You feel so low you can't feel nothin' at all.

[Della Mariette Caine]

After that stupid party on Friday, Della had stayed in her room all weekend, feeling sorry for herself and going over what had happened over and over again in her head. She barely dreamed at all, because her dreams all focused on what had happened with Sebastien, and that turned them into nightmares instead of simple dreams. There were bags under her eyes from her lack of sleep that she had tried to hide with concealer, though they were still a bit noticeable, and Della hadn't done much with her hair the past two days aside from simply washing it. She looked completely unlike herself, a strained expression on her face as she plodded unhappily into AP Literature on Monday, her eyes glued to the floor so she wouldn't have to meet a certain person's gaze.

Mr Blackwell seemed surprised by her disheveled appearance, her normal wrinkle-free and adorable uniform hanging off of her thin body like horrid rags. She had given up on her appearance, at least for now. There was no point in trying to make herself look good, Sebastien already hated her. There was no one for her to impress anymore, no one who mattered. The only people who cared about her wouldn't mind that she didn't have on a ton or make-up, or hadn't done her hair up fancily today. They would love her for her, and that was all that mattered.

Tugging out her chair near the back of the room, Della dropped her purse onto the desk, pulling out her notebook and purple pen, hesitating for a moment before putting her purple pen away again and pulling out a regular black one. There was no need for silly colours or fun in this world, not when she had blown any possibility of ever being with Sebastien. A shocking rush of pain coursed through her heart at the thought of him, and Della bit down on her lip, nearly hard enough to draw blood, in order to stop herself from crying again. He was in this class, which meant she would have to face him at some point. Hopefully nothing went haywire today, and he actually spoke to her. If he ignored her, she would just have to get over it and move on, yet again.

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

Sebastien made his way to AP lit, his hands in his slack pocket. He had his music on full blast so he would have an excuse as not to talk with Della. He entered the room and went up to his seat- right in front of Della- looking down at the floor the whole time. Before he took his seat, he looked up at Della, wanting to tell her how he felt and that he was sorry he didn't say anything sooner. But all he saw when he looked at her was Derrik all over her delicate body, and all he could feel was the pain he felt that night. He looked away quickly, as if he had been stung and sat down, looking straight ahead at the board.

[Della Mariette Caine]

As the door to the classroom opened, Della glanced up, immediately wishing she hadn't. There he stood, in all of his adorable glory. He didn't look upset at all from Friday, which made her worry even more. Was he over it already? Would he want to be friends again? Oh god, nononono, she couldn't handle that so soon. She wanted him more than she had ever wanted a boy, and having him just dismiss her as another girl would kill her. Her stomach lurched as he skillfully ignored her, biting down on her lip hard so that she would have something to distract her from him.

Staring down at her paper, she began to doodle to distract herself, drawing a scene with a bunch of farm animals in a barn on fire. There was no way she could hide how she was feeling, and the way she was taking it out was to cause everyone else, even just some little drawings of animals, to feel pain too. She wanted to speak up, say something, anything to him, to make everything better, but her mouth wouldn't work. She opened her mouth, but all that came out was a pathetic little squeak. Her lip trembled, and she tried to focus on something else so that she wouldn't break down in class. Della hated anyone seeing her this vulnerable, especially the one who had caused it.

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

"Alright class, settle down."

Mr. Blackwell said and all the student quieted down. Mr. Blackwell gave Sebastien a stern look and Sebastien turned off his iPod. He pulled out his ear plugs and focused on the tiny spot on the white wall in front of him. Anything to not turn his head around and look at gorgeous Della. It took all his will power but he some how managed. It pained him so much, but she didn't like him. He couldn't continue ignoring her though, because she would think that something was up.

[Della Mariette Caine]

"We're going to do some group work today, so that I'll have a mark in that column when your parents ask me how you're doing in this class. So everyone will be with the person they're next to, except.. Miss Caine, it seems you don't have a partner, and Miss Nardovino doesn't seem to be present, so I'll have the two of your pair up instead." Mr Blackwell stated, beginning to hand out poems to each pair of students.

Della's heart dropped out of her body as he told her to pair up with Sebastien, a hand rushing to brush through her wavy hair as she thought about how awful she must have looked. Taking her notebook and pen, she moved to the seat next to him, sitting on the far edge of it so she didn't have to be near him. Looking down at the desk, she waited for Mr Blackwell to hand them the poem they would be analyzing, her blue eyes skimming over it quickly and sighing. A poem about love, how wonderfuckingful was that?

"You have the rest of the period to work on this quietly. Begin!" Mr Blackwell stated, returning to his desk and sitting back to read his newspaper.

The poem read:

'It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea. '

- Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

Sebastien sqeezed his eyes shut and let out a calming breath. When Della sat down beside him, he looked at her. She looked as if she hadn't slept all weekend. Probably up with Derrik all night, he thought gingerly to himself.

"Hey"

He said, softly, forcing a tight smile.

"So, lets do this."

He said, reading the poem. Just freaking fantastic. A love poem. Irony much? If Mr. Blackwell was pulling some prank, it wasn't funny. Sebs shook his head, he was just being paranoid.

[Della Mariette Caine]

"I... Hi... Okay.." Della managed to stutter out in response to Sebastien, her glance falling back down to the desk unhappily. In her head, she went over the best way to approach the situation, though she couldn't really think of any good way of doing that. When he suggested they just do the assignment, she shook her head, knowing she couldn't just leave things like that.

