I strolled into the campus auditorium building, apprehension and boredom, thick in my stomach. The dull February afternoon seemed to be tapping into my sour mood.

Dynamis finals was here and in the end Trinity and Castron were to face each other again, just like last year.

We were supposed to have our last seminar for the day. I stepped into the reception/lounge area that was littered with students, mostly from Castron highschool, seeing as I couldn't recognize most of them. They were only a little number of them, but they were laughing and talking at the top of their voices.

I cringed at the head-splitting noise they were making, all in segregated groups and tiny clans as they laughed and chatted away.

I cornered around giggling bodies and tried to make my way to the only empty couch in the entire room. I almost regretted leaving Dave and Osahon behind, but then, I remembered the real reason I left that cramped hostel. The place could have been nice and exquisite for some, but it honestly felt cramped and overcrowded to me.

Suddenly, a girl extracted herself from a group of giggling, oogling girls, and confidently walked up to me, blocking my path. Her hair was in two braids and she had a sickly sweet smile on her lips. "Hey, you're from Trinity, right?"

I glared at her, straight into her eyes, annoyance, reeking out of me at her bold and invasive gesture... But decided to be nice. "Do I know you?"

Her smile fell. "No-"

"Then I don't have any business with you."

I stepped around the stuttering human being, already knowing I was going to be pissed and irritated at the end of the day.
I blamed my sour mood on the fact that I had pulled an all-nighter, three nights in a row now, trying to prepare myself for the next round of competitions.

I didn't want to think about what would happen if we flunked this. I saw what the entire school did to Asa last year.

Asa.

I suddenly slowed in my steps, grimacing at the memory. I couldn't think of her without grimacing, these days. She hadn't showed up in school for almost the entire month of January, and when she did, she was almost unrecognizable. She had lost so much weight, her clothes sagged against her tiny frame, her eyes were even more closed off than usual. Seeing her for the first time, it was like I tripped on a comet and fell into a black hole where all the strength and energy got sucked out of me.

And our schoolmates only made matters worse for her. The brutal bullying started again and intensified. Rabid, jealous girls, angry with the fact she had broken up with the school's golden boy. Angry with the fact she had broken the school's golden boy.

I was aware of the scathing remarks, the angry glares, even physical assaults on her. Haliya told me about that one time she found her in the girls' bathroom surrounded by SS1 girls, who were laughing at her and cutting her hair off with a scissor while she was having a panic attack and fighting for her life on the dirty bathroom floor.

Thinking of Asa gave me a heartache, but in everything, it was her withering relationship with Kam that set me on edge. Kam was a shadow of his former self. His entire life was falling apart and crumbling into dust and it ached me a bit that we were not on speaking terms anymore... Now that he needed me the most... Now that he needed us the most.

You could fix that, by trying to reach out to him.

I quickly shook that voice out of my head, recalling the last time we spoke.

He had punched me in the face. Ouch.

Granted, I deserved it, after purposely trying to get on his nerves for talking to Asa like that, but it still hurt like hell.

And if Kam was pissed at me, before, he flat out needed the slightest excuse to murder me now.

I sighed, sinking into the plush couch, located in a strategic position. I leaned back against the couch, tugged my hoodie down and placed my hand over my eyes, thinking I could catch some sleep for just a few minutes. I closed my eyes and blotted out all the noise coming from my surrounding as I slowly sank into oblivion. I felt myself slipping away from this plane of reality and finding the rest I really neede-

"Amirrrrrrrrrr?"

I sat up, ice and electricity, zapping through my spine.

No no no no. Not her again!

"Amirrr?! Yoohoo! Is that you?"

I squeezed my eyes shut. Allah, why do you keep doing this to me? I turned slowly to look at her and frowned.

She was sitting with a bunch of other guys and waving dramatically at me, her face was the entire fucking sun.

"It IS you!" She squealed, successfully attracting even more attention towards me. She stood up from her group of friends and practically hurtled towards me, like a shooting star.

