[Brianna Taylor]

There were loads of empty classrooms, as Brie had found out. Classrooms that hadn't been used in years, classrooms that had never been used, classrooms that had nothing in them, classrooms that looked like they were used a week ago... All kinds of classrooms in all kinds of conditions. And, best of all, nobody ever locked the unused classrooms. What use would it be? There was nothing in the classrooms except desks, and honestly? Who steals a desk? Who WANTS to steal a desk? The point was: empty classrooms were the perfect hide-out when you want some privacy and alone time.

Like, say, when you want to read a book!

Brie had tried - and failed, and gotten distracted - to read said book a few days ago. However, no progress had been made. She decided that, since it being the beginning of school and therefore little homework to do, she would read it after school. The second school ended, Brie walked up the staircases to the top floor and found her favorite room - one that hadn't been used since her freshman year. Actually, it was an interesting story how it got abandoned.

It was her freshman English class and the teacher had broken her leg or her hip, or whatever. She was old, that sort of thing happens. So, since she couldn't easily get up all the stairs, all her classes were moved to the bottom floor. And, since then, that classroom had become her favorite. Nobody really came up to the top floor, so she wouldn't be asked why she was there.

She threw open the door and bounced in, not bothering to close to the door behind her. Moving towards the front of the classroom, Brie couldn't help but push a desk that was askew back into place. She smiled and sat down at a desk, propping her legs up on an adjacent one. She cracked open her book and let the bookmark fall onto her stomach as she sank into the book and lost consciousness with the real world.

[Jason Zalamea]

The sound of the school bell was always welcoming to someone like Jason Zalemea's ears. It always had the power to interupt ongoing events in the classroom, and as if liek clockwork, the students would always shift their attention to packing up their things despite whether the teacher was finished or not. And as soon as the bell began to ring, there was no beating Jason when it came to getting the hell out of there, what with his super awesome speed at stuffing things into his bag, getting up and heading through the door. It wasn't that he didn't find the class dreadful- it was rather interesting, history was- but he just had better things to do. Things that didn't involve listening to a teacher drone on and on.

Crossing the threshold of the classroom, Jace found himself in the hustle and bustle of people traffic in the corridors. Shifting his bag slightly on his left shoulder, blue-grey eyes taking in his surroundings quickly before making his own way down the hallway, his path weaving right and left as he dodged passed people, not bothering to even pause in his steps to apologize as he bumped into someone. Finally reaching the stairs, he began to head up. The higher up he went, the more deserted it seemed to be and within moments he had reached the top floor.

The voices of students and teachers alike seemed distant, the school bell had long ceased to cry and he felt alone. Detached from everything else, just the way he prefered it. No need to put up with teachers telling him off, those students glaring at him, or in some cases, those few who came up to talk to him. Nope, none of that. This floor was like his second home in this place, a place where he could just think. Taking a left, he headed down a new corridor, filled with empty classrooms. Now, which one to use today? As he passed by, Jace habitually glanced at each and every door, one after the next. Left, then right, then left again. It wasn't long until he came to a stop.

The door was open, revealing the classroom before him, and it wasn't just windows, desks and chairs, no, this one came with a Brianna Taylor as well. She was propped onto a desk and, no surprise here, had a book in her hands. Glancing down the empty corridor, Jace soon came to a decision, heading into the classroom, heading over to the opposite side of the room, passing Brie as he did so, not even bothering to greet her; she seemed too engrossed in the book. Reaching one of the many desks near the windows, he slipped his bag onto one of the two chairs of his chosen desk, moved round and pushed the window open, glancing down at the school grounds. Taking a few steps back, he took hold of the back of another chair and swung it round in front of him, he sat on the edge of the desk, his feet propped up onto the chair, he was facing the window, back to Brianna.

Shifting his position slightly, Jace stuffed his hand into his right back pocket, hand withdrew, clutching to a lighter. Leaning to his left, he unzipped the first pocket of his bag, taking out a packet of cigarettes. Straightening up, he slipped one stick from the packet and placed the end between his lips. With his right hand, he flicked the lighter on, the flame burning the other end of the cigarette. Placing the packet onto the small space of the desk beside him and the lighter on top, he took hold of the cigarette between his lips with his right thumb and index finger. He inhaled, withdrew and exhaled. Smoke slipped passed his lips, trailing up into the air and out the window.

