A/N: My characters keep changing. These here have been in three different stories between October 2003 and now, and they still don't have a complete story to call their own. If you want to see how they changed, compare them with those from Blue Tooth Home for Dropped Story Characters, which is from 2004. This is the second-newest piece starring Merina, Lani and Theo.

A light knock on the door.

"Go away!"

"But… Merina, we've got school! You can't just sit in here all day, you've missed breakfast already!"

"I know. I don't care!"

A sigh. "So you're ditching me?"

"Yes, Lani, now go!"

"But it's Valentine's Day!" Lani whined.

"I know! That's the point!"

"All right… I'll tell the teachers you're sick, then…"

Merina listened as her best friend's footsteps faded away into the distance. Then she let herself fall back onto the pillows, staring up at the white ceiling. "So… Valentine's Day," she murmured to no-one in particular, and sighed. You can't really escape it, you know, she told herself.

And, sure enough, there was another knock at the door. "I told you to go away!" she huffed, scrambling out of bed and stomping over the cold floor to the door. She whipped it open, saying, "Lani, just because you're the elf general's daughter doesn't mean…"

She stopped. She felt her face go warm and knew she was blushing. "Er… um… sorry," she said quickly.

"Oh… it's… it's okay," Theodore stammered. "I… was just checking… I thought… you know, like that time…"

"No, no, everything's fine… I… just slept late…" she replied hastily, brushing her blonde hair behind her pointed ears. "I… I guess I'll get ready for class now…"

"Ah, all right, I … I'll wait."

She quickly shut the door, then leant back against it, letting out a deep breath. Now look at that, she thought, you're going to class after all now, or what? Are you trying to hide something from me, Merina?

Shaking her head, she quickly hurried to her bed, trying to tidy it up before leaving. Already she was five minutes late for class, and if she took long now, Theo would be in trouble too. And she didn't want that to happen. Theo was her first ever human friend – not to mention, he had saved her numerous times since they first came to Emerald Secondary School three years ago.

Not caring to brush her hair, Merina grabbed her school bag as soon as she was dressed and quickly left the room. Theo was still waiting for her. He offered to hold her bag for her as she put on her necklace.

"Do you still have yours?" she asked him as casually as she could. Elf necklaces were powerful things – Theo was the only human ever to have used one. She had given it to him as a sign of their friendship long ago. But that was before the war, a time which seemed millennia away… She hadn't even had a chance to thank him properly since he saved her half a year ago.

"'Course I still have it," he said. "But it hasn't worked since, you know, that day."

They made their way to class in silence. It was strange, somehow. They had been such good friends for years, but now they hardly had a chance to speak to each other. It was not just because of school, or even Merina's responsibilities as queen of elves… she didn't know why herself.

"What do we have first, anyway?" she asked, though as soon as the question left her the answer whacked her like a hammer as she remembered.

"Maths," Theo said. "The Gimple Pimple's not going to be amused…"

They ascended one last flight of stairs. Already Merina could hear Miss Gimple's voice penetrate through the classroom door towards them. "I SHALL TOLERATE NO LAZINESS IN THIS CLASS!"

Merina winced. "I don't think I want to be late for Maths really…"

Theo shrugged. "What else do you want to do? We'll get in trouble anyway."

"I prefer trouble with Sir Andor to trouble with the Gimple Pimple, actually," Merina said, shifting her bag higher on her shoulder. The headmaster was much more lenient than Gimple, who was reputed to be the very strictest teacher in the school – if not the entire country. She turned to the next flight of stairs. "I'm going to the library."

She took two steps at a time. Once she had reached the twelfth floor of the tall black tower, she walked over to the balcony overlooking the space in the middle of the tower. The voices of teachers teaching came up to her from all around. She sighed, wishing it could just be a normal day. But she hadn't had a single normal day for the past three and a half years.

As she entered the library, deep wafts of old, dusty, bookish air rose to greet her. She breathed in her favourite smell, the musty, dusty, spicy smell of books, and just closed her eyes for a moment, imagining she was someone else, somewhere else…

"Um… 'scuse me."

Merina whipped open her eyes and stared at the seventh-grader in front of her. He was quite a bit shorter than her, human, with messy hair. But that didn't bother her. What bothered her was the bunch of origami roses in his hand. She gulped back the stream of angry words on the tip of her tongue.

"These… um… these're for you," he said, holding them out to her and blushing furiously. She hoped he was doing this for a dare. She had enough admirers as it was, without younger students coming after her.

"Er… thanks…" she said quickly, going slightly red herself. She took the roses, which were looking slightly crumpled and smelled of cheese sandwiches, and waited for the seventh-grader to go back inside the library or leave. But he was still standing there. "Um… I have to go get some urgent research done… history essay," she lied quickly, dodging past him and hurrying into the labyrinth of shelves.

She took a deep breath once she was out of sight from everyone, in the section of extremely difficult Maths books which only very smart people ever visited, and the seventh-grader had not looked especially intelligent. Now what should I do with these? she wondered, glaring at the crumpled origami roses.

