I’m having the same dream again. I’m holding her in my arms, this shapeless nameless girl. All I know of her is that she’s lying here with me and I with her and that I love her completely, absolutely.
I try to attach a face to this girl but nothing fits, no object of my desire, past or present. I’m like a confused child pushing a square block into a hole where a circle should be whilst frowning in misapprehension.
Something invades my dreams, a shimmer of sound. I try to cling to this beautiful, golden moment but again it’s interrupted by the sound, the dream fades,  the sound becomes sharp and loud.
“WAKE UP!”
I sigh, I must have overslept again. I really can’t afford to miss any more school so I swing my legs over the side of my bed and gather the energy I don’t have to pull myself out of bed.
My room’s a mess but I revel in the piles of books and general flotsam and jetsam that lies around my room, it’s far more interesting than when I get round to tidying it.
From this point on everything becomes kind of automatic; get dressed, get breakfast, get out the door.
It’s the time of the year when the sun rises just after I leave for school and sets just before I get back, when the ice lies lazily waiting for an unwitting passer-by to slip up, when the icy air catches your breath in the back of your throat.
I cough and splutter as the latter greets me on the first step out of my front door.
I glance down at my watch. I’m late again. Fairly unsurprised I sigh a hurriedly walk towards the end of my street and my bus, skidding and sliding every few steps, I round the corner to the bus stop and the bus waiting there. A few monosyllabic expletives come to mind and I run towards the bus, taking care not to step on the unfriendly looking ice between my destination and me.
I reach the bus stop and gratefully run towards the open doors of the bus and the queue of cold and patient teenagers. Unluckily for me I fail to see a nearly invisible patch of black ice and I fall painfully on my back sliding into the shapely figure of the girl last in line at the same time.
An effeminate shriek tells me that I’ve brought this girl to ground in a manner similar to my own fall. I sit up, wincing from what is surely a bruise on my lower back and feel a hand on my shoulder.
“You ok?” Someone asks.
“Yeah, fine” I grunt, not nearly politely enough.
I turn my head to the left to inquire as to the state of the girl and see her nursing a bruise to her right hand.
“I‘m really sorry.” I say in what I hope doesn’t reflect the stinging pain in my back. “Are you ok?”
“I‘ve been better but don’t beat yourself up.” she responds smiling gently.
I stand up and brush myself down, offering my hand to his mysterious girl who I don’t recognise but have by this point identified as pretty and probably way out of my league.
“I‘m Noah” I say, after having given her time to brush herself down and offering her a gloved hand to shake.

She takes it. “My name’s Rossa” Flashing again her heart melting trademark smile.
On closer look, now we’re both stood, I notice that something about her makes my tongue tie itself into a knot, long mousy brown hair framing her striking green eyes, light brown skin, her lips, even the way she stands.
I gulp and ask “Have you been here long?”
“Quite a while but I just moved schools, can we continue this on the bus?” She says nodding her head at the open doors, as there is now no queue and the bus driver is looking at us sternly, though that said a bus driver not looking stern would be more notable.
“After you” I say as politely as I can. She blushes, much to my surprise and steps on the bus.
I follow and after paying the bus driver I see her waving to me from halfway down the bus, I also spot my good friend Michael winking at me a few rows in front of me. As I pass him he whispers.
“Get in there my son!”
I smile, pretend to look stern and blush and then carry on my way down the length of the bus to where Rossa is sitting and still beaming at me, a little flushed from the change from the cold of the outside to the warmth of the bus and all the prettier for it.
I put my bag on the soft carpet fabric seats and turn to Rossa and I ask with what I hope is a suave demeanour.
“So, where were we?” She erupts into a fit of giggles almost immediately and then straightens up and with one eyebrow raised says.
“School and sadly we‘ll be there soon again!” I smile and nod in tilt my head to the side, completely unaware that I look like a lovelorn puppy, the pain in my back just background noise.
Rossa tilts her head back, breaths in deeply and starts to twirl one of the ends of her hair with her elegant lightly tanned fingers, the movement entrances me and as her eyes jump to mine I quickly look away.

“Rossa, do you know what form you’re in yet?” She looks up on the mention of her name and her eyes glaze over as she considers her answer.
“Not sure what form exactly but my form tutor‘s Mr Han-something..”
“Hanley?” I ask, barely believing my luck.
“That‘s the one! Am I in your form?” She responds with a level excitement similar to that inside my head and I smile.
“It seems we are to be form buddies!” I say with as much irony as I can muster.
Her clever smile plays about her face once more. “Not if you call it that” she responds, trying hard to suppress a little giggle and failing quite miserably. She chokes on her own laughter and bites her bottom lip.

The bus rolls to a stop, the breaks hiss and the doors open.
“Looks like we‘ve reached our destination.” I announce standing up and I let her go past me, the manners that have been programmed into my mind taking hold.
In the moment she brushes past me, her warm body against mine, my mind throws me back to my dream and I jolt. Rossa notices this and asks me in a voice that can only be compared to honey “Noah, are you ok?”
“Yeah I‘m fine, not quite sure what that was.. Hmm…” I breathe out, realising that I haven’t for quite a while and walk level with Rossa. “Do you know where you‘re going?” I ask.
“I was going to ask at the office bit but I suppose you can lead me there now!” she says, grinning.

