Soon the Christmas passed and Shane and his fellow schoolmates were back in school again. For a difference, the Senior Grade 3 students were having an exclusive free-period in the afternoon on every Monday and Wednesday to, according to the teachers, do some revision themselves. But it seemed that few students would spend their time on reviewing, they sat and chatted and sometimes just lay on the carpets of the common rooms and did nothing.And the news about Shane Filan going out with Mandy Weasley spread out in quite a short time. Some girls were so jealous about Mandy that they wrote a lot of nasty notes such as ‘you put yourself into the mind of “Spencer’s fave”, don’t you?’ and threw them at Mandy or put them into her textbooks.Mandy just laughed and threw the notes away casually.‘You’d like people to have something else to gossip about, Shaney,’ sighed Mandy, raising her head from her hovering pile of books and exercise books, asking Shane who was sitting next to her. It was a Wednesday.‘Why, Mae?’ Shane stopped writing, put the pens aside and stretched. Spencer’s revision timetable were driving him crazy — she planned it specially for Shane, saying that he must do what she tells him to do and he could go to Summerhill at last. Shane was furious but he could do nothing. When Mandy heard that she swore to study with him which made Shane feel moved.‘Didn’t you see all Rose Rochester asked me lately was how does loving you taste.’Shane’s face turned terribly scarlet.‘How did you reply her?’‘I said, if you really wonder then taste it yourself. I hate these people, you know, wandering around and spreading news everywhere.’ Mandy said bitterly.Shane smiled gratefully.‘Where’s Ki and Daisy?’Shane thought for a moment. ‘Oh, they’re off the pitch playing badminton. Everybody’s having such a good time. How does Spencer call this a free period for me?’Mandy frowned.‘How much work you’ve left now?’‘Spencer gives me this,’ Shane said desperately. ‘It’s somewhat called Exercise of Adjustment Teaching… and I must finish it by tomorrow! Perhaps there’s still three hours’ work left. Mae, why don’t you have a break? You don’t need to study like mad with me, you know, you look tired…’Mandy stood up and tied her arms around Shane’s neck from behind. ‘Oh Shaney, I simply don’t want to leave you…’‘Oh Mae,’ Shane grasped Mandy’s hands. ‘Mae, the same.’Mandy beamed, but next moment smile faded from her face.‘What, Mae?’ Asked Shane, noticing the expressions on Mandy’s face.‘Oh, just worrying about one thing… it my grades weren’t enough and I can’t go to Summerhill with you?’ She said worriedly. ‘Oh no, you see how awful my maths is.’ She added.‘Mae, get off it,’ Shane waved at her. ‘You’re so brilliantly clever, and you’re even better than me at other subjects. Alright, alright, let’s work hard together, okay?’‘Yeah, but it’s… the things are getting harder, Shane, I feel I’m being stressed out.’ Mandy rubbed her eyes.‘Take it easy,’ Shane also stood up, seeing there’s no one else there in the common room, so he hugged Mandy tightly and let her head down onto his shoulder.

