Before Nikki walked into Mr. Guy's class, a backpack over one shoulder and a clarinet case strapped to the other, Miles thought he'd gotten complete control over his emotions. All of his feelings perfectly in check, as they should be.

He hadn't thought about Freya for hours. Well, at least, not directly. Not by that name, anyway. He'd noticed Allie seemed to be doing a lot better this morning. (She'd laughed at a joke Jen made, as they'd walked to their first class, and she'd smiled at Lance when he almost choked on a mouthful of Oreos.) But he didn't think about what he could piece together about her from flashes of his-their-past life in Camelot.

He made sure he only thought about her in this time.

Because when his mind was set firmly on here and now, as long as he forced himself not to recall that they'd kissed, (as Miles and Allie, not just as Merlin and Freya), to remind himself to act like it never happened, it was easy to keep in mind that she was Will Wagner's girlfriend.

Easier still to remember that she was his friend and needed support right now. No one else knew about that man she'd killed, just him. It was his job to keep it secret. It was also his job to make sure she didn't fall too deep into depression over it. Yesterday he'd taken her to the park and slowly watched her brighten up. He was looking after her, and she was healing.

Everything, he thought (okay, hoped), would be okay.

Then, when Nikki showed up, Miles felt the tips of his fingers go numb. It was weird, cuz he wasn't even sure he still liked her, but she was seriously pretty. And she noticed he was there, looked pleasantly surprised, and smiled right at him as she walked over to Mr. Guy and held out a class transfer slip the school office had given her. If that wasn't flattering to a kid whose last party invitation was actually meant for Rodd Muckinfuss, he didn't know what was.

He took note of the clarinet case; now he knew what instrument she played. But there was a twinge of guilt somewhere in the back of his mind, and he felt like avoiding Allie's eyes the whole time he was thinking about Nikki. Which was completely stupid, really. Allie wasn't his girlfriend. She was taken. He just so happened to be available. He could admire another girl's attractiveness, and be impressed with the fact that she played the clarinet for the school band, if he wanted to!

Mr. Guy cleared his throat. "Ah, yes, Nikki, you can take the empty desk in front of Miles." He looked over at Miles. "Miles, raise your hand."

But he didn't have to; Nikki already knew who he was, so she just went and sat down, twisting around in her seat to talk to him. "Hello again."

"Hey there."

"You've still got the pen," she said. She'd commented on the pen that had once been the staff Mordred had tried to defeat them with (Mr. Moore's cane before that) the night of the big game.

"You've still got the hair," he blurted, immediately feeling like an idiot.

She laughed semi-nervously. "Well, I would hope so."

"All right," said Mr. Guy in a very no-nonsense tone. "Class has begun, all eyes to the front, if you please."

Nikki turned back and took a text book out of her backpack, setting it on her desk in front of her.

"We have a new assignment today, which I-" began Mr. Guy.

But before he could say what it was, the door opened and a tall, biker type person wearing a motorcycle helmet strolled in, carrying a black satchel over one shoulder.

"Hey," Jen whispered, reaching over and tapping Lance on the shoulder. "Who's that?"

"Beats me."

Will raised one eyebrow curiously.

The biker reached up to take off the helmet, shaking out a wad of long blond hair that fell down to the middle of her back.

"Whoa." Lance's eyes widened. "Dude looks like a lady."

"Oh, I know her!" Nikki said, craning her neck to talk to Miles. "She eats lunch in the band room sometimes. We're like friends, sort of. She's actually really nice."

There was definitely something off about her. The mysterious biker girl was good-looking, sure, but Miles thought she looked a bit old to still be in high school; more like she should have been in college or something.

"Anna," sighed Mr. Guy, sounding exasperated. "Thank you for deciding to grace us all with your presence. Still sporadically attending Avalon High, are we? How many times are you going to repeat this grade in various unfortunate teachers' classes?"

She snorted. "Till I break the record."

Nikki choked back a laugh.

"What are you doing here anyway? Don't you work in the administration office? I thought Mr. Moore taught this class."

"Well, if you'd bothered to show up a little more often, Miss Anna," Mr. Guy told her, "you would know he's been replaced. Now please go sit down on the other side of the room next to Marco."

She glanced at an empty desk to Nikki's left. "Can't I sit there?"

Allie and Miles both thought they noticed Mr. Guy suddenly look alarmed, but it passed. "No. You will sit where I tell you."

"Whatever." She marched over to her seat, motorcycle helmet tucked under her right arm.

"Anyway, as I was trying to say, this term, the school administration had to decide which one of us teachers would have to add the following lesson plan in addition to our regular assignments, and since your Health teacher is on a sabbatical in Tahiti, I got the short straw." Mr Guy lifted up a big cardboard box from behind his desk. "I'm not thrilled about it, either, so let's just get through this, shall we?"

