A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to update, I swear I kept meaning to, I just forget sometimes… Anyway, Bug and I have been working really hard on this, so hopefully that means that now I'll update more often… It's holidays too, so that helps a little. So, enjoy, and review. Let me know how it's going, and if we should keep going!
-Scottie

That night, in their dormroom, a question was brought up.

"Shelby?" Laura asked as her upside down head became visible over the side of her bunk, peering down into Shelby's. It had been her turn for the bottom bunk tonight.

"What." Shelby was awake, wondering how she could've handled that situation better earlier that day.

"How do I get Otto- I mean, well, any boy in general..Aye, let me start over. How does a girl get a guy to notice her?"

Shelby grinned. "You said Otto."

"I did not!" She persisted, ruffled. "Just answer my question."

Shelby didn't honestly know. She was still trying to figure that one out.

"Shelby?" Shelby looked up again. "An answer, please?"

"Um." Shelby struggled to figure out what to say.

"How have you got a guy to notice you before?" Shelby was taken aback.

"What?"

"Don't tell me you've never had a boyfriend before." Shelby opened and closed her mouth a few times.

"You HAVEN'T!" Laura grinned.

Well, Shelby hadn't. She didn't know what to say about that.

"When the right guy is interested, maybe I'll let him date me," she said firmly, thinking of Wing. Laura echoed her thoughts.

"Wing." She grinned.

Shelby stuck out her tongue.

The next day, Otto was getting beat up again by Wing's attempts to teach him martial arts. Of course, the girls gathered around. This time Laura brought the popcorn.

She winced as Otto got blown onto the floor, once again. "Aye, I sure hope he's alright from that."

"Are you kidding?" Shelby grinned. "He's be bruising from that one for weeks!" She silently gawked at how strong Wing was. Laura giggled a little bit, and Shelby rolled her eyes.

"Gimme some of that popcorn, why don't you?" Laura grinned, and handed it over.

"At least I admitted it."

"Admitted what?"

"That I like Otto." Shelby grinned.

"You actually hadn't until then, but there you go." Laura grinned.

"Your turn!" Shelby raised an eyebrow.
"My turn?"

"To admit it." Shelby grinned.

"Not a chance in hell," Shelby looked back to the boys. "You know, I think I might just wing it now." Laura smiled.

"So you DO admit it!" Shelby shook her head.

"NO!" Wing and Otto looked over to the girls.

"Is everything OK?" Otto called out. Laura opened her mouth.

"Uh, um," Shelby elbowed her.

"Yeah. We're just having girl time." Shelby grinned at Laura, and then turned to Wing. Her stomach dropped when she saw him staring at her.

"Uh, um." Laura elbowed Shelby this time.

"Good fighting Wing. Maybe you should try not to beat Otto up too much though." Otto smiled.

"I'm fine, trust me." He puffed his chest out, and started strutting around like an idiot. Laura and Shelby cracked up laughing, watching Wing sneak up behind him, and kick his feet out from under him. He hit the ground and groaned, and the two girls started laughing even more. Otto sat up, and joined in the laughter.

Today, thought Shelby, Today I'm going to ask Wing.

She wasn't sure what to ask, though, so that was her topic of thought all through the day.

"Shelby? Shelby? SHELBY!"

"Huh?"

She looked over to the very frizzled Laura Brand, who seemed to be trying to get her attention.
"Did you here anything I said?" she asked in frustration.

"Nope," Shelby answered cheerfully. Thinking about Wing was way cooler than anything she had to listen to.
"Ugh!" Laura pounded and stomped away. Shelby couldn't help thinking, what's her problem?, but she knew perfectly well that she'd given Laura a hard time these last few days.

It was lunch when she worked up the courage. I'm the wraith, she said in her head, and Wraiths don't hesitate.

"Hey, Wing?" her voice was timid, so she tried again, stronger this time. "Wing?"

He turned around and strangely, his eyes widened. A strange warmth seemed to spread over Shelby. She had to stifle a giggle. She took a breath. "I challenge you to a grappling match after lunch." she put on the most confident, competitive grin she could muster. He returned it with his infatuating smile. Shelby thought she might melt in a puddle right there.

On the other side of the table, Laura sat next to Otto, the pair of them analysing a detailed blueprint of a design Professor Pike had come up with to reverse the effect his last machine had had on Ms. Leon.

"But the phase-shift is aligned too far over, and the beams will cross, which could be catastrophic." Laura reached to point to the phase-shifts, at the same time as Otto did. Laura opened her mouth.

"But if they're centered-" When Otto's hand landed on top of hers, she froze, and blushed a shade of red almost matching her hair. Otto's hand was resting on top of Laura's and neither of them spoke briefly, until Otto withdrew his hand. Laura continued.

"If the phase-shifts are centered on the frontal lobe, then they won't cross, and the mind shift should be correct." Otto frowned.

"But-" This time, he was interrupted by Nigel.

"Is this seat taken?" Nigel asked quietly. Otto shook his head, and Laura smiled at him. From that point on, Laura and Otto's conversation was almost non-existent, and every time Laura heard Otto's voice or his laugh, she began to blush. Suddenly, the bell went, and Laura was snapped from her semi-day-dream.

