The school bell rang loudly, echoing through the hallways of Summerland High, signalling the beginning of lunch for all of its students and faculty. It was a bright yet cold, crisp day with a few clouds lingering in the sky, and the town seemed alive with energy preparing for the nearing holiday.

Alice walked out of her psychology class with her books gathered to her chest, her hair sleeked back behind her ears as she sighed heavily. The class she'd just been through had been intense... discussing mental health issues had made her uncomfortable, and on top of that they'd been given their assignment grades back and she was too nervous to look at it.

Alice began her usual walk back to her locker, dressed in a bright pink long sleeved top and a tight black and white checked mini skirt, she caught the eye of more than a couple of people. The hallways were lined with red and rainbow coloured balloons dangling from the ceiling, plastic red roses attached to lockers, and fake love letters stuck to the walls along with massive posters saying love is love. It was no secret that her school was obsessed with holidays, they'd done the same enthusiastic decor in the lead up to Halloween last year and Christmas too. She liked the dramatics of it all, especially since it made her feel a little special since every year for her birthday the school was covered in fake red flowers and balloons.

She was excited for lunch that day, excusing the fact she'd skipped breakfast and was starving, but the weekend had given her a lightness in her step, even though it hadn't been all smiles, she felt like a small weight had been lifted off her chest. She was excited to talk about the gathering with her friends, since Candice had gotten a little too drunk and had to be taken home a little early by Fei, she'd stayed behind and talked more with Jasper, who then drove her home politely at about eleven o'clock. She couldn't even remember what they'd spoken about since there had been no specific topic, on top of the alcohol she'd drunk it all seemed a little fuzzy, but nevertheless, she felt a little lightheaded from the interaction.

She could remember the smell of his car and wondered why, out of all the things, she remembered that faint cinnamon smell... and slipped into an accidental daze as she thought about it whilst walking down the hallway on her own...

She barely noticed who she walked past, but glanced up at the last moment, hearing his voice as he closed his locker, stood with two of his friends. Magnus and Alice made eye contact briefly, since he'd noticed the bright pink top and bright blonde hair out of the corner of his eye and looked over with interest, only to meet the blue eyed gaze of Alice Murphy. She felt her heart clench and ache with pain, and looked away and increased the pace that she was walking, the dazed happy expression now replaced with a tense one as she turned a corner and disappeared into the sea of students released into the hallways for lunch.

"Have you spoken to her?" Trey asked, having witnessed the brief and fairly awkward interaction. "Since the argument?" He added as Charlie lent against the locked and put some gum into his mouth, watching the direction that Alice had just gone.

"She wants me to respect her decisions, so no, I haven't." Magnus replied bluntly.

"Isn't it her birthday this week?" Charlie asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he picked off a fake rose from someone's locker and stared at it.

"So?" Magnus replied, his tone suggesting he was now annoyed with the topic.

"I was just saying." Charlie murmured, glancing at Trey who looked a little disappointed.

"Are we going or what?" Magnus snapped, walking off with his car keys dangling from his fingertips, having returned to his usual routine of going out for lunch instead of eating the cafeteria food... the others followed, and Charlie threw the rose over his shoulder as they turned a corner, discarding it without a second glance and causing it to be stepped on by another student as they made their way to lunch.

Alice walked into the cafeteria, glancing around for Candice and seeing a hand waving at her with a delicate wiggle of their fingers. She smiled warmly, walking over and past scattered, thick groups of students and sat down at her usual table. "Hey," she breathed, smoothing her palm over her head.

"What happened?" Candice asked, seeing that Alice looked a little flustered.

"Nothing," she smiled, deciding not to mention Magnus's name since she didn't want to be the girl that couldn't stop talking about the guy that didn't want her anymore. She'd been sad over it enough, she thought, and deserved to put it behind her and attempt to move on with her day. "What's for lunch?"

"Something disgusting." Candice muttered angrily just as Fei arrived and sat down excitedly. "What's up with you?"

"I just got asked out on a date!" She grinned, beaming from the inside out. "For Valentine's Day!" She giggled happily, causing Alice to smile with happiness for her friend.

"By who?" Candice asked,

"You know that guy I was talking to at Jasper's party? Him." She grinned, tucking one side of her long black hair behind her ear. "His name is Freddie-"

"Wait, isn't that-" Candice began, feeling as if the name was familiar. Alice cleared her throat loudly, not wanting to make the situation awkward for Fei since she'd also realised that Freddie was also the same Freddie that had been pining after Olive only a couple of months ago.

"What?" Fei asked, looking between them.

"Nothing. I thought you said another name, so where are you guys going?" Candice replied as Alice smiled warmly to reassure Fei.

"There's this dinner thing going on at the golf club, apparently his parents are members so he got a dinner for two for free," Fei explained, smiling happily still.

"My parents go to that every year, they absolutely love it." Candice replied as Alice zoned out of the conversation a little and looked around her... feeling a little jealous that her plans for Valentine's Day / Birthday was having dinner with her parents... she was annoyed at how she felt the jealousy, hearing Fei so excitedly talk about her guy and her date seemed to remind her about how she didn't have one. And she would have... if he hadn't screwed it all up for them.

