The speed I'm heading to school at means I'm hopefully going to get there in about five minutes. If I don't walk fast there's a likely chance of me freezing to death. If I thought yesterday was cold then today's temperatures are bloody Arctic.

I swear under my breath as I stride down the street, each day the temperatures have been dropping lower and lower.

When I catch sight of myself in a car wing mirror my mood further drops, the cold weather has my already pale skin looking a thousand times lighter so I end up looking like a ghost. Brilliant!

My insides squirm as I continue rushing down the pavement, I wouldn't usually have been dreading Tuesday this much, or more specifically be so reluctant to go to the assembly we have today.

But going by the past few days, I'm not exactly looking forward to heading into certain lessons and periods of the day. All because of a brown-eyed, big-headed idiot.

"Ruby!" I hear my name being yelled a few metres away and looking up I see Oliver standing on the street on the other side of the road.

"Hey mate," I say as he jogs over. Oliver's reindeer antlers from work have been replaced by a beanie that suits his messy orange hair. His nose is bright red from the cold and, maybe it's the Christmas spirit, but he reminds me of Rudolf.

"Why're you looking so miserable?" Oliver asks, nudging my side with his elbow and grinning a playful grin. How can he be so bloody upbeat during such a freezing morning?

"No reason," I shrug, trying to swallow down the lack of enthusiasm I'm feeling for today's assembly.

Oliver doesn't look like he believes me as we both resume our walk to school. "Tell me," he urges, "you've been all weird recently."

I shove my fingers into my coat pockets to try and regain some feeling into them before reluctantly asking, "'All weird'?"

Oliver nods, looking at me pointedly. "Yeah."

"How?"

"I dunno, you've been extra-moody and stuff," Oliver says, shrugging. "And Imogen mentioned you acted like a nutter at that café place yesterday."

I stumble a little as we head down the road. I'm about to demand just what Imogen has said before I hear a high-pitched: "Oliver!"

It's the girl from the Letterhead, the one who'd bagged Oliver a job, Rebecca.

"Hey," Oliver says, I notice his smile falls a little. We've reached the school gates which Rebecca's standing outside of. She walks over, looking at me with a fixed expression. Her eyes scrutinise me and narrow.

"Who's this?" she asks, pointing towards me, the brightness of her voice doesn't reach her eyes which look deadly.

"Ruby," I say flatly, "I'm in your Chemistry class."

"Right..." Rebecca nods. "You two are friends right?"

I fight the urge to roll my eyes. Oliver looks the same. "Yeah."

"Look, er, I'll see you later," he says, offering her a brief smile before turning to me again.

"Oh right," Rebecca says, smiling steelily, "don't be late to work tomorrow. I've got something planned for us." She then walks off through the school gates to a gaggle of friends who are waiting for her.

"Fucking help me," Oliver whispers once she's out of earshot.

"Why?" I ask, grinning at the look of horror on his face.

"Ever since she got me that job, she thinks she's my bloody wife. I thought it was just a friend doing me a favour!" He grimaces.

"Ah." I smirk. "Now that's your fault for dating lunatics."

"I'm not enough of an idiot to go out with someone crazy!"

"Did you see the way she looked at me when she asked who I was?" I ask, smirking. "You've got to sort out your love life, Oliver, you can't put your friends in danger."

Oliver gives a quiet groan and drags a hand over his face. Even though I try to comfort him, I can't help but laugh as we head indoors.

The first few lessons go by quickly. I have a double period of Chemistry and at the moment I'm loving it, we're studying the bonding between atoms and it's a topic I seem to be decent at so far. Soon the morning rushes by in a blur and we're all having lunch in the common room.

I lean against Ryan, eating an apple while Imogen lounges on the sofa next to us as she studies her textbook. Ryan fiddles with my hair as he sits eating some crisps and talking to me about the most recent episode of Sherlock.

Everything's going fine until he suddenly says, "I've barely seen you lately." I swallow, changing my position a bit as I sit in his arms. My insides squirm a little as I think of a response. The truth is... I've kind of been avoiding him lately.

It's not Ryan's fault, if anything it's mine. It's mine. Whenever I see him all I can feel is the horrible weight of guilt. The sensation just feels worse every time I avoid seeing him.

But as time's passing, the results of the events in the courtyard seem less and less worse and I'm able to breathe a bit more easily about it, reassured by the fact that if anything was going to happen, then it would've happened by now.

"I know," I eventually say, "We need to do something."

Ryan nods in agreement. He hums in thought. "Well there's that dance thing coming up. We could go to that?"

Everyone, well mainly the girls, is looking forward to the Christmas Dance the school is holding for our year.

Dances aren't really my most favoured habitat but it could be fun if we all went. "Yeah," I agree. "There is that."

Ryan intertwines a piece of my hair around his finger, twirling the wavy strands around it. "But seriously," he says, his blue eyes taking on a look of solemnity, "I don't care about what we do, as long as we just do something."

