Sebastian tapped impatiently on the bell of the front desk. An elderly man with neatly parted grey hair ambled out from a doorway, he was wiping a pair of wire rimmed spectacles in a tired sort of way.

Mr Ryerson was the groundsman at Dalton. He was usually found holed up in his office block, since there wasn't much actual grounds-keeping to do- The schools several wild orchards and flower gardens were kept in line by the Landscaping Club, and begrudgingly, Sebastian thought they did a surprisingly adept job of it. Their gardens were always a riot of colour in the summer, and the lawns well manicured. Who would have expected such diligence from a dozen dirt-laden, rough-housing boys? It boggled the mind.

These days, Jack Ryerson was mostly charged with administrating the school dormitories and kitchens and keeping everything in order. He was coming on 80 years old which might account for why some students got off scott-free when they had their (entirely illicit- according to the official school rulebook) dorm parties. Sebastian rolled his eyes. Poor Mr Ryerson. Deaf as a post, and too kind-hearted for the role of disciplinarian. He was peering at Sebastian now, with bright eyes and an inquisitive expression that folded his skin into innumerable lines.

"Mr Ryerson- So sorry to bother you on your day off..." Sebastian hesitated. "It's just that I'm in need of a replacement key." Sebatian felt terrible for asking. He hadn't had the nerve to go back up to the west wing, to the room with the mango walls, in case he faced awkward questions. Mystery boy's face still eluded him. And he might get invited to more parties. That would be bad. Starting now, he meant to turn over a new leaf. And he didn't want to think about what had happened earlier that day. He'd majorly stuck his foot into his mouth in front of someone he geniuinly wanted to befriend. He was lying to himself if he didn't admit that he still smarted a little from it. What had possessed him to explode like that?!

He snapped out of his reverie at a jangling sound. Mr Ryerson was swinging the keys in front of his face.

"Wake up, boy! You look like a lamb headed for the slaughter". The man looked at him admonishingly. "Don't lose them. Keys don't grow out my damned ears, you know."

"I hope you didn't grow these out your ears" he retorted

"go on! scat!" Mr Ryerson grumbled, hobbling away.

Sebastian grinned and walked down the coridoor, new keys jangling in his pocket.

Blaine's threw his hands up in surrender. Scattered around him on the table where he was seated were books, bits of crumpled up pages and notes written in a quick scrawl. Broodingly, he looked around the Senior Commons, where many other students were wrestling with their 10 page assignment for English Lit. Kenneth Stroud from his class looked harrassed as he shooed several Freshmen out of the commons. (Go and play hockey on the quad!). Hansuf, Jerry and Vlad were pouring over battered copies of Little Women, and Of Mice and Men, and Carin had taken an entire corner of the room to use as a "brainstorm cloud"- many colourful highlighted notes were blue-tacked to the walls around him.

Carin himself (a towering straight A student with corkscrews of dyed blond hair) was half-sunken into a squashy purple bean bag, and typing furiously on his laptop. Deciding to finish up in his room, Blaine got up intending on shoving everything unceremoniously into his bag. Just as he was slinging his book-bag over his shoulder, the large double-door creaked minutely open and two gurning faces peered around it.

Blaine's friends were not in the same english classes as him this year. Guisse was smirking at him now as he hurried through the door. Around his neck, the blond boy wore a blue scarf, and the two of his ears were pierced at the top. His hair was as tousled as usual. Beside him, was a short, dark haired girl who shared their latin classes, her looks were pristine, with not a brow hair out of place and perfectly applied gloss on her lips. She smacked him carelessly on the back, enough to wind him as he closed the doors behind him with an echoey thud.

"STILL AT IT, Brainiac?" Santana smirked and removed the pencil that had been keeping her hair up in a messy bun.

Blaine rolled his eyes. Santana knew the irony of her statement; and that she was first in Latin class.

