I was never the one for consistency. I apologize in advance for any pissing I might cause you because of it.
I don't own Dalton and whatever paragraphs, characters, or sentences I may use is by the wonderful CP Coulter. I honestly hope that I didn't butcher the story and that y'all don't hate me.
Enjoy the chapter!
Being forced back to education when summer just started in another dimension was brutal for Derek, though he thankfully retained what he learned. Unfortunately, the amount of work they were made to do was in a larger quantity that he was used to. That meant more studying, more writing, more headaches, and less sleep. On the bright side, he got to see a Dalton beyond the reader's eyes. He was in Hanover, which was somewhere anyone barely saw. Everyone was in relative calm, muted conversations, an occasional outburst, but nothing like Windsor. Everyone was so helpful when Derek asked for help solving a geometry problem. It was certainly refreshing at the end of the day.
He had hung out with almost everyone in his class. But he tried to stay away from Windsor because he's afraid he might break more storylines if he keeps interfering. He didn't tell Julian that he knew his love for Logan and was very, very eager to help him out. It's still too early. As he read "Jumping Hurdles" on his phone, two days later when had a long enough break to get the chance, he stopped and realized that something else didn't happen since the twins took him out.
Since they didn't steal Pavarotti, Logan wouldn't have taken his medication and went to the Warbler hall. Julian wouldn't take Kurt there… What would happen now? Derek looked up at the Windsors across the cafeteria and they were talking amongst themselves, his eyes sweep over to the Stuart trio and Logan didn't look medicated and Derek didn't look pissed. Derek thought ahead, not being able to look at the chapter any longer.
What have I done? Did I break Dalton? Did this mean that the Klaine fight would never happen, now that Kurt and Logan won't sing? And Medel wouldn't suggest it? Would it be a bad thing, not having them fight? I'm losing the story, nothing's happening like it's supposed to happen… All because of one date.
It was nice to be in the world he always thought he knew what would happen. Now he's getting lost in a new story and there's absolutely no way to see if it went right in the end. There's absolutely no time skips, no line breaks, no "that evening..." He would actually have to wait to see if anything happened.
"Derek?" Terry asked beside him. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah…"
"Are you sure? You look a little tense."
"I'm fine… I've just got a lot of things on my mind." Damn it, I need a drink.
The afternoon went on horribly slow and Kurt has been having his exams the whole day. Derek made it a point that he knew where the countertenor was at all times, just to see what happens without Logan in the Warbler room and without Medel suggesting that they sing together at Regionals.
Kurt got out of the room and Derek watched him quietly around the corner where he was probably unnoticeable. Kurt leaned on one of the shelves in the hall and Derek watched. Julian was supposed to walk up to him by now… But that didn't happen.
"Alice!" That did. "How were the exams?"
"Positively draining." Kurt replied with a tired smile. "I am so glad it's over."
"We brought you coffee." Ethan said and handed him a cup, courtesy of Bailey.
"Thanks…"
Derek leaned back to the wall and thought to himself, I think I broke Dalton. I bet CP's going to appear now. But she didn't, instead…
"Rose!" Evan exclaimed and pulled him into a hug, Ethan followed.
"Derek?" Kurt asked beyond the Tweedle hug.
"Hi, Kurt!" Derek managed to say as he hugged the twins back. "Hey, I missed you too." And he did. Aside from French and the Alice in Wonderland quotes that filled his cell phone's inbox, they haven't seen each other much.
"I'm just going to walk away now." Kurt chuckled and his steps faded down the halls.
"Oh, Rose! It's been so long!" Ethan said.
"Yes, one and a half days! It feels like years!" Derek joked and tried to push them off.
"Derek?" Terry's voice sounded behind the twins. "Are you under there?"
"I'm okay!" He replied. "Evan, Ethan, get off, we've hugged enough." And they complied. He smoothed out the rumples of his shirt and smiled. "Hi, Terry. Just getting my hug on, in the halls."
"So how was your day?" Terry asked as all four of them walked down the halls. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I'm feeling better. My head was just muddled with lots of stuff." He answered quickly when the twins were about to rapid fire him with questions. "Just stressing over… school."
Terry nodded. "I understand. Breaks just do things to you when you have to learn again." The twins' and Derek's phone buzzed in their pockets and when they checked it was a Warbler group message.
The first things that Derek thought were: Shane didn't follow my advice. I'm going to have to kick his ass when he comes back. Followed by: At least something's going along with the story.
"What's wrong?" Terry asked when they stopped moving.
