t e n ;

Shortly after Honey joined the team, the instructors started pushing Roseanne more and more into special classes for advanced skills and leadership. At the moment she was top pick for the position of captain of the expedition. That meant that she had to get up an hour before everyone else for special morning training. Her whole schedule was also shifted to the point where she only really got to see the team, and more importantly Raven during their homework sessions together. Instructor Violet, who was their group's head instructor, said it would only be for about ten weeks. And those weeks felt eternal to Roseanne.

She had special classes and special tutoring sessions all by herself, while Raven was stuck with the others. Roseanne knew she and Raven weren't at all exclusive, not that romantic relationships were even allowed in the Garden. They were just friends. But it had taken the first few days without him for her to come to the realization that she had a crush on him. It had started out as a friendship when they were children, but now that they were older and were spending all that time together, her emotions took a turn. She knew she wouldn't act on them, and she knew neither would he for the duration of their training or their time in space. She just wanted to spend time with him and let their relationship grow. Perhaps, upon their return and if he turned out to feel the same way, they could start something.

Roseanne had confessed those feelings to her room mate Scarlet after the first week of her special training away from the group. Scarlet had promised to keep her lips sealed and not tell a soul about it. Roseanne didn't even know that her so-called friend had told Ciel of her crush back when she had been crushing on him. Now they were getting along again. Scarlet always seemed to act nice whenever she and Roseanne were alone. But whenever they were with the rest of the team, she always had to pick on her room mate. If it wasn't about her looks, it was about her hair, her clothes, or the stereotypes about her province. Roseanne merely sat there and took it quietly, with the occasional come back here and there. Raven continuously told Roseanne that Scarlet wasn't her friend. If she were, she wouldn't be treating her the way that she did.

Friends didn't treat friends that way.

The following Monday after Roseanne went away for her special leadership classes, she returned to her dorm to leave her bag before heading for breakfast. Normally she headed to breakfast without her backpack in the mornings. But since now she had a class before breakfast, she had to go back to her room to drop off her things. She had physical training after breakfast anyway, and her physical training things were in her locker in the training building. 

As she turned the hall onto her floor and walked towards her door, a smile touched her lips at the sight of Raven. She hardly saw him anymore and there he was. But her smile soon turned into a look of confusion when she saw his expression turn into a look of horror, and the door opened to reveal Scarlet in her red pleated skirt, white button up, red blazer, and red shoes. "Ready for breakfast when you are." She grinned at him happily, and he was frozen in place, not looking at her but at Roseanne who had stopped a few feet from the door, also frozen. That was when it all fell into place and it all dawned on her. 

Raven wasn't there because he was waiting for her like he used to. He was there because he was waiting for Scarlet. Her friend's expression turned into a victorious grin for a fraction of a second before it dropped into a fake look of pity.

"Oh my gosh, Roseanne!" She said with a gasp, and Raven still stood there motionless as though his soul had left his body. "I thought you were at your special training thing."

"I was..." Roseanne started absently, feeling as though her heart had been wrung out and thrown across the hall without mercy. She had to be honest and admit she expected something like that from Scarlet. But never from Raven. From all those experiences they shared together, she had fallen in love with him and gotten the idea in her mind that maybe he loved her too. This was just serving to prove to her that maybe everything she thought was real had been all in her head. Maybe he had only gotten close to her to get to Scarlet all along. "My class finished early. So I thought I would join you guys for breakfast."

Her first class of the day normally went into breakfast hour now, and she had special extra time to get some food before heading off to her physical training class. That meant that when she was done dropping off her things at her dorm and heading to the cafeteria, her team mates were already in the locker rooms getting ready for physical training. She usually caught up with them on the field, about an hour and a half into their training.

Raven could feel the hurt in her voice, it was like a knife in his heart. But he couldn't look at her because he knew he hurt her feelings and it was entirely his fault.

"We can wait for you to drop off your things if you want to." Scarlet offered, her voice dripping with fake sweetness to it. 

Roseanne shook her head absently, giving them a no as an answer before she even spoke. "That's alright. Go have breakfast together. I'm suddenly not hungry, so I'm going to spend breakfast hour doing research at the library."

She walked up and got her keys out of her pocket. Her hands were shaking with emotion and her eyes were beginning to sting from the tears that were pushing to escape from her eyes. In her moment of emotion, she dropped her keys on the floor and Scarlet giggled from behind her. Raven took a step towards her. 

"Let me help you, Rosie." He pleaded.

And she gave a frantic shake of her head. "No, its fine."

She knelt down to pick up her keys as the tears began to spill and she turned away from them before they could take a look at her. She hated letting people see her cry. She left in a hurried stride down the hallway as Raven called after her. He had tried to chase after her too, but Scarlet grabbed his arm to stop him. She instead led him in the opposite direction to the cafeteria.

-

Roseanne avoided Raven and Scarlet for the rest of the day after she saw the two of them in the hallway by her room. It wasn't until they both returned to their dorms for the night that Roseanne confronted her supposed friend about the situation with Raven. She knew it wasn't right for two friends to let a boy come between them. But Scarlet had proved time and time again that she wasn't even a good friend to begin with. Raven was the one who was always there for her when she needed him. "I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to be completely honest with me." She stopped as she waited for Scarlet's response. Her room mate merely nodded, knowing exactly what was going to come next. "How long has this thing with Raven been going on? Because you knew well that I liked him and I just think its a horrible thing to do as a friend to me. I would never do something like that to you." Her voice shook with emotion and she paused for a moment to regain her composure. "I didn't go after that boy from group 52904 when you said he was cute and tried to strike up a conversation with him."

