To the reviewer, Jovia: Don't worry, there will be plenty of drama :)

Dr. Kothari's econometrics class was held in a huge classroom with a projector screen so large you could hide Crown's male and female basketball teams under it. The room featured auditorium-style seating that curved up to the entrance and sat 300 people.

At the moment, though, about 210 of those 300 people were in various states of sleep or pre-sleep. The guy next to Ken had his sunglasses on—the fratty kind with the blue plastic temples—as he slowly sank deeper into his chair and oblivion.

Ken was not asleep. In fact, a number of sources would hazard that Ken did not ever sleep. Hyped up as Zane could be, every night he hit REM before his roommate had even left his desk.

Darien had roomed with Ken the year before, and reported that once, he thought Ken was asleep over his books, head in hand, but when Darien approached to tap him on the shoulder, Ken leapt up like a tiger and threw Darien across one of the beds, ninja style.

"Ten to one he was KGB in his past life," Darien had groaned as Serena applied an ice pack to his head.

So not even Dr. Kothari's accented droning about sexy topics such as homoscedasticity could compel Ken to rest his eyes.

He did however, stop typing notes to check his e-mail for a minute. Just a minute, mind you. The kid in front of him was skyping his girlfriend for Christs' sake-no one would begrudge him the momentary diversion.

As Ken scrolled through listserv mail and party reminders a window opened in the bottom corner of his computer screen.

Mina: Hey you! Guess someone's not paying attention in class :)

He debated not replying. They weren't exactly friends, more like acquaintances, and yes he seemed to be seeing more of her than usual, but that didn't mean anything, and he sure as hell was not interested in...

You there?

Maybe he was overthinking it.

Ken: Yeah.

What's up?

Mina: Hey, do you have posters for the party you need BC's help posting? You or Andrew can send them my way.

Ken: That would be great. Thanks.

Mina: No probs!

Ken drummed his fingers on his desk, guessing the conversation was done. That had been uneventful.

Mina: Hey, question.

Ken: What's that?

Mina: Okay, I feel stupid asking this but...

But?

Do you know if Andrew's seeing anyone?

Ken: Like dating?

Mina: Yeah. Sorry, I know it's weird to ask, but you know him well so I just thought...

Ken: I honestly don't know. I'd try Darien.

Mina: Oh ok! Thanks Kenny! Sorry, didn't mean to bother you!

Ken: No problem. This class is as interesting as the inside of a shoe

With a few LOL's and a goodbye, Mina logged out. Ken shook his head and started to sign out of his e-mail himself, when another chat window opened up.

Jed: Yo yo can you order pizza for the house for tonight? My stomach's about to eat itself brah

Ken: I'm in class Jed, don't bug me

"Honestly, Sere...I don't know if I asked Ken because I just wanted to know or because I wanted to see how he'd respond."

Serena giggled. "I'm sure it's gotten him thinking at least."

Mina nodded slowly, as she packed her laptop into a marigold Longchamp tote. "And me too."

Amy was back in lab, though microbiology this time. According to her schedule, she would be spending four days a week in a lab and she couldn't be happier. "You're a freak," Raye kindly informed her as Amy scribbled in her planner and actually hummed. "Seriously Ames, I don't know anyone who's as big a nerd as you, and Crown is not that small."

Brushing the comment off as a compliment-and deciding against telling Raye how many credits she was taking-Amy had gone to English. There, she'd been made to feel uncomfortable by Zane (pleasantly uncomfortable, one might argue, but she would not), then had her microbiology lecture and now, directly after, microbio lab.

Her TA was very unlike Zane, what with the ramrod-straight back, dark eyes, and the fact that she was a girl. Amy preferred that, though.

Why did she prefer it? she asked herself as she practiced sterile technique on the agar plate, turning on the flame so she could heat up the loop. She was here to learn, not worry about what gender her TA was. She'd had plenty of male TA's in the past, none of whom made her feel more uncomfortable than the average human being. It occurred to her that her awkwardness around Zane did not merely stem from his being male, but she ignored the feeling and set to work disinfecting her loop.

"No daydreaming, Anderson," said a voice at her shoulder. Amy narrowly escaped lighting her hand on fire.

"Darien!"

He grinned over at her as he took a seat at the stool on her left. The TA looked displeased, but had, Amy imagined, already scolded Darien for being late and been unable to resist his courteous apologies and dimpled smile.