There were a few excited (and apprehensive) whispers among some of the students. Miles wasn't included in the whispering; he was already taking notes. Allie rolled her eyes. Mr. Guy hadn't even said anything important yet. But, hey, this was Miles, after all.

Will noticed what his girlfriend was rolling her eyes at and smiled.

"I know, right?" she mouthed to him, smiling back. For the first time since she'd left that party, killed a man, and kept it from him (and everyone else, with the sole exception of Miles), Allie didn't feel so alienated from her boyfriend. Maybe everything really was as okay as Miles kept telling her it was; maybe it could all go on like it had before.

"Here's how it's going to work," Mr. Guy went on. "You will be divided into boy/girl pairs for this project. You will have a fake marriage, fake jobs, and a fake baby." He opened the box and pulled out a plastic baby doll to show them.

Marco wrinkled his nose.

"Aw, man," Lance muttered. The assignment sounded pretty lame to him.

Jen and Miles both raised their hands.

"No, Jen, I've already assigned everyone's partners, you don't get to pick your own. And, yes, Miles, even though the marriage, job, and the baby are fake, the credit will be real and worth ten percent of your final grade," Mr. Guy said, without skipping a beat or calling on either of them to speak their questions out loud. "And, because Mr. Moore left this behind, this is what you'll be picking your jobs out of." He dropped the plastic baby on the desk with a light thump and picked up a metal replica of a medieval knight's helmet full of slips of paper.

Allie glanced at Miles. It suddenly seemed like so long ago that they'd been assigned as partners and she'd drawn out the slip with The Order of the Bear written on it from that very same helmet.

"Jennifer, you're with Marco," Mr. Guy informed her, walking over and holding out the helmet.

Jen started to make a face, thought better of it, shrugged, and took a slip of paper. Marco. Okay, then. Not too bad. She liked him a lot better now that she knew he wasn't hellbent on ruining Will's life-or worse, his house parties. Being fake-married to him couldn't be so bad...

She read her slip out loud. "Fashion designer." She nodded. "Cool."

"Marco, pick." Mr. Guy held it out in front of him next.

He pulled out a slip. "Brain surgeon."

Miles cocked his head, looking up from his notebook. "Seriously?"

Marco frowned. "Shut up."

"Congratulations," Mr. Guy said dryly. "Pick up a baby on the way out."

"I'm naming it Katey," Jen said to Marco over her shoulder.

"Yeah, whatever." He couldn't care less what she called the thing. It was made of plastic, for god's sake!

"You're so not supportive," Jen grumbled.

"What'd I do?" Marco snapped.

"Welcome to married life," Mr. Guy told him. "Where your wife is concerned, you've always done something wrong." He was standing in front of Will now. "Will, you're with Allie."

Miles had the feeling like a giant kangaroo had just walked up to him and then socked him right in the gut: surprise, followed by muted pain. Allie was usually his partner. Ever since that first assignment on the Order of the Bear Mr. Moore had given them, they'd always worked together. True, he liked working alone. But he liked working with his best friend even better, now that he actually had one (a best friend, that is).

Will pulled out his job slip. "Congressman."

Allie got hers next. "Professor of Medieval literature." She lowered her brow and squinted at the paper in her hands, as if to be sure she'd read it right. "Oh, come on!" A half-laugh, half-snort of disbelief escaped her. Real cute, but there was no way she was following in her parents' footsteps. Thank goodness it was just pretend!

I don't know if I can work with a new partner... Miles felt his stomach knotting up. He'd always worked either alone, or with Allie. Never with anyone else. He hated depending on people he didn't trust for half his grade. He also hated socializing with people he didn't like. He'd grown used to Allie and Will, and, to a lesser degree, Jen, Lance, and Marco, but they were all taken with the sole exception of Lance, and if he didn't get Lance, then who...

"Miles," Mr. Guy said, pausing to clear his throat. "You're with Nikki."

Well, maybe I could give this whole 'new partner' thing a try, he immediately thought, following that bit of info.

Nikki picked her job out of the helmet first; she was sitting in front of him and thus was sightly closer to the teacher's out-stretched arm. "Antique shop owner."

Miles reached into the helmet and pulled his slip out. "Waiter at Medieval Times restaurant." Rolling his eyes, Miles leaned sideways and whispered to Allie, "Sure, Marco gets brain surgeon, and I'm stuck waiting tables, adding thee and thou to the ending of grammatically incorrect sentences whenever people ask me where the bathroom is. Great."

"Aw, it's not that bad," Allie whispered back. "It's just pretend. Maybe it'll be kind of fun."