Merina had only just found herself a seat at a table between the Historical Fiction and Romance Fiction shelves when another boy stumbled upon her: no other than John Stubbins, the short, dark-haired boy who had asked her out only a week ago.

He instantly turned scarlet and started to stutter. "I… um… y-you know… Gimple… she was mad… wanted a b-book from somewhere around…"

Who does he think he's fooling? Merina thought, annoyed. I know this library like my own home; I know the Maths books are four shelves to the east!

"What do you want?" she asked, and she must have made it sound more menacing than she meant it to be, for John turned from red to white and quickly disappeared behind another bookshelf.

How did he find me here, anyway? she wondered. She took out the book she was reading and turned to the right page. I hate Valentine's Day, she decided.

She had been reading for only a few minutes when she heard footsteps again. "I do not want your flowers, cards, chocolates, or anything," she said, rolling her eyes and lowering her book.

She stared, and felt the colour rise to her cheeks.

"Um… I wasn't… giving you any," Theo stammered. "If you want to stay here alone, you're… you're welcome to. I'll just…" He turned to leave.

"Oh, no, you can stay!" Merina said hastily. "I… I just thought you were… you know, I thought you might be John or Benjamin or one of those…"

"Oh, yes…" He smiled, walked over to the table and sat down on the chair opposite Merina. "I heard about how you threw poor Ben down the stairs the other time he gave you flowers… He couldn't play football for a week; our team lost dreadfully because of you!"

"Oh… I'm sorry, I just had a little… temper outburst," Merina said.

"Actually, I do have chocolates and roses and cards," he admitted after a while. "Just they're not from me; they're from everyone else. They gave them to me during breakfast to give to you, since they know you're in most of my classes and I can always find you..." He smiled apologetically as he began piling mountains of cards and flowers onto the table from his school bag.

Merina closed her eyes in frustration. "Why do they always do this?" she snarled, dumping her book back on the table and leaning on her elbow, glaring at all the gifts. "I'm not the only girl in school; they can give the others a chance too. Why always me?"

"Because… well… because you're brave… and beautiful…" Theo turned very red.

"You really think so?" she asked hotly. "I was sick and wounded half of the war! I hardly did anything! I'd be dead if it weren't for you!"

"Well… they just think you're brave. And I think so too… I wouldn't have gone to fight all those monsters, that time, during the battle…"

"But you saved me," she said. "You didn't have anything to defend yourself with, you knew you would never be able to use the magic of the elf necklace I had given you, yet you still ran out straight onto the battlefield. You would have fought my twin sister with your bare hands, right?"

He didn't reply, but looked down at his feet in silence.

Merina turned to the pile of gifts and picked up the first card. She didn't bother to read all the cliché messages, instead glancing only at the signatures. "Benjamin, Alex, John, Benjamin, John, John, Matthew, Janin, Simon, Benjamin, John, Benjamin, Tim, Laniria… Why does Lani send me a card? She knows I hate them!" Merina huffed. "John, John, John… How many is he giving me?"

"He really likes you, you know…"

"Well, I don't like him if he goes on like this," Merina said, dumping the cards frustratedly back onto the table. "I get enough marriage proposals every single day from annoying princes whom I don't even know… and then my uncle's threatening with arranged marriages and whatever else…" She sighed and leant forward with her head in her hands. "I just don't want to go on like this. Maybe I should leave school, renounce my title and become a nun. I've always wanted to be a nun…" she groaned.

Theo nodded, not saying anything.

"First the war, now everyone, everyone, treating me like a hero. I'm getting fed up with it. Not that it wasn't the same from the start, but it's annoying to have it the same every year."

It took a while for her to notice what was happening. She only did when she heard a childish, girly voice shriek, "OH MY GOODNESS!" Merina instantly pulled her hand away from Theo's and hid her face. "Go away, Laniria…"

But Lani was much too excited to do that. "I saw you! I saw you I saw you I saw you!" She was jumping up and down, clapping her hands with glee. She was so childish one could think she was six, not sixteen.

What was I doing Merina asked herself furiously. How stupid was she? Holding a boy's hand when anyone could burst in and see… especially Laniria, the queen of paparazzi.

"I knew you two liked each other! I've been trying to match you up for years!" Lani dashed forwards and hugged Merina, then rushed to Theo and hugged him too, as if she had just heard that they were engaged to be married. She always grew extremely affectionate when excited. "Go on go on go on! Kiss her, Theo!" she squealed, poking Theo hard with a finger. Theo only turned away, embarrassed.

"Lani, unlike people who break school rules, Theo and I do not express affection in public. Thank you very much." Merina stood up and pushed her chair under, picking up her book and her school bag. "I'm going downstairs to the gardens," she said. "Lani, you can have the roses and the chocolates. I don't want them."

"What, really? They're all for me?" She immediately started hugging Merina again, jumping up and down and shrieking, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

"Um… Lani, you're making me suffocate…" Merina coughed, trying to pry Lani off her. "Let's go outside, Mrs. Illworth won't allow you to make a noise in here…"

"Okay, let's go outside. I have so much to tell everyone!" Lani skipped around excitedly.

