He's walking down the hall, heading to first period, when the two girls spot him. Mike tries to duck his head down and avoid them, but Rachel at least has known him six years. It takes a bit more than hunching his shoulders and pulling his hood up to hide from her. Still, he refuses to be the one to acknowledge them.

"You still mad at me?" Mike's not-friend, Rachel questions. Mike purses his lips and turns his head away from her, which would work wonders if Donna (also not a friend) wasn't now in his direct line of sight.

"Aw, he's pouting," the redhead chuckles. Mike rolls his eyes, "I am not pouting." At Donna's pointed look he sighs and caves in, "I'm sulking manfully. There's a difference."

"Right. Well, you have about thirty seconds to quit 'sulking manfully' because here comes jockboy at twelve o'clock," Rachel says wryly.

Startled, Mike looks up to see Harvey and few of his regular cronies gathered around some blonde guy's locker. Mike registers Harvey's eyes locking onto his, an easy grin forming on his face, and his hand lifting up in greeting.

Mike manages a calm head nod before quickly ducking into the boys' restroom. Before the door closes Mike hears Rachel call out, "Chicken!" He ignores her, mainly because it's true and he has no defense. Maybe if he stalls long enough he can just go to class without having any awkward conversations with the school's golden boy beforehand.

He emerges from the bathroom four minutes later, five minutes before the tardy bell is scheduled to ring, and finds that Harvey has opted out of falling in line with his master plan of avoidance and instead is talking to Donna and Rachel about bowling of all things. Are popular kids allowed to bowl, Mike wonders idly and keeps the twitchiness from appearing on his face by a small margin.

"Hey, Mike," Harvey says when he notices the other boy. "C'mon let's walk together. You have Alberts for English right? Our classes are across the hall from each other. See you girls at lunch!" Harvey says the last sentence with a half leer, half grin thing and Mike wonders if the flirting is just a natural part of Harvey's personality because he seems to be this playful with everyone. And when exactly did Harvey find out what his first period class is?

Mike sends 'help-me' messages with his eyes, but his girls just grin and walk off in the opposite direction.

Harvey starts a conversation about Mr. Alberts and how he had him last year while walking off, clearly expecting Mike to follow after him. Seeing no real choice, Mike trails after him.

There are still people scattered across the hallway, mostly slackers who are still struggling with getting all their books out of their lockers. When they notice Harvey walking next to Mike of all people and talking animatedly, most of them do a double take or stare openly. Mike feels his cheeks burn, but holds his chin up and tries to pay attention to what Harvey is saying.

Mike's relief at seeing his English classroom is almost a tangible, living thing floating through the air, but then Harvey stops walking and apparently he plans to talk until the bell rings for class to begin. Mike resigns himself to learning more about the teacher's method on term papers or something.

"And another thing, hiding from me in the bathroom is kind of lame, Dude," Harvey smirks and Mike blinks.

Wait.

What?

His mind catches up with the moment and he automatically mutters, "I'm going to kill, Rachel. Well, no I'm not. Too violent. Maybe maim?"

Harvey chuckles, " No need. Rachel and Donna didn't say a word against you. I didn't really need them to, though. I know an escape when I see one, even if yours was a pathetic attempt."

Mike lets out a huff of aggravation, but before he can comment Harvey continues.

"It's not like I couldn't have gone in the bathroom after you. All you did was remove your friends from the picture. Really poor planning on your part," Harvey smirks and pokes Mike in the forehead.

Mike isn't sure what to make of that brand of physical contact so he does his best to ignore it.

"Yeah, but you didn't come in the bathroom. Therefore, it was a brilliant escape," Mike scowls.

"Well, yeah. I'm not a creep. I think that would have been crossing a line," Harvey says bluntly. "It was still a completely shitty plan."

The bell rings and forestalls any response Mike might have come up with.

"Crap, have to go. See you in Chem! Try not to run scared when I speak with you and Donna," Harvey calls over his shoulder. Mike rushes to get his foot in the door before he can be marked tardy or absent and sits down in his desk. He rubs his forehead with the tips of his fingers and smiles at the oddness that his life has become.