Chapter 2 - Getting Acquainted

I’m so very, very sorry that I haven’t updated in months. School really sucks. T_T But I’ll try to get more chapters of everything, including “Magik? Reincarnated” and “Harbringers of Change” up sometime soon. :3 Don’t worry, I’ll do my best. I’m kind of disappointed in myself, though; half of this chapter has been written for a long time, and I’ve only just barely managed to finish it tonight. Night really is when I do my best work- it’s almost 2:30 now, and it’s easier for me to write now then in the day. O.O;; Oh, well.

In any case. Yeah, I know this is slow getting started. There’ll be more fluff and angst later, I promise! XD For now, please try to deal with me building things up. I’m sorry; this chapter’s a little boring. I’m gonna try to keep them the same length, which is about 11-12 pages on Microsoft World. Sorry if that’s too long for some of you. *sweat*

Since my other stories are usually from one character’s point of view, I’m going to try to vary/switch characters between every chapter. Last time was Lael; can you guess who it is this time? XD And yes, there’ll be more hints at pasts and shtuff. Don’t worry, you’ll understand eventually. :3 For now, try to be patient, darlings. This isn’t all that great as I, for the matter, am not all that great. Please forgive me. T_T

I do hope you’ll like this chapter, or at least put up with it, and check out the sample manga page of this story I did in my gallery. If people really like it, I’ll consider actually doing it. (Of course, it seems like ‘Tima’s gonna force me to do it anyhow. O.O;; Scary.) In any case, comments are definately appreciated and will grant you many thanks. And possible glomps if I like you. :3

(P.S. Since some people don’t seem to have the ability to recognize what the yaoi/shounen-ai symbol means, it’s this: this story is gonna contain malexmale relationships. Don’t flame me for it. The last person who did that got harassed for months. XDDD So seriously, don’t make me hate you, darlings. You won’t like me- or any of the many people living in my head- when I’m angry. Enjoy, dears! :3 )





An unfamiliar ceiling was the first thing Adin saw upon waking up. Unlike the stained wood of his last home, this one looked like swirled white plaster. Not nearly as attractive. All memories of the previous day came back in a rush, and he sat up with an annoyed groan. He'd hoped it was all some sort of nightmare. Unfortunately, it wasn't; here he was still, in this school so clean that it fairly squeaked and stuck with a roommate the same way.

Speaking of which . . . Adin looked over at Lael, who was sprawled on the bed, sleeping on his stomach with his head turned to the wall. Huh, he mentally snorted. He even rejects me in his sleep.

But for some reason, a large part of his animosity toward his roommate was gone. For one thing, they were going to have to be in the same room together for a long time; he might as well try to get along with the guy. Another was that he didn't seem all that bad; he had, after all, helped him carry his bags yesterday. There were plenty of people who'd just have stood there and watched while he struggled to carry all that. In fact, he’d been one of those people not too long ago until he’d smartened up a bit.

And there had been that whole thing last night, when Adin had found out about his left eye . . . He'd seemed so used to people asking about it, but he hid it so well that he wouldn't have found out about it otherwise. (Well, apart from the spazzing in the elevator.) Adin wondered if everyone else had gotten pushed away, too. There had to be some reason he didn't want to talk about it. But he wouldn't push; Adin, after all, knew what it was like to have bad memories of the past.

He looked over at the other teen for a few moments. Most of the blankets had come off his bed until only his sheet was wrapped around his lower half; not surprising, seeing how hot it'd been last night. The guy had apparently let down his hair at some point in the night, and it was spread out everywhere on his pillow, almost like someone had spilled blue ink everywhere. It looked . . . really soft. His own was often rough from its repeated dye treatments. Adin’s hair was naturally dark, but he hadn’t been satisfied with brown. Black and red were better. He’d also considered several different colors, but his last girlfriend had insisted on black. Now there was a wack job. He didn’t consider himself all that normal, but that chick was totally over the edge. Sorry, but if you’re cutting yourself for fun instead of because of actual, physical depression, then that’s just masochistic. No thanks. He thought, dismissing her again in his thoughts. He always had the worst luck with women- they always ended up being a) psycho, or b) druggies. Thanks much, but he’d steer clear of them. He’d had a few stoner friends; they stopped being fun real quick.

