So the beginning of this chapter is a little bit different. It's between Jeff and Harmony, and it will come up again. It was from a rp. I don't think it'll happen too often, but there's some with Jeff and Janine who is a OC, I'll explain when we get there. It's when we get into the part where Jeffy finds out about Nick, so yeah. :P

Enjoy.

Chapter 9

"Good morning Ms. Pearce," he said as he headed into the class.

Harmony looked up and tried to smile. She knew Jeff, but she was frustrated. She'd just asked the advanced class to write a paper about themselves and the results had been disgusting. It seemed Dalton Academy had saved itself by hiring her. She sighed, trying not to take this out on the poor little juniors.

"Good morning," she said, "Take your seat."

"Uh, okay," Jeff said, and sat in his normal seat. She seemed to be in a kind of pissed off mood, and he wasn't the first class of the day. Dalton's French must suck ass. He hoped she wouldn't scream and make them all stay after.

Harmony placed the essays down on her desk and began pacing the classroom. "Good morning, French three," She said. "I am Mademoiselle Harmony Pearce. And I may look young, but I'm older than I look. And I'm also no push over. Do not try me. I don't play games," she paused, staring the class down. This would be fun. "I know most of you speak some version of English. But after today, I never want to hear it again, understand? We speak French here. Notes, stories, everything. French." She walked over towards Jeff. Her first victim. "Et vous, Monsieur Sterling. Parlez-moi de vous meme." She smiled. "Tell me about yourself. En Francais."

"Uh, okay," Jeff blushed at being called out, "Salut, je suis Jeff. Je suis dans Warblers. Chanter, uh, la basse, écrire de la musique. I don't really know."

He was really terrible at French.

"Mon Dieu," Harmony exclaimed. "Did Madame Wingate teach you children anything?" she sighed. "First of all, saying 'Je suis Jeff,' is not how French people speak. Second of all, Je suis dans LES Warblers. You never have a noun without a definite article. And since this is plural, you use Les." She shook her head. She didn't want to snap at her students yet. "This is basic French One. Do I need to teach that, too?"

Jeff grimaced, "Sorry?" He didn't really know what to say. He honestly had no idea how he had even passed French 1 and 2.

He finished taking out his French binder and set his bag on the ground. He had an idea that he was going to be taking a lot of notes today.

Harmony shook her head, beginning to teach. Even after the dreadful Advanced Essays, she was worried about Jeff. His skills were not on par with the state standards. And nowhere near hers. She sighed, dismissing the class when the bell rang.

"Monsieur Sterling," She said, sitting back at her desk. "Come speak with me."

Jeff bit his lip and closed his eyes before spinning on his heel and walking back to her desk.

"Yes? Er, Oui?" he asked, hoping he wasn't in trouble. He couldn't afford to fail this class.

"Nice try," Harmony said, pursing her lips together. She was never one at being kind to humans, even when she was alive, but she could care less right now.

"I'm going to be blunt," She began, not bothering to mind your tone, "Get a tutor. Or you. will. fail." She rolled her eyes, "I'm available, or I'll set you up with an advanced students. Not that they'd be much help."

"Uh, well," he paused, trying to think of something to say. He's never been in this spot before. All the teachers loved him, and for the most part got all A's and B's. "My roommate Nick was going to help me," he suggested. Jeff was kind of nervous. He thought he'd be on her good side, and now she's just putting him on the spot.

"Nick who?" Harmony asked, curiously, "Is he in my first period? Because if he's not, then I highly doubt you'll be able to get any help. Not to my standards, at least." She sighed. She never beat around the bush. Never. But this Jeff smelled of someone and she wanted to know who.

"Nick Duval. I actually have no idea when he has French, or if he takes it. He just told me he was fluent," Jeff replied. He was going to say something along the lines of, 'He's new here,' but she was also new so it wouldn't matter.

Harmony nodded. She'd spoken to Nick once or twice, and he seemed tolerable. She sat back in her seat, picking up a few essays and searching for his name.

"Look," She said, trying to smile. "I'm not picking on you. I'm trying to help you. I would be pissing myself if I were in your shoes. I'm not an easy teacher and I don't plan on changing for a bunch of spoiled, private school preps."

