Dammit! He had told himself that her change was only physical and that she would still be as unbearable as she had been before. He was wrong. She smiled more often now, and not the pinched, forced smiles she had been so reluctant to give out before. It was normal now for her to split her lunch hour between the cafeteria with her friends and behind the school with the guys who ate there.

She had even made friends- Cherish McKinley, the girl who had burst into a rant in her homeroom class about not needing friends because they pulled you down. Or so he had heard. She had stopped dressing in that generic 'I want to disappear into the background and be overlooked' kind of way that she used to dress. Now she dressed up.

Cigarette pants with cuffed hems or high waists in different shades of blue and black, and even red! She had even shown up in a skirt once, tight and cut right below her knees. She was still always as covered up as she had been before, long sleeve shirts and button up blouses worn under plain cardigans. And though she still wore her sneakers, she wore heels a lot now. Moreover, she walked so well in them he supposed she must have been born in heels. She took the time to do her hair and to apply makeup, and however minimal it was, it was still noticeable.

The worst part of it though, was that he wished he could have said he hadn't noticed it on his own, but he had. He wished he could say he hadn't noticed her curves and how she was the hourglass figure that not many women were today. He wished he could say he hadn't noticed her pillow mouth and how it slid into a sexy tilt when she half smiled. He wished he could say he hadn't noticed her hands, small with beautiful, slender fingers that he wished he didn't imagine running through his hair. But he did. It was hard not to when he spent all his time watching her.

-.-

Running a hand along the wall, Cherish walked quietly down the hallway. She couldn't believe she had forgotten her assignment in her locker, but was glad for the break from her dragging French class. The class was incredibly boring, crawling along at a snail's pace, and most of the students butchered the language past the point of recognition. As she descended the stairs, she thought of dropping the class. Only she didn't want to- it was an easy grade for her, and one less thing she would have to focus so hard on in her current confusing life.

The door opened with a faint whoosh when she reached the bottom of the stairs. Since everyone was in class, it was silent in the basement- eerily so. She didn't notice them till she almost stepped on them. With a step to the side, she went around them, neither of them having noticed her yet. As she passed, she examined the couple. Seven- that was a straightforward one, considering his easily discernible appearance- and..... Joana?

Cherish spun her locker combination, three lockers down from them, and yanked the door open. She watched from the corner of her eye as the scraping noise her locker door made, caused the couple jump apart. Well, jump would not be the word; Joana jumped, startled by the sound, and Seven all but shoved her off him.

Cherish could not help the smirk she wore, closing her door and pretending to have only just noticed them. "Oh! Hi guys!"

They both glared and though she tried not to, she laughed, "Don't let me interrupt your, uh... discussion."

As she made her way back to class, chuckling all the way, she was well aware of someone following her angrily. When she slipped into her seat, dropping her work onto her desk, Seven burst into the room looking pretty, well, disheveled.

"Bonjour, Monsieur. Que c'est belle que vous pouvez nous rejoindre!"

He glanced at Madame Maizareau, grunting his reply as he stalked across the room to his desk. His hair was no longer neatly in place as it had been that morning in Biology, instead it was mussed and lying in a state of disarray. The black shirt he wore was un-tucked and looked to have been re-buttoned in a hurry, considering the hem was at two different lengths. Cherish took one look at him and broke into peals of laughter, snorting as she tried to catch her breath.

"You have to see yourself right now!" she cackled, pointing at his shirt. She apologized and repeated the sentence in French when the teacher looked at her sternly. Apparently that was not what the stern look was for but Cherish shrugged it off, once again pointing out the hem of Seven's shirt. Looking down, he flushed, fixing his buttons with fumbling fingers and a glare at Cherish. Rolling her eyes she turned back to front of the room, still shaking with silent laughter.

She pondered why Seven would be hiding out in the basement making out with Joana when he had supposedly broken up with her. She was sure they weren't getting back together, definitely not if the way he threw the girl away from him when she had interrupted was any indication. Whatever the case, seeing him ruffled like that was a good laugh. A great laugh!

-.-

They listened as the heels clicked evenly down the hallway, a sound they were quite used to now, although it was still hard imaging whose feet the heels were on. Cherish turned the corner, an easy breathlessness about her, apple in one hand, sketchbook in the other, and pencil tucked neatly behind her ear. Juss and Ian nodded at her, politely acknowledging her presence, and she dipped her head the slightest bit in return. They didn't often speak during lunch hour- aside from the occasional greeting or short civil conversations about class work.

