Hi readers! It's pretty much 40 degrees (celcius, that is) right now and I'm trying to write while the damn Australian sun refuses to give me a break from the heat :( Warning, if there are grammar or spelling mistakes or something just doesn't make sense, it's because the heat is making me delirious and I'm rushing this as I have an urge to get this out before I leave for a small trip (don't worry, it's only like four days so I'll still get the next chapter out pretty quickly)
*sucking on ice-cube* have fun reading!

Between eating dinner, explaining to an insistent Gaius in detail about how exactly he came to know Arthur and talking non-stop with Will who would just not let him hang up, Merlin found himself with no time at all to read 'Great expectations'. He had been pushed to bed by Gaius who insisted that he get some rest in order not to be late for school the next day. Merlin had waited silently until he was sure his Uncle was asleep before excitedly pulling out his book and turning on his light. The book was a hardback, one of which had a separate removable cover, and the first thing Merlin had noticed upon opening the book, was an envelope peeking out from behind the plastic sleeve. Pulling out the un-addressed, un-sealed envelope, Merlin noticed that it contained what felt like a wad of papers. Then freaking out and panicking over the fact that it could be money, possibly stolen from the mafia or something impossibly unrealistic like that, Merlin threw the envelope across his room, half expecting it to explode upon impact. Then with wide eyes, he slowly made his way towards the envelope, jabbing it with a pencil before deciding it was safe to touch. Back in his bed, he hesitated before curiosity got the better of him and he opened it, revealing a small wad of folded papers, deciding if it became too personal he'd stop reading them and put them back. Reading the first paper, then quickly the next and then speedily the ones after it, Merlin huffed out in annoyance as he realised there was no more to read. The papers had been a sort of a small manuscript, the beginnings of a first chapter of some kind of story, but what really got to Merlin was that it was an amazing beginning, the ending leaving him hanging and wanting more. Then forgetting 'Great expectations', Merlin re-read the much smaller story over and over again, each time gaining a new appreciation for the Authors writing style, before falling asleep, papers still clutched in his hand.

---

Merlin ran into the gym, much like he had yesterday into the lab, only this time he managed not to fall over. He was late by about ten minutes, having slept through his alarm clock, and was now met with the face of a very stern looking P.E teacher.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Began Merlin, subconsciously scratching the back of his head with his right arm and smiling sheepishly.

"At ease, solider! Quit your excuses, put down your stuff then join the rest of the squad."

Arthur watched as Merlin headed down to the back of the gym to put down his bag with everyone elses. He was dressed in the proper school P.E uniform, and there was nothing wrong with that unless you counted the fact that nobody ever wore the proper uniform. It was deemed dorky and was always changed up ever so slightly by the school students. For example, girls would wear shorts of the same navy blue, but much shorter and more "stylish". They would also tailor their shirts so that it showed their figure more, one girl last year had gone too far and made hers a midriff, landing herself in detention for "inappropriate gym clothes". The boys would change their shorts entirely, opting for a more baggy khaki version and a slightly baggier shirt of the same colour as the school P.E uniform, just without the school crest. Arthur noted that Merlin actually looked good in the damn P.E uniform, the clothes fitting perfectly and the darkness of the shorts making his skin look even paler, and in turn accentuating his dark hair, his blue eyes and his red lips. Morgana, who was also in the same P.E class and did not seem to notice the way Arthur was looking at Merlin, was looking at the boy as well, but perhaps not in the same way, smiling and waving him over when she caught his eye. Grinning, the boy ran up to the two and let out an enthusiastic "Hi!" Merlin looked like he had been about to talk to Arthur when he was called up to the front of the class by the very tough Lt. Black.

"What's your name, private?"

"Merlin Emrys."

"You will address me as Lieutenant or Sir."

"Sorry, Merlin Emrys, sir." Replied Merlin, putting the tiniest bit of sarcasm on the 'sir'.

If Lt. Black was impressed by the gangly looking boys assertion, he did not show it on his impassive face.

"It is mandatory that you complete a course on your first lesson so that I can assess your abilities," he paused for a while to look over Merlins frail body, ".. or lack thereof."

Merlin groaned, he had never been good at sports, only ever acing gymnastics whenever they had it in their small P.E class back in Ealdor.

"First task, catching!"

Merlin had barely anytime to register what was happening when he was bombarded with a storm of balls. The rest of the class were throwing it at him with all their strength, making it impossible for the scholarship kid they all hated, or should hate, to catch them. Morgana and Arthur, having felt sorry for their friend, had tried not to throw any additional balls, only doing so when Lt. Black looked over to them, and even then they threw lightly. Well, Morgana threw lightly. Arthur had tried to but his natural build, physical fitness and instinct meant that his 'light' throws were really bordering on 'hard'. Unimpressed but not surprised, the Lieutenant marked down the results for task one on his clip board.

"Task two, running!"

