By Any Other Name

Chapter One

Tori stared into her locker, stupefied. Good thing no one at Hollywood Arts ever seemed to care about what was going on around them; if she was back at Sherwood people surely would have stopped and stared, wondering why she was staring dumbly at her locker. Instead, when the half-Latina cast quick glances left and right to make sure no one was staring, she was slightly unnerved to see absolutely no one even turned curiously in her direction.

...these kids were so weird sometimes. She didn't even know half of them, now that she thought about it, and the half she did know never seemed to speak unless spoken to. So weird...

Anyway, she supposed it wasn't all that odd, because unless the teenage masses were to have been standing directly behind the brunette they wouldn't have seen the single white rose, wrapped with a black ribbon, placed carefully on top of her textbooks. The card that hung off the ribbon read "Happy Birthday" in a basic, slanted print.

As her gaze returned to the beautiful flower a shy, tender smile lit up her face. A gentle "Aww..." escaped her as a gentle blush graced her cheeks. She let her purse drop to the ground in order to free a hand, textbooks from the night before clutched in the other. Tori reached for the rose, hand pausing for a moment when she saw that someone had taken great care to remove the thorns, and carefully retrieved the beautiful flower. The petals were as white as snow and had yet to fully fan out, proof that the flower had only bloomed recently which meant she'd have it for the next few days. It couldn't have been in her locker for very long either, otherwise the petals would have started to curl and fade.

Taking a minute to put her books away, Tori gently closed her locker as she gazed down fondly at the white bloom. It seems that someone had gone through a lot of trouble to leave her a very elegant birthday present... but who exactly was someone? She took the card in her hand and looked at it closely, hoping to see a signature. Her brows knit together in disappointment when she found none, but only a moment passed before her smile returned.

This might just be the most adorable, sweetest thing I've ever gotten!

Tori turned around and this time people did stare as she continued to grin like a maniac at the flower in her hand... one person in particular watched from across the hall, half-hidden behind the open door of their own locker. If Tori had cared enough to look up and scan the hallway, their eyes probably would have met, but she didn't.

Instead, she tossed her head and practically skipped down the hallway, holding the flower to her nose to inhale its sweet scent. Heading outside to the Asphalt Café, Tori thought about who could have left the rose in her locker. Could it have been Ryan, from her history class? Or maybe Erik, from Orchestra...

Her smile evolved into a happy little giggle. Ryan and Erik were both very handsome boys.

As she skipped, the eyes that watched her ducked to the floor and their owner shrank against the wall of lockers, effectively hiding that person from sight as the half-Latina skipped past. When the sound of footsteps began to fade, this onlooker slowly came back out from behind their locker door to watch her on her way out to the café.

Tori continued to ponder who could have left her this little surprise birthday gift, unaware of the eyes on her. She passed through the double doors out into the café, sun shining brightly and adding to her good mood. Last year it had rained on her birthday and her hair had been... well, let's just say her hair had not been happy about it. It probably hadn't helped that Trina had conveniently forgotten to wait for her before leaving for school. Walking to school in the rain had not been a fun start to her sweet 16th.

Suddenly her stomach growled; she'd reminisce later. Right now, she needed a burrito. One of Festus' famous burritos would make her birthday that much more wonderful. Tori headed over to the grub truck, intent on getting herself one, but out of nowhere arms encircled her waist and she was in the air.