Aerrow was greeted the next morning with the harmonious, grating sound of his alarm blaring in his ear. Wonderful. Perhaps the unrelenting scream of his alarm clock would encourage the budding musician playing the bongos on his skull to find a new home.

The comatose redhead sluggishly rolled out of bed as he saw the time, seriously debating whether or not it was too late to take up his childhood dream of becoming a vampire, as he warily dodged past the morning light filtering softly through the gap in his curtains.

'Yeah,' he thought, glumly inspecting his newly visible dark circles and wild hair - well, wilder than usual. 'Definitely too late.'

Casting a final scowl at his reflection, Aerrow tugged on his uniform before reluctantly making his way downstairs. About halfway down he wrinkled his nose at the sickeningly sweet smell that greeted him.

Pancakes.

Usually, Aerrow was a big pancake fan, but today he found that his stomach turned uncharacteristically at the familiar fragrance. Turning into the kitchen, he made a mental note to never drink again, at least not unsupervised.

"Morning," his mother acknowledged lightly, turning to reveal a spatula and plated pancake in either hand. "Did you have a good time last night?"

On the arrival of her question, Aerrow had been scrutinising the pancake that had just been placed in front of him, considering whether it was a good idea to actually eat it or not. Sensing a watchful eye, Aerrow looked up to see his mother leaning against the counter, patiently awaiting a reply.

Even he had to admit, his response wasn't worth waiting for, consisting of an incoherent mumble and a half-hearted hand gesture. Knowing that this response wasn't enough, Aerrow busied himself with poking at his food, trying to avoid any more Motherly Interrogation.

"So did you have fun?" his mother pressed, her dark green eyes brimming with questions. "Meet anyone new?"

Before he had the chance to come up with a slightly less degrading account of his night, Aerrow silently thanked the powers that be at a sudden, loud hammering on the door. As if summoned, Finn burst through, popping his head into the kitchen.

"Yo, Mrs S," he greeted the woman cheerfully, glancing hopefully around the cluttered kitchen."I don't suppose you've got any of those famous pancakes left over, huh?"

Ever the scrounger.

Aerrow rolled his eyes at the blonde's total lack of shame, grabbing his bag and practically running past Finn. "Sorry pal, we're all out. Better luck next time."

He smirked as he watched Finn's face fall, turning to give his mother a quick wave before heading for the door.

"Come on man, there must be something left don't hold out on me."

"Let's go, Finn."

"Fine."

Aerrow inspected the clock at the front of the class through half-lidded eyes, watching the minutes tick by at an agonisingly slow pace. Why did registration always seem to last for an eternity at a time?

Of course, it was made even longer by the non-stop babbling of a Certain Someone. For what seemed like the umpteenth time, the older boy glanced to his right and wondered exactly how much trouble he would get into for knocking the guy out. Just a little.

As the bell signalled the first lesson of the day, Aerrow departed from Finn and made his way to the English classroom. Wandering over to his seat, he ignored the excited chatter of his classmates.

"Alright you lot, I trust you had a good weekend but now it's time for the good stuff. Essays!" a posh, fruity voice rang out, signalling the arrival of their teacher, Mr. Rex.

There was a collective groan at the older man's feigned enthusiasm for the prospect of work. But unlike the others, Aerrow was quite looking forward to getting his essay back, he was almost certain he'd improved recently.

However, the lesson was interrupted almost immediately at the arrival of the headteacher, a short, wide man with greying hairs sprouting from just about every orifice. Behind him, Aerrow was startled to see a familiar face waiting politely.

Since when did she go here? Not that he was complaining.

"Everyone," the headteacher announced, his voice cracked with age "this is Piper, and she'll be taking up English for the remainder of this year due to a slight change of interests. I trust that you'll all be decent to her."

The ancient figure of authority waited for a resounding "Yes, sir," before slowly vacating the room. On his exit, the room once again became more animated, with Mr. Rex handing out the pupils latest essays, after pointing Piper to an empty chair.

Or more specifically, the chair directly in front of Aerrow.