Jeff wanted to make a remark about the spoiled prep boys part but he held his tongue.

"Very well," She said, adding corrections to some advanced student who didn't know who to use the subjunctive. It drove her crazy. "If you don't improve, however, you can kiss that A-B average goodbye. I don't do extra credit. I give students the grade they deserve. You'd best remember that."

Jeff bit his lip, "Uh, yeah. I'll get right on that."

Jeff saw her get back to work, so he decided to start backing out of the door awkwardly. He definitely wasn't expecting the day to go like this.

He left the class sighing. It was hard, and he really needed to go back and study some more, but all he wanted to do was watch Doctor Who with Nick. He shook out his hand as he headed to the dorm trying to regain some of its feeling. He was probably over reacting about it, but didn't care.

He opened the door and dropped his bag on the ground and plopped face first into his bed and groaned.

Nick was excited to see Jeff when he got back. What he wasn't expecting was to see him drop onto the bed and groan the way he did. He frowned, putting his book to the side and walking over to Jeff's bed, sitting down beside him. Brushing his hand against Jeff's back, he sighed softly, "What's wrong?"

"French. I'm going to fail," he mumbled into his pillow. He rolled over and pulled his pillow over his face with him. This day started out great, and with just that one class, it turned miserable.

"But let's just go get those DVD's. I need something to take my mind off of it," Jeff said.

Nick sighed sadly, "You know I can teach you, right? I don't mind." He smiled reassuringly. Nick hadn't actually spoken French in years, but he knew it wouldn't be that hard for him to pick it back up. And he'd definitely do it to help Jeff.

"We'll have a really good night, just you and me, and you'll forget all about it, okay?" Nick said.

Jeff took the pillow off and stood up.

"I'll just change from my uniform and we can go," Jeff said and unbuttoned his blazer and white shirt. He threw on a t shirt and some jeans and grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone.

Nick smiled brightly when he caught a glimpse of Jeff's face. His first glimpse of his face that day. It had been too long. Was he allowed to miss seeing Jeff's face after only a few hours?

"Ready?" Jeff asked, "Also to warn you, my family knows you're coming with me and will probably like force us to stay for dinner. I'm going to try and talk us out of it, but … You know."

He shook his head, shrugging, "Take your time." He waited for Jeff to come back, smiling fondly and chuckling softly at his words, "It's fine. I'm glad you and your family are so close, really. I don't mind."

Jeff paused, "Really? Well after you leave, you'll probably never want to come back. I love my family, but we're all freaks. They won't leave you alone." With that he laughed, and shook his head.

Nick shook his head, "I'm sure I'll love them. If I like them half as much as I like you, they'll be awesome." He smiled brightly.

"Is it bad that I want to kiss you right now?" Jeff whispered. He couldn't believe he actually said that out loud. Jeff blushed and bit his lip.

When Jeff whispered, Nick's smile widened. He took a few steps towards Jeff, brushing a hand over his cheek as he looked into his eyes, "No. It's good." He slowly closed the gap between them, kissing Jeff softly.

Jeff sighed happily, and opened the dorm door to leave. They headed to his car, and they made the half hour drive to his house. He was hesitant to pull into the driveway.

Nick followed Jeff closely as they made their way to his car. He loved car rides. Even half hour long ones. There was something nice and peaceful about them, watching the world move around you. It put things into perspective.

"Well. Here's goes nothing," he said quietly to himself, shutting off his engine. He's never brought a guy home before, other than Trent, and a few other Warblers. None were even close to being his boyfriend.

Nick smiled reassuringly at Jeff as they arrived, reaching out a hand and resting it on his shoulder, "It'll be okay. I seriously doubt your family are that bad." He chuckled.

Jeff sighed, "Alright, let's go," he said, and opened the door. He put a smile on his face, because he realized this is probably going to be embarrassing, yet hilarious at the same time.

He wanted badly to grab onto Nick's hand, and intertwine his fingers with his, but he didn't. They headed up the front steps to the door. Jeff opened it, and led Nick inside.

Nick wasn't sure what he was supposed to expect. He hadn't been to a potential boyfriend's house in a long, long time. He didn't say anything, not sure of whether or not there were certain things he should or shouldn't say. Instead, he just kept to Jeff's side.

