Amaranth

Lesson One: Love is For the Weak

"You learn fast," Max cheered. Belle blushed and thanked him. She wasn't used to talking to males, especially not one as attractive as Max, she couldn't help but have a tiny crush on him. She would never tell her mother though, since that was her intentions from the start.

"Am I free to go now then?" She asked.

"Uh, yea, wait. I never see you besides these classes? Where do you go off running to, you're not avoiding me are you?" He teased.

"No, I've just been...with a new friend." She stuttered.

"A new friend?"

Belle and Max turned around and was faced with the blue haired beauty, Hannah. Her face was lit and her smile reached all the way to her eyes. She ran into the room with a plate of cookies and jumped onto Belle. Belle felt suffocated from the amount of contact she was receiving from the girl.

"Why didn't you tell me! You should've invited them so I could feed them food! Who are they? When did you meet them? Oh my god, are you in love?" She asked.

Max watched the girl chatter away as he started eating the cookies. Belle couldn't help but giggle at the way Max ate the cookies sloppily, spilling crumbs all over the floor. Hannah grabbed Belle's hand. "So tell me all about your new friend!"

"Well, her name is Alice." Belle said hesitantly.

"Alice? What a cute name! When did you meet her?" Hannah asked.

"At the river,"

"The river? That's...different. How old is she?"

"I'm not sure, we don't really talk much. She just teaches me how to do martial arts." Belle saved herself.

"That sounds really suspicious Belle, are you sure she's safe?" Hannah asked.

"Alice would never hurt me, she's really nice!" Belle said thinking back to when the girl had threatened to kill her for "being too slow."

"I trust you, but she's still a stranger. How about you invite her over and we can get to know her! I'm sure your parents would be excited to meet a friend of yours."

"No!" Belle exclaimed. Her mother would never allow her to be friends with someone as mysterious as Alice. She didn't know anything about her and she doubt her mom would be fine with her being friends with a dead girl.

"Belle, you have to tell your parents. I don't feel comfortable keeping a secret, they could fire me and I really need this job..." Hannah said uncomfortably.

"Hannah, my dear, Belle rarely has any friends her age from what I've seen, let her be, she'll be fine. I'm sure Alice is a great girl." Max smiled mischievously.

"I don't know Max.." Hannah said.

Max put his hand on the girl's shoulder and looked into her eyes. Hannah blushed at how close he was. His green eyes gazed into her own. "She'll be fine." He insisted.

"Yeah...you're right. She'll be fine." Hannah nodded.

Belle stared curiously at the situation that unraveled before her. That's odd. Hannah would usually fight back.

"How about you introduce us to Alice, just us, no parents. I'm sure Hannah would feel a lot better if she knew who Alice was." Max offered.

Belle nodded slowly, not sure how Alice would feel about this proposition. She was sure Alice would throw her into the river or something to at least demonstrate that she was displeased with the meet up. Maybe she would even stop meeting up with her, that scared belle the most. She couldn't go back to the life she had before meeting Alice. Despite having Hannah, she was always alone, her parents were always working and it's not like Hannah's job was to entertain Belle. Belle enjoyed talking to Alice, and despite their rocky start, she was sure that Alice was beginning to like her as well.