Lesson Five: Don't underestimate someone. Just don't.

Arvy woke up in a white room, lying on a bed. She blinked and reopened her eyes, trying to remember what happened. Pots and pans. Caleb. Blackout. A somewhat muddled puzzle pieced together in her mind, though her head ached intensely when she thought about it too hard. Feeling out of place and unsafe, she sat up on the bed quickly to leave, a big mistake. Her head throbbed unmercifully, causing a soft moan of pain to escape from her lips. For another person, the level of pain she felt right now would have been considered a six at most on a scale of ten. For someone who'd never experienced such affliction before, it was agony. She laid back down slowly, shutting her eyes, blocking out the blinding bright white lights.

"That's right, take it easy dear." The school nurse said in a soft, soothing tone. "Poor thing. You've had quite a rough first day haven't you?"

Sudden hurried footsteps as someone entered the room interrupted her attempt to mumble a reply, not that she'd really wanted to answer. It seemed a silly question to her, considering the answer was obvious.

"Is she alright?"

She recognized Mars' voice, and the concern in it, the fact he worried about her, made her almost deliriously happy in her impaired state. Her nerves buzzed with a calming euphoria. She pictured Mars in her mind, as she refused to actually open her eyes to see him at the moment; she may have wanted to, but just the thought of the bright lights of the room shining in her eyes made her head throb harder.

"She's fine. A very mild concussion, that's it. She just needs to take it easy for a little while." The nurse informed Mars.

"I'm okay," Arvy heard herself mutter, though she didn't recall deciding to speak. She sounded pathetically weak.

"What happened? I just heard someone talking about the new girl being taken to the nurse's office, and I rushed over."

"I've warned Mrs. Carson her disorganized closet presents a health hazard to the students, but she refused to listen." She clicked her tongue in regret, as if the incident had been her own fault. Mars didn't completely understand what a disorganized closet had to do with Arvy's injuries, but he had a rough idea as to what had happened, so he decided not to press for more specific details.

"I was surprised, though," The nurse continued despite any cue for her to. "Caleb North carried her all the way from the home economics classroom, and he actually looked worried. Nicest thing I've seen that boy do."

Arvy pondered the nurses words, breaking them down one by one in her head until their meaning and significance fully settled in. He'd seen Arvy hurt, and he'd reacted in a normal way. Any other human faced with the same dilemma would have done the same thing. Even though she wanted to allow herself some hope this was a sign Caleb wasn't a completely bad person, she refused to underestimate him.

"Where's Caleb?" Arvy opened her eyes slowly, so at first they appeared only narrow slits, allowing them to adjust to the light since her headache subsided to a dull throbbing.

"He is cleaning up the home economics room." The nurse replied. "Don't worry, Mrs. Carson has excused your punishment, you just relax for a little while. Would you like me to call someone to come pick you up? Actually, I couldn't find any emergency contact numbers in your files, so I wasn't sure who to contact."

Arvy froze, hoping her lack of a legal guardian's emergency number wouldn't raise any questions, because inevitably, that'd mean she'd either have to lie, which wasn't even an option, or tell the truth, which would result in people thinking she was crazy.

"She's with me." Mars informed the nurse. "I'm in charge of taking care of her."

Arvy missed the nurse's look of confusion, her mind was already racing with Mars' words.

She's with me.

That sounded wonderful.

*A/N*

So if you review, I have some questions/thoughts I would like feedback on:

* first off, Carvy is officially Caleb and Arvy's couple name! It is so amazing! I'm not even the one that came up with it, someone just commented on inkpop 'I love this, looking forward to more carvy scenes, cuz that's their couple name for now!' *Delighted author squeal* I love it :D

* What do you guys think of Caleb? I'm getting mixed reviews :/ (Although he will be completely lovable by the end of this - I hope :/)

Sorry for the longer than normal Author's note :/ Review review sings I!