Alice was consumed in her thoughts for a couple of minutes, considering what she was going to eat for lunch to try and distract herself from being swallowed up into the pit of toxic thoughts she'd been fighting off all weekend. She was only pulled out of it when she saw one of the students dressed in a giant red heart suit walking towards their table with a large basket of roses, a big smile on their face as Alice sat up a little straighter.

Another perk of this week being the roses... they were fake, of course, but students could buy them for each other for a dollar and have them delivered with a note. All the money raised from that went towards the Prom, which was coming up at the end of the month. "Ugh, thank god." Candice sighed in relief as the giant heart costume walked up to them, being one of five dressed like this to hand out roses bought that day.

"Alice Murphy?" The girl grinned, and Alice nodded excitedly. She expected roses every year, since she received at least three, one from each of her friends, since it was a tradition to buy them for each other, and one from someone that never signed their name. "Happy love week!" The girl grinned as she pulled out a collection of the fake red flowers and put them down in front of Alice then proceeded to hand out the others to Candice and Fei.

"Wow," she smiled, feeling her cheeks turning red from happiness as she quickly counted the stems. Nine roses, it was more than she expected. Quickly, she examined the notes attached, seeing one from Candice, one from Fei, and the other seven had no name at all... but she melted quietly and bit her lip, wondering reluctantly if he had... she didn't want to finish the thought but she knew what she'd meant.

"Whew," Candice cooed, dramatically sniffing the five fake roses she'd gotten and Fei grinned at the three she had. "Thank you guys," Candice giggled, seeing one of the roses signed from Alice and one from Fei before she glanced over at Alice's collection. "Who are the others from?" She asked with curiosity, wondering the same thing Alice was, yet without the feelings attached.

"Doesn't say," Alice said softly, her voice so quiet Candice almost didn't hear her amongst the wild chatter of the cafeteria. She inhaled deeply and sighed, putting her roses down after running her finger tips over the soft petals then looked up at her friends. "What?" She asked, seeing them both looking at her with pitiful looks. "Stop," she whined,

"We just don't want you to expect anything-"

"Stop." Alice snapped quietly, feeling her heart sinking violently in her chest because she knew exactly what they were thinking whilst simultaneously being reminded of what or rather who she didn't have.

"After what happened do you really think he'd send you roses?" Candice said, knowing the best option here was to be honest and not let Alice pander to her own feelings.

Alice scoffed, now feeling irrationally frustrated suddenly, hating the pitying looks they were giving her stared at them for a moment before she stood up and grabbed her roses together... "Of course he wouldn't. Thanks a fucking bunch for reminding me." She snapped in a quiet voice, knowing she was being irrational, knowing her sudden irritation wasn't needed, but she couldn't stop it once it began to seep into her bloodstream.

"Hey-" Candice began, looking shocked as Alice snatched her small bag up too and walked off, "Alice, c'mon!" She called, glancing at Fei as she sat up properly, seeing Alice vanish behind a ground of students as she squeezed past and left the cafeteria all together...

Alice walked angrily down the hallway leading towards the quad that would take her to the library, her heart was beating a little hard in her chest as her body worked over time to push the irrational emotions back down into their designated boxes so she could stack them away again. She hated this period... when something ends and anything and almost everything seemed to be an emotional trigger. She hated that she was so affected and angrily tried to force herself to think of something else and not the old, repeated thoughts of everything that went wrong. The roses couldn't have been from him... obviously. Why would he send them? Unless it was some kind of twisted way to taunt her.

Alice walked out into the quad, feeling the chill from the outdoors instantly as the wind blew her hair to one side. She knew the library would be quiet and maybe she could look over her assignment grade and get it out of the way... she wondered if it would be enough of a distraction until she got close to the doors and suddenly saw the name plastered above the entrance, reminding her of him again.

"God," she whined, feeling caught in a trap like some fly in a spiders web. It was getting too much, too fast, and she couldn't understand why it felt like the world was spinning above her... but as if on cue, at that exact moment, she felt an ache in her lower abdomen, and it all made sense. Whilst sighing heavily with a mixture of relief and annoyance, Alice turned around and walked with purpose into the nearest building, which just so happened to be the arts block, to use the bathroom.

The bright painted artsy loos provided feminine products for emergencies and she sorted herself out, thanking her past self for putting pain killers in her bag. She began feeling a little better knowing that there was a reason behind her emotional madness as she washed her hands and stared at herself in the mirror, shaking her head, knowing she should've realised the signs before freaking out and almost spiralling.

As Alice left the bathroom, now wondering what to do with her time whilst clutching her roses to her chest, she could hear the sound of a song wafting towards her from down the hall, as if someone had connected a playlist up to the speakers. She decided to follow it out of interest, enjoying the calming music and wondering what the song title was, letting her curiosity distract her... she knew usually she'd never be so innocently impulsive with her curiosity, but something seemed to be gently pushing her in that direction... so she felt comfortable enough to walk towards the song.