"Fun," Miles echoed sarcastically. "Yeah, sure. Fun like elective dental surgery."

"Well, I think Lance and his partner both just drew 'dentist' from the helmet," Allie told him. "They may be able to help you out with that one."

"Ha ha, very funny." Miles sat up straight in his chair again.

Nikki turned in her seat to smile at him again.

He felt himself blush. Okay, so maybe it wasn't going to be all bad...

After Mr. Guy had finished assigning their partners, letting them draw their jobs out of the helmet, and explaining the whole lesson over again for the kids who, instead of listening the first time, had been making paper footballs and throwing them at their buddies' heads, the bell rang and everyone was dismissed.

"Hey, I've got to go to study hall," Will told Allie, standing up and tossing his backpack over his shoulder, "but I'll see you at lunch. Save me a seat, okay?"

Allie nodded. "Sure thing."

Will leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss goodbye.

Ugh, thought Miles at seeing this, he's kissing her again? It's like he just got out of the army or something.

This, of course, wasn't true. Will was not constantly kissing Allie (no more than any other boyfriend kissed his girlfriend, anyway), Miles was just feeling jealous. Which, he knew was pretty stupid, considering that by all accounts things were going really well for him (he'd gotten Nikki of all people as a partner, and she'd just transferred into the class, so what had been the odds of that happening?), but he couldn't entirely help it. Every time he saw Will and Allie together now, he felt like he was Merlin again and had just walked in on Freya and Arthur making out in Camelot.

Which was ridiculous, seeing as, in this life, he knew Allie was with Will, he had no reason whatsoever to feel betrayed or jealous, and yet, if he didn't fight it, didn't push it to the back of his mind before his whirling thoughts settled, he did.

If anyone had a right to feel betrayed, it was Will. And he didn't even know it. He had no idea Allie and Miles had kissed and then tried to act like it never happened. Miles knew this, and he felt awful about it, especially considering what Will had gone through with Jen, and yet there was nothing he could do.

At least, he knew it wouldn't be a repeat of the Jen & Lance Incident. Because Allie had obviously felt nothing. Nothing worth acting on again, anyway. She was with Will and that was who she wanted to be with, not him.

Getting up, Nikki tripped and dropped her books on the floor.

Miles got up and bent over to help her pick them up. "Oh, here."

"Thanks." She nodded gratefully, then looked over at the clock on the wall. "Oh, rats. I'm going to be late for band practice. Miles, can you pick up the plastic baby on your way out?" She noticed it was mostly the girls doing so, while the boys tried to get out of the class as quickly as possible (Marco was the first one out the door), but she didn't think Miles wouldn't mind.

Miles shrugged. "I guess."

After Miles had pulled the baby doll out of the cardboard box (and was about to stuff it in his backpack with the rest of his homework), Mr. Guy called him over to his desk.

Everybody else, except for Allie, who was in the doorway waiting for Miles so they could walk to their next class together like they usually did, and Anna, who was sticking a wad of gum under her desk before leaving for whatever she had next, had already gone.

The bell had rung almost four minutes ago, and if he was held back any longer, Miles knew he was going to be late to his next class.

He gestured pathetically at the head of the baby doll sticking out from his unzipped backpack. "But I'm with fake child, I have to go-"

Mr. Guy did not find this amusing. "Well, you'll come here if you want to be with real grade on your next report card."

"Yes, Mr. Guy."

Anna had finally left, but Allie was still in the doorway.

"Miss Pennington," said Mr. Guy, giving her a firm stare, "don't you have somewhere to be right now?"

Mouthing, "Sorry," to Miles, Allie nodded and took off down the hall.

"I trust you have some idea why I assigned you to work with Nikki, Miles?"

"Uh..." No, not really.

"Do you recognize this?" Mr. Guy took off a clasped chain from around his neck and set it down in front of him on the far edge of the desk.

Miles knew the medallion right away. It was the exact same one Marco had, that he'd gotten from his father, who was in The Order of the Bear. "You're..."

"That's right, Miles," Mr. Guy said. "I'm in the Order. After what happened with Mr. Moore, it was important that someone who had some idea of what was going on at this school become his replacement. It took some string-pulling, but it was done. Luckily, because the Order has long anticipated that the identity of the returned Arthur would become apparent during the boy's formative years, there were several members of the Order working undercover in various jobs in various schools across the country (including right here at Avalon High), many of which have been able to quit, now that we've discovered William Wagner."

"You know," Miles said, "don't you? That Mr. Moore...Mordred..."

"Is working as an ice cream man, and plotting his revenge?" Mr. Guy sighed. "Of course. But he's not my biggest concern at the moment."

