It had taken a few weeks, but the song was finally coming together, and it sounded amazing. Ned kept the solo, and he got better every time he sang it. Sebastian didn't even mind taking a back seat, because even though his part alone sounded weird, when they came together they were great. It was amazing being surrounded by all those different sounds, like he was being enveloped by them, swimming in them. And the whole time, he got to watch Ned. It was a different boy to the one he'd seen about to audition a month ago. His hands weren't shaking, his voice wasn't faltering, he had the biggest smile on his face, and seeing it made the rest of them smile too. Including Sebastian. He'd started to concentrate more on just trying to be his friend than anything else. It was refreshing how innocent he was, how he didn't have an agenda, wasn't trying to beat anyone. Ned beamed and the smirking, smug Seb disappeared. It was really hard to scheme and plot when there was a kid with big blue eyes grinning and singing at you. He stopped thinking about how he was standing, what his face was doing, and beamed back. Sometimes just watching the back of Ned's head would make him screw up his steps mid-performance, but the others didn't get angry with him any more. They just nudged each other and smiled as they saw Sebastian changing in front of them, all because of Ned.

Every day they didn't have official practise, Ned would come into his room to work on the song, or to think about other songs, or to do Chemistry, or Geometry, or English. They rarely got anything done. They just talked, sometimes until they could see the sun come up. Most of the other boys went home at weekends, meaning they'd have the school pretty much to themselves. One Saturday, at the start of October, Sebastian was in Ned's room for the first time. Until now he'd been making Ned come to him, but he needed help with his Biology homework. It had taken him a while to find the room, but he couldn't text him to check where it was. It felt mean to point out the fact that he'd never been there, a month into their... Whatever it was.

"I don't get it. Why?"

"Why not?"

"Ned, I don't think that's really going to fly. Why would anybody want to do it?"

"Well, if you had some jellyfish genes and some pig embryos lying around, wouldn't it be a waste not to put them together?"

"Right, they just had them there, doing nothing, and they thought 'Hey, wonder if we can make pigs glow in the dark?' It doesn't make any sense."

"They don't glow all over, Sebastian. That would look silly. Just their snouts and feet."

"Right! I'm such an idiot! Thank you for showing me the light – well, the luminous pig-" Ned shoved him, almost spilling coffee all over his desk.

"Well if I'm so stupid, why did you come here begging for my help?" Sebastian didn't have an answer. He looked at Ned, his eyes drifting down to his lips for a millisecond, before looking at his laptop again.

"Come on, you, uh, you still haven't answered my question. Why would they make pigs glow? And not just because they can, I mean, what do the pigs get out of it?"

"I don't know. I guess it's disarming for predators and stuff. I mean, imagine you were a fox and you were trying to hunt it. You're totally ready for a regular, delicious pig that you can catch in a heartbeat, and then it turns around and BAM! Its snout's glowing. And its trotters. Wouldn't that freak you out? The fox would be all 'No way, I can't handle this freaky glow-pig, it's too special and perfect and awesome, I can't possibly eat it now!', and it would just want to hang out with the pig and snuggle with it all day." Sebastian burst out laughing.

"You'd make a terrible fox."

"But I'd be a great glow-pig. Admit it. If you were a fox, you'd just want to cuddle me until my shiny nose popped off." Sebastian kept laughing and rolled his eyes until they landed back on Ned.

"Sure. I bet you'd be an irresistible little pig." He shook his head, somewhat unconvincingly, and looked around to avoid Ned's gaze. "I-I like your room. It's weird seeing all the family pictures everywhere. You must miss them."

"Yeah. I mean, I kind of like being here at weekends. You know, because it's quieter. They just can't afford to keep shipping me back and forth. It's too far. But I get tonnes of work done without anyone distracting me." Sebastian managed to sneak in a look at him while he was staring at the photos. He was smiling, as always, but he looked sad. He did want to snuggle him. As a friend. "What about you? How come you're here? Are your parents far away too?"

"Not exactly. An hour, maybe? They just... They don't really have time for me. It's easier if I just stay here. It was the same in Paris. That's why I'm so much better at French than you: I got a lot of practice when I was there. They pretty much let me do my own thing. It was cool."

"I'd hate that. I mean, weekends here are OK, but in a different country? Never seeing my family? That would suck. I thought my birthday was bad enough, but they still sent gifts and a card, and everyone took turns calling me. Even my niece, and she only knows three words. At least one of them is Ned." Sebastian's head fell.

"Sounds like you guys are really close." Ned realised how much it hurt him to talk about his parents.

"Oh, well, you know. I didn't mean to – I'm sorry-" He tried to put a hand on Sebastian's back, but he shook him off. He started to collect his books together.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

"No, Sebastian, wait-"

"You're right. It does suck. You know what? I actually think I've got this. I'm gonna go finish it in my room."

"You don't have to-"

"I want to. I want to go. I-I might see you tomorrow. I just wanna go. Bye."

Ned sat helpless at the desk as Seb rushed out. He thought about going after him, but he didn't want to make things worse. He'd call him later, or go and see him. Right now, he needed space.