Today as she passed them, her hips swaying with her lilting walk, she was the one who spoke first, "So, you'll never guess what I saw today."

Seven's head jerked up instantly, and he stared at her, a mix of alarm and anger on his face. She grinned, waving at him lightly, "Well, I left my French work in my locker, so I had to go down to the basement-"

"Yeah, I had to go down there too, I didn't see anything." Seven cut in suddenly. The edge in his eyes was warning her not to continue her story.

She shook her head, "Of course not, silly, you weren't in class yet."

Ian's brow furrowed, "You weren't in class? But you ditched us for class."

Juss frowned suddenly, looking closely at Seven, his expression suggesting he knew what Cherish had seen. Cherish shrugged, sitting at the end of the hallway with an air of nonchalance.

"So, what'd you see then, Cherry?" Ian demanded, unwilling to let her decided conversational mood change.

"Like I said, I was down in the basement, and it was really quiet so I didn't even think anyone was down there, but then I almost stepped on someone. They didn't notice me so, yeah, I went around them and then I banged my locker really loud. God, it was so funny- you shoulda seen it, they jumped away from each other so fast!"

She chuckled and Ian laughed along with her, imagining it would be pretty funny, "So who was it?"  He was oblivious to the way Seven was glaring at her, his fists clenched tightly, menacingly.

"Turns out he's in my French class and he comes in after me, and he looks all messed up! He even had his shirt buttoned up the wrong way! You know, like this-"  She actually giggled as she demonstrated with her hands the unevenness of his shirt, her face bright with glee.

Ian laughed again, enjoying her giddiness, "So who was it?"

Cherish shrugged, "Oh! Well, I wouldn't wanna start anything."

"What do you mean?" he asked cheerily. "We won't say anything- who do we talk to anyways?"

"Mmmm.... I dunno," she pondered aloud, twitching her mouth this way and that, in a show of uncertainty. Finally she shrugged, smiling, "If you really want to know, why don't you ask Seven?"

They all turned to Seven who was so startled by her reply, he didn't have a chance to wipe the sneer of his face. He all but growled at her, his eyes narrowing menacingly.

"Sev?"

"Huh?" he grunted stupidly.

"Who was it?" Ian prodded, a light smirk on his face, realising it was Seven she had seen in the basement. Seven grunted again, shrugging almost too casually, like he was trying to brush it off and pretend the conversation wasn't what it was.

Cherish pulled her lunch from her bag, and caught Juss' attention, "Hey Juss, I thought you said Seven and Jo broke up?"

"WHAT?"

Seven flinched noticeably when Ian roared- a big feat for the small and cheerful guy. "My sister!? You were down there making out with my sister?!?"

"It's not what she made it sou-"

"Fuck! Sev- you already broke her heart once! She doesn't need to be dragged around because you're fucked up!"

Cherish was taken aback at Ian's reaction- she hadn't realised it would be this bad. She wondered what fucked up reason Seven would be messing around with Jo for.

Even Juss looked pissed off, "You're not even into her, Man! And C'mon, E's sister? Again? You couldn't have found anyone else?"

"I know she says she doesn't care if it's no strings attached but this is Jo we're talking about..."

"Just because you think you have a thi-" Juss shot a look at Cherish and shut his mouth, deciding his time was better spent glaring angrily at Seven.

It wasn't like Seven didn't try to say anything- on the contrary, he did, but he really couldn't see how any of the things that were coming out of his mouth would help the situation any. So after opening and closing his mouth a few times, he gave up. With a deadly glower in Cherish's direction, he stood and scooping his bag up in a fluid motion he stalked off. He hadn't been this tense since... Well, in all honesty, since he had first broken up with Joana and the girl had stalked him endlessly.

-.-

Cherish looked up as Miss Dalton, settled onto the empty stool in front of her, "You know, I loved your exhibition idea. I think it's very brave of you, Dear."

Cherish smiled again and nodded, returning her eyes back to her canvas while the teacher continued to talk to her. Her face was smudged with paint she knew, it was a result of holding her brushes with her mouth, instead of resting them on the table like everyone else seemed to do. In front of her on the canvas, was a beautiful merging of love and pain in the form of a boy. Maybe he was a man, she wasn't quite sure, but she did know that the painting made her feel a slight bit sadistic.

