Thank you to Leigh for proofing for me. And thank you to everyone who reads (and reviews, right guys?) and enjoys this.

Oh, and I don't own Glee or CP Coulter's Dalton.

It was the last class of the day when a simultaneous text message hit the phone of each Dalton student. Even the teachers heard their phones rattle as they were about to yell at their class.

Those bold enough to look at their messages in class opened their phones right away, only to see the message was from the school's emergency alert number. The system had been set up to send messages about cancelled classes and weather warnings, but as people clicked forward, they would see that this was not the current case.

DALTON STUDENT ALERT:
Spotted, Bancroft having a romantic slumber party at Windsor

Charlie tried to recover from the horrified face that had been his instant reaction. He hoped that the confused expression he was currently wearing was convincing, and that it was the only expression anyone had seen. It seemed he was successful.

Justin was not as lucky, as the whole classroom had turned toward him with the faces of children viewing a freak show. Emil looked like a worried mother. Charlie wasn't looking at him. Justin had not bothered to check his phone like most of the students, and cautiously turned to the small screen. Hours later, he wished that he had been more mindful of his audience and feigned confusion as he read the message. But he was sure that his reaction had instead revealed his genuine fear – and his genuine guilt.

But perhaps his paranoia was unwarranted, as the on-looking boys would sooner rationalize than jump to the assumption that Justin's sexuality was anything contrary to what they already knew. Most, in fact, did not even consider this possibility, and looked just as confused as Charlie was pretending to be. With just as little understanding, Madam Saint-Clair cleared her throat at the front of the classroom and gestured to the hand-out each boy had on his desk.

"Dans cette sélection il s'agit d'un match de hockey…" she began.

Across the hall, Mr. Newman's classroom still appeared as it always did. Mr. Newman himself made sure to silence his own phone - so that he wouldn't appear hypocritical - and it was probably only the relaxed diligence of the seniors that led to so many phones ringing in the French class across the hall. But these students still had their phones, and those who risked missing a part of Newman's lecture checked them routinely.

Julian's single quiet laugh signaled Derek and Logan to check their phones and Logan repeated the gesture. Derek, on the other hand, scrunched his eyebrows briefly, before deciding that whatever this was was not more important than even one word in Newman's notes. Several other Stuart boys had the same short moment of confusion before reaching the same conclusion.

The Windsor boys, however, looked from one to the other with giddy excitement – eager to solve the mystery they had been handed. Some sat crossing off names on their mental check list of who could have possibly been the host, while others were already making guesses.

And in the back of the sophomore English class, no one noticed Dwight looking rather like he had just seen a ghost.

Charlie had started referring to Adam as creepy. This wouldn't have fazed Emil if Andy hadn't started spending so much time with Adam. But he had and this was more than a little disconcerting to Emil. Emil could see that Adam didn't really like him. He didn't do a very good job of hiding it. That might not make Adam a creep, but it did prevent Emil from joining them and keeping an eye on Adam.

So Emil did the only thing he could think of to protect Andy from the potential creepiness of Adam – he creeped back.

This was why he wandered into Adam's unlocked room after he saw that Andy and Adam were not there. And this was why he swatted quickly at the mouse of Adam's computer, causing it to blink from a black screen to the last thing Adam had left open.

It was a forum. Emil tried to read the post, but it was far too technical for him to understand. Instead he scanned for the subject of the post.

Re: Fixing poor security in school emergency alert systems.

Something in Emil's stomach flipped and he had the strong desire to leave. He turned around and bolted through the door without a second thought.

Perhaps if he had given it a second thought he would have turned around to face the angry reaction of Adam. It was a what-if that cycled quickly through Emil's mind as he turned the corner of the hallway to Andy and the boy in question.

"There you are!" Emil coughed as smoothly as he could manage.

"Now I know Bancroft's sister isn't my type – she's a bit too quirky," Derek began sitting on the bed beside Logan in Julian's room. The other boys frowned at the topic of conversation. "But she could totally do better than – who are the rumors? – the twins? – Wes? – Dwight?

"And besides – get a girl out of her clothes and it doesn't matter whether her bra matches her panties. I bet her body is-"

"Jesus Christ, Derek. I don't want to hear anymore," Logan growled. "Besides…let Justin hear you talking about his baby sister like that and he'll have yet another reason to hate your guts."

"Your sad, perverted guts," Julian added with a laugh. "Is that really what people are saying? They think the text was about Laura?"

"Who else would it be about? Justin?" Derek asked incredulously.

Logan and Julian shared a smug smirk.

"But the Dobry girls all seem to think he's straight…" Derek voiced hesitantly, thinking about the many times he's rolled his eyes as girls swooned over Justin's accent.