Eh. Enough ‘bout that. Thinking about his old girlfriends wasn’t at all conductive to anything going on at the moment. He was basically isolated from everything up here anyways. But if there was one thing Adin knew, it was how to search out others like him, and he was quite sure he’d find others of his ilk around somewhere in the school. You couldn’t have too many people together in one place without certain cliques forming up.

Without anything better to do until he was forced to get out of bed, Adin kept looking over at the other bed. If there was one thing he envied Lael, it was his height. He’d spent his entire life being mocked by others for his body; everything from his slimness and shortness to his rather effeminate face had been remarked upon at some point or another. Of course, people expecting him to be weak found it to be an entirely different story if they took him on. Adin hadn’t gone to karate until he was twelve for nothing, and the wiry muscles he’d gained were there for a reason. Not to mention the several weapons he carried on his person. Boy, would Lael yelp if he knew about those . . . Just thinking about his reaction made Adin grin. With someone so easy to tease as Lael around, maybe the time he’d spend in this school wouldn’t be so bad after all!

As he contemplated several acts of mischief that were easily doable in the period between this moment and the one where Lael might possibly wake up, Adin’s gaze drifted back over to the other teen. He had to also be involved in some sort of sport- guys today just didn’t stay skinny like him if they weren’t active (or like in Adin’s case, they had an extremely fast metabolism.) From what he could see, the muscles in his upper body and arms were lightly toned. All in all, he was a pretty sturdy guy. He hadn’t had any problem carrying up Adin’s bags, after all, and they were moderately heavy. Adin had a fleeting thought, wondering if that light toning was the same throughout his body. If Lael had muscles, what would he look like with his shirt off? For that matter, what would he look like with-

Gah! he screamed silently, shaking his head violently and smacking his suddenly burning face. Stoppit stoppit stoppit! It’s just curiosity, normal male curiosity about other bodies. He's a guy, for Christ's sakes! And that was another reason he shouldn't be thinking about him like that. Lael was a Christian, right? Meaning fire and brimstone for anyone who broke one of their God's precious laws. And we all know what the Bible-thumpers interpret that part of the Bible as. (And Bush for that matter, but let's not get into that.)

Well, not like it makes a difference in anything I do or think. Adin thought, sighing. I'm going to Hell one way or another. But he didn't really want to think about it right now- the sight of Lael's cross hanging on his bedpost sobered him immediately, and the bad memories associated with it rose to the surface. Images flickered across his mind- a hospital room, the monotonous beeping of a heart monitors, a bracelet of prayer beads. But he forced them away, staring again at Lael's back. There, he'd found a good reason to stare at the guy. Good for him.

One way or another, however, it did the trick, forcing his thoughts away from the past and to the present. And, speaking of the present . . . he craned his head to read the numbers on Lael's digital clock. 6: 32 a.m. Wow, he'd gotten up early! Then again, he'd gone to bed early too. No matter, that would be remedied as soon as he contacted a few people in the school about a certain hobby of his.

The clock apparently didn't think it was too early, because it went off three minutes later, right about when Adin had lain back down and was debating whether or not to get up for real. It kept beeping and buzzing until Lael, growling into his pillow, reached out a hand and shut it off.

"Finally awake, huh?" Adin teased, swinging his legs to the floor. He rested his elbows on his knees and put his chin in his hands, fixing an amethyst stare on the other youth and smirking slightly. "Do you usually sleep in this late?" he asked sarcastically.

"I had trouble getting to sleep last night, alright?" Lael grumbled, rubbing his eyes with one hand and reaching for his glasses with the other.

"Oh." He hadn't thought of that. Well, hopefully he wasn't an insomniac; that would put a damper on his plans. He did look a little tired, so maybe this was just a one-day thing. Then something occurred to him. "Um, what do we do first thing in the morning, anyway?" Man, it would suck if classes started this early.

"We don't have to be at classes until the bell at eight; until then, we can get ready and then go to the cafeteria for breakfast." He finally found his glasses and jammed them on his nose. As his gaze went around the room, he looked at Adin and did a double take. "Adin!" he exclaimed.

"Hmm?"

"What the heck are you wearing?" Lael spluttered. "You weren't wearing that when we went to bed last night!"

