Make-Believe Ballroom

After taking time to analyse each individual letter of what was presented in front of her, she was able to decide that the person that occupied the desk after her was male. From the spikey y and the short upper case E that she concluded he used whenever he wrote the letter, whether it needed to be capitalised or not.

Conversation over desktops had been steadily running. Whenever she sat down, she was greeted with something fresh and she returned the favour for him. Never before did she anticipate first lessons arrival. All stemming from when she was welcomed by a phatic phrase of "how are you?"

To which she replied with a single word that expressed everything adequately; bored. She sat staring at the innocent question for a quarter of the the lesson and her closed and in her opinon, rude answer. She didn't want to leave it there, she had a yearning to ask something other than his current state back. With Lauren still remaining silent through the hour, she had no distraction either. No valid reason for her lack of conversation skills.

She understood that tone couldn't be read, it had to be heard. Something could simply be misconvieved while written down.

Which lead to her simple, and safe question that she scribbled down as the bell sounded. " Which period are you in?"

A thrill, burst through her when she hurried in the following day and saw that her lame question had been graced with an answer, though she felt her lack of effort deserved nothing in reply. A full response other than her one word.

'Second, so I'm guessing you're first? Oh and don't assume that because I'm in sixth form, taking maths that I'm doing this willingly. You'd be far from right with that assumption. I'm way too cool for that. And remember babe, if you assume you make an ass out of you and me ;)'

He was on par with Lauren in terms of the ability of making her laugh, though it couldn't be worn as a major achievement. Plenty of things amused her. It was hard not to laugh daily with a best friend like hers, and a pet dog that constantly walked in to door frames. Yet this was different. It was something so public but so personal to her. She was quite aware that anybody could stumble across the graffiti, and it limited her responses. She didn't have a clue who he was, other than a few minor details which had been included in his words. However, she was steadily becoming relaxed with their strange form of comunitcation.

The second they stepped out of the class room, Lauren seemed to be given a lisence to tease her. About how she was forming a friendship with a complete nerd who would hack into the school system and stalk her thanks to every detail of her life being documented on the easily accessed database.

Saskia wanted nothing more than to prove her wrong. Pretend that she wasn't actually dreading the time they may possibly see each other and have a true conversation with talking. She didn't even know if that would happen, or even if she wanted it to. Yet the curiousity she felt increased as the amount of free desk space decreased.

'Oh sure, you say that. You're probably the biggest geek this school has seen.' It pained her, that this description could possibly be used for herself, which made her reach for the rubber in her pocket and erased every trace of what she had written. Starting a fresh.

'How could you possibly be forced into taking an A level? Orrr did I assume wrong? Are you actually being made to retake it? :]'

The paragraph she was met with the next lesson made her heart leap with excitement before she read the first word. It signalled to her a significant progression in their talks.

'You're hilarious, really. I'll have you know I was in the top five students of GCSE scores in maths last year. It's not my fault I have no interest in it. It's a condition of taking Music.
P.S. Next time you fancy erasing something, get rid of the evidence of the stuff that you get afterwards. Honestly, I wouldn't have noticed. Max however, has decided that his future lies in being a sleuth, so nothing is hidden from him for this week. It changes, don't worry. He was Dumbledore last week. He is as gay as him.'

Her usual response to his messages was there again. Even more so when she noticed an additional style of hand writing to theirs underneath.

'Don't listen toJosh, he's as queer as they come. I suggest you switch tables, you and me would be much more interesting.'

At first, she skimmed over the word that had been blocked out by an excessive amount of scribbling over the top of it that was a very poor attempt. Until she became aware that it was a name. Her lesson was then devoted to breaking the code, so to speak.

Four letters, beginning with J was the best she could manage. In a desperate attempt, she nudged Lauren to get her involved. Thus came the plan to look in the cupboard where the excercise books for each class were tucked away. Essentially flawless. All that was required of them, was to eliminate everybody without J at the start of their name printed on the front of the book.

Executing this, however, was in a new releam of difficulty. She wasn't prepared to lie or display a scene in front of everybody just to learn the name of who she was conversing with. Lauren, was noticed the second she rose from her chair.

"It doesn't matter Ren, he'll tell me when he wants to. Clearly, he doesn't." I whispered, pointing to the effort he made of editing his friends comment.

For a reason, that hurt her. Knowing that he wanted to remain a nameless writer. However, she argued that she had made no attempt at enquiring him of these details, nor had she confessed her own. She liked the mystery of it all, and the ability to hide behind her invisibility to him.

It didn't stop her wishing that tomorrow, she would be greeted by an introduction.