"I didn't see you in lecture," Amy said as Darien pulled on a lab coat.

"Yeah, had to schedule the 8:30 one, yuck."

Darien and Amy shared a special bond, probably because they were the only ones who could understand one another once the subject of science came up.

"Dr. Bonk's kind of awesome for a crusty professor, huh?"

"Shh," said Amy as the TA walked by.

Darien smiled to himself and quickly caught up to the page in the lab manual Amy was on. He said under his breath, "That TA's our age, but she's even crustier than Bonk."

Amy shook her head and continued with her work without replying.

"Are you still TA'ing?" she asked.

"Yeah, molecular bio. Ugh, freshmen."

"Yeah. At least I don't have to worry about them in my biochem lab."

"One of the guys in my frat is TA'ing that class. Maybe you've seen him around."

Amy had a sneaky feeling she had.

"His name's Zane?"

"Oh." Hoping to sound very casual, she said, "Yes, he's my TA actually."

"No kidding? Well, don't let him give you a hard time. I can tell you some secrets to blackmail him with if you like."

"Darien."

"Kidding. How is he so far? Oh shit, he was wearing pajamas yesterday, wasn't he!"

Amy hesitated, then nodded. "Frog ones," she said, cracking a smile.

"Aw, I bet he was so embarrassed. God, I wish I'd been there."

Darien had yet to hear from Zane about his chem girl, and left it at that, never suspecting that Amy could have said more on the subject of her biochem TA, and that her biochem TA could have said more on the subject of his crushing on his student. And that Darien's girlfriend was so right about her friends it could very well make his head explode.

"Lita!"

Lita was by no means unintelligent; she knew that Jed would not be hailing her so enthusiastically—practically knocking a passerby over in the process—if not for the fact that Raye was by her side.

Lita glanced over at the dark-haired girl.

"You know Jed?"

Raye simply shook her head and continued to walk, a little more quickly than before.

Lita's eyebrows went up. The smiling vivacity that had been in Raye's expression the whole afternoon slipped off, leaving a rather icy look.

In fact, Raye would have succeeded in beating a hasty retreat if Jed hadn't raced over to where they stood near their dorm entrance.

"Hey Jed," greeted Lita. "So, didja go to class today?"

Jed replied indignantly: "What kind of question is that? Did I go to class!"

Immediately repentant, Lita said, "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I guess I was..."

"...Right on the mark," Jed replied with a grin. "Class, schmass—right Raye?"

Lita raised her eyebrows. "You two know each other?"

"Hey Raye," said Jed with a suave smile.

Raye seemed far more interested in the squirrels scampering across the grassy quad than in acknowledging Jed. "Hi."

"How's it going, Raye?"

"Fine."

"Do you ever use multisyllabic words, Raye?"

"Do you even know what multisyllabic means?" she asked coolly.

That surprised a laugh out of him.

"Raye and I are in "Ancient Ruins" together," he explained to Lita.

"The class is called 'Ancient Civilizations.'" Lita could have sworn she heard the girl add "moron" under her breath.

Ever buoyant, Jed only said, "Hey, you should come to our welcome back party this Friday. You too, Lita," he added generously. He stepped forward, closer to Raye and Lita was startled. Was it her or was the air getting a little warmer? "I'd love to show you around our house."

If Raye was aware of it, she gave no indication. "No thank you, I haven't been to the zoo since I was a little girl."

Jed smiled, but it was a slow smile, as if he was too distracted by her eyes and her pleasing profile to care for her insults.

The tension just hung there, and swung like a pendulum around them.

That is, until the tune to "Staying Alive" suddenly went off. "Oh shit, sorry, guys!" Great time to call Dad, Lita thought to herself. "It's my dad, I'm just gonna take this."

She stepped a few yards away and began to talk on the phone, leaving the two to glare at each other. Well, for Raye to glare.

"I should probably go too," said Raye.

"Lita's right over there. She's not gone, per se," Jed said reasonably.

"Well I should be. Gone, that is."

"Can I walk you back to your place?"

"This is it." Raye gestured to the dorm building right next to them.

"Oh, how convenient. Now you can invite me in."

"INVI-Oh yeah, you're right."

"I...am?"

"Yeah. Um, let me just tidy it up first, it's kind of messy, and you wait out here. How does that sound?"

"Yeah wow, that sounds gr-" Jed was cut off by Raye's swiping into the building and pulling the door shut behind her.