Adin blinked and looked down at his clothes. Oh, yeah, he remembered now. He'd changed at some point last night; it had been really hot, so he'd taken off the baggy shorts and tank top he'd worn to bed and switched them with some black boxers. "What, this? It got hot, so I changed." he replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

But he could see the guy's point; between the lack of shirt and relative shortness of his boxers, a lot Adin's skin was being exposed. Normally this wouldn't bother him, but for some reason a light blush was spreading across his face. What was wrong with him today? Other guys saw others naked all the time in showers and stuff like that, so what was the problem with it? His hormones were going way out of whack. Wait . . . he was having his period! No, he was a guy, so that was out. Damn. It would've explained so much if he was PMSing.

Still, this was an opportunity for a little fun. "Got a problem with it, Lael?" he asked, lowering the pitch of his voice so it rumbled slightly- not easy to do, since his voice was light by nature, but it was much more seductive that way. Then came the evil glare with the crooked smile and cocked eyebrow. He was expecting to be ignored or to have a sharp retort thrown in his face.

But, to his eternal amazement, Lael's face went red. He immediately got up and, getting some clothes from the dresser on his side of the room, headed to the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower; you should take one after me, too." he called back over his shoulder. "And get dressed!" The bathroom door slammed shut, and the pattering sound of the water from the shower came a few minutes later.

Adin stared after him, then fell back onto the bed, utterly perplexed. Why were they both so embarrassed? It wasn't like they hadn't seen other half-naked guys before; they did every time they went swimming. There's no way he's gay- I saw him talking to that girl on the net last night. he reasoned. And I know I'm not gay. I've had girlfriends. So what the hell's wrong with us?

In any case, he'd better get dressed; there was no telling what Lael'd do to him if he came out of the shower and found him still lying on the bed in his boxers. He rolled his eyes, went over to his dresser, and debated on what to get. Let's see . . . black, black, and more black. Oh wait, look, there was a red shirt. Decisions, decisions.

And now he'd have to wait for Lael to get out of the bathroom for him to take a shower. He wished the other teen had let him go first; it was going to take him a bit longer to put on his eyeliner and everything else then it would for Lael to put his hair up and pull on one of those dumb bright-colored shirts of his. Tan shirts and green trim. Yuck. Not to mention the . . . dare I say it . . . white paint on the walls.

All these colors were completely unnecessary; if everyone just wore red or black, it would be so much easier. Black goes with everything, red goes with black, and it’s all good. And maybe the occasional hot pink article of clothing for girls. But that was for the experimental goths. Adin preferred to stay with the basics: black, red, silver, and piercings. Again, yay for him.

And now there was another dilemma- where to change, since Lael was in the bathroom? He didn't exactly want to go all the way down the hall to the main bathroom. So he'd just have to change in the room. Too bad Lael was in the shower- this would really give him something to be embarrassed about. He stripped off the boxers and got changed as quickly as possible, pulling on a pair of flame-emblazoned, heavily-chained black pants and a black t-shirt. Not that it would do any good- he'd just have to get undressed again when he took his shower. Having two people in the same room with only one bathroom really was inconvenient.



Somehow the two managed to coordinate things so that they were both bathed, dressed, and ready to go by 7:20. This left plenty of time for them to go to the cafeteria and grab a bite to eat- which they did. (Growing teenage boys are always hungry, after all.) Today happened to be bacon and eggs, which gave Adin a good second impression of the food.

"Don't expect stuff like this ever day." Lael warned as they sat down at one of the tables, put their books to the side, and dug in. "They usually serve pancakes or waffles- and those are gross. They look and taste like sponges."

Adin just shrugged. "Food's food. But thanks for the warning."

As he ate, his gaze moved around the room. Unlike many of the boarding schools he'd seen, this one didn't seem to have uniforms; this was fortunate for him, not that he'd have actually worn them if there were any. The kids here were no different from those in public schools, except that thier gear and clothes seemed better. And, of course, the fact that they were here at all. Tuition for Gatesfield was pretty expensive, after all.

Just when he was about to get up and dump his tray, he spotted a girl walking toward their table. And not just any girl. This one had the complete package: great body, good taste in clothes, and a very attractive face. A real looker in general, and she was coming right this way. What good luck for him! Strange that he wasn’t salivating over her the way he usually did, but still . . . a hot girl was a hot girl. And she sure beat the crap out of half the ones he saw elsewhere in the caf.

