood up and walked away.

Jean was frozen. She was so shocked she even had no tears to cry with. She was just not understanding why Ingrid wished for her to disappear. Was she so hateful and pathetic to others? Why? She didn't ask to be who she was. She was born the way she was. She didn't ask to have all the medical conditions that she had all her life. Her medical condition was the reason she had to be homeschooled most of her life so she could hardly see much of high school and so she hardly had any chances of social interactions with the exception of a few close friends. All the people in her school were from her neighbourhood and knew her for years so she was never hated or challenged. She was from a friendly town. Now she was in a hostile place. She had two choices. She could sit and cry or she could think of how to stop making Ingrid feel the way she did about her. She wanted to choose the latter. She was fighting her tears. Ingrid was just one girl but her views may have been shared with others. She didn't have time to cry or be upset over her words. She had to change. But how. Also she wasn't sure what to change about herself. How could she? It wasn't her fault that Leandro liked her. She didn't ask him to be so nice to her. She even ironically agreed with Ingrid. She felt she was weak. What could she do to toughen up at least? She was helpless at that.

She stood up from the table and walked. She didn't care where to. She just wanted to walk. She was feeling overwhelmed. She was feeling sick and nauseous suddenly. She walked to nearest ladies room and went straight to the sink to wash her face.

One of her friends, Melanie saw her. She looked worriedly at jean. "Are you ok?" She asked jean as she was pouring cold water all over her face. She said "Jean... You don't seem too good. Do you want to go to the medical room?"

Jean put her hands on the edge of the sink as she slowly looked up into the mirror in front of her. She spoke to Melanie as she was looking at the mirror. "How can I change?"

Melanie looked at jean "You make no sense. Why do you need to change?"

Jean turned to Melanie "But I need to change. People hate me here. They think I am weak... I need to become stronger. They hate me so much they want me to disappear..."

Melanie gasped "What? What gave you this idea? People love you. You are the kindest girl any one could ever meet..."

Jean asked "But am I strong? People hate me because I am pathetic to them...."

Melanie said "I don't know which people you are talking about... but about whoever you are talking about ... I say you should stay away from them. You have your friends... You don't need to change anything for anyone who doesn't like you."

Jean said "That's not the point. What if they are right?"

Melanie said "You are scaring me jean. I am worried about you... You can't let what people say or think dictate to you who you should be..."

Jean said "I know that. That's why I have decided not to cry over what I have heard... But maybe half the things they say is false potentially? What if half is right? What if I am annoying to them? I want to change... I want to be tougher and I want to be independent so Leandro and my brother don't have to fight for me."

Melanie said "But jean ... I want to know what gives you these ideas that you are not good enough? Is this about what happened this morning with Arcangelo? Come on Jean. No one has a chance against Arcangelo... He is not ordinary ... He is not a normal kid... No one dares look him in the eye, let alone challenge him. You did try..."

Jean said "I want to toughen up. So never mind even self defence. Against some people no one has a chance as you said... I want to be stronger so at least I don't even get tempted to cry... There has to be a way to be stronger. I was home schooled so I don't know what high school kids do to toughen up."

Melanie said "I don't think you need to be pressured to do anything..."

Jean whispered in a painful voice "Please tell me. What can I do?"

Melanie sighed "I guess you could try doing what I did this morning... sign up for survival camp... The aims of the course is toughening up but also for you to develop at personal level. Your boyfriend is the captain and coach..."

*****

Jean had not listened to any protests from Melanie. She had walked out there to the notice boards and had signed up to survival camp.

She heard Jacob "Flower pot what are you doing?" He stopped and looked at where she had just dropped down her name. He gasped "Oh dear."