Before he could even open his mouth to greet the girl, a sheet of paper was slammed forcefully down onto his desk. That was never a good sign. Slowly looking up into the eyes of Disappointment, Aerrow ventured timidly.

"Not good?"
"Most certainly not good."

Great. Aerrow looked down at his essay with dread, letting out an audible groan at the large C grade scrawled across his work in neon red, along with several other scathing comments. He let his head smack against the desk in despair. He had been so sure this time, he really had thought he'd gotten the hang of this whole essay thing by now.

"You have quite the relationship with furniture," came the muffled quip, causing Aerrow to raise his head slightly, grinning widely at his teaser.

"Don't be fooled, it's totally one-sided," he replied, sitting up and leaning his elbows against the desk, casting another glance down at his displeasing essay with a sigh. He heard a light creak as the girl shifted in her seat, gesturing to the paper. "So what was it on?"

"The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald," Aerrow read, examining his copy of the novel, mindlessly thumbing through the pages. "Oh, that's a good one," Piper mused thoughtfully."I'm starting to wish I'd joined this class earlier. Business just didn't feel right to me."

Aerrow nodded in response. She seemed to have to right mindset for this subject, he had seen her as a fairly imaginative and open-minded person after only two brief meetings, after all.

"So what did you get?" she questioned curiously, leaning on the back of the chair, clicking her pen. The boy leant his chin against his palm, flicking the paper disdainfully. "I got a C. Again. I can't seem to do any better than that, not sure why."

Seeming to pick up on his deflated mood, Piper threw him a small smile, her eyes flickering between him and her pen. "Well, I need to catch up for this class anyway, so we could always work together?" she asked tentatively, before adding hurriedly, "only if you want to that is. No pressure."

Aerrow felt his mouth tug into a warm smile at her offer. "Yeah, that sounds nice," he replied shyly, rubbing the back of his neck. He thought it would be a refreshing change to work with someone who actually...well. Worked.

The rest of the day leading up to lunch passed by in an uneventful blur. He fought to conceal a yawn as he saw Finn approaching, noticing with relief that the day had taken a noticeable spring out of his step. Maybe this would be a quiet lunchtime.

"Hey, serious question. Would you watch a film of yours truly?"

Never mind.

"What do you mean would I?" Aerrow questioned warily. "Are you going to make me?"

Finn shot him a glare, offended that someone would be anything other than happy at the thought of watching Finn in HD.

"No, sadly you are robbed of seeing this," he gestured to himself emphatically, "in all its feature-length glory, because Someone decided it was against the rules to make films about yourself. It's media, the people expect films about people. What if I want to make an autobiography? What if I become famous? What happens then man? What. Happens. Then..."

Aerrow left Finn to his grieving as they waited in line for food, before taking a seat at their usual table. They never had a real problem finding a space because no one else bothered to sit with them - and, casting another look at Finn, Aerrow couldn't say he blamed them.

Absent-mindedly scanning the room, Aerrow realised that Finn had finally stopped talking, the reason being the large sandwich stuffed elegantly in his mouth. Muffling a fond laugh at his friend's expression of true bliss, he noticed flash of blue and purple in the corner of his eye, turning fully to see Piper and Cyclonis coming to the end of the queue.

Aerrow hadn't realised he was staring until Piper waved in his direction, smiling. Soon after, he saw her turn to Cyclonis, talking quietly to her. Was she trying to get her to come over? If she was, he couldn't tell if it was working.

Upon watching this interaction between the girls, Aerrow spared a quick glance at Finn, who hadn't noticed any change. Ah, the love between a boy and his sandwich. During his short interval of Finn Surveillance, the two girls seemed to have come to a decision, as Aerrow watched them walk over, Piper visibly more comfortable than Cyclonis. Noticing her discomfort, he made sure to nod in her direction, a friendly smile on his face. He wanted to make sure she didn't completely hate him after the 'Finnster's' flirting.

Whether she hated Finn. Well. That was different.