‘Don’t be stressed out, Mae, you are giving pressures to yourself! Just relax. No need to worry about the future, let’s share in every moment that we are together, alright? You know how much you mean to me…’Shane whispered all this very slowly, clearly and tenderly.‘OK, OK, stop making me disgusting!’ Mandy said laughing and gently pushed him. Shane laughed lightly and went back to his Exercise of Adjustment Teaching.‘I’m gonna take this moment/ And make it last forever/ I’m gonna give my heart away and pray we’ll stay together/…’Shane bowed his head, singing.‘What’re you singing at?’‘Just a little something on my own,’ Shane looked at her and went on. ‘Cos you’re the one good reason/ You’re the only girl that I need/ Cos you’re more beautiful than I had ever seen/ I’m gonna take this night and make it evergreen…/’‘The song you wrote last night?’ Mandy finished her homework very impatiently and thrust her things into her bag.‘Yes, Ki says we can even consider about recording it as our first single. Oh yes! That reminds me, Ki hasn’t mentioned whether Mark entered the band…’‘Marty?! Can he play music? He never told anyone.’ Mandy left the seat and lay down on the carpet in the middle of the empty common room.‘I didn’t find out, either. Oh Mae, you’ve finished! I haven’t even touched my homework! Oh no…’‘Don’t be like that, Shaney. I’ll be with you, it won’t be more than a night’s work, will it?’‘No,’ Shane said, scribbled down the answer for the physics question. ‘But it’ll be a waste of time for you, Mae.’‘I never mind. I’ll be writing some… stories, you can finish your work and we’ll just… work together.’‘Ahh,’ Shane put down his pen. ‘I wanna kill Spencer.’‘Hmm… you’d better not.’ Mandy closed her eyes. ‘Shane, I’d like to have a little nap, you know how comfortable the carpets are.’‘Mae, don’t sleep on the floor! You’ll be sick. Now it’s in February, you see?’‘Oh, it’s okay, don’t worry.’Shane watched Mandy turn her back on him and close her eyes. He smiled silently and did not insist.There were no sounds in the common room except for the scribbling of Shane’s pens. The sky was getting darker and darker and turned out to a color looked horribly like blood.After what seemed like a long while, it’s finally Daisy who returned first. She was closely followed by the girl Mandy talked about just then, Rose Rochester, but Daisy didn’t seem very happy about her.‘Rose, can you just leave me alone for a moment? There’s nothing I know about Sh— ’Daisy stopped dead, seeing Shane in the corner of the room, and Mandy lying on the floor.‘Er, Shane? You didn’t go down?’ Rose caught up and asked Shane. Daisy just cast him a nasty look and went upstairs to the dormitory.‘No,’ Shane said coldly to Rose. ‘Hey, Daisy?’Daisy stopped on the staircase and looked down.‘Where’s Kian?’‘Oh, he’s called by Professor Spencer,’ Daisy answered casually.‘What?’ Shane looked at her horribly. ‘Spencer wants him?’

‘It’s nothing, don’t worry,’ Daisy smiled. ‘It’s just some… a bit of career advice, I guess.’Shane nodded, frowning. Daisy went on the staircase and disappeared. Shane just realised that Rose was still nearby, reading his music notebook.‘Don’t read that,’ Shane snapped, stood up and shut the notebook. Rose seemed hurt.‘All right, all right, I won’t do that,’ Rose walked towards Mandy who was lying on the floor. ‘What’s this?’‘SHHH!’ Shane waved at her angrily. ‘Mandy’s sleeping, she’s too tired. And Rose, if you do not have any important business, will you please leave me alone?’Rose turned and walked away, looked as if she’ll never walk near Shane again. Shane was glad that she was gone by the time Kian entered the common room.‘Ki, hi, what kept you?’‘Oh, nothing, Spencer wants — hey, mate, what — ?’ Kian got stunned with the scene Mandy sleeping on the carpets.‘She fell asleep just then. You know, Mae studied with me until midnight every day these weeks, she’s too tired…’ Shane said looking at her and shaking his head.‘Oh dear. If I were her I’d explode! Every day until midnight! Is that another one of Spencer’s damn orders?’ Kian laid his bag onto the table.‘Yes,’ Shane closed his book wearily. ‘Oh I’m gonna die, Ki!’ He left his seat and collapsed onto the cushion on the carpet that Mandy was lying.‘No, you won’t, mate,’ Kian said firmly. ‘And — you’d better take Mandy upstairs to the dormitory. Sleeping on the floor is not good for her health.’‘Yeah, I know, I’m just waiting for her to fall asleep completely, so when I take her I won’t wake her.’ Shane explained, began watching Mandy.She was amazingly beautiful even when she was lying and sleeping. She gave a feeling of safety, mercy, peace and love to the depth of Shane’s heart. Shane kneeled beside her and tied his arm around her — for a moment, Shane could feel her warm breath, her heart beat and the light wafts of delicate fragrance emitting from her body. Then within a split second, Shane lost control of his heart. Staring at her perfect face, Shane suddenly felt a deep and strong desire of kissing Mandy, loving her, all this angelic formation…When Shane’s lips finally released Mandy’s he found himself was being watched by Kian from the beginning to the end.Kian was looking at him with an expression that read ‘You are just impossible’ on his face.Shane smiled and looked down at Mandy. There was no sigh of she waking except perhaps her face grew a little faintly pinker. Shane lifted Mandy up carefully and took her into the dormitory. There, he put Mandy gently onto her bed, kissed her once again and left silently. *