She smiled at Lael, putting the books she’d carried under one arm on the table and sliding her tray on it with the other. “Good morning, Lael!” she said brightly, then looked over at Adin. Her smile faltered for a second and her eyes widened as she took in his appearance; then she smiled at him. “Oh, you must be Lael’s new roommate. Nice to meet ya!”

She stuck out her hand and he shook it, shrugging. “The name’s Adin.” he replied. Then something occurred to him and he raised his eyebrows, a crooked smile of his own curving his lips. “Let me guess . . . you must be BumbleBee15, right?”

“Wha- how’d you know that?” she exclaimed, dropping his hand like it was a snake.

Damn, he’d gone too quickly; time to repair the damage. You had to be careful with these sort of things; just like with reeling in a fish, you had to be careful that the line didn’t snap. And this one was quite a catch.

Lael, however, got there before him. “Relax, Deb. He saw us talking on Yahoo last night.” His voice was laughing, but he was shooting Adin a death glare all the while. If looks could kill, Adin would be dead and buried already. He shrugged in apology. Yup, this guy was really touchy.

“Oh, I see.” Deb rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly and sat down. “It’s just that whole thing with the internet nowadays, you know? You can never be too careful. It kinda freaked me out that you knew my sn. You told him my name, Lael?” she asked, picking up her fork.

“Actually, no.” Lael narrowed his eyes at Adin again. “He must’ve figured it out on his own. Pretty smart guy.”

Translation: ‘Mess with her and I will kill you.’

Christ, this guy’s like a mother hen. Adin thought, disgusted. He wasn’t getting the boyfriend-girlfriend vibe from them, so that had to be it; Lael was just protective of her. Which was odd; any guy in his right mind who was friends with this chick would want to be going out with her. But that, as he reminded himself, wasn’t his business.

“Sorry about that.” He apologized, trying to act as though he actually was. “Oh, will you guys excuse me a second? Gotta dump my tray.” He got up from his seat and walked over to the trash can, looking around the room again as he did so.

Ah, there- a group of people in all black, with necklaces like his own around their necks. He’d have to see if they were in any of classes . . . especially ones that he didn’t have with blue boy over there. He had a feeling his little Christian roommate would disapprove if he found out Adin was making friends with those sort of people.

Then again, who did Lael expect him to pal up with? The jocks? Hell no, he hated most sports, and the people who played them. The preppy and popular crowd? Like they’d even let him in their right little group even if he didn’t regard them with utmost contempt. The group of in-betweens (not very popular, but still liked) was more promising, but it was doubtful he’d make many friends them. Nope, goths like himself were his best bet.

He walked back to the table and found that Deb had pulled out a sheet of what looked like math problems and was deep in conversation with Lael about them. Damn, she’s one of those chicks. He groaned inwardly. Not the smart kind! Unlike the popular girls, they actually have brains! With another mental sigh, he sat down again.

“What are you guys working on?” he asked, craning his head around. It looked like Algebra; one of the worst types of math there is. He couldn’t make heads or tails of what was on her paper; it was just a mindless jumble of numbers, letters, and words. “Uh, tell me I don’t have that right off!” he said hopefully, horrified at the prospecting of dealing with the convoluted problems.

“Oh, no, you’re in General Algebra. You won’t have this sort of thing until next year.” Lael said without looking up. “This is one of the classes you’re not in with me.”

“Oh, fine then.” That was good; General Algebra was what he’d had in his old school. Apparently, his grades from that one had been transferred to this one, and he was being enrolled in the same classes. Lucky him. Hopefully his teachers were better.

Adin though they would stop there and do something else; instead he watched incredulously as they continued talking about the problems on the papers as if they were normal people talking about last night’s episode of some show on TV.

“See, the only mistake you made was here. You have to subtract this from both sides, see?”

“Oh, yeah, I get it now! Thanks!”

“Now, about this next one . . . “

Adin just stared at them, dumbfounded, until the bell rang a couple minutes later. Deb looked at her watch, then shoved the paper into a red folder and put it on top of the stack of books. “Time to go to class, guys.” She said, standing up and pushing in her chair.

“Right.” Lael got up, pushing his glasses onto his nose with one finger, then looked at the other youth. “Adin, you remember where the room is, right?” he asked, tucking his science book and notebook under his own arm.

“Um . . . Depends. What class is first?”

“Math.”

“Riiiiight . . . Meaning . . . ?”