She was in front of me in minutes, bouncing on her feet and looking at me like I must be the most interesting person in the cosmos, with that big smile on her face. "Hi, Amir!"

"Hassana." I nodded.

She squealed even louder, her big brown eyes, going wide in pleasant surprise. "You remembered! Oh my God, you remembered my name! You actually remembered my name!" And crashed down beside me, her body, brushing against mine.

There're normal girls, made of stardusts and just the right amount of chemistry and there're girls like Asa, cut from ice and moulded from snow... Then there're girls like Hassana that are sprinkled with glitter and woven into sunlight.

Hassana was beautiful, I couldn't deny that simple fact. She had a soft, delicate face that was pleasing to look at, with light, light skin that shone like polished gold, perfect hair, perfect makeup and bubbly personality, I'm sure the sun got jealous of her once in a while.

The day I met her, the entire gang had got together to discuss how best to help Kam out, seeing as he was careening towards self destruction, refusing help that he so badly needed.

"Whatchu doing? What is this?" She pointed at the notepad in my hands where I wrote down song lyrics once in a while.

"It's nothing." I hid the book from her. "Please, can you just... Space. I need space."

"Oh." She realized, shifted a fraction of an inch. "Good enough?"

I sighed at the very minute space she had created and decided to humour her, hoping she'd go away. "This is my songbook." I opened it to show her, flipping through the pages. "I write songs once in a while."

"You... Sing?!" Her eyes brightened. "Ohmygod! Wow wow!" She suddenly stood up and announced to the previous group she had been hanging out with. "Yure! Yure, come here!"

The boy, Yure, another familiar face I had seen two days ago stood up from the crowd of loud, guffawing boys. "Yo! What is it?!"

Geez! Are these Castron students so loud?!

"Come, Come!" She beckoned him over, looking like she was about to combust out of sheer excitement.

He looked like he was about to protest but sighed and walked over to us.

"Hey." He nodded a greeting at me, smiled, dimple, punctuating his left cheek.

Yure was very tall, good-looking, but the pathetic looking bandage on his nose did nothing to enhance his features. I wanted to ask what had happened to him but didn't want to stress it.

"Yure, I just found out that Amir sings! You guys have sooo much in common."

Yure's eyes brightened. "For real?"

Hassana bounced on the seat beside me, pleased with her matchmaking.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?" Yure suddenly asked.

"Yeah." I rose.

We walked to a fairly, less noisy part of the building. "Tell me the truth, man, does this bandage look bad?"

"Yes."

"Very bad?"

"Yes."

He frowned. "Are you always this blunt?"

I shrugged. "I try. How did you get it?"

He avoided my gaze. "It was a... uh... freak accident."

"Must be doing wonders to your self-esteem."

"You can't imagine." He smiled now, dimples on full display.

We started laughing. It felt peaceful to ease up with this perfect stranger from a rival highschool.

Until...

"FEJAUN!"

There was loud clapping and chanting as a new boy stepped into the building, strolling into sight.

His brown skin practically glowed, hair that clearly defined him as mixed race, tied in a low man-bun. He had an athletic body that made me decide he was into sports. There was an unimpressed, almost bored look on his face and he didn't even pay attention to anyone as he started making his way past the entrance, past the reception area, past the hailing crowd, past Yure and I.

Yure looked like he just died and went to hell, staring at the boy in trepidation and I realized he had forgotten to exhale until the boy walked past him, not even paying him any attention.

"Phew, that was close." He whispered, visibly relaxing.

"So, Ivandor, you can't see again, ba?!" Hassana shouted from where she sat.

The new boy, Ivandor, froze at Hassana's voice.

The temperature of the entire room dropped a few degrees. He didn't turn to look at her and I felt growing dislike towards this boy.

The entire reception area had gone quiet and Hassana rose from the couch and stomped towards us, admonishment in her eyes.

She had managed to make herself the center of attention once more.