Smoking was a nasty habit, you didn't have to tell Jace that; he had heard it all too many times before. Smoking this, smoking that, you should stop. But he didn't stop, he was just all too stubborn to try. He had no real reason too, sure lung cancer, Jace seemed all too oblivious, like he believed it wouldn't happen to him. Blue-grey eyes were set out the window, watching a few students walk around four floors down. Robotically, he took in another drag and released the smoke.

[Brianna Taylor]

This was exactly why Brie loved books so much. They took you out of your life and gave you another one - a better one at that - and gave you a way to escape. From life, from problems, from everything. And the way that Brie read books, well, you could be sure that she wouldn't notice anything. She lost track of everything. Who she was, who was around, where she was, even what time it was. Actually, she hardly moved when she was reading. Just to turn the page. Not even to move to get some circulation in her legs which had, by now, fallen asleep.

Actually, come to think of it, Brie didn't know how long she'd been here. The thought passed through her mind briefly before returning to her novel. It was really fascinating, and she would probably finish it if she wasn't distracted or... She coughed. God, what was that. She ignored it and kept reading. She coughed again. Soon, she was in a full-on coughing fit. Okay, FINE, now she had been fully removed from her book with no hopes of returning. Sighing, she closed her book and screamed.

OH DEAR FREAKING GOD IT WAS JASON.

Brie - the ever-so-graceful person she was - toppled off of the chair she had been precariously sitting on, her legs going completely over her head and propelling her into the floor. "Oh shit crap! Owwww..." she moaned, rolling on the floor. "Idiot, freaking hit your elbow on the freaking ground..." she mumbled. Getting on her knees she peeked over the rows of desks. "Hi," she finally said, smiling weakly up at Jason. "You scared me," she added unnecessarily.

[Jason Zalamea]

It wasn't long for Jason to get lost in his own thoughts, one after the other. He was thinking of nothing out of the ordinary, like what he was going to do after this little session in an empty classroom. Thinking that he'd probably go to the nightclub this weekend, and he still needed to do this essay due tomorrow. School just liked to kill his time. He was also craving for pizza, pepperoni. No, hawaiian. Maybe both? Yeah, he could probably eat two pizzas. Maybe with some fries and coke. His stomach grumbled, protesting that he needed to eat.

A cough, then another. It was breaking the silence, and it was beginning to irritate Jason a bit, causing him to glance over his shoulder to look back over at Brianna. Seemingly fine, he looked back out the window, sticking the cigarette out the window and tapping it slightly, the ash falling off the end and swirling down, down, down. Until there was out of sight. Then there was that coughing again, causing Jace to roll his eyes. She seemed to be reacting to the smoke or something, great. Fine. He thought to himself, taking in one final drag, exhaling the smoke and at the same time he pressed the end of the cigarette against the glass window, turning it to put it out.

Flicking the cigarette out the window, Jace's body jerked despite himself as a scream reached his ears, appearing out of nowhere. He turned his body slightly, looking back over at Brianna, catching site of her toppling off her chair. A laugh left his lips in amusement as he shook his head. It wasn't everyday that you would see someone fall off their chair and slam to the ground like that, it was all too amusing. Hearing her greeting and the small statement after that, he seemed to disregard her greeting.

"Yeah I can see that." Jace stated, a small one-sided smirk on his lips, "You know, Brie, you're a klutz." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

[Brianna Taylor]

Her heart skipped a beat. Oh dear Lord, she was an ID-I-OT! Who falls off a chair? Honestly? God, and now her back, her elbow, everything pretty much, hurt like HELL! She winced as another shot of pain ran down her spine. Standing up carefully, she dusted herself off carefully, making sure to get everything off her immaculate clothes. She bet the janitors hadn't been up here as long as there hasn't been a class in here. Ew. And it showed, there was dust all over her. She hated to think what her back looked like.