"It's Pearl Harbour in there" Blaine said agitatedly. "Carin wallpapered the YA section, and Kenneth's having an aneurism."

"Dude, you have to be done soon though." Guisse urged, tugging back a random curl that had fallen over Blaine's eye. "The Coffee Bean is calling me. There's a caramel frappe with my name on it" He moaned, closing his eyes.

Blaine chased his hand away with a grin, and then pulled a face. "I like my coffee straight up."

"You injur him, Blaine. Caramel frappes are life essence. You should try one." Santana spoke determindly, and then touched one forefinger to her temple, sending a quick text on her X-Display.

"Raj is coming. He's been on at me because you've been so busy. Take your puppy back into your custody."

"He's back?" Blaine nearly dropped his books

"Me and Lopez agreed that you need a break-"

"I bet you've written eleven pages for your assignment and now you need to edit, is that right?" Santana snorted derisively

"Fifteen" Blaine scratched his head distractedly. He hadn't seen Rajish since Kareoke night.

"Unbelievable."

"Okay I take your point" Blaine laughed "Let's go get caloried up to our eyeballs."

"You're blushing".

"Oh shut up."

"Eager?"

Guisse wooped.

Taking the HyperLoop into the CityCore was always something Blaine, Santana and Guisse enjoyed. The pods were spacious compared to the underground ones, and the glassy tube of the magnetic train loop towered loftily over the fields and woods at a spine-tingling 90 feet. The views were incredible, and Guisse always managed to charm the woman with the push trolley into giving them free marshcreme whips. The whips were Blaine's favourite candy. Santana would load up a new playlist of mood music she had mixed, and they would spend a happy hour playing HoloSnap or braiding Guisse's hair.

Blaine peered around nervously. He was quite looking froward to having Rav along with them but things were very new with them. The time they had messed around together a few a days ago had been the first time he'd done anything of the sort, regardless of what the school grapevine told people about his proclivaties. The truth was that Blaine had been tutoring Rajish on the say of Senior Class President Roomba- An AI that was programmed to enlist student mentors based on their academic strengths and weaknesses. It used a predictive algorithm that paired students based on a social compatibility index- meaning students who were likely to get along, have co-enhancing interests and a generally an inclination to want people to do well. Bam. you had a great system for increasing test scores. The problem was that the algorithm was likely to pair you with someone you would undoubtedly fall for. It was not an uncommon occurence since both Dalton and Cravens Cybernetics Institute for Girls were part of the same program. They had tweaked the program to try to eliminate attraction between students, for instance by operating against sexual orientation. However it wasn't perfect and Roomba obviously still had a problem calculating and accounting for the fluidity exhibited by hormone-addled teenagers, Blaine grinned wryly.

Rajish was one of those 16 year olds in their questioning state. He was extremely questioning, curious... and thorough. Blaine flushed and threw down a card to hide his reddened face from Santana and Guisse's inquisitive glances. Extremely thorough for someone who hadn't thought about boys until now...

"GIN!" Santana exclaimed, whooping as she swept the pile of cards onto her lap

Guisse groaned, throwing his cards down onto the polished oak table.

"Hand over your CremeWhips, loser." Santana cackled

Guisse pushed several bunny shaped candies towards her, reluctant and grumbling.

"Thank you, darling". Santana said sweetly

"You are a fiend. Are you gambling in the Alleycat district after school or something?! How is it that beating you is nigh IMPOSSIBLE!" Guisse grumbled

"Sour grapes don't become you sweetheart." Santana grinned widely "Blaine, sugar? Would you like one of my newly acquired candies? They're your favourite." She waved one casually

Caving at the sight of the white bunny coated with powdered sugar, Blaine reached towards it smiling. "Oh go on then. You've convinced me."

Santana grinned and put the squashy head of the marshmallow rabbit between two pearly teeth and winked at him. "Cmmfg an geft ih" She said slightly muffled and her eyes wide with mirth.