Not exactly knowing where exactly he was meant to be running too, Merlin hesitated before starting to run towards the back of the gym.

"Wrong way, solider!"

Ears red from embarrassment, Merlin turned around and ran to the front of the gym. Shaking his head, the Lieutenant watched as the new boy nearly tripped over his feet at the end. Shame, he thought, he was really quite fast, just a tad bit clumsy due to the length of his legs.

"Task three, kicking!"

Merlin without much enthusiasm made his way towards the footballs he was meant to kick. Trying his best, Merlin thought back to Ealdor where in the fields Will had tried countless times to teach him how to kick a football properly. Like back then, Merlins kick was feeble at the most. Frowning, Morgana nudged an anxious Arthur, "Not doing that great, is he?" The rest of the classed cheered, while pointing and laughing, after all, the scholarship kid was meant to be bad at sports, everyone knew that.

Shaking his head, the Lieutenant shouted out, "Task four, climbing!" Already writing a fail down on that part as climbing the wall was probably the most difficult out of all the tasks. Only his brawniest students ever made it over by pulling them selves up, and even then with great difficulty. What hope was there for the boy who lacked muscle and failed to kick a football?

Merlin, however, felt relief wash over him upon seeing the high brick wall he was expected to climb and jump over. He had done this a million times in Ealdor when Will would convince him to sneak over with him over the wall separating Will's and Mr. Slash's garden to take mulberries from the latters mulberry tree. Facing the wall, Merlin turned around and headed away from it. The rest of the class took this as a retreat and silently cheered, Lt. Black was disappointed that the boy didn't even try. Then turning around and surprising the hell out of everyone, Merlin ran towards the wall, running and scaling up the wall, crossing over in one swift movement, his face showing no signs of having tried very hard.

Surprised by the sudden show of skill, but keeping up his composure as he was taught in the military, he shouted out the next task.

"Task five, dodging!"

The rest of the class, save from Morgana and Arthur who were now the ones silently cheering, were angry and extremely annoyed. Not one of them that year, expcet for Arthur of course, had managed to get over task four, so what was with the scholarship student who was meant to be worse at them in P.E doing passing and getting over the wall as if it were a breeze? With determination to hit him as many times as possible to show themselves that they were better at sport, the rest of the class picked up their balls readily. Merlin, who now had caught up to the speed of the course and did not have to worry about trying to catch the balls, dodged them with ease, side stepping and jumping, even once doing a backward flip on one hand to avoid two different balls, all with a look of calm on his face. The students tried their hardest not to look impressed, Lt. Black, who was impressed but easily hid it, was now intrigued by the boys agility and skill (it had taken him quite a while to master a one handed backwards flip and even more to do it easily and quickly when it was needed to avoid something), so deciding to add a little to the last course to further test the boys skills, Lt. Black called out the last task.

"Task six, balance beam!"

Merlin moved over to a long balance beam, and was about to walk across when the Lt. Added another beam to the end of the already long balance beam.

"Get across without walking or running."

The class frowned, the Lt. always said that to the kids who had done well in the test. Everyone had assumed it was a test of wit since really, there was no way to get across without running or walking. Pretty much everyone who had to do it just crawled or slid across. Although he never said it, the Lieutenant was always disappointed, expecting something more spectacular, only to remind himself that these were high school students and not his platoon. Merlin pondered a little before with a look of uncertainty he backed up like he did at the wall. Then running up, he cartwheeled across, performing them right after one another and not stopping till he got to the end, jumping off with a flip and landing on his feet. Finding it harder to hide being impressed, the Lieutenant sent Merlin to change with the rest of the class with a gruff "good job, private." Arthur who had been in awe despite already having seen his friend in action was trying to fight the images in his mind of the beauty of Merlin's performance at the end when he had moved so gracefully. He didn't have to try hard for as soon as the Lt. dismissed the boy and he walked over to Morgana and Arthur with a grin on his face, Merlin tripped over a stick. Arthur rolled his eyes and grinned, playfully flicking the boy on his head.

---

Arthur returned a grin as he saw Merlin enter the room into their Advanced English class. He had not seen him since their first period class, Merlin having to say in at recess, according to Gwen who was in his advanced calculus class, to discuss with an enthusiastic Mrs. Cattrinah about the possibility of future careers on in the mathematical field. It was good to have a friend with him in this particular class because although the others in the class were friendly and eager to be his friends, none of his actual friends, aka the popular kids, were in the class, most of them not knowing the difference between 'there', 'their' and 'they're'.

"Hi Arthur!" beamed Merlin, not surprised that Arthur was in the only Advanced English with him due to the results of yesterdays Shakespeare battle.

"Hello Merlin." Smiled Arthur, trying not to seem too excited.

"I've been meaning to ask you something..." began Merlin, not sure whether or not Arthur would be angry at him for reading what may have been private.

Arthur raised his eyes at the pause, "Well spit it out Merlin, or did you forget how to talk?"