"Shane." Derek said, still shocked by the news. I guess some storylines are just meant to happen.
"What about Shane?" Logan asked, having caught the four of them stopping dead in their tracks and fall silent for a few seconds. Derek and the twins looked up from their phones and Logan looked expectedly.
"He went rock climbing with some friends after New Year and there was a rockslide and they haven't heard from yet…" Derek answered. Poor Blaine. Poor Reed. He knew that Shane was still alive but the distress of the others not knowing is saddening. The twins started to run down the halls and Derek looked at Terry to ask for permission.
His friend's eyes rolled. "Go on! I'll be in Hanover. I'm pretty sure Reed needs you there." He smiled and ran after the tall blonds. Logan stood with Terry in the halls, looking after them. Finally, Logan ran after them.
From a distance, you could see the Windsors running back into their dorm for wherever they were last when the message popped up on their phones. The news had spread all around Dalton quickly and pretty soon, everyone knew. Derek came into the room and the emotion just hit him full force. He went over to Reed quickly sat beside him. "Hey…" Reed barely looked up and Derek put his hand on the artist's. "Shane's going to be fine." But the artist didn't look like he believed his friend. He wanted to but… he could just imagine Shane dead.
"What's he doing here?" Wes demanded.
"Hey, I heard the news! I just followed Derek and the twins." Logan replied loudly.
"Why did you –!"
"Guys, please!" Blaine said as held up his phone again. "Damn it, voice mail again…" He muttered. The twins turned on the TV and tuned in to the news. Derek watched as the bulletin whizzed by at the bottom of the screen. Blaine was already crossing the room, talking to Wes and David, Reed and Derek stood up and moved somewhere else. Derek absolutely sucked at comforting and all he could do was hold Reed's hand tightly. He couldn't simply say he read that Shane's alive. It would cause too much problems. The twins looked over their shoulders from the couch to look at them. Derek offered a terse smile before looking back at Reed.
Derek watched as Kurt came into the room, surprised that Logan was there. And after a few minutes, Justin came as well.
The Hanover boy couldn't help but think of the irony. I do a big thing like actually tell Shane to not bring the painting, the storyline still happens. I do a small thing like go out on a date and storylines crumble before me. There's something wrong with this picture. I guess this means I'm obliged to kill Adam… He forced a chuckle down because it wasn't something to be heard in a situation like this. Right, like I could kill him before he kills me.
"Pipe down guys, the news is coming on…" Han's voice crackled on the screen.
"Who was that?" Kurt mumbled at the twins who gave him a brief history on the Caterpillar while the news went on. Derek felt in when Reed tensed up when Shane's photo appeared on the screen, smiling brightly. He pulled the boy into a hug and tried to comfort him with some back rubbing.
As soon as the news segment ended, the speaker crackled again.
"Just so you know, I'm still tracking the news as they come in. I'll keep you guys updated. Hey Tweedles – come up here and get the walkies. So I can update you guys if anything important comes up. Blaine, I'm going to keep looking. I'm…I'm really sorry about this."
"What for, it's not your fault…" Blaine answered, his monotonous tone made Derek flinch. He got up and Kurt followed, their hands linked. Derek watched as Logan's eyes followed the hands and hoped that he wouldn't do anything rash and something unknown. Fortunately he just pulled out his phone and walked out.
Justin looked puzzled, and then turned to them. "All right then. Better get cracking. We've got to do what we can, yeah?"
"Whoa, whoa!" boomed a sudden voice from the foyer, moving towards them. "What's Logan doing coming from – why is Justin –" and then the voice reached them, "What's with the air?"
Charlie's back.
"Hi, Charlie." Derek said lightly in the silence. "How are you?"
"…what? Your prefect comes back and I don't even get a hello from someone from my own house?" He paused to turn to Derek. "It's Derek, right?"
"Hey Charlie," Blaine said from the stairs with a sigh. "Welcome back." Then he gestured to all the boys in the common room. "They're all yours." And with that, Blaine pulled Kurt to the upstairs. Charlie was left with the whole room staring at him.
"Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" Charlie bellowed.
"Blaine's brother Shane is missing," Reed said softly beside Derek. He was staring at his hands, having let go of Derek's. "He went mountain climbing and there was a rock slide…" He started to inch away from them. "I'm – going upstairs to…check on Blaine and Kurt and…finish my paintings…" He hastily left the room.
Derek watched as his friend went away, he should follow but he felt like he needed to stay to tell Charlie everything. Charlie watched Reed go, astounded, and then flailed again to the others for explanation. "Again, something I'm missing here?"