His roommate sighed and headed toward one of the cafeteria’s many doors. “This way. It’s right across from ours.”

Deborah fell back a few steps to walk alongside Adin. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll help you around if you need help later.” She said brightly.

“I look forward to it. I’m sure that anyone with a guide as smart as you would learn how to get around in no time flat.” he said smoothly, smiling charmingly.

Deb flushed a little so that her cheeks went a becoming pink. “You really think so?” she said, fiddling with the clip in her reddish-brown hair nervously. “I really don’t think I’m all that smart . . .”

“Oh, much smarter then Adin. I gave him the grand tour yesterday, and he seems to have already forgotten it.” Lael said lightly, turning around partly as they passed through the doors.

Deb blinked, then looked at the boy beside her. “Is that true? Did he already show you around?” Her voice was a little reproachful.

“Damn, I forgot.” He said, rolling his eyes and sighing in feigned self-irritation. “I’m always forgetting important stuff like that. It’s so stupid. I guess you won’t want to show me around, then?” Inwardly, though, he was just a little ticked at Lael. Why couldn’t he have kept his mouth shut? Way to kill the mood. Oh, no, there was death-glare again.

“Oh, no, I’d love to help.” Deb said shaking her head. “I forget things a lot too. I’m sure you’ve got a good reason for forgetting.” She smiled at him sweetly.

Man, is she naïve or what? Adin thought, inwardly shaking his head. So gullible, in a ditzy sort of way. It’s kinda . . . cute. But from the corner of his eye he could see more of the subtle glances that Lael was giving him. He was in for trouble later, but he didn’t really care. Making his roomie angry was fun.

They finally came to the classrooms. “I’ll see you later!” Deb said brightly, waving to Adin as she entered the room. As Adin went to walk into his own room, something tugged on the bottom of his shirt. He spun around to see Lael staring down at him with an expression he didn’t entirely like.

“What? I’ll be late for my first day.” He said in exasperation. Not that he didn’t already know what he was going to say.

And, on cue: “We need to talk.” This said with a deathly seriousness that made Adin want to laugh.

“Later. Class is now, remember?” Adin tugged the fabric of his shirt from Lael’s hands and turned to go in. Then something else occurred to him. “Um, Earth Science is after this, right?”

“Yes. You’d better not be late.” And without another word Lael spun around and disappeared behind the door of his classroom.

Man, that guy needs to chill. Adin thought, shrugging as he went into his room. Only one desk, near the back, was free and he slid into it immediately. That suited him just fine.

The next desk directly over was occupied by a very tall and bulky guy, who was partially hunched over the surface. His legs went so far as to stretch under the next person’s chair. Not someone Adin wanted to pick a fight with. Then again . . . by the looks of his outfit and the number of piercings (not to mention the half-healed, badly-done tattoo on his upper arm) he wouldn’t have to.

He was considering whether or not to lean over and say something when the teacher walked in the room. Oh joy- it was a moderately young female, wearing an ankle-length skirt and modest blouse with an equally-modest bun hairstyle. Obviously not someone who was going to be any fun. “Good morning, class.” She said, laying a packet onto her desk. “Before we start lessons today, I’d like to welcome our new student, Adin Duanson. Adin, would you mind standing up for the class?”

Christ. Lady, it’s not like they didn’t notice me the moment I stepped into the room. He thought irritably, but shoved back his chair and stood up. He gave a flick of his wrist that could be counted as a wave, mumbled something that could be a greeting, and sat down quickly. A few sets of eyes lingered on him from the front, but they quickly turned back to the teacher. This was, after all, General Algebra. All of the uptight jock-type people were with Lael and Deb in their classroom. These were just the leftovers that the teachers had decided needed a little preparation first. Lucky them.

“My name is Ms. Rowe, and you can come to me if you need any help in anything, Adin.” The woman said politely, then turned back to her lessons. “Now, if you’ll remember, we began this lesson yesterday, but I’ve put notes in all your folders just in case some of you weren’t here . . .”

Adin studied the board and idly flipped through his folder as she continued. Yeah, he remembered this from some of his last lessons at his old school. It was easy enough, though nothing compared to what had been on Lael and Deb’s papers.

His attention abruptly shifted when something small, square, and white landed on his desk. He blinked down at it, realizing that it was one of the folded note-football things people were so fond of tossing these days. He unfolded it carefully, covering his actions by taking a paper from the math folder.

