Any form of direction? Not really. Hours of sleep? Not many. I have an idea, though. We'll just watch what happens. :)

Enjoy! :)

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They've been in school for a week now, and all of them have adjusted to the new school year, some easier than others.

Jack likes David much more than he'll ever let on.

Tony and Sean have picked up on it.

And they will not let him go.

They each bug him separately in their different ways.

Together though...they're unstoppable.

Jack and David leave their second class together and go in opposite directions for their next class of the day.

He smiles as he walks away.

"Jack! Wait up!"

That would be Tony.

Jack purposefully lengthens his strides.

Tony is pretty much racing to catch up with him.

"Hi!" Tony greets him cheerfully when he finally catches up.

Jack hasn't slowed down.

Tony is struggling to maintain Jack's speed.

"Why are you walking so fast?" 

"Why are you so slow?" Jack counters. 

"I'm pretty sure you're the one walking fast."

"And I'm pretty sure you're the one with shorter legs."

Tony stops. "That was uncalled for!"

"Maybe. Still doesn't change the fact that you're short."

Tony scrambles to catch up with him. "5.'9" is not short! It's you at 6 feet tall that's the problem! That's not fair!"

(A/N: ^^nearly exactly quoting me haha)

Jack chuckles. But he's not going as fast any more. "Sorry there aren't any tall genes running in your family, buddy. That's one thing I can't help you with."

Tony glares at him.

"You know, this is all very uncalled for," Tony retorts, undignified.

"I don't see it that way."

"Is it because you know I'm here to say that you and David are as platonic as Romeo and Juliet?"

"That would be it," Jack responds dryly, and starts walking faster.

"Hey Jack! Wait! I didn't mean it! Come back!"

Jack ignores.

Tony grumbles and heads in the opposite direction; the direction that his next class actually is.

He's never going to hear the end of this at lunch.

Tony glares reproachfully at Jack's back. He will make Jack pay for this.

Jack grins now that it's quieter without Tony playing devil at his shoulder.

"Hi, Jack."

Now comes the other devil: Sean.

Because those two are like the angel and devil on his shoulders; except neither of them are the angel.

Jack sighs.

Sean's tactics are a lot different than Tony's.

And their next classes are the classrooms right next to each other. Jack isn't escaping this one.

"Are you here to talk about David and I?" Jack asks, done with everything.

"Of course not," Sean answers smoothly. "I was wondering if you actually did the homework last night."

"I think we both know the answer to that question."

"You're pretty much begging for Mr. Snyder to fail you."

"Yeah, and I'm not going to do anything about it."

"You know that in ancient Greece there was this warrior army of 150 gay couples called the Theban Sacred Band?" Sean asks suddenly.

"I was in Western Civ last year."

"What? Oh, I did this research on my own. Actually no; Tony did the research." A fond smile comes on his face. "He was so excited to tell me all about it when he first learned about it."

Jack grins. Sean and Tony are so sweet with each other.

"150 gay couples is 300 men," Sean continues. "Ancient Greece put together 300 gay men together and called it an elite band."

"That does sound pretty great. And gay."

"You took the class last year, right?"

"Yes..."

"So you remember why the Greeks did that?"

Jack pauses. "Remind me?"

Sean had a feeling Jack was going to say that. He answers, "They believed that their fighting skills improved when trying to impress a lover."

He lets that sink in.

And just as smoothly as he started the conversation, Sean finishes his point: "so just think what might happen to your grades if you want to start impressing David." 

Sean starts walking faster.

"Why you little-" Jack calls after him.

Sean turns around dramatically. "SHUSH! We are in a SCHOOL!" Then he turns back around and walks into the classroom.

Jack sighs.

And I thought Tony was the dramatic one.

Begrudgingly, he walks into his class. 

Sean got him good.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, David is trying to evaluate how he feels around Jack when he should be focusing on reading a poem for English right now.

He replays how they met over and over in his head.

Both times they met: bumping into each other for a few seconds of interaction; and then when Jack saved him from unfriendly kids, whom David has now learned no one likes. 

The first time he and Jack met, Jack wasn't that annoyed by Jack bumping into him. David wonders if the situation was reversed, if Jack was the one to have bumped into him, how he would have felt. When he puts it that way, Jack handled it very well. Not to mention how well he looked.

The second time they met, Jack was playing more of the knight-in-shining-armor card, but David found out that he didn't care; his knight is the most handsome knight there is. And those two haven't bothered David since then. And Jack just exerted so much friendly energy. Like he wanted to talk to David, like David wasn't someone in his way of getting to the next thing. He took the time to help him. And David will always be grateful for that.

Now David thinks about what happened after that. How Jack showed him where to go for his classes, invited him to sit with him at lunch. How they just seem to have good chemistry.

Is it too soon to be saying that they have chemistry?

And what kind of chemistry? Because what they could be forming could be very platonic-

He shuts that thought down.

There's no way what I'm feeling for him is platonic.

