Eve stopped quickly at her locker. She only had five minutes to get to her next class, which was on the other side of the building. She threw her algebra book in and grabbed her grammar one. She shut the door of her locker, and right behind it was Brent.

"Hiya, babe!" he grinned brightly. The grin faded as he noticed the expression on Eve's face.

"What do you want, Brent?" Eve asked coldly.

"I want to know what's up with the attitude, that's what," Brent was stunned. He couldn't recall anything he'd done to make her upset. "Is that the way you treat a man who's been..." his voice trailed off. He remembered his promise not to tell the secret.

Eve finished his sentence for him. "Who's been off somewhere with out having the manners to tell his girlfriend he's going to be gone. Yeah, that's it."

"That's not it. You couldn't understand."

Eve looked at him disgustedly. "What a pathetic line! You know what, I have to get to class. I'll see you later," Eve attempted to walk off, but Brent stepped in front of her.

"Eve, you've got it all wrong. I couldn't tell you where I was because I didn't have a chance." Brent just made things worse.

Eve's eyes widened with what she thought was the answer. "Oh I get it. You were off in some unknown place with someone else? I should've known," Eve again tried to walk past Brent, but he again stepped in her way. "If you do not get out of my way I'm going to knock your legs out from under you, do you hear me?"

Brent stepped aside slowly. He watched Eve walk away. "What did I do?" he mumbled after her.

Ariel smiled as she spotted Rusty across the room. The English teacher's droning on and on had no affect on Ariel. She only had eyes for one person.

"Move into groups and complete the worksheet," the teacher instructed in monotone.

Ariel jumped out of her seat and almost ran over to Rusty. "Wanna be in groups?" she smiled.

Rusty smiled back. "Sure, why not? Here, I'll go get Matt."

"No!" Ariel cried. "I mean...no. We'll get it done faster if it's just the two of us. Besides, I wanted to give you a gift." Ariel slowly fingered the rings in her pocket.

"Oh really? What is it, huh, huh?" Rusty's eyes were eager and searching.

"Ohhh, just this," Ariel produced the small black pouch with the rings.

Rusty picked them out one by one and stared at their unusual design. "Well, these certainly didn't come out of the bottom of the Cracker Jack box. Where'd you get 'em?"

"From a jewelry store," Ariel answered vaguely. She wanted their true antecendency to remain a secret, considering the circumstances. "Why don't you put them on?"

"I will later. Let's go ahead and work on the sheet," Rusty whispered, noticing the look their teacher was giving them.

"No, put them on now!" Ariel snapped. Then she turned sugary sweet. "I mean, put them on now. I want to see how they look, just in case I want to take them back."

"OK, don't have a heart attack, girl. I'll put them on," Rusty picked up the rings and slowly put them on, one by one.

Randall quietly walked down the hallway going towards his next class. He smiled ever so slightly when Trace came into his view. Brent was nowhere to be found, it was just Trace and Allan. Randall felt it wouldn't take much to get rid of Allan.

At that moment, Allan spotted Randall. His eyes hardened and his jaw tightened. He said something to Trace and then began walking towards Randall. Randall was stunned. He couldn't imagine what Allan would want to talk to him for.

"What do you think you're doing?" Allan shot at Randall, glaring hard at him.

"Excuse me?" Randall almost choked.

"I said what do you think you're doing?" Allan repeated firmly.

"I heard your question, but it doesn't make sense."

"It should! You've been sitting here following us for the past few hours now, and I want to know why."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Randall began to walk in the opposite direction, but Allan firmly grabbed his shoulder.

"I don't think you're understanding what I'm saying, Randall. Now I don't know if it's some odd obsession or pleasuring thing of yours, but it needs to stop. The staring problem needs to come to an ending point now."

"Look, Allan, get your hand off of me before you find yourself in On-Campus Retention," Randall said coolly.

"You're little OCR threats don't scare me, Randall. Now whatever you're trying to do isn't gonna happen, because I'm telling you right now to leave us alone."