The boys started to explain, overlapping each other.
"Shane and Reed had this thing during New Year's." Derek said over the noise. "Well, Shane did, Reed didn't exactly reciprocate… yet."
"Alright…" Charlie turned to the twins. "It was your turn this year. What happened? Please tell me that you didn't destroy –" the deep sigh and guilty mutters all around made him made him stop midsentence. He sighed. He should have known better than to ask the Twins. "All right, screw this." He began to take off his neck brace.
"Whoa! Whoa!" David leapt to his feet. "Should you be doing that? Chaz!"
"You think I'm going to want all this plastic on me when you guys clearly don't know the definition of holding back…?" he dropped the brace to the couch. "And I'm going upstairs to talk to Blaine. After all the torment of the past few weeks, he might need someone other than the new guy to –"
"No!" Everyone chorused, dragging him back down.
Charlie, looking at all the hands on him, stared at them as though they'd lost their minds. "What's the matter with all of you?"
"Don't – don't interrupt them," Wes flustered, gesturing with his hands. "Let them have their moment. Ah…we've kind of waited forever for them to finally…be official."
"Officially what?"
"Dating." Derek answered.
Charlie gaped at him, and then sank his head into his hands. "Oh man, I am so lost. There are just no words to explain my confusion right now. It's just not possible that none of you updated me all this time. I'm looking at you, Han!" Charlie yelled to the ceiling.
"Hey, I don't keep tabs on everyone's love lives!" the speaker protested. "I've got way too many episode marathons lined up for that!" The speaker clicked off again.
"What has Dwight been doing all this time?" Charlie muttered without looking up from his pained expression.
"Generally still being him…" Wes said thoughtfully. "Actually… maybe a little bit worse. He's convinced that Kurt is cursed because of all the things that happen to him –"
"Then he better exorcise all of Windsor if the basis is 'things that happen'," Charlie said sarcastically. He cleared his throat and looked around at the other boys, taking command by his air alone. "All right. We're going to sort out this mess. Derek, give me the shortest, least convoluted rundown of everything that's happened. Boys, I want you to do whatever you can to help Blaine's situation. Surely some of you are connected enough to do something. And I want you to downright spoil Blaine for the next few days. After everything you put him through, you better give back a little."
Derek was good a talking fast and knew a bit of Dalton. The twins, Wes and David hung back to watch him tell the story, only for their jaws to drop down slightly. Chaz thanked him for his time and went to do his prefect duties.
"How do you know all that?" Wes asked. "You weren't there when –"
"I have my sources." Derek offered a shy smile.
Wes and David looked at the twins. "What? We didn't tell him!"
"It must've been Reed."
Sure, you four think that.
The twins were walking Derek back to Hanover and he was feeling inexplicably tired when he asked. "Do you think I should go back and be there for Reed, I mean… He's my friend and…" Evan put a hand on Derek's shoulder.
"You've got a lot of things on your mind. We can tell." And there, a soft smile appeared. It was a surprise to see on the usually grinning face.
"Kurt's going to handle Reed and you look like you need your rest."
"You know… Saying 'you look like you need your rest' is just a nicer way of saying 'you look like shit'." Derek said offhandedly.
"Okay, you look like shit." Evan smirked.
"But you really need your rest… And you still look pretty even though you look like shit."
"Pretty shit." Derek punched their arms.
"Anyway, aside from the whole Shane thing, we've got a French test coming up this Friday and you need to rest to study properly."
"Not to mention the other subjects."
Derek nodded. "You're right… Ugh, the first week after break is such a bitch."
They laughed, the first time he heard them laugh since the news. It was very refreshing. When Hanover was just a few steps away, they gave him a hug and kissed the top of his head. "Take care, little Rose."
"Wouldn't want you to wilt."
"You too." Derek chuckled. "Not the wilting, I mean… You know." They smiled once again before turning to walk back to Windsor. He turned back to Hanover and entered. All of his dorm mates were talking about the latest news.
"Derek, how's Blaine and the others?" Justin asked.
"I think they're trying to drown Blaine in food. Reed's a bit hysterical right now… But Kurt'll talk to him. Dwight's looking for Shane using a map and a pendulum." Derek answered nonchalantly.
"Wow, all that is happening right now?"
"I expect them to… I mean, I've got sources." He yawned. "I'm sleepy… I'll go to sleep now." Terry walked with him to the room. His friend really didn't look very good at the moment and feared that something was wrong.