“New kid,” the note read, “r u just dresing tht way or r u into the reel thing?”

Judging from the bad writing and direction of the toss, this was coming from muscleman over there. Adin raised an eyebrow at him and was ignored. He shrugged and wrote back, pretending to take notes.

“Name’s Adin. I dress this way because I don’t want to look like the rest of them. And yeah, I’m into the real thing. Are any of you?” He pushed his reply across his desk, then flicked it into the guy’s lap.

He was, to Adin’s surprise, more subtle then he’d expected. The other teen unfolded it, read it by revealing bits at a time from beneath his folder, then frowned and scribbled back before tossing it back over.

“Im Dane. Yes we r. We meet evry nite. U wanna come?”

Adin hid a grin. Looks like he’d been right- there was always a few, no matter where you went.

“Yeah. Where, what time, and how many of you guys are there?”

Adin had given up on paying attention at this point and spent the rest of the class exchanging and giving information to his new ally. He left class feeling very satisfied, and was looking forward to the night ahead. From the looks of things this group was a very disorganized lot, more interested in looking the part then actually acting it. Well, that’d change in a hurry once he was in charge. He’d been leading groups like this since he was thirteen. That wasn’t going to change now, not even with muscleman Dane around.

He pushed it to the back of his mind as he left the classroom, however. A certain bespectacled bluenette had stern eyes on him, pointing the way to his next classroom. Adin shrugged, as if to say ‘what, don’t you trust me?’ and continued on his way. To his delight, he found a few members of his new clique sat in the back of this classroom as well, including one completely-decked out girl who, he was happy to note, decided that fishnet was a fitting replacement for a good part of her clothing. Fishnet was always a good thing in his book.

This is gonna be a good day. He thought, standing up and waving again to greet this class and grinning inwardly. Let’s hope it stays that way.



Of course, it couldn’t all go to plan. A few hours later lunch arrived and Adin, before going to sit with his new friends, decided to hang around and irritate Lael a bit. Surprisingly the lunch table was half-full- Deb, apparently, was pretty popular. She and Lael sat a few seats away from the others, engrossed in a conversation that apparently included Homecoming and some other topics Adin most definitely didn’t care about. The lunch line would take a while to shorten, so he slid into place next to Deb. “Hey, Deb.” He said with a smile. “What’ve you been up to all day?”

Completely oblivious to the stare Lael was giving, Deb immediately began a new and lively conversation with his room mate about her day and courses. Adin listened, making sure to appear as though he understood everything. He smiled and nodded in the right places, then brushed her shoulder with his as if on accident. “Y’know, sounds like you have a lot on your plate. It’s pretty cool that you can handle it all in one day.” He replied. “I’ve only been her half a day and it’s difficult to keep up.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Deb said briskly, smiling over at him. “Oh, did you make any friends? There are plenty of people in your classes that are nice.”

“Oh, yeah, they’re over there.” He thumbed at the table in the back of the cafeteria. True enough, the majority of the clique were gathered there, glowering at the rest of the world. “They’re cool. Promised to show me around, but . . . ” and here he gave her his best charming smile, “. . . I don’t think they could do as good a job as you. After all, you’re in all the A classes. I barely made it into the B’s.” he said self-consciously.

“Oh, don’t worry about that! It’ll be okay if you just apply yourself!” she said brightly. “That’s all I ever do. I’m glad you’re making friends already.”

“Thanks. Well, speaking of friends, I’d better go sit with ‘em before they think I’ve forgotten altogether.” He made to get up, then went back down as if he’d forgotten something. “Oh, and if that offer to show me about still stands . . .”

“Excuse me Adin, but could you come with me for a second?” Adin wasn’t able to open his mouth to respond before Lael hauled him up from his seat and dragged him to the side of the cafeteria. A few tables on this side were empty, and it was near one of these that Lael finally let go.

“Hey, easy on the merchandise, pal!” Adin said, rubbing his arm. Damn, but that guy had a strong grip! “What’s your problem? I was leaving anyway, so you didn’t have to worry about your precious Deborah-”

Lael slammed a hand down on the table, and Adin realized that he was completely and totally serious. His mocking tone faltered and he folded his arms, waiting for something to follow the blow. He didn’t have to wait long. “Listen to me, and listen good.” The bespectacled teen said sternly, meeting the goth’s eyes squarely. It was weird how intimidating that look was, even minus one eye. “I’ve known Deb for years, ever since we were kids. And I will not allow someone like you to step in and harm her, or confuse her in any way. Got that?” When the other didn’t reply, Lael took a step forward. “Got it?”