I smile softly at his words. "Me neither."

"Aw," Ella Matthews, a girl sitting by us suddenly coos, making me startle. "You guys are so cute!"

My cheeks flush in embarrassment at the sudden attention and I reply only with a nervous smile. I never have any idea what to say when people say stuff like that.

But Ella's right, everything about Ryan and I is cute. Looking back at it, it's sometimes a bit ridiculously so. Our relationship has been perfect, right down to how we first got together. Ryan had taken my phone and claimed I'd spelt his name wrong on my list of contacts before returning it to me.

Seconds later I received a call from him, the contact name flashing up as: 'My Boyfriend''. At the time I was thrilled. Looking back at it I'm surprised I didn't cringe.

But no, the gesture was sweet, brilliantly so.

I sit up properly. "I am sorry about not being able to watch Lord of the Rings the other week," I say, feeling guilty as I remember how distant I'd been with him. Ryan shrugs, grinning.

"We'll do it this weekend or something," he says and I nod before settling back into him.

This is good; things are beginning to feel normal again. Things are resuming their stability. Ryan and I are doing absolutely fine.

We're absolutely fine.

* * *

After lunch Mr Morris is dictating our year to get into orderly and lines and everyone knows how much he likes his alphabet.

"Form 12S! Get into a proper line!" he barks at a group of us who are standing talking. This time Imogen doesn't moan as she had done so in Geography and that's because of a certain Max Murphy who's standing nearby in his own line. At the moment he's grinning and chatting to her and Imogen looks like she's ready to die and go to heaven.

She's been ridiculous lately, trying to figure out what other lessons Max has and where Max goes after school and how she can get a chance to go out with Max. All of this could be achieved if Imogen just uses the phone number he gave her but she thinks it'll look too 'needy' if she texts first.

"Look who I'm sitting next to," a sardonic voice says behind me, "I feel like I'm seeing you everywhere lately." My fingers squeeze together into two fists and I try to take a deep, calming breath. How can a voice I've barely talked to sound so familiar?

I turn around to see Levi lounging lazily against one of the several pillars that are located outside the Hall.

A corner of his lips lift when he notices me looking at him and in that same moment my mouth curls down into a frown. Here's the precise reason behind me dreading this assembly so much. Twenty minutes of sitting right next to this arrogant twat doesn't sound fun.

"I'm not in the mood, Levi," I grumble, glaring at him. My heart strings tug at how closely he's looking at me, at how much his eyes are locked with mine.

With a sinking stomach I realise I don't want to be the first to look away.

"You know," Levi says, a mocking smile curling his lips upward, "assemblies might start to get fun now."

God, why did I have to have my surname beginning with a 'P'?! My jaw clenches and I pull myself up to my full height.

Thankfully I'm pretty tall, very tall compared to the women in my family who don't average to be much above five foot. But even then I don't make it to Levi's height. He straightens just as I do, getting off the pillar and standing before me. He must be above six foot.

"If by 'fun' you mean perfectly normal and stress free, then yeah, I'm all for it," I say, folding my arms. Levi gives a smug smile as he shakes his head.

"'Perfectly normal' doesn't sound fun," he says. I look at him distastefully.

Mr Morris then strides over to the front of the line we've formed before shouting, "12S! Go in!" Our form begin to trudge into the hall, it's ridiculous how we're still made to go into alphabetical order even though we're in the upper years, we're being treated like we're bloody twelve year olds.

Our class is right at the back of the Hall, we all sit on blue plastic chairs as our head of year Mr Fratelli gets his notes ready at the podium situated at the front of the hall. The first slide of his presentation is already being projected on the huge white screen behind him and reading it, I don't bother holding in a groan.

In Comic-Sans font the title reads: 'Languages and Society' with cartoon images of different flags and the Earth surrounding it. Mr Fratelli is also an Italian teacher at the school and nearly all his assemblies are about diversity, equality and how the real colours of the world are the colours of our culture and stuff like that.

It's nice to be spreading such a lovely message, but after years of learning about how the world won't be the same without Italy and its 'phenomenal culinary art', it's getting more than a bit repetitive.

"Brilliant," Levi mutters once he reads the title of the assembly too.

"Good afternoon Year Twelve," Mr Fratelli says after clearing his throat and we all quiet down. We murmur a good afternoon back.

"Today we're going to be exploring just how important global variation is," Mr Fratelli says to the year, "And I thought what better way of showing it is there than Christmas? As it's coming up in just a mere month, let's all get into the Christmas spirit!" His cheery voice is welcomed with an awkward silence.

Slowly I lose more and more focus on what Mr Fratelli is going on about. Yesterday night I barely got any sleep since I was trying to manically finish an essay for this morning. I'm relieved to think it's just down to that and not anything else.

