Heya, everyone! ^_^ This, my friends, is the second-to-last chapter of BIAP. *wipes away tear* But uber-kudos to B who was mah 200th reviewer! *glomps B, throws confetti, hands out promised pictures* *beams* All righty, kids, on with the chapter! XD

Disclaimers: Belongs to Disney Newsies does. Belong to their owners the OCs do. Own Mayfly, Risk, and Swerve Sita does. Talk like Yoda Sita will. Mm.

Warnings: Eh, the usual. You know. Slash, language, yadda, yadda, yadda

#This chapter is dedicated to B and Shortie because they rock my world. ^_^#

But I'm a Prep!

Chapter Nine

"Isaac Cliffton, wake up now!"

Blearily, I cracked open my eye and was greeted by the last person I'd ever want to see glaring down at me first thing in the morning: Medda Larkson.

Of course, Itey, Bebop, and Slosh were staring at me, too, but they didn't annoy me quite as much.

"Whadda ya want?" I murmured sleepily.

"I want you to get dressed now," Medda snarled. I blinked, finally realizing that something wasn't right.

"What'd I do?" Medda stared at me like I was a moron.

Itey grinned. "Did you and Race have fun at your little sleepover?"

My heart stopped.

"I'll expect to see you in my office in five minutes," Medda said coldly. "Elizabeth, Kylea, get out of the boys' dorm." She clopped briskly out of the room. Slosh and Bebop, after shooting me sympathetic looks, trudged out after her.

I looked around before realizing that Skittery and Race were already gone before glaring at Itey.

"You fucking bastard... you fucking jealous bastard."

"Jealous?"

"Yeah. Jealous that he's fucking me and not you."

He faltered, just for a second. "Yeah, well, you're the one getting fucked over." He smirked at me before walking out of the room.

I clenched my fists and seriously contemplated killing the little bastard and hiding his body. But I settled for pulling on actual clothes and walking to Medda's office.

She was waiting for me when I walked in.

"Sit." I sat. She leaned forward in her chair and placed her chin in her hands. "Isaac, do you realize what this entails?"

"Yes, Miss Medda."

"I have to remove you from the program now, and your father has already stated that you can't go back home. You're on your own now. Is that clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good." She sighed and paused for a second like she was making some kind of huge decision. She finally glanced back up at me. "But, listen, I really hate to do this, Isaac, so I'm offering you a deal."

I blinked. That didn't sound like Medda.

"I'll allow you to graduate with your classmates if you agree to partner with Kathleen in Step Five."

I raised an eyebrow. "It depends. What exactly does Step Five involve?"

Medda smirked. "Simulated Sexual Lifestyle."

I stared at her.

Really, that was all I could even consider doing.

"Let me get this straight," I said slowly after a long pause. "You're going to make us have sex with girls?!"

"Not actual sex," Medda contradicted. "You're underage! You'll all wear bodysuits and just go through the motions."

I glared at her. "And why exactly do you want me with Ireland?"

She didn't answer, but at that point, it didn't really matter. I'd figured it out myself. It suddenly made sense: how Ireland always happened to have work to do that involved me, how I would sometimes see Medda eyeing me up...

She was trying to set me up with her frickin' niece.

I stared her straight in the eye. "There's no way I'm doing it, Medda."

Her smile froze on her face. "And why not?"

"I'd be lying. I'd be lying to you and to Ireland and to Race and, most importantly, to myself. I've been lying ever since I got here. And, to tell you the truth, I'm really sick of lying."

She stopped pretending to smile then. "Then you're out."

"Then I'm out." She glared at me and pointed towards the door.

I left to pack my things.

And I actually felt pretty damn good.

*~*~*

"She's talking to Racetrack."

I turned to face Mush.

"Is she?" He nodded.

"I think she's offering him the same deal that she offered you." I rolled my eyes.

"He'll never take it."

"I know. You two care about one another too much." He smiled wistfully and glanced over at David, who was giving the Doghouse a fresh coat of paint. "I wish he cared about me like that."

I blinked at Mush's sudden removal of his theoretical mask. "How do you know he doesn't?"

"If he really cared about me, do you think he'd be doing this?"
"Point taken, I suppose." He smiled and cocked his head towards the V.I.P dorm.

"Go see what they're saying. It's what I'd do."

"You're not as stupid as you pretend to be, are you?"

Mush just shrugged, smiled, and walked off.

So I snuck over to the window and peeked in. But, before I had a chance to start listening, the door opened.

Medda walked out first. She was chatting amiably with the man who followed her, who she called "Mr. Snyder." Racetrack trudged after him with his arm around a little girl. She couldn't have been more than nine or ten, and she had long, freakishly straight black hair and big glasses. I felt the urge to pinch her cheeks.

That's when Medda saw me standing there and smirked.

