Natasha hurried past the framed awards in the hallway as she took Amethyst to her new room, hoping she wouldn't notice them. Finally, she arrived at the end of the hall, where the walls were a little more bare.

"This is the guest room," Natasha said, throwing open the door to reveal a sparse room with a desk, a bookshelf, a dresser, a closet, and a twin-sized bed. Piled next to the bed were boxes on top of boxes. "That's all the stuff you shipped before," Natasha explained. Amethyst glanced at them in confusion.

"But...I only sent ahead a couple boxes. There's, like, a million here," she told Natasha. Natasha flushed pink.

"Well, um, my mother, er, we, er, uh, we bought some stuff for you in case you forgot anything," Natasha explained, suddenly looking a lot less, well, mature.

"Oh. Um. Thanks," Amethyst said awkwardly. Natasha put on a big fake smile.

"Well then, I'll leave you to unpack!" She said brightly, then dashed out of the room and into her own bedroom, closing the door tightly behind her.

Natasha collapsed onto the bed, then popped back up and hopped into her desk chair, spinning around once before she picked up her pencil and got back to work on her sheet music for Music Class. She absolutely despised this new assignment, but stressing over her homework for Music was much better than stressing over her new guest Amethyst.

Natasha was almost done with the first page of notes (and her bag of candy) when she heard a light rap on the door and Amethyst's voice asking, "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Natasha said, quickly stashing her candy back in her desk drawer. It wasn't like candy was forbidden or anything, but Mrs. Summerville highly disapproved of it and she didn't want Amethyst thinking she was a rule-breaker or anything. Well, she was. But candy was her one way to cope, or rather, "cope", with her mother's strict rules and she refused to give it up.

Amethyst entered the room, holding an iPod and a pair of earphones.

"Hey."

"Hey." Natasha smiled nervously. "It's may."

Amethyst looked bewildered.

"May? Is the calendar here different?"

"No." Natasha shook her head, not laughing at all. "It's 'may I come in'. Because obviously you 'can', I don't have a lock on my door or anything. But when you ask 'may' you're asking for permission."
"Oh." Amethyst still looked a little confused. "Okay, then. Sorry."

Natasha felt herself turning bright red. She hated herself for correcting the grammar of everyone around her, but she couldn't help it!

"Sorry, it's just that I got grounded for a week for using 'can' last week," she said quickly. Amethyst nodded slowly and Natasha figured she'd better change to topic. "So how are you liking your new room?" She asked. Amethyst's bright smile returned.

"It's wonderful! There's a gorgeous view of the city - it's like watching a live stream on VidShare right outside my window!"

"Vid - what?" Now it was Natasha's turn to be confused. "You mean YouTube or something?"

"No, we use VidShare back home," Amethyst explained cheerfully. "It's probably just a small town thing," she added after seeing Natasha's face. "It's not a very big platform."

"Oh. Cool." Suddenly Natasha felt like the one in a whole new city, which was dumb, because if anyone should be feeling out of place it would be Amethyst. Not that Amethyst looked like the type of person to feel out of place. Ever.

"Anyways, what are you working on?" Amethyst asked, walking closer to look over Natasha's shoulder. She flushed when Natasha leaned over her paper.

"Sorry," they said at the same time. Natasha sat back in her chair and waved Amethyst over.

"It's an old habit," she explained hastily. "Sometimes my friends don't finish their homework so I'm used to them trying to copy off my French page or something."

"Got it." Amethyst glanced quickly at the paper, then seemed to relax somewhat. "Hey, do you need help with this?"

"Oh. Um." Natasha didn't want to be rude, but not just anyone could do her homework. Amethyst probably hadn't realized yet that Natasha was in all advanced classes. "Sure, go ahead," she told Amethyst. "I'm having a hard time finishing it anyways."

Amethyst picked up the paper, then took a pencil off the desk and started sketching. A couple minutes later she seemed to snap out off her haze and set the paper back down.

"Sorry," she muttered. "I'll erase that."

Natasha was about to hand her the eraser when she saw what Amethyst had written. She'd taken Natasha's starting cords and had nearly finished a rough draft of the song in minutes while the few notes Natasha had created had taken hours.

"How did you -"

"I'm really sorry," Amethyst babbled. "I didn't mean to do that. I'll just leave right now. I'm really sorry." She turned to leave the room but Natasha stopped her.

"Amethyst, this is amazing! How did you do it so fast? Those couple notes right there? They took me hours!"

Amethyst turned around and slowly came back over.

"Really? Thanks. I've studied music for a really long time, so I guess that's why I did it so fast. Do you want me to help you finish the song?"

"Oh. Sure," Natasha said, trying to stay calm while what she really wanted to do was jump up and hug Amethyst. "I'd love that."

So Amethyst sat down next to Natasha and helped her finish the song. An half hour later, Natasha was hunched over her paper without Amethyst explaining every little thing. She scribbled her name at the top of the paper, then handed it to Amethyst.

"It looks perfect," Amethyst told her as she read it over. "There's no way you're getting less than an A."

"Oh no, I can't turn this in!" Natasha protested. "That would be cheating! It's your work, you should take the credit."

"No, you did it," Amethyst said. "I helped you but you came up with these notes all by yourself."

"I did?" Natasha asked. Amethyst nodded.

"You created it," she insisted. "I just gave you a little push in the right direction. Turn it in!"
Natasha looked at the paper again, then back up at Amethyst. "Okay," she relented. I guess your right."

Amethyst smiled. "Well if you are feeling guily, I know how you can repay me," she said teasingly. Natasha noticed that the tension in the room has disappeared while they were working and she grinned back at Amethyst.

"And how is that?"

Amethyst stood up. "Do you have any instruments in the house?"

What do you think Amethyst is going to do? Does Natasha have a secret talent? Find out more in Chapter Four!

~ writesthetic