Merlin grinned as if it were a compliment and pulled out 'Great expectations' from his bag. Instead of pointing to a certain section or talking about the book like Arthur expected him too, Merlin instead took out an envelope from the front plastic cover sleeve of the book. Arthurs heart stopped momentarily, Oh dear god.. it wasn't.. could it be?

Merlin pulled out the sheets from inside the envelope, confirming Arthurs suspicion.

"I was reading these last night and – "

Merlin was cut off by Arthur who snatched the sheets, blushing furiously and looking down.

"No one is meant to read that." He muttered.

Merlins face fell, he was looking forward to being able to read the rest of the story.

"Sorry, it's just that last night when I found it I thought it was something like mafia money or illegal documents so I chucked it across the room but then when it didn't explode I figured it was safe and so I looked inside. I didn't mean to read them, but you know the story was really good, brilliant in fact and I just wondered what book they were from since I wanted to finish it but if you don't want to tell me it's fine." He blurted out, not wanting the first friend he had made in his new school to be angry with him.

Arthur looked up and raised his eyebrows at the first part of Merlins explanation, slowly questioning the boys insanity then blushed when he realised that Merlin had complimented his story.

"..."

Merlins eyes went big as something clicked in his head.

"Wait, Arthur, did you write this?"

Arthur looked up and saw Merlins face, and suddenly instead of wanting to hide his secret project, Arthur wanted Merlin to be impressed, to be proud.

"Yes.." he replied slowly.

Grinning non-stop, Merlin stopped himself barely from jumping up and down, "Arthur that's brilliant! You're brilliant! Really, you're a seriously brilliant author, brilliant brilliant brilliant!"

A small smile appeared on Arthurs embarrassed face, "You think so..?"

Merlin nodded enthusiastically, "Do you think I could read the rest when you finish writing it?"

Arthur shivered a little involuntarily, not quite sure if he wanted to go down that path again, but none the less, he nodded, "Um, yeah, sure, I guess so."

Merlin squealed, pulling out a packet of snakes from his bag, "Celebration!" (there for not a violation of 'lolly time')

Arthur took a snake and was immensely happy at the fact that someone actually cared, actually liked his writing, especially since that person was Merlin. When he had first started experimenting, writing little stories, he had tried getting Morgana to read and review them, but Morgana, not being much of an avid reader, would read them when forced too, but not with much interest. Not really being able to get his friends to read it as writing was deemed unmanly and dorky, Arthur decided to ask his father. When Arthur had timidly approached him with his story, his father had not even bothered to read it. Instead Arthur got a lecture about writing being a mediocre poor person job and how it was important that Arthur took over their multi-million dollar corporation. With the lack of encouragement needed, Arthur shut away his writing ambition, but not quite wanting to destroy his last story, he hid them instead in his favourite book of the time, 'Great expectations". Watching Merlin who was now facing the front of the class, humming quietly and sucking on a snake, Arthur felt with a smile, the encouragement he needed so long ago come surging in all at once.

---

Arthur stood outside the classroom with Merlin, discussing in detail different Shakespearian plays and their importance in the influence of modern day stories, when -thwak- a football that hit Merlin in the side, producing a small surprised yelp of pain as it knocked him to the ground. Then suddenly Nim and Lance were behind Merlin

"Good hit Lance." Smirked Nim, Lance grunted, not being able to conjure any more of a response.

Arthur stepped back and looked at the two with his face twisted in both shock and anger, "WHAT THE HELL!?"

Nim, frowning at being shouted at ,looked back at Arthur, "We saw that stupid scholarship kid bothering you again so I told Lance to get rid of him."

Then stepping over Merlin, who was still on the ground and rubbing his elbow in which he fell on, she linked her arm around Arthur's with a smile.

"And now that he's gone off somewhere, let's walk to class together or maybe even something else if you don't feel like class." Nim said the last part suggestively, Arthur yanked his arm out from Nims in disgust.

"What the hell? First of all, he hasn't gone off somewhere, he's on the bloody ground because you and Lance decided to knock him over. " Arthur bent down and picked Merlin up, "Second of all, he's not bothering me, we're friends." Then dragging a stunned Merlin along, he stalked off to his next class.

Nim frowned, not fathoming how anyone could stand being near some poor kid. Then facing Lance she linked her arm around his elbow, tighter as to ensure he wouldn't yank it away from her.

"He's going through some stupid phase probably," she began, "hormones or some crap like that."

Lance nodded, somewhere in his mind he was trying to figure out how to spell 'phase'.


Alrighty, I'll tell you what's in the next chapter like last time because I'm excited about writing it :D
We'll see some awesome dance skills and the school starts to see Merlin in a different light, which just sort of irritates Arthur :p A little bit of jealousy, maybe.

:) Review if you think Gwen should leave Arthur alone so he can finally go and realise his feelings for Merlin