{{Dedicated to @stereoactive because her comments made my day}}

The downside of knowing something earth-shattering is about to happen to you is that it leaves you restless and looking over your shoulder.

It would be the understatement of the year to say that Rhea was restless, though.

As soon as she'd exited Willa's car and set foot into the school, the nerves that had subsided during the car ride had come flooding back to her.

The fifteen minutes she had before the first period, all she got was familiar faces and greetings from people she didn't particularly care for. Rhea barely managed to force a smile and a couple of words through her teeth.

It wasn't that it was their fault –Rhea knew they were merely trying to be nice. But it's like whenever you're waiting for a very important phone call, every other call you get becomes offensive by default; well the same went for her morning. She was waiting for a new, albeit very important face, so all those familiar faces were all of a sudden her biggest enemies. But no matter how eagerly waited, her soulmate didn't show his face in those fifteen minutes.

Throughout her entire morning classes she sat at the edge of her chair, her eyes darting towards the door every ten seconds as if her soulmate would burst through the doors to sweep her up bridal style or do something just as absurd. By the time lunch was about to roll in, she was drumming her fingers against the edge of her desk, shifting in her seat. So much so, that Johanna, who sat in the seat in front of her and who was the class valedictorian turned around a couple of times to stare daggers at her for apparently interrupting her ultimate focus on the lesson –which was funny because it was the first day back from summer holidays and Mr. Waters was asking people about their vacation.

When the bell rang, she darted out of the class to find Willa, all the while cursing silently that she didn't have any classes together with her in the morning.

She found her by their lockers, which were side by side, and approached her with quick steps.

When Willa heard her approaching steps she turned around quickly, anticipation clear in her eyes. But when she saw the fed up and frustrated expression of her best friend, her grin turned into a frown.

"Nothing?" she asked.

"Nothing." Rhea confirmed.

Willa opened her arms to offer her a hug, which Rhea took without a moment's hesitation.

"Wanna head to lunch?" Rhea asked, from where her face was buried in Willa's hair.

"You go ahead," Willa said quickly, disentangling herself from Rhea, "I'll find Wade and we'll catch up to you."

Rhea tried not to dwell on what "finding Wade" entailed; she'd witnessed it too many times to know exactly what, and she intended to keep her appetite for a while longer –except her stomach was already alight with nerves from all the soulmate drama, so who was she kidding?

She didn't place her backpack in her locker in case Willa and Wade didn't make it to lunch –it had happened before– and she'd need something to keep herself busy with. With quick steps, she entered the cafeteria and got in line to get the sorry excuse of a meal they presented the students with and called lunch. Today was the first day of school, which traditionally meant pizza –or as Rhea liked to call it: a piece of cardboard dabbed in tomato sauce.

As much as she despised the taste of it, she got herself a slice anyway and made her way to their usual table right in the center of the cafeteria. She set her tray and her backpack down and sat; she had a great view of everyone inside the cafeteria from where she sat.

After five minutes of people-watching and occasionally nibbling on her slice of pizza, she got bored and decided to read for a little while. Feeling glad that she didn't leave her stuff behind, she opened her backpack and got out her favorite book she carried everywhere she went: Emma by Jane Austen.

Unlike every other girl out there, her dream gentleman from the Austen era was Mr. Knightley, which might or might not have had something to do with Jonny Lee Miller, who played Mr. Knightley in the BBC mini-series.

She quickly thumbed through the book to get to her favorite part –the part where Mr. Knightley would reveal his feelings– and started reading after releasing a soft sigh.

I cannot make speeches, Emma... If I loved you less, I might–

Her peace and quiet with the book was cut short when a wave of water descended from above, soaking her fingers along with the well-read pages of the book.

In a heartbeat, she was furious. Enraged. Livid.

"What the–" she exclaimed, leaping up from her seat. She caught the eye of the culprit behind the demise of her book and immediately recognized him. She'd shared a class with him last year, though funnily enough had never talked to him. On second thought, it wasn't that funny since he never showed his face in class and when he did, he just slept in the back.

"Sorry," he said, wearing a look that was supposed to come off as apologetic, but Rhea could see that he was bored, ready to leave once he got a response out of her and, underneath it all, amused.

How dare he find this amusing, she thought to herself, and the anger that was beginning to dim down following his apology flared up once more.

"You asshole," she hissed, "You're lucky this wasn't my favorite copy."

If looks could kill, he'd have dropped dead faster than you could say Regency Era. Yet, he didn't seem the least bit affected by the icy glare Rhea was giving him. Instead, his already poorly concealed amusement rose to the surface, his lips turning up in a smirk.

"Oh so you own several copies of ..." he leaned forward a little to see the cover of the book Rhea was now clutching to her chest, "...Jane Austen's Emma. How fascinating."

"I'll have you know that–" Rhea started, determined to give him a piece of her mind. But halfway through, she decided against it; her day had enough drama without getting into a quarrel with some asshole. "Oh whatever, who do hell do you think you are?"