He wanted to take Jeff's hand. Or brush their fingers together. Or their shoulders. Just some form of contact would've been nice but he didn't want to push any boundaries, instead walking as close to him as he could without actually touching.

"Mom? Is anyone home?" he shouted through the house.

"Kitchen!" Jeff's mom yelled back. You could hear a stomping that sounded like elephants coming from the stairs. He knew they'd run down to see him. Or more so, Nick actually. Jeff headed to the kitchen to see his mom.

"Mmm, that smells good," Jeff commented, leaning over his mom's shoulder to see what she was cooking. She turned around and noticed Nick.

"Ooh, so who's your friend?" she asked.

"Uh, this is Nick," Jeff said, and bit his lip.

Nick stayed close to Jeff. He really wasn't sure what else he was supposed to do. This was very new to him. His eyes widened a little at the stomping sound on the stairs, quickly following Jeff to the kitchen.

He smiled sheepishly when Jeff's mother looked up at him, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "Um. Hi. Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Sterling."

"Oh hun, call me Stormie," Jeff's mom replied, wiping her hands on a towel, and offering to shake his hand.

Nick hesitantly shook her hand, smiling softly. He wanted to make a good impression. Was it important to make a good impression? It seemed important. Jeff wasn't even his boyfriend, but he felt like he needed to.

Jessica and Johnny came bustling into the kitchen, followed by Jeremy and Josh. Jeff gave them a weird look, and he linked arms with Nick before going out the door to head up the stairs to his room. They followed, but he shut the door behind him. He hadn't really realized he just brought a guy who could be his boyfriend into his bedroom for the first time. He gave him a nervous glance.

Nick just stared at the group of them as they burst into the kitchen, unsure of what to say. He smiled at them as Jeff linked their arms together and quickly followed him up to his room, looking around curiously. He looked back at Jeff and smiled a little brighter, "Do they normally all rush into the kitchen at once like that?" He chuckled.

Jeff laughed, "Of course not. They all knew I was bringing home someone." Then Jeff eyed his closed door. He took a step closer to Nick and whispered, "I bet if I open the door, at least one of them will fall down."

He crept up to the door and open it quickly. To his surprise, no one actually fell down, but Jessica and Jeremy was there. Jeff just rolled his eyes.

Nick watched Jeff curiously as he opened the door, laughing when he spotted the two of them there. He crossed his arms over his chest, biting his lip in an attempt to stop himself laughing.

"You can talk to him later, leave us alone," he said, and shut the door again.

"They're so childish. I mean, Jess is 17, and Jer is 14. Come on," Jeff complained to himself.

When Jeff shut the door again, he laughed softly, "Relax. Childish is good. You don't want to grow up too quickly, right?" He grinned, taking Jeff's hand and pulling him closer, "So. Doctor Who?"

Jeff smiled, "Of course not," he said, and kissed him quickly before heading to his DVD shelf. Under his Xbox games, and many movies, he picked out all of the Doctor Who series, and a few other movies.

"Hmm, I don't have a DVD player. Might as well bring my Xbox," he pondered to himself, and got a book bag from his closet to put everything in. After the Xbox and all the cords and controllers were packed, he stuffed in the movies, and a few games.

"I don't know whether to peg you as a Call of Duty or Halo kind of guy," Jeff commented, glancing at Nick.

Nick smirked as Jeff kissed him, his eyes following him as he moved around the room. He just sort of stared at the Xbox for a moment. He'd seen them before, but he'd never played one. He never really thought about playing one before. He didn't know what the point was, to be honest. But then, he was always so busy with all his traveling that as stupid as it sounds, he didn't have time.

He watched as Jeff packed everything into the book back, biting his lip and chuckling nervously, "Actually, I uh, I've never played either of them." He shrugged.

"Mkay, looks like we'll be playing Black Ops tomorrow," Jeff commented, and zipped up the bag.

Nick just nodded as Jeff zipped up the bag, unsure of what it was he was in for when it came to those games.

"So, want to go downstairs or stay up here for a little bit? Maybe we can sneak out without anyone noticing?" Jeff suggesting, looking out his window.