Aziraphale was a quiet student. He maintained high grades and was generally liked by his teachers. He wasn't entirely bullied, but he was a pushover. He tended to hang around the small group of elite students on track to go to some of the best colleges, and most likely all become lawyers, doctors, or businessmen, all of which sounded entirely unappealing to Aziraphale. All Aziraphale wanted was to settle down with a bookshop of his own. Something quiet and unassuming. Not that he would tell his 'friends' that, of course. So, he found himself sitting crammed between the broad shoulders of his current boyfriend, Gabriel, and Gabriel's friend Michael as they sat in their public library, completing some of their summer reading. Suddenly, Gabriel stood.

"I'm beat. I say we take a break for a bit. Maybe go for a jog. Aziraphale? Are you in?" He asked, clapping his hands over Aziraphale's shoulders. He started at the sudden touch and whipped around to look at the taller man.

"What?"

"We're going for a jog."

"We are?" Aziraphale asked, looking down at his lap.

"Yep," Gabriel answered, popping the 'p.' "You look like you could use it anyways. Gained a bit of weight there, darling." He finished, poking Aziraphale's stomach as he stood. Aziraphale looked down in shame.

"I don't have running clothes, Gabriel. I hardly think that a waistcoat is appropriate for that kind of exertion. Gabriel only rolled his eyes.

"Well, you should get some soon, darling. Come on, Michael." Michael nodded as she grabbed her headphones off the table, and walked off with Gabriel, leaving Aziraphale alone in the library.

Walking up the stairs for the first day of school, Aziraphale had a nervous feeling in his stomach. He glanced over his schedule.

1st period: AP Statistics

2nd period: Choir

3rd period: Biology and Botany

4th period: Cooking and Home Development

5th period: AP English

6th period: AP Government

Aziraphale sighed. He hated all the required courses. He couldn't sing for the life of him, yet his school required him to take a musical class. While he might've taken band, Gabriel insisted that the choir needed more male voices. He had never been one for cooking either, though he did enjoy eating he supposed. And he really didn't understand why he needed to learn about plants. Gabriel had also pressured him into joining AP gov, though he supposed it wouldn't be all that bad. And he was quite good at English. And math… well… there were tutors. As he walked into his first class, he saw Gabriel sitting in the front. He moved to sit by him, before the teacher called out:

"Mister… ah.. what's your name?"

"Aziraphale, sir." Aziraphale answered.

"Mister Az… Azir… ah... there is a seating chart. It looks like you'll be sitting next to Mister Crowley in the back there. Aziraphale turned to look at the boy, before making his way over. He wore dark, round sunglasses, and headphones that covered a shock of red hair. He wore a dark waistcoat, a navy-blue dress shirt, and a black coat that was far too big for his small frame. Aziraphale sat down heavily before taking out his notebook and turning to the boy named Crowley.

"Hello." Aziraphale said, cheerfully. Crowley looked slightly startled, before slinking back into his original cool posture.

"Hey."

"What are you listening to?"

"Queen."

"The queen?" Aziraphale asked, confused.

"No, it's a rock band… do you not know who Queen is?" Crowley hissed lightly.

"No, I don't entirely enjoy rock music." Aziraphale answered. Crowley looked at him for a long moment.

"Shame." He shrugged, before turning back to the front. It wasn't till halfway through the lesson when Crowley finally spoke again. "Could you stop it with the tapping?"

"Hmm?" Aziraphale asked, before looking sheepishly down at his pencil. "Oh, yes, sorry. I'm just trying to figure this problem out." Crowley gazed over at Aziraphale's work.

"The answer is yes." He said, a moment later.

"Thank you, but I need to know how to get to the answer." Aziraphale responded, slightly irritated.

"You forgot to square it. It's observed minus expected squared. Over expected. And you do that for each of them."

"…and what does that do?" Aziraphale asked, confused.

"Here. Take three and subtract one, and two and subtract one. Multiply that. What does it get?"

"Two, but I don't understand how that helps…"

"It's the degree of freedom. Now take your calculator…"

"The teacher didn't say to use a calculator. She said to use a chart."

"Well it's easier to use a calculator, and she said we'd be allowed to have it on the test." Crowley explained, exasperated. Aziraphale paused. On one hand, he wanted to do everything exactly as the teacher had instructed him to, to follow her lesson plan. But on the other, Crowley's way wasn't wrong… or it didn't seem wrong… and it was easier.

"Alright. So now what do we do?" He finally decided.

"Now, we simply plug both the degree of freedom and your first number into the calculator… oh and the highest you want it to be… put in like a million or something… and enter. See?"

"Not really." Aziraphale sighed.

"That's your p-value. And it's less than zero, which means…"

"That we reject the null hypothesis and there is convincing evidence of an association between the two variables!" Aziraphale finished, beaming. Crowley looked shocked.

"Keep it down in the back!" The teacher cautioned.

"How'd you know the wording and not the math?" Crowley asked, lowering his voice to a hiss.

"Letters make sense to me. Numbers, not so much." Aziraphale whispered back. Crowley gave him a snakelike grin.

"I think we can make a sort of arrangement out of this."

"Oh?" Aziraphale asked, nervously.