Speaking slowly and still pulling off pieces of dust, Brie replied, "I'm well aware, thanks." She frowned up at him for a second. He had been smoking. That's why. She cleared her throat slightly before returning her gaze to her clothes. "How long have you been here?" Better question: how long had she been here? That could be a problem, she still had some math homework to do. And she wanted to get a jump on studying for that test next week, too.

Sighing, she gave up pulling off the dust. Brie slipped up onto the desk she had been leaning against and sat on top of it. She wanted to bang her head against a wall... hard. She was a complete idiot. Falling off a desk... screaming... all in front of Jason. Of course. The one guy she had a crush on just HAD to show up in this particular classroom when she was reading. And not just any crush: big crush. Like "hehe, OH EM GEE you're sooooooooo hot/amazing/hot/funny/hot" kind of crush. She was a crazy psycho, she knew it. God, you never really think people get this kind of crushes until you get one. In fact, Brie wasn't quite sure it was normal at all.

She was pretty damn positive most crushes weren't like this. She was just weird.

[Jason Zalamea]

One thing about Brie, there was never a dull moment around her, it was probably one of the reasons why Jason even considered her as a friend, not that he'd admit that anytime soon. Because truth be told, you'd never really see Jason hanging around anyone with Brianna's status: a person who liked to read books, who was into academics, who had pretty much a clean record. Jason hung around people who didn't exactly look good in parent's eyes, those considered to be 'wild' and with 'inappropriate behavior', hell, some of the people Jace hung out with weren't even at school. So it was safe to say that seeing Brianna with Jace was rather a strange sight.

Sliding off the desk he was sitting on, Jace was soon standing at his full height, he made his way around the desk and towards the front of the classroom. He came to a stop in front of the black board, the surface was caked with dust and a few chalk particles, eyes dropped down to take a look at the small ledge at the bottom of the board. He walked along side the board now, still looking down, his left hand moved towards the ledge, taking hold of one of the few chalk sticks that had been abandoned in the unused classroom.

Throwing up the chalk stick into the air, he caught it, only to turn around and look back at Brianna after having registered her words. "Long enough." He said in reply, still moving around the room, following some random path that only he could see. He fiddled with the chalk in his hand absentmindedly, all the while still looking at her as he moved around. "Usually come up here to...read?" He asked, saying the word 'read' like it was something foreign to him. Which it wasn't, just not practiced. He didn't read for pleasure. Books just weren't really his thing. Textbooks, fictional books, non-fictional books. He never read them unless he had too, and even then he might even just end up scanning. He never had the patience to read one whole book.

After a few more steps, Jace ended up sitting on the edge of a nearby desk, feet still on the ground. The chalk still moving between his fingers, making his right hand whiter than usual. It felt strangely smooth and grainy at the same time.

[Brianna Taylor]

Brie was far from "blissfully ignorant." She knew the kind of things that Jason was involved in. That wasn't to say that she approved. She didn't, to be honest. So, why did she like him so much? Good question. Brie would like to know that too. Obviously, the two didn't match. They were from two different worlds. She, from a perfected world where everything was in order. He, from an uncontrolled world where anything goes. Brie would never fit in there, and he would never fit into hers. So WHY OH WHY did she like him? Once again, she longed for a wall to bash her head against.

Wow, he was tall wasn't he? She watched him as he moved about the room. Why hadn't she noticed it before. See, that was another reason. She was too short for him. Much too short. So, that was it, she would have to stop liking him. She'd find another guy. Maybe one of the new kids. Whatever. So, GOODBYE JASON! No longer shall she crush on guys not worthy of a second glance. (Okay, granted Jason deserved every second look he got, but.. Still! He was no good for her!)

See? No exact answer. That drove Brie CRAZY. "Oh," she replied, looking down at her feet and kicking them slightly. Smiling slightly, she answered, "Yeah, usually." She met his gaze. "Reading is fun." Then, as an after thought, she added, "For me, at least." She knew that no matter how hard she tried, Jason would never read a book "for fun". There was no fun in reading for him.

Brie's little plan for forgetting Jason flew out the window when he sat down near her. Her heart fluttered, but she forced herself to speak. "So why do you come up here?" she asked, although she pretty much already knew the answer.