Which is when he realized that his ID didn't get him into the building.

"You coming Friday, Amy?" asked Darien as they packed up their things and returned the lab coats to their hangers.

"To what?"

"Our party, of course."

"Oh."

"Aw, you can manage a little more excitement than that." He nudged her with his shoulder, biting his lip at her reaction to the idea of a wild party. That was probably how most of his brothers would react to the microbio lab Amy had just hummed her way through.

"It's just not really my thing Darien. I was thinking of studying for biochem that night-"

"Amy, you can practice biochem AND microbio if you come."

"How's that?" Amy asked, suspecting STD's might be involved.

"Zane's a chem nerd, as you know, and he's brewing some of his own beer. You'd be interested in that, right?"

She was to a certain extent, but...

"I'll think about it."

"Don't worry, I'll get Serena to hound you, too. She's much better at it than me."

"That's very reassuring."

Nevan knocked only once before opening Lita's door.

"Hey!"

"Hey!" greeted back Nevan with a grin.

"No, not 'hey, how's it goin',' 'hey, I could have been changing or something, Nevan!'"

Nevan hopped onto the end of Lita's twin-sized bed and leaned against the white wall."Oh, sorry," he said, not sounding the least bit repentant. "But I'll file that away for later. And probably not change my knocking habits."

"You're such a pervert, Martinez."

"That's why you love me."

"What?" Her head shot up.

"What?"

"Nothing. Um, so wanna tell me why you're barging into my room?"

"For one, you didn't text me back."

"Sorry, I was..." Her unrelenting honesty got the best of her and she decided against making an excuse. "Sorry, I saw you texted me, but I got a little distracted. Besides, I figured you were busy with Molly so..."

"No, come on, I always have time for you."

"Oh. Th-thanks, Nev."

"No problem, Leets," he returned, chucking her under the chin affectionately.

Trying to hide the color rising in her face, Lita cleared her throat to ask: "So how'd you get into the dorm this time?"

"What can I say? I have a way with the first-floor ladies."

"So you ran in after someone before the door closed, not unlike a homeless person?"

"You say tomato, I say tomate. My text, by the way, was about your game Thursday."

"Oh yeah? You coming?"

"Hell yeah. Gotta see you guys squash those Rams."

Lita grinned. "Their defense is pretty amazing, but..."

"But they suck at shooting. Their point shoots like 30%! Compared to your 65%? No competition!"

Lita laughed and averted her face. They continued to talk basketball and practice and how Coach B. had been drilling her team with practices since they'd gotten back. They talked tournaments, March Madness, the new uniforms, etc. "Talking jock," as Mina would say.

"So, since I'm coming to your thing, you coming to mine?"

"What thing?"

"The party!"

"Oh." Lita twirled a rogue string from her comforter around her finger. "I'm not sure, I might need to catch up on homework since I've been practicing so much..."

"Homework on a Friday night? Come on, Lita, you need to cool off some, 'specially after the game. I'll get you good and drunk, no worries."

"How generous. What're you-?"

Nevan leaned in closer to her and her heartbeat picked up the pace. What was he... Nevan reached up and swiped two fingers through her hair. "Got a piece of paper there or something. Anyway, Kevin Sen will be there."

"Who's Kevin Sen?"

"Hello! He's the Indian kid in SigMu you said reminded you of your old boyfriend. He's single."

Lita only vaguely remembered said Indian guy. That seemed ages ago. Long before she started to see how Nevan, with his rough mannerisms and affectionate smile, was so different from her old boyfriend. How...

"Cool."

"I can hook y'all up if you want."

"I had no idea you were such a matchmaker."

"Anything for you, brah."

"Thanks...brah."

"So, what do you think about Molly?" Nevan asked as he snatched up Lita's basketball and spun it on his finger.

"She seems nice..." Lita tried, her words sticking in her throat.

"She's really cute."

"She is."

"I dunno, I always thought she was hot, but I just realized how sweet and fun she is. Maybe I'll be doing some hooking up at that party myself, huh?"

Lita gave a grunt that could be interpreted as one of agreement or an angry warthog.

"Speaking of which, I told her I'd meet her for some 'physics' again at 6. I'm hoping she meant 'physical'."

"You're disgusting, Martinez."

He merely shrugged. "I try. Wish me luck, Leets."

As the door closed behind Nevan, Lita flung her pillow at the door and fell back onto her bed with a sound of annoyance.