Alice approached the line of photography studios, which were three medium sized rooms in a row with professional equipment for students to use for projects or extra curricular hobbies. She'd only been here once before during freshmen year when she considered herself to be a photographer, but then got bored with the time it took to develop a roll of film in the dark room and gave it up, taking up athletics instead as a club activity.

Cautiously she peered round the partially open door of one of the photography rooms, then jumped a little as a pair of students opened it to leave just at that moment. She smiled a little awkwardly and apologised for being in their way, finding their faces familiar but didn't know their names although she knew they were juniors also. They smiled at her too and continued on their way, after saying goodbye to whoever was inside in a friendly manner...

But now that the door was almost fully open, and Alice could see the back of a familiar guy leaning over his laptop, his curly brown hair, that was shorter at the sides and back than it was at the top, a little messy as he clicked through some pictures he'd evidently just taken with his right hand on the mouse. She felt herself perk up immediately at the sight of her unintentional emotional distraction and stepped further into the room, gently knocking on the door to announce herself.

Jasper looked up, revealing that he was wearing black circular glasses and smiled warmly, taking them off as he saw her, "Alice," he greeted happily, the sound of his raspy voice making her smile more as walked into the room further. It seemed her brain had decided he was the person she wanted to see that day, and she was responding to it emotionally before she even knew what she was doing.

"Hey," she greeted, "I didn't know you took photography," she continued, looking up at him as he stood up to his full height and watched her look around the room whilst she walked closer to him.

"Yeah, second year in a row actually." He replied, feeling surprised that she'd suddenly appeared when he'd just been thinking about her. "Breaking hearts?" he asked with a subtle playful smile, motioning to the roses in her arms after he took off his glasses.

"Um," she laughed gently, unsure of what to say just as her own gaze fell on the numerous roses next to his laptop. "Says you,"

"Yeah, you know how it is." He smirked, reaching up to push his curls out of his eyes, but they bounced back. "So, uh, what's up?" He asked, assuming she must be here for a reason since he'd never seen her around the arts block. At least not whilst he'd been there, anyway.

Alice smiled as she looked at him, deciding to perch on the edge of a desk as she put her fake flowers down and make herself comfortable. She glanced at his clothes, see that he was dressed in a dark green oversized button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to reveal his tanned arms, light coloured jeans on that she recognised from the other night, the bottoms rolled up so she could see his ankles. "Oh, I'm just wandering around." Alice replied, waving her hand by her face airily. "What're you up to?" She asked, swinging her legs back and forth underneath her after she'd pushed herself back on the desk more.

Jasper chuckled, finding it hard to believe Alice Murphy would just be aimlessly wandering around on her own since he nearly always saw her with at least one of her friends or studying and intently ignoring people. Wandering around seemed a little out of character, but he decided not to comment on it as he glanced at her legs and cursed in his head since he found her short skirt incredibly attractive. He decided to look away quickly and looked back to his laptop as he unplugged it from its cable to show her what he was doing instead of just explain. "It's this portrait project I'm working on." He said as she took the laptop gently from his hands and examined the screen. "There's this magazine that put out this contest, so..." he added as she looked through his photos.

They were in black and white, mainly headshots and had been carefully edited so that the detail was intense. Alice cooed in approval, admiring the photos intently, "These are amazing," she complimented, glancing up at him as he put his hands into his pockets and smiled warmly at her. "How long have you been working on this?" She asked, looking back at the screen.

"Couple of weeks." He murmured, glancing from her face to his laptop and back, watching her facial expressions carefully. He admired her face, letting his mind wander for a few moments before he shook it off and looked away, glancing down at his phone just as a text came through to say his next model couldn't attend the session. Jasper sighed and locked his phone again, glancing up at Alice who was currently putting his laptop down carefully... he gained an idea quickly and glanced her over as he prepared himself to ask her. "Hey listen, are you busy right now?" He asked, ignoring how she seemed to make him a little nervous just by being there doing nothing in particular.

"Nope," she replied, popping the p in the word.

"One of my models just cancelled on me," he began, "-and seeing as you're here and he isn't, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind-"

"Sure," Alice agreed before he finished talking, standing up and waltzing over to the stool in front of the white back drop to sit down. Jasper chuckled, watching her as she fixed her hair and sat up a little straighter whilst he picked up his camera. "What do you want me to do?" She asked, unsure of what to do with her hands.

"Well, I like getting more natural shots," he explained, "So... just talk to me." He continued, fixing the lightning and adjusting the flash umbrellas then glancing at Alice to check it was all in the right place.

"What about?" She asked as he stepped over some wires and stood a few metres in front of her, lifting his camera to his eye to check his positioning.

"What are you doing for your birthday?" He asked, slipping into professional mode as he took a test shot.

"Probably having dinner with my parents." She replied, watching as he checked the monitor and then looked back at her. She felt the need to elaborate more on her plans as he lifted his camera to his eye again, "Every year we have dinner at the same place, but I feel like I've kind of grown out of it. I just don't have the heart to tell my parents that."

"Why's that?" Jasper asked, taking pictures of her whilst she spoke, the quiet clicks fading into the background as he watched her through the lens.