"Leave you alone? You want me to leave you alone? That's definetly a knee-slapper," Randall laughed sarcastically.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, Allan. It's no secret that you despise me! I guess you're just trying to find some twisted outlet for it. It's a classic case of desperation. Now if you know what's good for you, you'll take your hand and your snotty attitude somewhere else."

The tardy bell rang. Eve, who was halfway down the hallway, stopped in agitation. She wheeled around and shot knives into Brent with her eyes. She strode back to him. "You just seem to have a knack for making people's lives miserable, don't you?"

"Eve please, just hear me out," Brent pleaded, only a few seconds away from on-knee-begging.

Eve looked up at him. "I'm waiting."

Brent smiled weakly. "OK. I've been in a place where there was no phone to call you, and there wasn't a computer where I could have e-mailed you. I was just stuck, babe, and I couldn't do anything about it. I didn't want to be there in the first place."

"So you're saying that some people dragged you to this place and locked you up there?"

"In so many words, yes," Brent responded.

"You always did have an active imagination, didn't you? Let me make a deal with you: I'll forget this entire thing if you'll find some medication, ok?"

Brent smiled. "So you believe me?"

"I'm not sure, but I haven't known you to lie to me before. But Brent, you've got to start committing more time to our relationship. I'm tired of you doing everything half-heartedly," Eve said firmly. It was one subject she could not be budged on.

"I will definetly try my hardest."

"I don't want you to try, Brent. I want you to do it."

Brent bit his lip. "Fine, you have my word."

Rusty began to feel a little nauseous. Ariel looked at him, concerned. Rusty's eyes flashed red for a moment, causing Ariel to nearly jump in fright.

"Mrs. Lemmon! Mrs. Lemmon! Rusty's going to be sick!" Ariel cried out. Her dreams were turning into a nightmare.

Mrs. Lemmon took one look at Rusty and wrote out a nurse's pass. "Here, Ariel. Take him down to the nurse's office. Hurry!"

Ariel stood Rusty up and walked out of the room. "What did I do to you?!" Ariel screamed to herself internally.

Ariel noticed that Rusty was getting colder by the minute. She turned to look at him and almost dropped him and froze in fright. Rusty was turning a deep blue, the color of the sky outside. "Rusty! Rusty, don't do this! What's going on with you?"

Suddenly appearing in a flash of red light was Voir. He was still hooded, but his bright yellow smile was visible. "So you see, Ariel, we're not to be played with. Our power is far beyond petty teenage romances. Looks like your friend Rusty isn't doing so good."

"You shut up! Go away and leave me alone!" Ariel screamed at Voir. He only laughed. A girl passing through the hallway looked at Ariel strangely.

"What?! Don't you see him! He's threatening me!" Ariel shrieked at the girl. Ariel didn't realize that the girl couldn't see Voir.

Rusty went limp in Ariel's arms. Tears were now flowing fresh down her cheeks. "God noooo!"

Allan stepped up to Randall. "I'm not going anywhere. The only person who will be leaving right now is you. You and your hollow threats only further my suspicion that there is something seriously wrong going up there in that brain of yours."

Randall laughed in Allan's face. "Think what you like, Allan, but who's going to be laughing when all of the tension in this school explodes and I'm the only one left standing, hmmm? I'd seriously rethink my motives if I were you, Allan, and I'd be thinking about getting on my nice side, because you'd better believe that I won't hesitate to take you down."

"Take me down? You must have lost your mind. There is no way in the world that you can drag me down into your pit of scum, Randall. Now you'd better leave my friends and me alone, because I wouldn't even think twice about tearing you apart."

"Ah, such substinate words for such a shallow boy. Now you listen here, I am not going to tolerate your threats. I will not hesitate to permanently eliminate the problem that I'm having with you. You may think that you can overcower me now, but boy, you'd better believe me when I say that there's no way in the world I'll let you bully me. You'd better watch your step, Allan, or you'll find yourself falling into a deep, dark pit that you'd never even seen. And I'll make sure you stay down there...forever."

Post your thoughts of today's episode in The Forum!

Go Interactive!