"Come on, Brand, we've got a stealth and evasion class to get to." Laura sighed, and grudgingly stood up, Shelby dragging Laura along, chatting excitedly about something Laura wasn't interested in.

"Laura? Laura? LAURA!" Laura was snapped back to reality.

"The phase-shift IS aligned right." Shelby raised an eyebrow.

"What? Laura, we have to go to class, you walked straight past it." Laura blushed.

"Sorry." Shelby grinned.

"You were thinking about Otto again, weren't you." Laura frowned.

"No." Shelby grinned.

"So when's the date?" Laura narrowed her eyes, and stepped towards Shelby.

"When's yours?" Shelby's face dropped.

"Uh," Laura grinned.

"There we go, problem solved." Shelby frowned again, and punched Laura playfully in the arm.

Shelby took in a deep breath, looking down into the canyon, above which they were going to grapple.

"Okay," She said, turning to Wing. He looked positively stunning in shorts and a black T-shirt. "Here's the plan. It'll be best two out of three. While one of us goes, the other one times them. The fastest one wins. You're going first."

"What, you're afraid?" he cocked an eyebrow.

"No!" Shelby exclaimed, poking him in the stomach. He poked her back, which gave her shivers.
"Go," she said, grinning, pushing him toward the canyon. "Oh, yeah, you'll need these, I suppose, " she said, handing him two grapplers.

"Just might," He said, his eyebrow still cocked, as if trying to solve a difficult problem. He walked ever so gracefully onto the starting platform, hit the grappler trigger, and swung. Shelby started the timer and held her breath. The swiftness of his grappling was enough to take away breath. He jumped down onto the finish platform and took a bow. Shelby stopped the timer and applauded. 12.7 seconds on the clock.

That's how it was for a while. On the last round, Wing's average time was 10.8 seconds, and Shelby's was 13.5. She was determined to beat him. If she could get her time under 10 seconds, she would.

Shelby lifted her chin as she passed Wing. He couldn't help but smile.

She looked down into the gorge, to the deep water that lay below. Okay. I'm going to win this.

She took off at an alarming rate, too fast even for Shelby. Her heart beat wildly. This is too fast! She began to panic. Too fast, too fast...

"Chink!" her grappler, instead of sinking into the stone, just bounced off the rocky ceiling. Going too fast had disrupted the rhythm that had to be maintained to grapple; it didn't have enough time or was shot at the right angle to sink in.

Shelby screamed. She was no longer aware of the school, of Wing, of anything; just her and the terrifying drop between her and the water.

She tried her other grappler, to see if she could get another bearing, but she was too far away; the grappler stretched to its limit about 6 feet away from the ceiling.

Dropping, she tried to scream again, but her throat had closed up. From her first day at HIVE, she had always been able to get across the gorge- she had never fallen before. Not in grappling.

"Ching!" The sound of another grappler hitting the ceiling echoed through the walls, and-

"Ugh!" a body slammed into her falling one; an arm slid around her waist, and they swung.

He had to swing with one grappler because his other arm was around Shelby, but Wing had trained in one armed grappling.

They got to the platform, and he shakily let her go. They both fell to the ground, catching their breath.

"It's a good thing you're so light," Wing managed to say. Her cheeks got hot, and Shelby realized she was blushing.

Laura sighed, and rubbed her temples. She had been in the library all afternoon, she had left after Shelby had bailed on her to go and do some grappler training. Laura was sitting at a desk, pouring over a blueprint for a new defence system for a Shroud. The lights in the library began to flicker, a hint from the librarians that it was almost time for curfew. Laura sighed, rubbed her eyes, and stood up. She picked up a book she had taken from a shelf, a book about advanced technological systems, and then she spun to leave. As she hurried out of the library, someone tapped her on her shoulder. She spun around, and automatically aimed for a jab to the ribs. The person behind her tripped, and their leg caught on Laura's leg. She fell to the ground, but was saved the fall by landing on top of the other person. Both groaned, and Laura managed to roll off the other person, and sat up.

"Hi, Laura." The voice was familiar.

"Otto?" He grinned.

"What's up?" Laura frowned.

"Otto, here isn't the place for talking, curfew is in-" She flipped her blackbox open. "20 seconds." Otto swore. He stood up, and pulled Laura to her feet.

"Run!" The pair of them sprinted as fast as they could to their dorm block, but when they arrived, the door was sealed shut.

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" Otto shouted. Laura sighed. There was a noise from around the hallway, and Otto and Laura flattened themselves face first into the door.

"What are you two doing out?" A guard shouted. They turned around.

"Uh, we-" The guard didn't ask for an explanation, he aimed his sleeper, and fired twice, the bolts of electricity hitting Laura in the chest. She crumpled to the floor, and Otto bent over and tried to help her. He turned back to the guard, and opened his mouth, but there was already a bolt of electricity was already on its way.

"The pair of you can spend the night in the hospital wing tonight." The guard reached for his intercom.

"This is Roy, please send backup to dorm block 7. We've had some students out past curfew. Repeat, send back up, over."

"Roger that, Roy. Back up on their way, over."

"Thanks Chief, This is Roy, over and out." He put his intercom back, and looked to the two students. The girl was crumpled into a ball, and the boy had fallen over her, almost protectively. He laughed, and separated them.

"Have a nice sleep, kiddies." He smiled, and walked away, the backup already passing him through a corridor...