"Well, they need to worry about their gaydar," Logan joked dryly.

"He's not gay," Julian blurted without thinking about it. He looked just as surprised at himself as Derek and Logan did.

"Someone's defensive of his new friend," Logan teased, with a roll of his eyes.

"Why are we even having this conversation?" Julian evaded the accusation.

Derek seemed preoccupied with the thought of his competition suddenly a little less that. Logan stood up and walked to Julian's desk. After a quick observation told him that the surface of the desk did not hold what he wanted, he appraised the drawers.

"You're right. Lemme just grab a pen from your desk and we'll get start-"

Logan froze as he looked at the contents of the drawer he had opened. He picked up a pile of off-white letters and turned around with a grin.

"Love letters I should know about, Jules?" he smirked.

Now it was Julian's turn to freeze. Recovering, he muttered, "Just fan-mail, Logan."

But Derek would not let that do. "Julian, if those are what I think they are – you're full of shit!"

"Well, they're not!"

Julian tried to grab them from his boyfriend's hands, but Logan had grasped the sudden weight attached to these letters and dropped most while opening one.

He scanned it quickly, dropped it and grabbed another. Julian stared on in horror as he repeated this process several times. Derek bore a parental expression that seemed to scream 'I told you so.'

"Julian, these are all from the same girl. Why didn't you tell me you had a stalker?"

"I told you you should have told him-"

"You knew?" Logan turned to Derek. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"He told me they stopped!" Derek stared at Logan but angrily thrust an arm out to point at Julian accusingly. Then he turned to face him. "You told me they stopped!"

"I told you it wasn't a problem," Julian clarified, too annoyed to hide even an ounce of it in his tone. "And it's not. Obsessive letters do not a stalker make."

"Yea, but the content of these letters do." Logan gestured to the one he was currently reading.

"And bloody rose petals with a torn up picture?" Derek looked at Logan when he said this, like he was offering him more explanation rather than yelling at Julian. "That was a threat."

"It's not a big deal!" Julian spat.

With all the effort he could muster, Logan tried not to yell. Something told him he shouldn't be yelling this. Julian was expecting him to yell and it would be far more effective if he could startle the boy. But Logan wasn't really experienced at not getting angry, so it came out in a strangled choke. "Julian, she knows where you live. You can't just assume every threat is an empty one."

"So what should I do then?" Julian scoffed. "Since you two have all the answers. How should I handle this?"

Logan simultaneously what Julian expected them to say and what he could possible say. He didn't really have a master plan to deal with people stalking his boyfriend; he just wanted to be informed when they did.

Maybe if the message had referred to a secret romance in Hanover or Stuart, those halls would be the ones bursting at the seams with energy and an informal building meeting – run quite poorly at that – taking place in the common room. But something told Kurt that if it was Hanover, the meeting would be far more organized, and if it was Stuart, there would be a lot more coffee. Maybe some more yelling too.

But Windsor hall was instead buzzing with Gossip Girl jokes and extravagant speculations, and Kurt was debating whether he should shush the entire room or just sit back and laugh.

He noticed that Charlie wasn't there, and part of him wondered if Charlie was afraid he'd have to defend himself. Justin and Charlie had been Kurt's first thought, but he was learning from the ideas floating around the room that everyone else had assumed Bancroft meant Laura. Kurt couldn't remember the last time he saw Laura hanging around Windsor, and while he took this as proof against such a hypothesis, the rest of Windsor seemed to take it in favor.

"Ok, fess up," Wes ordered, with the sort of disbelieving tone that wouldn't successfully command anyone.

"Who's dating Laura?" David's tone was a little more authoritative, but Kurt was still surprised that the two managed to force the room into submission.

The theories died down and boys looked to one another expecting some sort of faltering expression. Like someone had managed to keep a secret this long but would start giggling at the challenge of keeping it now.

No one's curious face fell apart and the twins seemed to decide this was proof of innocence. In unison they asked, "Who's missing?"

If Kurt had the sort of comprehensive knowledge that included memories of Hanover emergencies, perhaps he would have felt a strange sort of déjà vu. Perhaps he also would have rescinded his earlier thought that Hanover meetings were less loud and more organized.

"Charlie," Blaine declared. Kurt immediately felt nervous for the prefect and had no idea why.

"Dwight," Reed mumbled.

"Drew and Satoru."

Kurt could tell that the twins were carefully appraising each guess. He had to admit that even with Laura as the Bancroft, Charlie had to be the leading guess. The only times Kurt had seen Laura in Windsor had been when she was hiding from Justin with Charlie. Granted, she had given up on that a while ago. Charlie always told on her.

Out of no particular allegiance to Charlie or animosity toward Dwight – he didn't really have much of the former, and definitely didn't have any of the latter – Kurt saw Dwight brush past the door and called out to him.

