[h1][color=Crimson]Alice & Oliver [/color][/h1]

 The walk to the canteen was… interesting, to say the least. It seemed the rumour mill had been working double time, and by now, half the school seemed to have heard about the deal. They all also seemed to think he was a moron, not that that mattered. He’d heard worse in primary school, although the fact that said primary school was full of the children of the wealthiest and most arrogant people in the country [i]may[/i] have had something to do with that. At least Suleykaar seemed to be enjoying the attention, possibly, Oliver really had no way of knowing. 

He listened as Suleykaar continued to talk, and felt a smile begin to form on his face. The scenario he was describing was starting to sound very appealing, especially the part where he mentioned Oliver possibly being able to build his own base of power. All his life he’d relied on other people, his father, the (numerous) nannies, friends, many of whom had turned out to be far less reliable than he’d thought. It’d be nice to gain at least a modicum of self-sufficiency, even if it was only enough to protect Alice. Of course the ideal situation would be one in which he could ensure her safety indefinitely, and move towards righting the wrongs that had been committed against her, but that would mean taking his father out of the equation entirely, which was by no means an easy task. 

 With a jolt, he realised how dark his thoughts had become. He was contemplating killing his father for crying out loud, something he never would have even considered a few months ago, regardless of how strained their relationship had been. He knew he had to stop thinking about that, no good would come from revenge fantasies, the next few years were going to be tough, and he had to direct all of his energy and focus into making sure both he and Alice emerged from them unscathed. 

 A quick glance at his roommate proved that he still seemed to be finding the whole debacle highly entertaining; something that Oliver concluded probably didn’t bode well for the coming years. He also noticed that he’d fallen into step beside Oliver, a gesture he appreciated, and found oddly reassuring. 

 They arrived at the canteen fairly quickly, and soon discovered it was quite large. In Oliver’s experience, the size of a canteen roughly correlated to the number of students attending the school, unless they had split lunches, which he hoped wasn’t the case because he and Alice were in different years, or unless they were massively overcrowded. At the moment there were a few students milling around, and he could tell Suleykaar was scanning them intently, but none of them appeared to be Alice, “I don’t think she’s here yet,” he said in answer to the question, “but she’ll be fairly easy to spot when she arrives, she’s quite short, very ginger, and probably wearing a black coat that’s about three sizes too big. She’s pretty shy around new people though, she’ll happily put me in my place, but anyone else, well… hopefully she’ll realise that I trust you before she decides to run screaming from the room.” he sounded like he was joking, but he wasn’t. He didn’t like to think about that time they’d tried to stay at one of his friends’ houses, but with the way that had turned out in the end her initial reaction had probably been justified.

 As he spoke, he spotted her coming into the room, “There she is!” he said, giving her a small wave to let her know where they were. It took her a second to spot them, but when she did her expression immediately flickered to one of distrust. Once she drew close, she stopped about two meters away, her eyes flicking rapidly from Oliver, to Suleykaar, and back. When she spoke, it was quiet and tentative, as if she was expecting to be attacked if she said the wrong thing, “Oliver, who’s this…” she paused, taking a deep breath, before deciding to address Suleykaar, “excuse me, my names Alice, but who are you? And how do you know Oliver? You’re not another ‘friend’ are you?”