"Then who is?"

"Morgana."

"Oh, great," snorted Miles. "You think she's here too? No offense, Mr. Guy, but this is quickly turning into the worst family reunion ever."

"She must be. But, unlike Mordred, there's a chance Morgana is still young here and has not yet been corrupted. That's why I assigned you to work with Nikki, I feel that-"

"Wait!" Miles jumped in, cutting him off. "You think Nikki is Morgana?"

"All the signs appear to point to that, yes," Mr. Guy answered mildly. "I've overheard her talking with another girl in the hallway about having nightmares, and I've noticed she seems eager to be friends with Morgause..."

"Morgause?" Miles repeated.

"Can't you guess who she is?"

He thought for a moment. "Anna?" It seemed insane, but no more insane than his being Merlin, or Allie being Freya, or Will being the great King Arthur himself. Except, somehow, he wasn't convinced Nikki was really Morgana. Anna being Morgause, mind-boggling, yet easier to absorb than Nikki being the Lady Morgana. Something in his gut was telling him that both himself and Mr. Guy were overlooking an important factor here, but he wasn't sure what that factor was.

Mr. Guy nodded. "Anna will corrupt her, as Morgause corrupted Morgana, unless, in this life, Nikki believes there is someone else she can rely on, somebody she can turn to who won't think her crazy when she pieces together who she really is and at the same time will not encourage her to use her powers for evil-or even just plain revenge."

"You think, if she doesn't have help, Nikki could hurt Will?" Now that, that Miles couldn't imagine at all. Someone as sweet and pretty as her want to ruin Will Wagner's life?

"Yes, that is why, even though in Camelot I told you not to tell her of your powers," Mr. Guy explained, "I think, this time, you must show her what you're re-learning. You have to help her learn to use what she has for good. One way or another, I fear she will be drawn into this."

"You really remember Camelot." Miles felt a bit choked up.

"Parts of it, yes, I've had visions."

"Me, too!" Miles blurted out. "I-" He stopped. A member of the Order of the Bear wouldn't understand how he felt when he remembered Freya-how he felt about Allie-they'd rightly be concerned only about how it would effect Arthur.

"Yes?"

"I..." He thought quickly. "I was just wondering... Morgana, I mean, Nikki, is she...like me? Does she really have magic in this life, too?"

"Merlin," Mr. Guy said gently, "no one is like you. But, yes, there's a chance she may have magic. Has yours been manifesting itself?"

"I accidentally set a raft on fire and stole a rose from Mr. Pennington," Miles offered.

Mr. Guy chuckled at that, a faint twinkle of amusement finally coming into his eyes.

And it was in that instant that Miles recognized him.

That look, along with the way he'd spoken when he called him Merlin instead of Miles, gave it away and jogged a long-forgotten memory. Miles felt like someone had thrown a pebble at the back his head.

"G-gaius?" he stammered, blinking.

Mr. Guy nodded. "Well spotted."

"I can't believe it!" All of the memories of his former friend, who had been almost like a father to him in Camelot, were coming back faster and faster. It made the back of his eyes hurt and his head pound, but right then he didn't care all that much.

Mr. Guy stood up, a little taken back when Miles came forward and hugged him. Miles was even a little surprised himself.

The door creaked open and Will walked in. "I forgot my pencil. They let me leave study hall to come back and get it."

Miles quickly let go of his teacher when he noticed the funny look Will was giving them.

"I know it's none of my business, Miles," Will said, struggling not to laugh, "but I really think you're trying a little too hard to get an A." With that, he quickly grabbed his pencil off his desk, and left the classroom.

Miles and Mr. Guy looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes and cracked up. They couldn't help it. The look on Will's (Arthur's) face! Priceless!

"Oh, one more thing, before you go." Mr. Guy said, finally steadying himself.

"Yes?"

"You know about Peer Counseling?"

"I think it's stupid," Miles said flatly. "I mean, the kids here already tell each other what to do, how to act, and what to wear enough without it."

"I think you should be a counselor."

"You're kidding, right?" Miles frowned. "I'm in no position to give advice to anyone."

"Oh, well, basically all you'd have to do is nod sympathetically and say, 'and how does that make you feel?' and 'stay in school' a few dozen times."

"I don't know if I can be sympathetic." Considering that most of the kids at Avalon High hated him, that would be quite the feat.

"It counts as an extracurricular activity," Mr. Guy informed him.

"I wouldn't have to walk dogs anymore?"

"That's right."

"I can be sympathetic," Miles decided quickly.

Yes! he thought as he left, signed late pass in hand, headed to his next class. No more picking up dog poop every other weekend! Maybe things really are starting to look up.