Scarlet scoffed and a cynical laugh escaped her lips as though she found the whole thing amusing. She was thoroughly enjoying messing with her friend's feelings. Scarlet had mentioned before that when she was younger, training with her same generation in the garden, she'd mess with the other little boys' feelings for fun. But Roseanne thought she might have grown out of that ridiculous behavior by now. Roseanne was being absolutely serious though and she didn't appreciate that Scarlet was laughing. 

"Raven and I are just friends." She said to Roseanne. But she didn't even seem to be interested in Raven before. Suddenly when Roseanne mentioned to her room mate and friend that she liked him, now she wanted to spend time with him. Suddenly she was taking an interest in the boy she didn't even want on their team. "He's like a brother to me. Besides, we're not even allowed to have romantic relationships here and you know that. You need to relax."

"Don't give me that." Roseanne said with a shake of her head, her eyes were stinging but she refused to let the tears fall. She didn't want to give Scarlet the satisfaction of seeing her cry. That was probably exactly what she wanted. "I asked the others--Honey, Indy, Ciel, Mauve, Seville--and they all told me you guys walk together to meals every day. He's even apparently been walking you back to your dorm at night for a week already. If you liked him too, you could have said something to me instead of sneaking around with him behind my back."

In reality, Roseanne was convinced now that Scarlet had no romantic feelings towards Raven. What she did enjoy though, was making Roseanne miserable for no reason. Roseanne had always tried to be a good friend, an understanding friend towards Scarlet. But there was no way around it now. Scarlet clearly did not like Roseanne and clearly did not consider her a friend. Otherwise, she would have respected her friends feelings for a boy. She was also disappointed in Raven though. He was such a good person who she thought would never let her down, and there he was, doing just that. He was letting her down.

At that, Scarlet let out another laugh. "Oh my gosh relax! I was just trying to be nice and walk with him because that first day you had your special class, he showed up and I didn't want to send him off alone. So I went with him. Then it just became a thing. I didn't know you'd be so sensitive about it though."

But she felt like Scarlet wasn't taking her seriously and she turned on her heel, leaving the room. She went straight to the balcony area where their floor had outside tables and benches. She texted Raven to meet her there, and she had been surprised when she only waited about two minutes before he arrived. He stayed by the door that led back inside the building. He looked at her pink eyes and knew instantly that she had been crying. He also knew that it was his doing, and he started to apologize.

"I'm so sorry--" He started, but she cut him off with a firm shake of her head.

"Don't be. You and I aren't anything." Roseanne said to him with a heavy heart. He had to admit that hit him like a ton of bricks, his expression dropping. "I was stupid to be mad and I was probably also stupid to think you wouldn't just change me for someone else if I left."

He immediately gave a frantic shake of his head and he explained his side of the situation to her. By now, he had walked over and sat at the small table across from her. "I understand that I messed up and I'm really not trying to excuse myself. But that first day, you didn't even mention to me you were leaving us for ten weeks. So I showed up at your door Monday morning like always and you never came. Scarlet was there and after teasing me for being a loner, she said she'd walk with me to our table so I wouldn't look stupid in front of the others. From there, she kept asking me to pick her up and I felt bad telling her no, even though she's just such a horrible person. It was like a penance hearing her speak."

Roseanne couldn't help but laugh at that because Raven was the least judgmental of the people in their group. And it was evident that he even felt bad saying that about Scarlet, but Roseanne knew exactly what he meant by that. Scarlet had an unfiltered way of telling people things that she wasn't supposed to be saying because it was rude. She didn't care if she hurt anyone's feelings. 

A small smile broke out onto his lips when he realized he made her smile. 

"Anyway, I'm sorry." He said to her with genuine words. Not like Scarlet and her fake apology she gave when she said Raven would never date Roseanne because she wasn't pretty enough. "If you want me to stop walking with her, I will.  You know that I'd rather spend time with you than with anyone else."

Roseanne blushed, but gave a shake of her head. "You don't have to do that."

But in the back of her mind, that was exactly what she wanted him to do because it would prove that he cared enough to stop doing something that bothered her. She merely wanted him to decide that on his own, so that she wouldn't feel like she was forcing him to do something he didn't want to do.

-

this is another thing that happened irl. except the context is different. last summer i got a new job somewhere else where i was getting paid more. now im back at the restaurant bc my other job closed bc covid. and raven doesnt have a car. so since we had the exact same schedule, i used to give him rides to and from work. when i left, that bitch scarlet offered him rides to and from work. and i was only working saturdays. so my blood boiled when i saw them coming into work together that first time. i saw how he noticed i was hurt. and i saw that little victorious smirk on her face that i wanted to slap off.

so then one of my other friends (vicky) said that she had been picking him up and taking him home every day since i left bc she was given my old schedule to they had the same days and hrs. 

so i deadass confronted BOTH OF THEM. i told her "why would you do something like that if you know i like him?" and she tried to play the "i only see him as a brother" card. but i know the truth. she be flirting with him. then i talked to him and he said he only accepted rides from her bc he wasn't making enough money to pay his bills AND his ubers to work. but he did say if it bothered me he would stop accepting rides from her. he deadass told me he was down to WALK TO WORK. AND HE DID. he loyal. lol

-clary