We step off the bus, side by side, and join the streams of people flowing through the school’s only gate and into the main building. Rossa is attracting a lot of glances owing to her unnatural beauty as well as this being her first day in school.
“So what’s our form like?” She asks, her eyebrows rising in interest.
“They’re… um..” I mumble, trying to think of some kind words for the class, which for the most part consists of troglodytes who cottoned onto the fact that I share a name with the owner of a well-known ark. I find one. “…Interesting” I say, my voice lacking any conviction. “You’re a diplomatic sort Noah,” she says with a small, slightly nervous smile. “Are there any good people at all?” She asks, the tone of desperation a little clearer in her voice.
“Yeah,” I say, attempting to reassure her. “Michael, who was on our bus, he’s a good enough guy.”

She still looks anxious so I put my hand on her elbow, she stops and I tell her “You’ll be fine Rossa, trust me”.
“Thank you.” She says, trying to hide her nerves with an unconvincing smile.
“We’re here.” I announce as we round the corner, he door to form is just ahead.
“Ok” Rossa says, taking a deep breath to steel herself.
We step through the door and we are hit by a wall of sound, people throwing paper planes, balls of paper and holding conversations with each other across the classroom. Rossa looks around shyly and takes great care in following me very closely as I lead her to  a table. I see Michael signalling to me as subtly as he can.
“Well?” He mouths, eyebrows raised and palms flat facing upwards in question. I signal ’well’ as well as I humanely can but give up and just go for a thumbs up. He smiles back and turns to continue the conversation with Ffion and Lizzie, both very beautiful and clever girls but extraordinarily shy at the same time.
We find an empty table in the middle of the room and I point it out to Rossa as Mr Hanley walks through the door with the expression of utter apathy on his face and the stooped posture that we have all got so used to in the years he has ‘guided’ us through our turbulent teenage lives.
The volume dims a little and people have started to notice Rossa, the stranger in our midst as Hanley clears his throat and addresses us in a tone so full of boredom and self pity that it’s hard to suppress the urge to bang your head on the table to drown out the noise.
“Everyone, we have a new person joining us today in our form,” All eyes zone in on Rossa and she blushes prettily “Rossa, would you like to introduce yourself.”
She stands fidgeting and evidently nervous. “Hi, I‘m Rossa,” A wolf whistle sounds from Harry, one of the boys less-versed in the ways of normal human behaviour and Rossa blushes a fierce shade of magenta, stares sternly at Harry, daring him to look back, he looks away and she continues “As I was saying, I‘m Rossa and I‘ve moved here from Greenfield across town, it‘s nice to meet you all.” She sits.
“Thank you Rossa.” says Hanley, a smile twitching in the corner of his mouth and the minor comeuppance of one of his greatest nemeses.   

Hanley then calls out the register, eyes flicking up and down on every name. He finishes and the volume rises again to it’s normal level. Rossa is swamped by people coming and introducing themselves,  “Hi, I‘m Sam” says the first, looking at Rossa with less than innocent eyes. “I‘m Ffion” Says the second, with kind eyes, offering her hand. Rossa Shakes it and says “Nice to meet you Ffion”. A third person comes, Tom, one of the less eloquent members of the class approaches and offers his hand to Rossa.
“I‘m sex on legs. Nice to meet you” He says, Rossa frowns at him in annoyance and then completely ignores him.

Rossa meets a few new people and arranges to meet up with a couple of the girls at break and lunch. I’m impressed by her nerve, especially considering her earlier fears.
The bell rings. Signalling the end of our form period and the start of our first lesson of the day.
“Who do you have for English?” I ask, having waited for Rossa at the door whilst she finished a conversation with Lizzie. She puts her schoolbag over her shoulder.
“Errrm.. One sec” She says, opening her bag and taking out her timetable. “It says I‘ve got S...T...N in English 5”.
I wince, both due to my own selfish desire to share as many lessons with Rossa as I can and with pity for Rossa at the same time. STN can only stand for Mrs Stanley, or ‘Stan the man’ as she’s all so often known by the students less enthralled by her teaching, which of course is the vast majority of them.

“Good luck,” I say “shall I meet you a break?”
“Yeah ok, is this lesson a double?” I nod and she smiles weakly and I show Rossa to her classroom, she waves goodbye and out of the corner of my eye I see Michael walking towards me with an amused smile twitching in the corner of his mouth. I turn on my heel to face him.
“Hi Mike” I say, flashing a warning glance at him.
“Somebody‘s been busy this morning! Noah, you old flirt!” He says laughing. I roll my eyes and smile a little.
“It‘s always about the ladies with you isn’t it Michael? What ever happened to cars, guns and violence?” He ignores me, knowing I’m simply evading the point.
“Where then did Romeo meet his fair Juliet?” he asks, adopting his best Shakespearian accent. I try to keep a straight face but can’t help but laughing a little. I take a deep, over dramatic breath.
“T‘was a cold December morn. Our fair Romeo,” I say with a flourish, indicating myself “Didst slip on the blackest of ices, darker than night slide tackling the object of his affection.”
“Ouch” He replies “Always the romantic sort aren‘t you?”
“Toujours, Mon ami.”
“Shall we continue this inside?” he asks extending an arm towards our classroom. “Hill would prefer to bear witness to our improvised Shakespeare I‘m sure.” I smile and lead the way into English.