A/N: Well this is chapter 2, sorry it's quite long but I thought i'd get it out there now before my mind wanders and I forget what i'm doing. Hope you enjoy it, please review :)
The cafeteria filled up quickly soon after the bell rang, the warblers had already marked their territory and had left their bags and belongings around a large table and proceeded to join the growing lunch line. Today they were serving tater-tots, much to everyone's delight as usually the food served at Dalton was quite bland and ordinary, which was to explain why the behaviour (mostly of the lower years) was quite over-enthusiastic this lunchtime.
Nick Duval waited patiently alone at that back of elongated queue, he hadn't quite gotten to the front as quick enough as the other warblers had, and it wasn't in his nature to push in. It was okay though, Nick wasn't particularly a big fan of the tots, unlike the other warblers who were now piling their plates high with the glowing potato balls. He couldn't understand people's fascination with them, they were merely just like french fries rolled in a ball, but he often thought the cooks had added some other ingredient that caused the students to become addicted and dependant on them, but maybe those thoughts were down to him and Jeff watching too much Doctor Who.
Boy he wished Jeff would hurry up, he felt a bit silly standing on his own in the never-ending lunch queue, people must be thinking that the warblers had abandoned him or that he didn't have friends in the first place. None of that was true of course, the warblers loved Nick, he was a part of their family and would always will be, even if he sometimes drove Thad and David up the wall occasionally, they still loved him like a brother.
But Jeff was something else, Jeff was his best friend, he was like a non-identical twin brother to Nick, the two were literally joined at the hip, at one point they actually almost were, it was during sophomore year when Flint had played a prank on the two and had handcuffed them together whilst they were sleeping. They had been forced to spend every second of the day together, even making excuses to the other warblers as to why they felt the need to go everywhere with the other by their side, even to the bathroom. The rest of the school were oblivious to what was going on, they were so used to seeing Nick and Jeff walking arm-in-arm through the school that they wouldn't have noticed if the two looked as if they had their hands entwined together.
Yes Jeff meant a lot to Nick, for he was more than just a room-mate, a best friend or a fellow warbler; he was Nick's secret crush.
The blonde was always there for Nick whenever something happened, the two used to share in their disappointment when they failed to move up from the audition round for the chance at a warblers solo. He was there whenever Nick got sick, and Nick would then carry out his duties of nursing Jeff whenever he was hit by the same nasty virus. Jeff was there for Nick when he went through a pretty heated break-up with his ex Helen, a girl from their sister school Crawford. Nick hadn't told Jeff all the details, but he had made it pretty obvious that he was not okay with being dumped when he returned and had pretty much dived into the blonde's arms and had begun sobbing hysterically. Jeff had just held him, muttering soothing words into the boys ears until he eventually calmed down and was ready to open up and tell him what had happened. In all fairness, Jeff knew it wouldn't have lasted, Nick was too good for her and Jeff really didn't take a liking to Helen upon their first meeting, she was too much of a posh snob and had pretty much just used Nick as a way to get her parents off of her back.
Unfortunately for Nick, he had developed a genuine interest in the girl and had therefore played into her trap. Yes when he had found out the truth devastated wasn't the word, but at least he had Jeff there awaiting him with open arms. Having Jeff just holding him, embracing him in his arms was more than enough comfort, for pretty soon after, the events from earlier that day had been forgotten and Nick had just decided he should just get over it and never trust a Crawford girl again.
Nick had always felt comfortable around Jeff, more comfortable than with any other of the warblers. He knew there was something there, the way Jeff's eyes sparkled whenever he sung made Nick's heart swell, he was just so breathtaking and beautiful, Nick couldn't help the fluttering feeling in his stomach whenever he watched the blonde perform. Not to mention the boy's body, man was it hot! Nick couldn't help taking a peek of Jeff's rather ripped stomach during gym class, I mean who couldn't resist getting an eyeful of the impeccable six-pack that lay under the smooth tanned skin of the tall boy.
Nick was so deep into his thoughts about his best friend that he didn't see the tall meerkat-faced boy that was Sebastian Smythe come and join him in his place in the lunch queue.
"Didn't quite get there quick enough Duval?" Sebastian said in a cool tone looking down at the smaller boy.
Nick just glanced up, reverting his attention back to reality. The line had now died down a bit, but he now realised he was stuck standing next to the captain of the warblers who had obviously just pushed past a group of freshmen in order to be next to the, what appeared, lonely, brunette.
"Uh..yeah I guess not" Nick started, looking back and forth towards the front of the line, hoping it would get a move on so he wouldn't have to endure much of Sebastian for longer.
It wasn't that he didn't like the boy, which was strange considering that was the case with the rest of the school. It wasn't that at all, the times Nick had actually had a proper conversation with the guy he had come across as alright, maybe even a tad bit friendly. Although there were obviously some unknown issues in his past that had made him the snarky, conceited figure that he was during warbler rehearsal. Not much was known about the boy, he had just arrived at Dalton earlier this year after boasting about transferring over from his life in Paris, then he had came and took over the warblers as captain – the council had been disbanded much to Thad and David's discontent but none of the boys had had the gut to challenge him about it, so the show choir group from then on had being under Sebastian's rule.