But being ace and bi isn't always easy. And David hasn't had a chance to ask Jack how he feels about LGBTQ+ matters. David will admit that he has a very bad gaydar. But he has two eyes; and he sees how Jack's senior friends act around each other. So he's confident that he can say that Jack isn't homophobic.

I wonder if this school has a GSA.

He knows that clubs aren't going to start up until the end of the month, and he's too scared to ask Jack or anyone else about a GSA.

Sarah would probably know from Kathryn.

But should David bother her with a question like that?

Or should he start opening up, and just maybe come out of the closet to someone else?

He decides that that's going to be his goal for lunch today: to find out if the school has a GSA...

...and if his blooming feelings for Jack can ever be reciprocated.

--------------------------------

Kathryn plays the same words through her head that she's been thinking non-stop for a week now.

I was wondering if this Saturday you would like to go to Starbucks and the public library with me? 

Now all she has to do is say those words to Sarah out loud.

They have butterflies in their stomach.

When Kathryn dated Jack (BRIEFLY) in ninth grade, she never felt anything like this. This was...new. Exciting.

Right at the end of the day, that's when Kathryn plans to ask Sarah out.

And...if Sarah says yes, they'll have their official first date.

-----------------------

Charlie is currently running on the track, as happy as he can be.

It didn't take long for everyone to love him.

He's just so fast. And good at running. With just a great personality.

He forgets what lap he's on. He feels like he can go a lot longer.

Until he doesn't.

His leg. Again.

The pain is too much.

He stops running.

"Hey, are you alright?" the junior running next to him asks him, concerned. He's stopped now too.

"I'm fine," Charlie waves him off. "Really."

"You need a water break?"

Charlie is about to politely decline, but then he thinks about it. Maybe that's just what he needs. So instead, he nods.

Why can't I run? What's wrong with me?

------------------

After her last class of the day, Sarah starts walking out of the building, wondering who's going to drive home today. Since she and David share the car, it really depends on who gets there first and if that twin has their license with them.

She feels like driving today, so she picks up the pace of her walking a little.

"Sarah!"

She stops.

Her plans of trying to hurry to the car are thwarted as Kathryn comes up to her. She's not bothered at all in the slightest.

"What's up?" Sarah asks.

"I knew you'd be here," Kathryn states, not answering the question. I knew she'd be here. I timed it perfectly. She swallows.

Sarah waits patiently.

Kathryn takes a deep breath, and just like she practiced, she says, "This Saturday, I was wondering if you would want to go to Starbucks and the public library with me?" she ends with a huge question mark, lowkey scared of what will happen next.

A smile starts forming on Sarah's face. "I'd love to."

Kathryn starts smiling immediately. "Really?"

"Yeah. Any time in mind?"

"I didn't get that far," Kathryn admits.

"We meet up at Starbucks at ten?" Sarah suggests. "We grab our coffee or whatever and anything else and then head to the library?"

Kathryn's smile grows.  "That sounds like a plan."

Sarah grins. "It's a date."

"It's a date!" Kathryn repeats, exhilarated. "See you later!"

"Bye!"

Sarah picks up the pace to the student parking lot, smiling, walking on air.

It's a date.

--------------------------------------

I kinda really liked that.

I was grinning while writing Jack's talk with Tony and Sean. That was definitely fun to write.

The Sacred Band of Thebes was a real thing.

So the thing is that I really love the movie The Birdcage, so when I found out about the Theban Sacred Band, my thoughts were, "representation!" and "wow, this is awesome!" and "talk about gays in the military!"

I seriously recommend that you all watch The Birdcage. It was made in 1996, Robin Williams (may he rest in peace) and Nathan Lane (love him SO MUCH) playing the lead gay couple, with Hank Azaria (amazing) just being amazing. So the basic story is there's this gay couple, and their son is getting married--to a girl. The problem? The girl's parents are rightwing conservatives. And they're going to have dinner together. So this gay couple has to figure out how to act like they're straight men, and try enlisting the help of the son's biological mother to make it look like a heteronormative family, but when that plan doesn't work out, one person of the gay couple has to dress up in drag and pretend to be the mother, and the whole dinner is an absolute disaster. But it's an amazing movie. It's the first gay movie I've ever seen. And it's. So. Dang. HILARIOUS. The quotes are iconic, the actors are iconic. There's an emotional coming out scene. It will leave you feeling amazing. You can find the whole movie on Dailymotion for free. My one warning is that it's rated R for all the f-bombs. If anyone has seen it, talk to me. If not, please go watch it! It'll be worth your while.

Sarah and Kathryn going on their first official date!! Yes!!

I have a plan now!

...it just doesn't include what's going to happen in the next chapter.

So I'm going to be honest here: thoughts?

A direct follow up to what happened here, or is a (not drastic) jump forward in time okay?

I'll decide in the morning. I'm too tired for legit anything right now haha. And I know I'll have comments to wake up to, so...yeah.

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who just finished reading Jazz Jennings' autobiography I Am Jazz and absolutely LOVED IT)