Blaine rolled his eyes and brought his lips close to hers. He pinched the bunny from her teeth, but not before receiving a chaste press of her lips to his own. He bit the poor bunny in half and sat munching it mournfully, while Guisse rolled around in a state of unconcealed emotion.

Santana laughed so hard she fell back and nearly inhaled her half of the rabbit. Guisse pulled himself up finally and looked at her offended.

"And with one fell swoop." Santana gasped "Blaine was converted to ladies, for the promise of delicious sugary goods."

Guisse got up and walked towards Blaine. "Look." Guisse peered at him seriously and cupped Blaine's face in his hands, eyes emploring. "You don't want her. You want me!" Guisse threw himself onto the table in a mock-faint "That woman has cast a dark spell on your mind" Guisse grabbed at him again, his thumbs absently stroking high on his cheekbones "If I could just show you..." a laugh threatened to spill from him at any moment. "If I could just show you my manly attributes, they'll convert you to your original self."

Choking, Blaine chortled and tried to extricate himself from them both. They pulled him back, tickling him until he was weak from laughter.

It was in this state that a tall Indian boy, known to his friends as simple "Rav" found them; the boy stared at the trio rolling on the carpeted floor of the capsule in various forms of dishevelment. Guisse was howling that everybody should look at his "nips" and Santana was laughing like a maniac. Guisse was the first one to spot Rajish, leaning against the doorframe. He pulled the stretched neck of his shirt back up to cover himself, smile dropping from his face.

"Uh. Am I interupting something?" a soft voice

Rajish was taller than Blaine. He had raven black hair and the curve of his lips were quizzical. He wore silver braids around his wrists and In the crook of his right arm he carried a streamlined board without any visible wheels.

"Trust you two to seduce him while I was away." Rajish murmured dropping his board onto the table and flopping onto the seats opposite them.

"Hey Rav." Blaine hoped he sounded casual.

"Hey." Rajish's voice was suddenly husky. "You look nice."

A pair of hazel eyes stared constantly into his own and Blaine's breath caught in his throat. How was this boy able to affect him so? It didn't hurt that he was incredibly easy on the eyes but the way he looked at him...

"No WAY" Guisse was staring at Rav in outrage. "This is the new model!"

He grabbed Rav's hoverboard and held it an inch from his eye for inspection. "These aren't even on the shelves yet. How did you get one?"

Rave shrugged, tearing his gaze from Blaine.

"My Uncle works at NURenaissance. Got me this totally sweet kit for my birthday." Rav shook his head. "I don't know how he got it so early."

Blaine looked over and examined the board. He looked briefly at Rav who nodded minutely. Blaine picked it up. It was incredibly light. His fingers paused in surprise on a downward sweep. It was almost frictionless and looked about as thin as a pane of glass.

"Incredible." He muttered to himself.

He felt a solid weight settle at his side. Rav was hovering close. "I remember watching you play in freshman tryouts. You flew like a skylark."

"That was before." Blaine said still staring at the board. He could feel the warmth of Rav's body emanating from the too-far stretch of space between them. Rav's hand came up to grip waist and his breath stuttered again.

A loud cough.

"Pod time is bonding time, guys." Santana emphasised. "I've got a whole playlist of music for tube travel at the speed of sound. And none of it is sexy enough to make out to."

Reluctantly Rav went to sit where Santana had lain out more cards, throwing charged glances back at Blaine to convey his petulance and several smoulders and a whisper of later.

Fighting against a horrific blush, Blaine cleared his throat and sat primly on a pouf next to Rav.

"We weren't going to make out."

Santana rolled her eyes.

Outside the capsule, several teenagers flew bravely close to the Loop on boards, mechanical wings and one even on jet powered skates. Their hair whipped their faces in the sunlight as they darted and dodged delightedly.

Blaine looked at Rav. Meeting Rav's steady, speculative gaze, Blaine looked down.