Adin took a step back and flung his hands up. “Jeez, calm down. I was just flirting. Have you ever even done that in your entire life?” Noticing that the glare didn’t die down a bit, he sighed. “Look, I’m not going to do anything to her. I have more respect for girls then that. I don’t get in a relationship with anyone unless the feeling’s consensual anyway. Now would you stop it with the Hulk thing already?”

Realizing that he was looming over Adin in a decidedly threatening way, Lael took a step back and sighed. “I’ll take your word for it, but try anything and both I and her ex will teach you a lesson. And believe me, you don’t want to make her ex mad.” He said, turning to head back to the table.

Adin followed him. “Woah, the little Christian boy is threatening me! Amazing! What’re you gonna do next, declare yourself an atheist?” he teased.

As expected, he got another glare on cue. “Don’t push me, pal.” Lael said quietly as they neared the table. Adin shrugged, waved to Deb, and headed over to the other table. Yup, his room mate sure was touchy. He’d have to teach him to lighten up a bit.



Much later, Adin shifted again to try to remain awake. It was after eleven, and he was supposed to meet his new group soon. Problem was that Lael couldn’t seem to sleep. He kept tossing and turning, occasionally mumbling something that Adin took for sleep nonsense. The rest of that day had been boring, but he’d kept occupied by hatching plans to escape their room that night. Students weren’t normally allowed out of their rooms at night, but Dane and the others had outlined a route he could take that would be safe from patrolling teachers. He’d even changed into bed clothes so Lael wouldn’t be suspicious, but now it was looking like he’d ruin everything anyways.

A few minutes before Adin decided to give up, Lael appeared to go to sleep. His breathing slowed, and though he occasionally moved restlessly it looked like he was asleep. Seizing the chance, he leapt from the bed and changed as quickly as possible into his clothes. He crept to the doorway, looking back at the other bed. He had a sudden pang of guilt- surely he shouldn’t be doing this sort of thing when he had a Christian room mate?- but shook his head and continued out. He’d left his heavy boots behind, preferring ones of soft brown leather that made little noise on the linoleum as he raced down the stairs (the elevator was far too noisy at this time of night.)

After a few more minutes of stealthy creeping and dodging flashlights, Adin made his way to the back door. From there it was a moment’s run to the crumbling building nearby. According to Sylvia (the goth girl he’d noticed in Earth Science), the school was debating on whether or not to rebuild or demolish it, but for the moment it provided an ideal meeting place. They’d already started a fire in the center of a chalk circle and were seated around it when he arrived. Dane looked up, frowning. “You’re almost too late. Why?” he growled.

“My roommate wouldn’t get to sleep.” He said, shrugging, stepping through the open space in the circle to claim the empty space. Sylvia reached over and closed the circle quickly. Once they stood up, introductions were done quickly. In the brief silence following, Adin looked over his surroundings with an experienced and critical eye. “Now, what’s going on here? This all looks pretty tame to me. What are you trying to be, Wiccans?”

More silence, and a few embarrassed looks and shrugs from various faces around the circle. Adin shook his head, smiling grimly. “Oh, no, this will never do.” He said, wagging a finger. “We never did this back where I came from.”

“Is it true that you’re in this school because you burned down your last one?” one of the girls said in a hushed voice. Adin noticed with approval that the fashionable black shirt she wore cut off only a few inches below the chest area. Some of the other girls wore similarly daring outfits. It was a wonder that they hadn’t been confiscated by now by conscientious roommates or sharp-eyed parents and teachers. Obviously, this group could keep a few secrets.

“Only the gym. The main building proved to be a little more fireproof.” He said, grinning. “Now, if you guys don’t mind . . . I think we need to make some changes around here.” A cunning and frightening smile, the completely opposite of the one he’d given Deb earlier, crossed his face. “Oh, yes. So mote it be.” He said, mocking the religion some of the group was clinging to. A few flushed red, but the rest stared in awe, wondering what else he could have done in the past. It was obvious that it wouldn’t take much to become the leader of this lot.

He’d been right. This was going to be fun after all.

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