"I mean, I'd understand if you can't even say hi to me, Giwa's best friend, but Yure's your guy naw! How'd you just see him and walk past?!" Hassana was saying. I didn't think she knew how much attention she was attracting.

I looked at the boy now and saw it coming a mile away.

Nothing. He did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I narrowed my eyes at him, anger and indignation crawling through my veins and curdling my blood.

He didn't even acknowledge her. He didn't even turn to look at her. No, he turned... Just a fraction. Just to make it sure that he had heard her perfectly but decided she wasn't even worth his time or strength. Annoyance and irritation radiated out of him.

He simply just walked away.

There was silence for about two seconds, before everyone went back to what they were doing like it was a normal thing they witnessed everyday.

Hassana looked like heartbreak.

"I... I need to leave... To... you know... Check out the... The sound system." With that pathetic excuse, Yure left.

I stared at Hassana. Her beautiful face was slack in shock, mouth, hanging slightly open, as if she couldn't comprehend what just happened. She stared at the space in front of her like she was seeing a ghost. Tears gathered in her eyes that made them look like cracked windows into her soul.

I understood what was going on now.

Suddenly, I was looking at myself through Hassana's eyes and caught a glimpse, just a tiny glimpse into the soul of this girl that gave the sun a run for its money.

Hassana reminded me of my pathetic crush on Asa. Loving someone that wanted nothing to do with her.

I felt a sudden kinship towards her. "Hey." I coughed out, groaned inernally, already knowing I'd regret this. I silently wondered how and why I cared... Was it was her face? That face like heartbreak. "Hey, are you alright?"

I don't think she heard me.

She just kept staring at the space in front of her and she didn't move until I touched her. "Hey-"

"Huh?! What?! Yes. Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine." Wiped her tears and smiled sweetly at me.

I'd never seen a more painful smile. A more deceptive smile, that touched her eyes and crinkled her cheeks.

Her lips, her teeth, she was smiling so sweetly, so honestly, but her eyes gave her away that she was dying behind that smile. Between her smile and her eyes, I couldn't tell which was more painful to watch.

"Stop that."

"S...stop what?" She whispered. Wiped her nose and looked away. Breaking eye contact for the first time.

It suddenly got easier to breathe. "Stop trying to pretend you're fine... It's pathetic."

She gasped and blinked at me with eyes like broken glass and cracked windows. "How .... how did you... I... He... I don't know what you're talking about."

I rolled my eyes at her obvious bullshit and wanted to call her out on it, when suddenly, the siren blared, warning us to get sitted in the auditorium for the two hour seminar that was to come.

People were already rushing into the hall, as tardiness was frowned upon by the authorities.

Hassana was desperately trying to wipe her tears and look normal. Without the tears, her smile would have been believable. "I have to go. My friends.  My friends are waiting for me." And walked past me.

"Wait." I clasped my arm around her wrist before I could stop myself.

Her face like heartbreak sifted into my memory.

She looked at me, big brown eyes of broken glass, stained with tears, and at my hand, at me and at my hand on her wrist again.

I let her go, dug my hands into my pockets and decided that Kam's superhero complex had rubbed off on me.

"Can I... Can you meet me here after the seminar?"

She lit up like someone just turned on a switch. "Like... Like a date?!"

I frowned in confused annoyance. "No-"

"Yes, yes, I'll meet you here, if it's a date you want."

"I never said-"

"Of course, I'll have to change my clothes," she gestured at her uniform, "it can't be a date if I show up in my uniform."

"Look, Hassana, it's not-"

"I'll see you later, Amir. Don't be late!" She ruffled my hair and skipped away excitedly.

What just happened?!

A/n

TLT lovers, I really really REALLY hope you'll like this entire book. Hassana is so close to my heart. You'll be seeing more of the Castron gang in the third book of the Golden series. It's something I'm looking forward to releasing.

All in all, I hope y'all loved the chapter. I think there'll only be like four or five chaps in this entire installment. I like the idea of Hassana befriending these guys and I can't wait to see them all become friends with her.