"Well, then, Mr. Snyder, it's all settled," she said loudly. "Dean will partner with Kathleen in Step Five."

My jaw practically hit the ground. I felt like I wanted to throw up.

I finally locked eyes with Race, and, honestly, it didn't look like he was doing any better. He kinda looked like he wanted to cry. And kick himself.

"Can I tell him goodbye?"

"No." Medda immediately went back to chatting away with this Mr. Snyder guy, so Race jogged over to me, the little girl in tow.

"Blink-"

"How could you do this to me?" The little girl blinked up at me before stepping forward and offering me her hand.

"Hello," she stated quietly with a small smile. "My name is Faith Avilene DePano, but you may call me Avi. Everyone else does."

I complete forgot the fact that I was completely and totally pissed/hurt about what Race did and took her hand. Believe me, if you were in my place, you'd have done the same, no matter how pissed you were. The kid had a calming effect.

"Hi, Avi, I'm Isaac, but you can call me Blink." She frowned and looked at my eye patch.

"It seems as though that would be offensive."

"It isn't."

"All right, then, I shall call you Blink." Racetrack grinned at me over her head.

"Avi, go talk to Mr. Snyder for a little while, okay?"

"All right. It was a pleasure to meet you." She smiled at me before skipping off.

"She's adorable," I said. "And smart."

"Smartest damn kid I've ever seen. She's like a sister to me. And she's why I did it." I looked at him, and he sighed. "That guy over there? He runs the place where orphans like me stay. Snyder is his name. Biggest asshole that ever lived. He said that having a gay kid at the house would ruin his rep with the state, so he said that if I didn't get cured, he'd boot me. And he hates Avi, so he'd boot her, too." He stared at me, pleading with his eyes. "I can't do it to her, Blink, I just can't."

I looked at the ground and didn't say anything. But I did understand. Sorta.

"Dean, come here. Isaac, get off of my property."

I headed back to the dorm room to pack my things without giving Racetrack another glance.

At least I knew where I could go.

*~*~*

It was dark by the time I got to the Lodging House.

I glanced up at the second floor before setting my suitcase on the porch and ringing the doorbell.

The mail slot popped open and a pair of green eyes stared at me.

"What do you want?" a girl's voice asked.

"Let me talk to Mr. Kloppman."

"Who're... hey, you're from True Directions!"

"Well... yeah..."

The mail slot closed. I groaned in frustration and proceeded to pound on the door. "Come on, not any more I'm not!"

The door opened, and I found myself staring at Specs and Dutchy.

"Blink, what are you doing here?" Specs asked, confused.

"I... erm... well..."

"You got kicked out?"

"Pretty much, yeah." They shared a glance before smiling at me.

"Come on in, kid. Sorry about Fidget," Dutchy said, gesturing to a chubby green-eyed girl that looked awfully familiar.

"You threw rocks at me," she pouted.

I blinked. "Oh! Oh, yeah, wow... sorry about that." She blinked and beamed at me.

"S'okay!" She giggled wildly and scampered up a long flight of stairs.

Specs smiled apologetically at me. "She's a little weird at times."

"Aren't we all?"

"Well, hello, there!" I blinked and glanced up.

Mr. Kloppman had suddenly appeared at the foot of the stairs, still dressed in his camaflouge suit. He beamed broadly at me and tapped his cane on the floor.

I could already tell that this was probably the coolest old man I'd ever meet.

"Mr. Kloppman, this is Blink," Dutchy explained gesturing to me. "The bitch kicked him out." Mr. Kloppman's smile didn't falter.

"Now, now, Dutchy, 'bitch' isn't politically correct. Let's refer to Miss Larkson as... 'socially challenged.' That sounds about right." He held out his hand. "Maurice Kloppman. Very pleased to meet you, Blink."

"Nice to meet you, too." His smile, if possible, got bigger.

"Now, I'm assuming that you're searching for a place to stay, right?"

"Right."

"Well, it just so happens that we have an open room!"

CRASH!

I jumped about ten feet in the air and managed to trip over a rainbow-painted end table and land flat on my ass. Specs, Dutchy, and Mr. Kloppman, however, didn't seem phased at all.

"And that would be the sound of Rebel and Raven attempting to smash each other's drum sets," Kloppman said, shaking his head and looking generally amused. "Excuse me, Blink. Boys, why don't you grab someone and have them show him the ropes?" He tipped his hat at me before scurrying up the stairs.

"And don't even think about asking me," a familiar voice stated. "I've got too much crap to do as it is."

My eyes widened as I focused on the husky brunette walking briskly across the room with a large box filled with candles in her arms.

"Heels?"

She stopped walking and stared at me.

Then, she dropped the box.

"Blink?! Holy shit, what the fuck are you doing here?!" Surprisingly, she didn't have the pissed-off undertone that I was used to hearing.

"Medda kicked me out."