He was twisted in agony, the veins in his neck popping in exertion of the scream his mouth was warped into. His skin was spotted red purely from the force the scream ripped from his throat. It was the same boy-man who suddenly found his way into most of her drawings and paintings. It irked her to no end that he somehow managed to worm his way into everything she did. Grunting, she stuffed the ends of the brushes back into her mouth, selecting one and dabbing it into the paint again. She expertly used the brush to blend the colors into his clenched fists and irate arms.

"Oh! Dear me, I forgot the reason I came over here in the first place!" Miss Dalton's fretful voice floated to her ears again. "The boys aren't here today and I know you'll be seeing them before I do. Would you mind giving them these?" She placed two folders on the table and tapped them in question.

Cherish nodded, smiling gently at the scatter-brained teacher, and stuffed the folders into her bag right away. She looked to the couch across the room where Seven and Ian usually sat and frowned pensively. Neither of them had come to class, though Ian had been in English, angry and grumbling. She couldn't help feeling a little guilty, but she shrugged it off easily. The look on Seven's face had been worth it.

Besides, she knew from Juss that things would be fine by tomorrow afternoon. Seven and Ian were like brothers and even if Seven broke Joana's heart, Ian still had place for him in his. Their friendship reminded her of the way things worked back home with Cash, Jeb, and at one point, Len. She turned back to her painting, examining the face of the boy-man and frowning, his eyes weren't right. She dabbed her brush in the green paint thoughtfully.

-.-

Sure enough, she had been right- like there were really any doubt! Piling out of Seven's truck, amiable as ever, were Ian, Seven and Juss, as if there had been no reason for discomfort between them. She could swear she even witnessed Seven smiling, as he rolled Ian under his arm, locking his head into place and dragging him across the parking lot.

"Alright! Alright! I give!!"

The obvious towel throw in was ignored, and with an open smile, a real smile, Seven pulled Juss under his other arm and dragged the two of them into the school. In all the time she'd known them, she had never seen them do anything so childishly normal as that. It brought a small smile to her face. She hiked her bag up onto her shoulder and trudged into the school. In the basement, as she meandered down the hallway she noticed Delia in front of her locker- talking to Seven. She wished either Ian or Harper were there, it would make things less awkward, but Delia turned to her suddenly, "Cherish! Thank God you're here!"

"What's up, Deals?"

"I, uh- well, I-" she paused and looked at Seven rather obviously, and then muttered, "I'll tell you later." She scurried quickly down the hallway, in a rather un-Delia-like fashion, calling over her shoulder, "At lunch!"

Cherish chuckled and turned to open her locker, only to find the dark haired boy she despised leaning on it stubbornly, with no intention to move.

"Uh, yeah, I need to get into my locker, Pumpkin," she said it in a flat mocking tone, to irritate him.

"Pumpkin, huh? I quite like pumpkin," he mused unfazed by her words.

"I don't care. I need my locker!"

"Well, since you asked so nicely..."

She could feel her hands itching to reach out and smack him, but she fought the almost playful gesture down and glared as he continued to stand there. Looking down, she wished her feet were clad in the perfectly spiky heels she so often wore. That would have made him move. She snickered at the thought of him jumping out of the way if she were to stomp on him.

As if realising how stupid the smirk made her look, she squared her shoulders and roughly shoved him aside. She had barely managed to spin the lock and half yank the door open, when Seven slid back into place, knocking her aside and blocking her locker again.  "What is your deal?" she demanded hotly.

"No deal."

She wished he didn't infuriate her so much, because the cool demeanor she worked to keep in place was giving way to her crazed thoughts. She wanted to scream at him and punch him and... Well, there was a list of things she wanted to do to him, but she knew they were all quite simply over-reacting. It took her a minute to decide that it wasn't worth it and she turned and walked away.

"Cherish."

In the silence of the basement, where no students lingered longer than they had to, it was hard not to hear him. It was harder still to pretend he was calling out to someone else, as there was no one. She turned somewhat reluctantly.

"No deal," he repeated, "Just a warning. You get into my shit again and I swear I'll break you."

He smiled pleasantly enough, threw her textbook at her and slammed her locker shut. Cocking her head to one side, she watched as he disappeared. "Yeah," she muttered, "too bad you can't."

She had already been broken.

Title song by The Stray Cats

Bonjour, Monsieur, Que c'est beau que tu peut nous joindre!- Hello, Mister, glad you could join us!