Connor sat at his desk, bored out of his brain in the middle of algebra. "I dare you…" Aiden said, "to ask nerd extraordinaire, Oliver Hampton, to the prom". Connor looked over at Oliver. He was writing intently, occasionally pausing to think, tapping his pencil on the bridge of his nose. He saw Oliver notice him, startled like a doe and then quickly focused on his page again. Connor grinned. "Deal".

"Hey," he said, walking over once class had finished. "Don't tell me you were actually listening to Mr Keating's lecture?"

Oliver smiled. "I actually find maths kind of interesting. Although the teacher could be better."

"He's not exactly charming. I mean if you were up there teaching, I might actually be able to focus," said Connor, laying it on thick to see the faint pink bloom in Oliver's cheeks.

"Um." said Oliver.

"I'm Connor by the way".

"I know your name," said Oliver, "I'm—"

"Oliver. I know yours too," Connor said, earning a shy grin. "Are you going to prom? Because I was thinking maybe you could come with me?"

"Haha" said Oliver dismissively.

"I'm serious" said Connor, putting his puppy dog eyes on high beam.

"You could have anyone in the school." Oliver said, frowning, suspicious.

Oh god, Connor thought, I'm going to have to get mushy.

"They're boring. You're smart and interesting and you have this habit of pushing up your big dorky glasses when you get flustered, which is kind of irresistible."

Oliver caught himself moving his hand towards his glasses then hurriedly put his hands on the table.

"You want to go to prom with me?"

"Yes" intoned Connor, slightly frustrated. He was not expecting it to be this difficult.

"I would um…I would like that."

"Awesome," he said with a smile. And now for a little extra bonus.

"You're really good at hacking, right?"

Oliver's face fell but he looked resigned to what would come next.

"I'm not bad. What do you need?"

"I was thinking, could you hack into the principal's account, and email the parents saying there's a strike tomorrow?"

"Doesn't seem too hard," he said, turning on his laptop and starting to type, "as long as I don't get suspended."

"I would never let that happen."

"Right, cause you have huge influence over the school board."

Connor smiled at how quickly Oliver jumped from flustered to snarky. He made a mental note to annoy him more often to see this quietly confident self come out.

"I may not, but my father does."

A pause, then "I'm so glad I'm using my skills to help rich, spoiled brats."

"Ok Julian Assange, you can become a hacktivist when you're older, right now you should use your skills for fun."

For the next few minutes, Connor watched Oliver focus on the screen while his fingers flew over the keyboard. That could be useful.

"How long does this take anyway?"

Oliver looks up guiltily.

"I finished five minutes ago. Let me guess, now it's done, something's suddenly come up and you can't go to prom after all."

"Actually…" said Connor "I was hoping we could use our newfound day off to go on a date?"

Oliver raised his eyebrows, looking like he no longer had any idea what to think about Connor.

"Ok" he said finally.

"Do you want to go see a movie?"

"Sure, which one?"

"You like nerdy things right?"

"You think just because I like computers and have glasses I like "nerdy things"?

"I guess that means you don't want to go see Interstellar?"

"…I didn't say that."

Connor smirked. Oliver was beginning to realise that was more or less a permanent expression for Connor. It was both irritating and irritatingly seductive.

"Give me the number and I can text you the details…among other things."

Oliver could deal with flirting. What he could not deal with was Connor striding that ambiguous line between sexual and innocent, making him unsure if he was reading too much or too little into everything he said.

"Right, like, we can chat."

Connor chuckled a little. He definitely read too little into that one.