"You fucked Racetrack, didn't you?"

I didn't answer, but I did turn a lovely shade of red.

She smirked. "I knew you two could only last so long without going at it like rabbits. Listen, I've got to go bring this box to some lady Kloppman knows. But I'll grab Snitch to come show you around."

"He's here, too?!"

"Of course he's here. SNITCH! C'MERE!" Heels gave me the closest thing to a smile that I'd ever seen on her face before trudging out the door, mumbling about how she hated candles.

"What do you- BLINK!" Snitch grinned wildly from the top of the stairs before racing down and practically tackling me. And being tackled by someone as tall as Snitch is not on my every day "to do" list.

But I didn't particularly mind.

"How have you been?"

"Oh, this place is frickin' heaven compared to TD. Mr. Kloppman really wants to help us, you know? He's not doing it for money or for respect or anything like that. He's just doing it because he cares about us." He continued to grin, showing off his abnormally large teeth. "It's nice to have an adult care about you."

"Your dad does."

"He's obligated to. He's my dad. Mr. Kloppman isn't forced to give a damn about me." He cocked his head towards the stairs. "C'mon, I'll show you around. You can just leave your stuff down here. We'll bring it up later." He started to jog up the bright red stairs. I looked around the house for a second and realized that it was splattered with just about every color of the rainbow - except pink or blue.

Kloppman is a genius.

"Girls' rooms are on the right, boys' rooms are on the left," he said cheerily. "Everyone gets their own rooms, and you can decorate it however you want. We can basically do what we want, but Kloppman likes us to be back here for about one. We don't have to sleep or anything, he just doesn't want us out too late."

"Sounds good to me."

"This is basically what the girls' rooms look like." He opened one of the doors on the right to reveal, pretty much, a disaster area. Clothes strewn everywhere, books and papers all over the ground, and three girls rocking out to a random song that was blaring from a bright orange stereo.

"And if you ever said you missed me, then don't say you never lied! Tell all the English boys you meet 'bout the Amer- whoa, girls, we've got company." The short girl in the center immediately stopped singing and turned to face me, her short, curly, red-blond hair bobbing like crazy. I vaguely recognized her as the Almighty Wielder of the Flying Drumsticks. She frowned, her green eyes narrowing. "Aren't you a TD freak?"

"Lay off him, Shot," the girl I recognized as Fidget said, hopping from foot to foot and beaming brightly. "He's a newbie."

"I know him!" I blinked at the last girl whose long auburn hair was yanked up in a messy ponytail. I recognized her as Raven, the bartender. "He's a friend of a friend." She grinned at me. "He's a cool kid." The short one nodded and offered me her hand, smiling slightly. "I'm Kristen Hunter. People call me Shot."

"I'm Blink."

"Hey, kids, Kloppman wants us downstairs for dinner!" Yet another girl appeared in the doorway. Her near-black hair was wet and hung limply to the middle of her back. She was grinning like a five-year-old. She raised an eyebrow at me. "Hi!" she cried cheerily. "I don't know who you are!"

I grinned. "I'm Blink. Just got here."

"Hi, Blink! Eat our food!" She gave me another cheery smile before racing down the hall.

"That's Rebel," Raven explained. "She's not quite right in the head."

"None of us are quite right in the head."

"Thank you, Shot. You've met pretty much all the girls, except for Stutter, who's sick. She'll be in her room all night. Boy-wise, you've still gotta meet Snoddy, Risky, Swerve, and Twitch-"

"Maybe he shouldn't meet Twitch," Shot interjected as the girls began to lead me towards the stairs. "I don't want him to get raped his first day here."

Then, they all started giggling.

Girls. They're all the same.

I descended the stairs surrounded by a gaggle of tittering girls and wondered why there was such a division between straight guys and gay guys when straight girls and lesbians were basically the same.

*~*~*

"He's so CUTE! OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMY-"

"Twitch, for God's sake, he's in the other room, not across the country! He can still hear you!"

"... shut up, Snoddy."

I blushed slightly as Twitch, a semi-lanky guy with messy brown hair and braces, and Snoddy, a pretty normal-looking guy with blue eyes and a constant runny nose trudged out of the kitchen with a stack of rainbow-printed plates. Twitch immediately set down his stack and bounced to the seat next to me.

"Hiya!" he chirped.

"Leave him alone, Twitch."

"But Riiiiisk-"

"Leave him alone." Twitch pouted and started poking at his potatoes.

I think that out of all the people I'd met that day, Risk was my favorite. He looked like one of those stereotypical pretty boys that you'd find in an anime: long-ish black hair, big blue eyes, those huge round glasses that tend to make people look smart. I'd realized right off the bat that he was pretty much everyone's surrogate big brother, even though he was younger than a lot of the people there.

His boyfriend, Swerve, sat at his side and ignored me. I'd also learned very quickly that Swerve was kind of a jerk.

