• She walked close to the boy as he led her silently to a large gray building. “Do you remember your way around or any of the buildings?” he asked when they stopped before the large iron door.
    Ashlee looked up the and down the building then did a quick circle. Every thing looked the same, and everything looked familiar. Gray buildings, like the one she stood before now, mingled in with larger black ones. All had heavy iron doors and windows evenly spaced on each floor. Black buildings where two stories and gray where three, but what was the connection.
    “Dorms,” she said quite suddenly. A smile played on his lips that made her want to reach up and trace every line of his face. She realized, now that they were standing, that he was only a few inches taller then her, maybe five-eight. Being only five-six, Ashlee had to look up at him, but it was a nice height difference. “Gray buildings are the dorms. This is one of the girl’s building. Your building is over there. Colors are painted above the doors to signify which gender and class the dorm belongs to.”
    “I'm so glad you remember something.” He pulled her into a quick embrace then opened the door like a true gentleman. With his black hair tied back, Ashlee could almost picture him as a knight, but that was a silly dream for little girls. Real knights had been horrible, power hungry, man-whores. This man, boy, was something much better and much dearer to her. Just what that was, Ashlee couldn’t recall. Slowly he lead her up a twisted stair way. The dorm’s inside was as gray as the out side. Gray carpet and gray walls consumed the room, but the banister caught her attention. A maple railing carved with roses closed in the stairs leading to the second and third floor. The second floor wasn’t as dull as the first, but he didn’t give Ashlee much time to look around. She only just caught a glimpse of a big screen TV. On the third and final floor, she was rushed into her dorm room, dorm 333: building 3, 3rd floor, room 3.
    Her thin and pale, blond friend sat cross legged and biting her nails on the small twin bed. The moment the door closed she was off the bed and embracing Ashlee. Her blond hair still framed her oval face perfectly, but she had moved so fast.
    “Oh, Ash! It’s so good to see you. I couldn’t, just couldn’t go see you back there. I'm sorry. Oh, it’s so good to see you.” She squeezed Ashlee again as she shook, holding back joyful tears.
    She managed a smile. “It’s okay Amber. You’re terrified of hospital.” When she spoke it was more like stating fact, but she could remember for sure. She just wanted to comfort her friend.
    Finally releasing Ashlee, Amber took a step back to look her over. A wide smile of white teeth spread across her smooth face. She sat back down on the bed. “Well, you did have a certain friend of ours with you every day.” Wiggling her eyebrows, Amber giggled.
    Slowly Ashlee turned to face her other friend. He hadn’t said a word since coming inside, and she still couldn’t remember his name.
    Breaking their eye contact, he walked around her, leaving her seeing emeralds. He sat beside Amber and took to staring at the gray carpet. “She has amnesia, Amber. She doesn’t know who I am. I don’t think she even knows where she is.”
    “Ash! How awful!” Her normally bubbly friend once again jumped, at an amazing speed, to her feet and begun pacing. “We have to get your memories back.” She stared talking about how one of her cousins had used hypnosis to remember stuff he had forgotten.
    Panicked and worried, Ashlee’s mind began racing. “Hey! Hey, calm down. I do remember some things. I remembered you, didn’t I?” Ashlee was a kind heart who couldn’t see her friends in pain, especially when she was the cause.
    Teachers always told her that compassion was her only problem. She could remember getting yelled at more then once. Mrs. Oval, one of her defense teacher had once yelled at her during a game of soccer for helping out an injured boy. It was one of their off days of class, when they would play sports instead of going to the gym. Mrs. Oval was ref, and Ashlee was getting very into the game. The score was three to zero; Ashlee had made two of three goals. She was about to go in for another one when she heard some one muffle a scream. The ball was stolen when she turned around. A young blond boy lay on the edge of the field grabbing his ankle. Blood poured over his fingers and stained the grass. She jogged to his side and called to Mrs. Oval, who took her sweet time to come across the field.
    “I didn’t see anything. Now the both of you get back in the game.”
    Ignoring everything she had been taught, Ashlee spoke up and said, “He needs to go to the infirmary. The game will do fine with one less player on each team.” She begun to lift him and place his weight on his good foot when a fist came flying at her face. At the last second she dropped to the ground. Mrs. Oval picked her up by the collar only to push her back to the grass.
    “You’re top of the junior field class. Stop acting like it’s you’re first year as a protector. Cool you’re heart and put aside emotion, those are for the weak. People like us can’t afford them when there is work to be done, and there is always work. You have superior strength and reflexes rely on them.” Ashlee had blocked out the rest of the lecture. She hated being reminded that she was so different form all others. Sure, Amber was also a protector in field classes, but she didn’t always understand. Ashlee had taken the boy to the infirmary and waited for his ankle to be checked, and that’s when she decided that part of being a protector would require her emotions; after all they kept people safe, looked after others. Knowing feelings would do her as much as her advanced senses.
    As Ashlee sat on her bed Amber continued to pace the small room. Her emotions where building up and threatening to poor over the wall holding them in. Amber seemed to calm down. The pacing stopped, but she kept running her fingers through her light hair. Finally she sat on the floor in front of her and waited.
    “Look my memories are coming back. Maybe soon I’ll remember his name, and the name of the school and lots of other things. We just need to wait it out I guess.” Her stranger put his arm around her, but remained silent.