Aerrow noticed with a growing sense of anxiety that Finn had stopped eating, and was now sat mid-chew, his sandwich suspended in mid-air losing various bits of filling due to gravity. For once, the older boy found himself willing the blonde to speak instead of shutting up.

He felt a light tap on his shoulder, and turned to see Piper, wearing an expression similar to his own. "Is he okay?" she whispered, fighting off a smile. Aerrow glanced between Finn and Cyclonis, a sense of despair coming over him as he replied. "I've been asking myself that for 17 years."

"Hey!" Finn cried, glaring at the redhead, betrayal written all over his face.

Now out of his trance-like state, Finn gulped, turning to Cyclonis with what he hoped was a pleasant expression. "So..uh...How you doing?" he tried, casting her a weak smile.

At the cold reply of complete silence, Aerrow turned his attention back to Piper, leaving the younger boy to his riveting one-way conversation. Raising his eyebrows in the form of an apology, Aerrow began to eat, the table falling under a (mostly) comfortable silence.

"So when would be good time to study for you?" Piper asked simply, picking stray bits of lettuce out of her sandwich with a grimace, before looking at Aerrow expectantly.

Slightly thrown off guard by the directness of the question, Aerrow's eyes widened as he considered a do-able meeting. "Well...how about tomorrow?" he offered, before realising that they still needed a venue. "We could always meet up at my place," he continued "I mean, my mum would be totally cool with it..." He trailed off as he realised he was rambling, meeting Piper's gaze to be greeted once again with warm amusement.

"Sure," she replied easily "That sounds great."

On her reply, Piper looked down at her watch and made to get up. Aerrow tried to crush the disappointment he felt at her following words.

"We better go," she said apologetically, tapping Cyclonis who in contrast seemed eager to leave the struggling blonde boy. "I'll see you tomorrow though, yeah?"

Aerrow nodded happily, a goofy smile plastered across his features as Piper turned to Finn.

"It was nice to meet you again..uh..Finn, right?" she asked cautiously, raising her eyebrows at the boy's spontaneous display of trigger fingers and a wide grin. "The one and only."

'Well, that's one way to paint a memorable picture,' Aerrow thought, still in a content daze as he watched the two girls walk away.

Aerrow slumped further down onto Finn's bed, attempting to make a list of improvements he need to make to his essays to boost his damn grade. Despite his want to get better at the subject, Aerrow couldn't help but feel that Mr. Rex had some form of personal vendetta against him.

He sighed loudly as his eyes scanned the reams of corrections scribbled across his work. Yep. I felt more than a little victimised.

"So, you and Piper."

Snapped out of his wallowing by the smug-sounding blonde, Aerrow turned to see Finn holding his Biology book above his head, squinting with confusion. "Excuse me?"

Finn pulled himself upright, pinning the redhead with a knowing look. "You and Piper. Studying."

Aerrow, slightly lost as to what Finn was getting, turned his attention back to his notes. "Yeah, we're studying. Just studying. So?"

Shaking his head, Finn turned reluctantly back to his homework, muttering under his breath. "Clueless."

He'd heard that. Aerrow narrowed his eyes at the younger boy, waiting for an explanation that never came. 'Whatever,' he thought, 'What a wind-up.'

After a few minutes of silence, Finn piped up again. Someone was clearly losing the fight of Biology.

"Do you think she would help me with my studying?" he grumbled despairingly, "I mean why do plants even need those?"

Aerrow hoped that was a rhetorical question. He jumped as a flurry of paper instantaneously flew across the room. It was a miracle he hadn't had a heart attack yet.

"I just realised," Finn said, hurriedly getting to his feet and pointing at Aerrow. "You don't have anything to wear."

Was he serious? Aerrow sat upright at Finn's judgement. "Hey, I have clothes. And we're just studying will you give it a rest," he objected, placing his notes down next to him in defeat. "Besides, she knows what I look like."

He was silenced by a withering look from Finn, who had clumsily opened his wardrobe, displaying his wide array of almost identical shirts and t-shirts in varying shades of blue. Fashion.

"Come on, let the Finnster dress you up."

"I think I'll pass."