"Dwight!"

The boy stopped in the doorway and, after seeing his audience, let panic take over his face. It was enough for anyone and everyone to make up their minds.

Dwight's protests of innocence were lost beneath the catcalls and shock of the observing Windsors.

"Dwight?" David yelled incredulously.

"You have got to be kidding me," Wes scoffed.

"How did this happen!" the twins boomed in unison.

At first Andy thought he would be awkward around Emil. Apparently his brother had told his best friend that Andy was in love with him, and if Justin was any example, this seemed to be a popular opinion.

It was certainly awkward knowledge – that someone thought you were in love with them - and Andy wasn't sure what to do with the information. It wasn't the first time Andy had thought of Emil in a non-platonic sense, but he certainly hadn't concluded that he was in love. Besides, it was easy to mistake the combination of attraction and good friendship as something more than it really was.

And Emil had said he was going to disappoint Andy. Andy wondered if that meant he didn't feel the same way – the way Emil thought Andy felt, as Andy was still making no decisions – or that he was just worried about his own issues. Either way, it didn't seem particularly motivating.

So Andy decided he would act like nothing had happened – as far as Emil knew, nothing had happened. He thought he was doomed to fail at this, but Andy's fear of confrontation had made him a good liar and Emil wasn't looking for anything suspicious.

"You left your phone in the room." Emil said it like it was an excuse – for what, Andy didn't know - as the boys walked back into their own room. "It's been buzzing non-stop."

Andy took out his phone.

Okay, who's Hanover's money on? -W

I meant the Bancroft/Windsor text. Come on, someone over there has to have a guess. –W

Danny says Emil might know something. Bug Emil for me. -W

Fine, don't give me any info to return to Windsor with. –W

He rolled his eyes and laughed aloud as he looked over the list of messages from Wes. Emil raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?"

"You know that Dalton alert everyone got this afternoon?" Andy asked, and then continued without waiting for the response. "Wes seems to think you and I know more about it."

"You mean about who sent it?" Emil blurted, with too much accusation and too little hesitation.

Andy looked at him strangely. "No…About who it was referring to…" The words came out slowly and suspiciously.

"Of course I know who it's referring to," Emil scoffed in a tone that seemed to ask Andy why he didn't know the same thing.

"What do you know?" Andy plopped down onto the bed, eyeing Emil eagerly.

"Are you serious?" Emil stared at Andy until he guessed the answer. "Justin and Charlie?"

Andy's reaction made Emil question whether he had suddenly sprouted antlers, or maybe turned green. A brief look at the mirror across the room reminded him that Andy was sometimes entirely clueless.

"No way. I thought it was about Laura and someone…" Andy stuttered. "When did best friends turn into something else?"

Andy said it without drawing the parallels, and tried not to look too understanding when he saw Emil drawing them himself. Emil saw the flash of something pass over Andy's face, but he ignored it.

He cleared his throat. "I don't really know. But I'm gonna guess they haven't been just friends since you've known them."

Andy let this sink in. "It is a secret though, right? I mean, you're acting like I should've noticed…but no one else has, right?"

"That's a good point, I guess," Emil shrugged. "It's not like you hang out with them as often as I do."

"Or ever."

Emil just laughed.

"Are you sure? Did they tell you?" Andy was back to disbelief.

"Yes, I'm sure, Andy."

"What if you're just misinterpreting vibes?"

"Vibes?" Emil rolled his eyes. "You forget - I lived with Justin for a year. I know him about as well as I know Matt."

"Or me?" Andy let it slip off his tongue without even intending to say it.

Emil made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. But when he spoke, it was with a wistful tone that made Andy feel a little uncomfortable. "Andy, the first night I talked to you I knew you better than I know Justin now."

Things were quiet and both boys looked only at the work that was supposed to be occupying them.

"You know who sent the text, don't you?" Andy half-whispered.

Emil looked up in surprise. "I think so."

"And?"

"And you're not going to like it."

Andy stared expectantly.

"Adam. I saw something on Adam's computer."

Andy's brow furrowed immediately. "What were you doing on Adam's computer?"

"It was open; I was looking for you."

"On the computer?" Emil couldn't help but think that Andy sounded like his brother when he was angry. "Here's a hint, Emil: I'm a person. Three dimensional and everything. I haven't been sucked into a computer once in my sixteen years."

Emil gritted his teeth. "Har har, Andy. Does it even matter what I saw? Just because I invaded his privacy or whatever doesn't mean he didn't do it. Doesn't that matter?"

Andy considered it before stubbornly asking, "What did you see?"