"Caleb Archer," he said, and then he bowed down in a mock salute before he added, "At your service."

"At my–," Rhea stopped short and let out a groan, "Will you just piss off?"

"As you wish," he said, bowing down for the second time in what couldn't have been more than thirty seconds.

Then, he turned around and left.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Rhea returned to her book...

I cannot make speeches, Emma... If I loved you less, I might be able to–

...only to be interrupted again.

"Excuse me," came the same voice from before from above her head. What were the odds that her Meet-the-soulmate day would coincide with Everyone's-an-asshole-and-they-are-out-to-get-you day?

"Oh, now what?" she said, snapping her book shut with as much force she could put into it.

"I just wanted to ask– Can I, uh, sit here?" when she lifted her head up, she found herself looking at an unfamiliar face.

So it wasn't the same voice from before. Well, she'd never claimed to have the best auditory memory in the world, so... After she dwelled on it for a while, she realized that she was gawking at him and that she was being unnecessarily rude.

And also, that she was looking at an unfamiliar face.

Suddenly her heart rate started to pick up and she could feel her stomach do somersaults. Just like that, she froze.

She couldn't form a coherent answer to his question; not even a monosyllabic one.

"Uh, you alright there?" the boy said, trying to break her out of her reverie. He looked thoroughly confused.

"I'm sorry, y–yes, sure, sit," she stammered. Way to make a good impression on your potential soulmate, she scolded herself in her head. Despite her awkwardness, he gave her what she supposed was his charmer smile.

She watched with wide eyes as he proceeded to set down his tray and settle in the seat next to her.

"I'm Floyd," he said, turning in his seat slightly to face her. "I just transferred here and people are a lot less friendly than I'd hoped they'd be."

"Yeah," she chuckled nervously. She wasn't making any contribution to the conversation, but he seemed unfazed by it; probably feeling glad that someone seemed to at least give him some attention.

"So what's your name?" he asked, taking a huge bite of his pizza as if it was the best slice he'd had in his life. Boys and their appetite, Rhea internally shook her head.

"Rhea," she answered. It seemed monosyllabic answers were all he would be getting from her today.

"That's a beautiful name," he said.

"Thanks," she said, smiling at him; a real smile this time, without the overbearing nervousness.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful lady," he smiled and murmured softly.

Wow, he was complimenting her already. She could get used to having him as her soulmate. Not that he necessarily was her soulmate, but he was the only candidate so far.

She couldn't help but smile back. Soon, it turned into one of those flirtatious stare-offs, where both parties would hold each other's gaze as their lips turned up into a smile.

It was broken off when someone cleared their throat next to her, and when Rhea snapped out of it and turned around, she found herself looking at her best friend, who was looking frantically between her and Floyd. She'd obviously come to the same conclusion Rhea had come to merely minutes ago; the conclusion that Floyd might be Rhea's soulmate.

She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off when the bell rang loudly. Willa had practically abandoned her for the entire lunch period of the most challenging day of school and she was so going to pay for it later.

"I should get to class," she turned to say to Floyd, "it was nice meeting you."

"Likewise," he said, rising up from his seat, "I'll see you around."

"You betcha," she said as Floyd slung his backpack over his shoulder, and instantly cringed as soon as he turned around.

"Explain," Willa demanded as soon as Floyd was out of earshot.

"I'll explain after you've explained where the hell you were," Rhea shot back, "Which will be after school. Gotta get to class. Have chem with Mr. Martin."

With that, she bolted out of the cafeteria and crossed the corridors towards the chem lab. She barely made it as Mr. Martin was closing the door, who shot her a disapproving look yet still held the door for her. She slid inside quickly and saw that no one was seated; instead, everyone was standing in front of the board. As she scanned the crowd to see who was taking AP Chem along with her, she made eye contact with the last person she'd ever expected to see here. Caleb Archer. He amusedly raised an eyebrow at her and she quickly averted her eyes.

"Now that Ms. Myers graced us with her company, we shall begin," he said meaningfully, "You must be wondering why I'm making you stand around. Well, the thing is, last year I let the students pick their own partners and it ended in a disaster. So, this year I assigned them." At this point, a collective groan emanated from the students, which Mr. Martin promptly ignored. "You'll be working with your assigned partners for the rest of the term, so try and get along."

He retrieved a piece of paper from the drawer of his desk and put on his reading glasses.

"Lucy Lee and David Harris."

"Reese Collins and Mary Moore."

"Cameron Davis and Kyla Robinson." This made her want to snicker; she knew for a fact that Cameron had a thing for Kyla. Perhaps this would help him get a move on.

As he read the names, people started to move towards the work surfaces to sit with their partners. Those who were lucky enough to be partnered with someone they actually liked cheered or gave each other high fives while others sulked or glared at their assigned partners.

"Robert Young and Fernando Rodman."

"Rhea Myers and..." She held her breath.

Not Caleb Archer. Oh, dear God, please not Caleb Archer.

"Caleb Archer."