"Sebastien, I... I mean... uhm... I mean... you see... er... I'm sorry about Friday." She started, looking down at the desk worriedly.

"IwasjealousofyouandAllieandtriedtogetbackatyoubydancingwithDerrick.." Della said quickly, her voice soft and hoarse. She had rehearsed too many times in front of the mirror, and now nothing was coming out right. "I mean, I was jealous of you and Allie, because you both like each other and you're cute together, and so I went and danced with Derrick, but then he wanted a bit more than just dancing, and it was wrong, and I feel horrible and I'm sorry. I like you, a lot. Too much. I'm so sorry." She managed to say, her voice quivering the whole time. "I'm sorry, I'm going to go." She got up from the chair, picking up her purse and heading up to the front of the room to get a hall pass from Mr Blackwell.

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

Sebastien listened to her story, taking it all in. His lips curled slightly into a smile but he just sat and listened. When she got up to leave he watched her. Sebastien didn't get girls. Why would she want to get him jealous? If he was in her situation he wouldn't do that. He shook his head and did what he thought he wouldn't be doing in a long time. He laughed. And once he started, he couldn't stop.

[Della Mariette Caine]

After receiving a hall pass, Della looked back to see if Sebastien had reacted in any way, shock crossing her face as she saw him laughing. With tears begging to escape from her eyes, she walked out of the classroom in shame, shutting the door behind her and starting down the hall, the tears pouring over and starting to stream down her face. That was not the response she had expected in the least, but at least she knew how he felt about the situation now..

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

Sebastien saw the look on Della's face and then stopped laughing, watching her leave the class, her blond waves flouncing behind her. He stood up, his chair scratching against the floor and ran out of the room, after Della. Mr. Blackwell yelled after him, telling him to get back to class. Sebastien ran down the halls as fast as he could so he could catch Della before she left and before things got even worse. Sebastien spotted her and smiled, jogging up to her, He spun her around and pulled her into his arms. He lifted her with no problem at all and kissed her on the lips. It was a nice, soft kiss, sending a surge of electricity down his spine. He lingered there for a while before putting her back down and pulling away. He smiled smugly, his trademark grin widening.

"Della Caine, you are the most adorable thing in this whole universe and words can't express how much I like you. Hopefully that kiss explained it."

He said, grinning. He didn't know why he had done it, but he didn't regret it one bit.

[Della Mariette Caine]

Della had continued down the hall, willing herself to not look back because it would just cause more disappointment. She coughed a couple of times, trying to regain her composure and stop crying again. Her tears soon turned into dry sobs - she had cried herself dry from thinking about Sebastien. Just the mention of his name in her mind sent a shock wave of unhappiness through her, and she stopped walking for a moment to calm herself down.

The sound of fast footsteps approached her, and she jumped nervously as someone spun her to face them. Blinking a couple of times, she realized it was Sebastien. Before she could say anything, he picked her up and kissed her sweetly, causing her knees to immediately weaken. Wrapping her slender arms around his neck, she kissed him back softly, a jolt of energy coursing through her body. As he pulled away, Della did the same, a shy grin on her face as she blushed, taking her arms off of his neck and then grinning again.

At his words, she grinned wider, biting her bottom lip for a moment. Opening her mouth, she tried to respond, but her brain seemed incapable of helping her create sentences. Realizing she would have to improvise now that she was unable to speak, Della grabbed the front of his shirt in her hands, pulling him down to her height and pressing her lips to his again softly, a smile on her face again.

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

Sebastien smiled as she pulled him in, and he kissed her back, with great passion. Each kiss sent a surge of electricity through him and each was never the same. He wanted more and more but stopped abruptly when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. Sebastien pulled away, not wanting to and Mr. Blackwell tapped his foot, impatiently.

"Ms. Caine. Mr. Blanchard, care to explain?"

Sebs had his arm draped around Della's waist.

"I think you pretty much got the point, Mr. B."

He said with a sly grin. Mr. Blackwell reddened with anger.

"This is unacceptable Epson Student behaviour. Report to Dean Williamson immediatly!"

Once Mr.Blackwell left them, Sebs looked at Della and burt out laughing. He kissed her again, not getting enough.

[Della Mariette Caine]

Della pulled away at the sound of someone clearing his throat behind them, a bright pink blush spreading across her face as she saw that it was Mr. Blackwell. Biting her lip, she allowed Sebastien to speak for both of them, knowing she would just start laughing if she tried to say anything at all.

Nodding her head as Mr. Blackwell began to turn red with anger, she bit her lip, trying to hold in giggles as Mr. Blackwell reprimanded them and then walked away. As he went back into his classroom and shut the door, she finally couldn't hold it in anymore, and burst into a fit of giggles, still laughing softly as she kissed Sebastien once again. "So... feel like going to see good ol' Dean Williamson?" She asked jokingly as she pulled away, her blue eyes sparkling happily from the events that had just transpired.

[Noelle Adae Blanchard]

"Nah, lets just skip it."

He said, a mischevious glint in his deep blue eyes. He laughed and took her hand and they ran down the halls, a few teachers poking their heads out, curiously and shaking their heads in dissaprovement.