"NO!" Merina snapped. "You're not telling anyone! Okay?"

"Weh… why?" Lani asked, giggling sweetly and chewing a finger.

Merina rolled her eyes. "There's nothing to tell anyone! You were daydreaming!"

"I was?" Lani stared up at her like a confused little girl.

"Yes, you were, now come on…" Merina led the way out, Lani tagging along after her, carrying the big bunch of roses and munching chocolates from one of the numerous little boxes her friend had given her. Somehow, Merina hoped that Lani had really only been daydreaming… that she herself had only been daydreaming… This was the worst day ever!

She was sorry about leaving the library as soon as she closed the doors behind her. She was now in the midst of hundreds of students milling about and having their break, almost half of them boys and more than half of those probably on the look-out for her.

"Um… I think I'm going back in…" she said in an uncertain voice, before diving through the library doors once more, almost knocking Lani and her tower of roses over.

"What makes you so scared?" Lani asked her with a mouth full of chocolate. "I mean, Valentine's Day is so fun! Did you hear that Mr. Lowe accidentally put the fresh flowers he was going to give to Mad Meyhem into the Gimple Pimple's pigeon hole? She was in a much better mood this morning! She didn't even whip anyone for not doing our homework, she only screamed as usual. But can you imagine, Lowe and Meyhem… I mean, they're so old, and he's way too short for her!"

"Ah," Merina only said, wandering along the shelves, hoping that she wouldn't meet Theo again by accident. If she did, she was sure she would make an absolute fool of herself. She hated it when she blushed like a Valentine's rose.

"And, and Miss Joobe's not teaching today. She wasn't there for breakfast; Sir Andor said she's sulking in her music classroom listening to her grandfather's funeral songs. Mr. Lampiro apparently didn't give her a card – you know, she's got that crush on him for years."

"Hm…" Merina turned around and looked at Lani, who was ridiculously weighed down by all the flowers she was carrying. "Maybe you should drop those off in your room before you go back to class, you know," she said. "And hide those chocolates before Mrs. Illworth comes to murder you with a bookmark."

Lani glanced at the librarian, who was talking to her husband, the Geography teacher. "Ooh…" she whispered, "d'you think Mr. Illworth's given her anything?"

"Probably," Merina said, "but I think you'd better drop those things off in your room now." She steered Lani over to the door. Or rather, tried to. For Laniria had seen something else that wholly took up her attention.

"Oh good lord…" Merina breathed.

"After this moment, I can die in peace…" Lani sighed gleefully. "I've been waiting years for this to happen!"

Laniria continued staring, a look of utter happiness and bliss on her face, while Merina looked into space, anywhere but at the sight Lani was relishing like a big scoop of ice cream. "Can't they stop?" Merina groaned. "It's disgusting. Ew ew ew ew ew!"

Lani looked up at her friend, surprised. "Disgusting? It's cute!" And with that, she dumped the mountain of roses into Merina's arms and walked straight ahead. "I always knew you liked Sylvia more than Merina, John!" she said gleefully, poking John in the ribs.

Poor John toppled over with shock, letting go of Sylvia, one of their classmates, whom he had been kissing heartily just a moment ago. Sylvia was blushing terribly.

"Tell me tell me tell me, John! You were only practising when you asked Merina out, weren't you weren't you weren't you? You knew all along she would turn you down!" And Lani continued prodding him. "Aw… it's nothing to be ashamed of, Johnnie-wonnie!"

"'Johnnie-wonnie' is going to be late for class, Lani," Merina said as the bell rang. "And so are you."

"What? Break's over? But the fun has only just started!" Lani cried.

"Well, it's not very nice to find fun in someone else's embarrassment, Lani."

Lani's bottom lip trembled. "But… but…" she began, then burst into tears and rushed out the library, howling. Merina rolled her eyes. I should have expected it… she thought, then left to find her friend.

As expected, Lani was in the bathroom, sobbing her heart out. Merina waited outside, patiently holding the huge mountain of roses, knowing that in less than five minutes Laniria's crying fit would be over and she would be back to normal – or as normal as she could be.

Sure enough, Lani came skipping out a moment later, smiling widely as though nothing had happened. "What's next?" she asked, as Merina handed her the Valentine's gifts.

"Animals. But I'm not going," Merina said.

"Aw, why not?"

"It's Valentine's Day," Merina said through clenched teeth. "You know Miss Zook. She's going to have all her snakes and wolves and cockroaches wearing pink bows and the blood-sucking bats will be screeching love songs. No thanks!"

"Hey," someone said all of a sudden, "I've been waiting for you. Are we going now?"

Merina wished to sink into the ground. "You're blushing," Lani said, pointing at her with a naughty grin playing on her face, then walked past her, saying, "Coming, Theo, coming! Your love and I shall hasten along!"

As they hurried downstairs to the Animal Studies classroom, she whispered to Merina, "Don't you worry. I'm going to make him kiss you before the day is out!" Merina could just pray with all her heart that she would be spared the torture. Laniria could be terribly insistent.