"Yeah. You help me with the fancy word stuff, I'll help you with the math." Aziraphale considered this. He knew Gabriel wouldn't like him working with someone else. As it was, his boyfriend had been shooting glares in his direction. But then again, he knew he desperately needed the help if he was going to make it through the class. He gazed at the smaller boy's hand, outstretched towards his own, and shook it.

"Alright." Aziraphale answered finally, and as he watched the boy's face erupt into a beautiful, pleased smile, he knew he had made the right decision.

The rest of math class went by relatively uneventfully. Crowley helped Aziraphale get to the right answer, and Aziraphale helped Crowley with how he should phrase his explanation. Aziraphale even found himself enjoying working with Crowley and was disappointed when the hour was over. He was about to offer to walk the boy out, but Gabriel quickly stood from his desk as the bell rang, walked over to Aziraphale, and promptly kissed him. Aziraphale attempted to push him away, but by the time Gabriel had let go, Aziraphale saw that Crowley was already making his way out the door.

"You didn't have to do that," Aziraphale chided gently.

"Just marking my territory." Gabriel grinned, and brought his arm to Aziraphale's lower back as they walked out of the classroom together. In choir, Aziraphale and Gabriel were separated as Gabriel was a bass, while Aziraphale was a baritone. They were beginning to warm up, when Aziraphale heard what he decided was the most beautiful tenor voice. He cautiously glanced to the side and was shocked to find the same boy from math class singing. It was only a warmup exercise, but it left Aziraphale hungry to hear what else he could sing afterwards. After warming up, the teacher announced a list of songs that would include solo parts. Aziraphale's ears perked up when he heard a song by the name of "Somebody to Love" by Queen. He looked over to Crowley and noted that for a brief moment his face lit up, before reverting to its original indifferent state. He also was disappointed when he saw that Crowley wasn't going to audition for a solo. The hour passed quickly after that, Aziraphale only twice being called out for not paying attention, but he really couldn't help himself, the other boy's voice was so intoxicating.

He quickly ran to meet up with Gabriel, Uriel, and Michael after the hour had ended. He walked to third hour with Gabriel, (he had every class except for cooking and home development with him as Gabriel had made sure that their schedules would line up,) but was again directed to the back of the room as another seating chart was assigned. This time however, he was with a short, dark haired girl, who introduced herself as Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. Aziraphale laughed at what he thought was a joke about the novel, but quickly silenced himself at her intense stare. He spotted Crowley across the room, sitting next to Gabriel, who was talking to him menacingly. He looked so small compared to the more muscular boy. Aziraphale nearly got up to go over but felt a hand wrap around his arm.

"He'll be fine." Beelzebub said, quietly. Looking down at her, he spotted her name tag, and noted her last name quickly. He sat in silence for some time, before his curiosity got the better of him.

"Ah… Beelzebub?" He asked, slowly. "I couldn't help but notice, your nametag… your last name… Crowley?"

"I don't go by that name."

"Right but…"

"He's my older brother."

"Oh. Well he…"

"Has a lovely voice in choir."

"Well yes but… how did you…"

"I'm very perceptive when it comes to my older brother. I like to know who he is consorting with. I saw you watching him in second period."

"Oh… I didn't realize you were in our class."

"I'm not." She finished cryptically, giving him a long hard stare, before turning her attention back to the front. Aziraphale turned once again to Crowley across the room, but quickly turned away as he looked back at him. Beelzebub only raised an eyebrow in his direction, before smiling lightly and beginning her work.

"I met your sister," Aziraphale said suddenly, as he sat next to Crowley in fourth period. Crowley said nothing, and only stared down at his hands.

"She seems… well… she's something else. I saw she was interested in entomology."

"I'm surprised you saw anything with the amount of face sucking you seem to be doing with that meat head you call a boyfriend." Crowley muttered.

"What was that? I'm not sure I caught that last part, dear boy," Aziraphale laughed nervously.

"Nothing." Crowley hissed. They sat in silence for a moment.

"You know… he's really not that bad… once you get to know him." He said. Crowley said nothing. "It seems like we're in a lot of classes together, huh."

"Yep."

"It's a bit weird, don't you think? Almost…"

"Ineffable?" Crowley finished.

"Not the word that I would have used, but sure." Aziraphale laughed. The teacher came around and passed out the first assignment of the year. "Well… looks like this is our first project together, huh." Aziraphale stated. Crowley nodded in confirmation, as they both gazed down at the paper together.

"Food groups. Boring." Crowley huffed.

"I find them quite fascinating!" Aziraphale retorted. "I mean, we need food to live. So it's important to know the types of food we should be eating to make sure our bodies get the right kind of nutrients." Aziraphale sighed wistfully as he glanced over the section on desserts. "I've always had a sweet tooth myself. Gabriel's always telling me to cut back on the sweets. I suppose he's right." Aziraphale glanced down at his midsection. Crowley turned sharply to him.

"You look good." He said. Then, after Aziraphale raised an eyebrow at him, he quickly amended his statement. "I mean, from the health point of view. You look like you're in good health.

"Thank you, I suppose. Well, I suppose we should get started?" Aziraphale asked, looking over at Crowley expectantly.

"Yes, I suppose we should." Crowley confirmed. Aziraphale couldn't help but notice that Crowley inched slightly towards him, or the way his head leaned slightly in his direction, and if his own head was doing the same, well, one could blame it on the fact that he had left his reading glasses at home.