"So, everyone," Mr. Kloppman began once everyone had gotten food. "I'm sure you've all met Blink. Don't be too horrible to him." He beamed as everyone laughed quietly. "Anyway, I was thinking that a few of you could take him to the bar, get him comfortable, you know. Let him have a little fun before we find him a suitable school."

I blinked. This man was amazing.

"I'll go!" Snitch offered. Snoddy and Heels also offered to go with me, the latter coming as quite a surprise.

So, as soon as we finished dinner, I headed upstairs with them to change and get ready to go. Unfortunately, instead of feeling all free and whatnot like I'd expected to, I felt myself getting more and more depressed.

"You okay?" Snitch finally asked after a few minutes.

I sighed. "He was supposed to come with me. It... I can't believe he did this to me."

Snitch frowned and looked generally confused. "Who?"

"Race."

"You and Race?! I knew it! I so knew it! He had a thing for you from the start!" I blushed like crazy as Snoddy started to laugh. "But seriously... it gets better. After a while, I mean. When I first got here, it was like hell without Skitts." His smile turned sad. "It still is. But it's not as bad as it used to be." He sighed. "How did he look when you left?"

"Like shit. He misses you like crazy."

"Hey, come on," Snoddy said gently. "No more depressing stuff, okay? 'Cause then I'll jump on the bandwagon and start ranting about Swifty. And, believe me, you don't want to hear me rant."

My eyes widened. "You're Swifty's boyfriend?"

"He talks about me?"

"Well, he refers to you as his 'outside contact,' but, yeah, constantly!" Snoddy grinned like an idiot.

"It's good to know he's still thinking about me." Snoddy smiled slightly to himself. "Come on. Let's go get Heels and have ourselves a party."

With that our odd, little trio headed out the door.

*~*~*

We got to the Cocksucker pretty quickly. It was still early (about ten), so the big crowd hadn't come in yet.

I did notice that Chaser was working behind the bar though.

"Got booted a few hours after you did," she told me sulkily. "Medda's such a Nazi. I hope Speed will be okay."

I stared at the floor. "This fucking sucks."

Heels raised an eyebrow at me. "What?"

"Everything. Everyone's getting kicked out, and we're all getting separated."

I don't know what came over me then, but I stormed out the back of the bar. I just got so incredibly pissed off at the injustice of it all that I had to get out.

Not like going out by the dumpsters helped me any, since it reminded me of Race and our first kiss. But I didn't want to stalk back inside, so I just sat on the broken bench next to the trash.

They all followed me. Snitch sat next to me, Heels leaned against the dumpster, Chaser plopped herself on the floor, and Snoddy stood and tossed bottle caps at the fence.

"I can't take this any more." We all glanced at Snitch. "I've gotta do something. Something, anything, anything at all. But I can't leave Skittery by himself."

"I miss Mandy." Believe me, that is a hell of a lot coming from Heels, who tried her hardest to show no emotions other than those of anger or haughtiness.

"I don't want to just sit here," Chaser stated firmly, her green eyes flashing.

"But what can we do?" Snoddy questioned. "I mean, I haven't seen Swifty in months, but we're just kids. What can we possibly do?"

I sat there, trying to think of an answer. And, honestly, I thought for a second that he had me stumped.

Until an idea hit me like a sack of anvils.

I turned to face my friends with a slightly evil smirk.

"It all depends. What are you willing to do?"

They all looked at each other. Then, they looked at me.

And I told them exactly what I planned on doing in order to get our respective boy/girlfriends back, and, possibly, if we were lucky, take down Medda Larkson and True Directions forever.

End Chapter Nine

*wipes sweat off of forehead* Well, that was a workout. This chapter is... okay, in my opinion. Not spectacular, but okay. And it never would have gotten written without the consistent prodding of the NJL. Specifically, Shortie. *loves you guys* Anyway. No time for individual SOs, since I'm going to be kicked off the computer very, very soon. But keep in mind that I love and ADORE you all! And also, don't forget, the next chapter is the last one. *cries* I'm gonna miss this fic. *wipes away tear* Anyway, many thanks to the following:

Twitch (x2)

J-Sparrow

Soaker

Thistle

Gryffin

B to the "izzle"

V-channy-chan (x2)

Aura

Fidget

Twiggy

Tabbers

Artemis

Ireland

Nakaia Aidan-Sun

Colleen

Shortie McShortsizzle

Gothic Author

Marigold

Gangsta Videl

Demon

Anne

Aguachica

Stagerooni (x2)

OneConfusedNewsie

Omnikins

Saturniia

Froggles

H.W.O

Like I said, last chapter next time, my loves. So, review, pretty please? *sniffles*

UberGoth!Itey-Muse: ... GOD, you're ugly.

... *tazes him* Shaddup. *beams*