It was awkward for Nick though, out of all of the warblers, even Jeff, Sebastian had taken a particular liking to him. Nick couldn't see why though, there wasn't anything that special about him, but he was one of the few people that Sebastian made civil conversation with, without putting across any snide remarks or biting a person's head off. It was becoming too much of an interest though recently, as there had been a few times during practise where Nick had felt Sebastian's strong arms slither their way around his waist, causing the smaller boy to jump and lose track of where he was. It was starting to become rather annoying actually, Nick assumed Sebastian was gay, the others had already suspected this and had labelled him a slut after watching him frivolously flirt with Nick and a few other boys at his own will. To cut a long story short, Sebastian Smythe wasn't the most favourited person at Dalton.
The line had pretty much subsided by the time Nick had reached the front and had picked up some food and went to join the rest of the warblers at the table. Jeff was already sat down, motioning for him to come and sit in the empty space next to him. Nick hadn't noticed the blonde come in, nor did he notice him collect any food, Jeff was a mystery sometimes, but the shorter boy figured it must have took some James Bond style dodging for the taller boy to scramble his way to the front unnoticed.
Cameron and David had just started recovering from a laughing fit as an overly excited Trent finished telling his story about the events that happened during the history lesson. Nick couldn't help but laugh, Jeff could be too funny sometimes, through no fault of his own, the boy just seriously lacked some common sense at times, however Nick thought the sheepish smile and red tinge in the boys cheeks was just too cute, he had to resist the urge not to pull Jeff into a big hug, instead he playfully smacked the back of his head mumbling "silly" to the boy.
It was nearing the end of lunchtime by the time the warblers eventually started making conversation about anything other than being blonde, Porter's cupboard or the new french teacher in whom they had serenaded with 'Uptown Girl' not that long ago. David thought it was the moment to raise the question.
"So are you's all going on this trip then? You know the one Marshall's being banging on about all day?"
It was true, Mr. Marshall was the gym coach at Dalton Academy and once he had an idea in his head for a trip, he would not shut up about it. Last year the seniors had taken a trip to the Brazilian Jungle and had had the opportunity to try out the high ropes course, unfortunately the trip had come to an end sooner than planned when one of the boys slipped, hit a tree and broke his leg in 3 places. Every school trip that involved a subject such as gym usually ended up with something going wrong, whether that being the accommodation being broken in to (which happened not 3 years ago) or one of the boys falling dangerously ill or becoming injured. Mr. Marshall just didn't have much luck with these things.
Unfortunately for Nick and the rest of the juniors, the trip was kind of compulsory, Thad and David being the only seniors in the group had an option of whether or not they wanted to tag along. This year's plan seemed a bit more exciting; skiing in the Alberta Mountains in Canada, it beat the previous ideas for trips by a long shot.
"I've never even skied before though" Trent stated looking up at the others who had just finished discussing the new found plans for the trip.
"Ah it's easy dude" Thad said matter of factly "once you get the hang of having two long spears on your feet and travelling down a mountain at like 30mph, it's quite fun"
Obviously Thad had done it all before, Thad had done everything all before. He's family were the type to really go out there and try anything thrown at them, Nick would be surprised if the dark hared boy didn't have skydiving on his list of hobbies.
"I've been once, when I was younger, well when I say younger, I mean like a few years ago" Jeff spoke up looking up at the rest of the group
"And?" Trent replied searching for an answer in the blonde's face "what was it like?"
"fun.. until I lost one of my skis and had to convince my parents that a dude needed one of them to fish his goggles out of a tree"
The warblers looked at one another smirking, before shaking their heads and looking back at Jeff. Nick could just imagine Mr. and Mrs. Sterling's reaction to Jeff's story, boy he wished he had been there, it would have been a great moment to witness.
He quickly turned his attention away from the thoughts of Mr. Sterling spanking Jeff on the bottom with his other ski, to the rest of the group, who had begun talking amongst themselves again. He realised if he was going to go on this trip, which he mostly likely was going to, he would want the rest of the warblers to be in his group too, even Sebastian, the boy needed a chance to prove himself to the others as a decent enough guy.
"So if we get all our forms in by this time next week, there'll be a good chance we'll all be together, right?" Nick asked from one side of the table, turning round and smiling at Jeff
"Most likely, to be honest Marshall and them don't really care what groups with who, so there's no rush really" David replied smiling across at the brunette.
Phew, Nick thought. He needed to have a think about this. He was going to go, heck he had to go it was sort of compulsory, but he needed to have a think about what was involved. Skiing. He had never come close to doing anything like this before, he had always been too scared. See, ever since Nick was little and his cousin had dared him to climb up the old oak tree which resulted in him getting stuck, Nick had been afraid of heights. The thought of travelling up the mountains in those unsteady tin boxes that passed as cable cars was quite frightening, Nick had all sorts of images of disasters that could happen planted in his mind. But he couldn't be a wimp, no. The warblers would simply laugh at him, tell him to man up and stop being such a girl. He had to figure out a way to put on a brave face, for the rest of the group, for Jeff, he didn't want to ruin the trip for the other boy who was now starting to look quite excited about it.
Nick heard Jeff groan as the bell sounded for the end of lunch, the warblers quickly gathered up their things, bid farewell to one enough and began walking off in the directions of their afternoon lessons. Nick had double math next, boy was this afternoon going to drag, he thought whilst turning back and waving to Jeff who had begun to make his way to his English class.