Mr Fratelli's voice becomes almost like a lullaby and soon my eyelids are growing heavy and I want to go to sleep. The hall is pleasantly warm and my chair even feels a little snug despite being plastic. My breathing slows and I slouch a little in my chair.

Then Levi's arm brushes mine.

Even though the touch is brief, my breath catches. I bite down on my bottom lip, praying that the move's unintentional. Usually in assemblies Levi would pay no attention to me, he wouldn't even look my way.

How things can change.

"Tired?" he asks quietly, in a voice low enough that it won't be detected by any nearby teachers. We're too far back for them to notice anyway.

"That's none of your business." I glower, not wanting to say anything else to him. I still haven't gotten over how much he annoyed me on Sunday at the coffee shop.

Levi raises his eyebrows. "You're always so rude."

"Only to people who've been rude in the first place," I reply, attempting to keep my voice hushed too which makes it a whole lot more strained.

"Rude?" Levi asks, amusement chiming his words. "Now, how've I been rude?"

"Uh... Let's think... hm, maybe like last week? Last Sunday? Or like all the time?"

"Didn't know making out with someone was considered rude these days," Levi quips. I slump speechless in my chair as I stare at him wide-eyed and in shock. Levi sits up in his chair, wearing a satisfied smile at getting me to shut up.

I let out a reel of sputtered breath. I still can't understand how the idiot can mention the kiss so effing easily. The way he's just talked about it, it's like we're talking about, about the Pope or something!

"You are such a, a... a moronic arse," I breathe, struggling to keep my voice down. If it isn't for the fact we're in assembly I'd be yelling right now. Levi just grins again and I'm taken aback at how much I like the look of his lips. This makes me glare more deeply.

Nope, no, stop. That type of thought is totally uninvited, unwanted and absolutely wrong. I look around the crowd of students sitting surrounding us in pursuit of Ryan. He's sitting a couple rows in front of me and is laughing quietly at something some boy is muttering to him. Watching him makes me feel calmer and all inappropriate thoughts about Levi vacate my head.

Then Levi does something that nearly sends me over the edge. He leans in towards me, his eyebrows furrowed as he appears to be thinking about something.

What on earth.

I stare at him incredulously before hissing quietly, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Levi tilts his head forwards before a small smile creeps onto his lips. He gives the smallest of nods.

"Yeah... cranberry," he affirms.

I freeze, looking at him curiously.

"I couldn't remember what it was, but it's cranberries isn't it? The smell of your hair?"

My pulse has picked up and I don't know what to say. I can't get over how he's observant enough to know what my flaming hair smells of.

"You've got this whole red theme going on," Levi says quietly, as he faces the front again. "The colour of your hair, the scent... Which by the way is good."

I feel colour flood my cheeks and hope that my next assignment in Biology is to figure out how to stop the human body from blushing.

"Next thing you know, I'll find out all this red means you're actually probably Satan or something," he goes on to say.

I glare at him, not exactly flattered.

Levi grins in return. "And judging by that scary look I think we've got enough evidence to prove that you are."

If I were the Devil I'd be sending that git straight back to Hell, just where he effing belongs. Deciding I've had enough of this, I cross my arms and look towards the front once more.

I hate to admit that I like the way Levi smells, it already seems familiar. Sitting so close to him, I'm able to detect the faintest scent of something woody and fresh, kind of like spring.

Whatever it is, it smells ridiculously good.

I then notice his hand brushing my knee, and the way he's actually laughing at what Mr Fratelli is saying tells me he hasn't realised. It just rests there naturally, as if it's been there a million times before.

And then, as if he's heard my thoughts, Levi glances down and notices how close his hand is. At once, he moves it, resting it on his thigh.

"Do you get a kick out of pissing me off or something?" I whisper furiously, not done with letting him get away with annoying me.

Levi smirks, his eyes glitter with entertainment as he watches me. "There's something about seeing you scowl like that. It's fun."

I sputter in shock. "You bloody sadist!"

Levi snorts at my response, grinning as he shakes his head. "See?"

I choose to shut up then, deciding that he'll just take the mick out of anything I say.

The last few minutes of assembly drag by and finally Mr Fratelli's presentation comes to an end. Our row thankfully gets to leave first as we're at the back and I find myself practically running out the hall. Out in the foyer I take a deep breath, attempting to get mind into an orderly state.

I hate how riled Levi can get me, how he can implode all sense of reason and make me feel like such a wreck. The longer the amount of time I spend around him, the higher the risk my heart will fail.

"See you, Ruby," Levi calls behind him as he walks past me up to a guy called Luke Carter.

No you bloody won't.

Honestly from today, after that disaster of an assembly I'm staying well out of the way of the actual arse that is Levi Parker. Otherwise I don't know what direction things will head in. Murder seems a likely route.

I jump a little when I notice Elle is watching me. She's pursing her lips as she stares at me, standing near the doors of the hall. When she notices I've got her attention, ever so slightly, she shakes her head and raises her eyebrows.

It feels like a warning.