"It was some message board about poor security in school alert systems. He was looking up information to hack into it –"

"How do you know he wasn't looking this up after it happened? Trying to figure out who did it?"

"Since when is Adam Sherlock Holmes?" Emil spat.

"Since when are you Sherlock Holmes?"

Emil frowned a little bit and glared at his best friend.

"Okay then, Sherlock," Andy began, wearing a smug smile. "How does Adam know about Justin and Charlie?"

Emil considered it. "I don't know. Maybe it was a lucky guess?"

"I am not at all prepared for the crazy that has to be congregating in my common room," Charlie whined, setting his schoolwork onto Justin's desk and laying back on Justin's bed.

"What are you going to tell them?" Justin had been failing to hide his worry since the walk back to his room and it worried Charlie a little bit.

"That I know as much about the text as they do? Justin, they don't know it means us any more than we do."

"Someone knows it means us – whoever sent it."

"That's not necessarily true," Charlie pointed out. "It could mean Laura and Dwight. They could mean Laura and Dwight."

Justin huffed and refused to consider that as an out. "I'm not about to let them take the fall for us."

"I'm pretty sure the only reason they were keeping it a secret was you."

Charlie grinned and stared at Justin with great appreciation for his protective big brother act. Justin sighed loudly.

"It was probably a Stuart trying to get back at you for the dyed laundry detergent."

"I thought pink was a lovely color on them," Charlie smirked, before Justin's expression made him pout. "Come on, even you thought that was hilarious two days ago."

"Well now I think it was childish."

"Jesus, Justin," Charlie scoffed. "When did you start worrying about being childish?"

"Since I started having secrets that could hurt people I care about," Justin mumbled defensively.

"Wow, that's very diplomatic of you, your highness," Charlie scoffed angrily. "Your parents should be proud."

Hurt flashed in Justin's eyes. "I meant you, Chaz. The world isn't as accepting as Dalton, and if you think the British press wouldn't have a field day harassing you and your family about us-"

"You aren't worried about my family; you're worried about your parents finding out about us."

"Of course I'm worried about that, Chaz! But that doesn't mean I'm not worried about you too."

Charlie didn't say anything. Neither did Justin. Suddenly Justin's phone vibrated once against his bedside table. Justin stared at the phone without making any effort to check it.

"That's an issue we're going to have regardless of some stupid text," Charlie muttered, all traces of anger gone from his voice.

"And regardless of your petty house rivalry?" Justin raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly, letting Charlie know that this was at least partially a joke.

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it!" Charlie's goofy grin returned.

"I think I'll pass," Justin smiled back, and then softly added, "I wish you would too."

Andy trusted Emil. This was not necessarily because he thought Emil wouldn't lie to him, but because he thought he could tell when Emil was lying. So when he sat in Adam's room, waiting for Danny to get back so they could start their English project, Andy studied the boy trying to decide if he thought Emil had a point.

Adam was sort of weird, but Andy didn't think there was anything wrong with that. He was beginning to think that he even liked it. Adam was warming up to him now, and it made Andy smile thinking that he saw something no one else did in the shy boy. And as for his more serious quirks, well…Andy wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt on those.

They had spent most of the time doing other work in silence, but Andy wasn't really fond of silences, and finally felt compelled to say something.

"Did you finish the math assignment?" he asked awkwardly, silently debating whether it was any better than an appraisal of the weather.

Adam didn't seem to consider whether the question was just meant to start conversation and answered genuinely. "I'm about halfway through. Why, do you have a question?"

Andy smiled softly. "Yea, on number 7. How do you translate that one?"

As Andy asked it, Andy took out a piece of paper and reached to pull a pen from his bag.

There was a picture in a plastic cover that pulled out a little when Adam tugged the pen out of his bag. Andy could see that it was a picture of Julian from Something Damaged, and he saw the beginning of a large silver scrawl that he figured was Julian's signature.

Adam pushed it quickly back into his bag, with an awkward mix of delicacy and haste, and met Andy's eyes with fear. Would he think he was a freak for treasuring the autograph? But whatever Andy's face was doing, it didn't seem to be judging him. In fact, it seemed to pity him, and something in the pit of his stomach told Adam that he should at least try to explain.

"Have you ever had anything that made you feel better just by being in your thoughts? Not a person - just some object that holds the fragment of a memory…" Adam bit his lip like he wasn't sure he should've said anything.

But Andy's response was quick and Adam saw him remove a folded paper from his pocket. "And if you thought about it, it's just a piece of paper, or a ticket stub, or a stuffed animal. But every time you see it - or hold it - it makes you smile. And maybe it's about time you throw it away – because the memory is yours without the reminder of it – but there's just no way you're ever getting rid of it."

Andy thumbed the paper he had unfolded. He stared at it absently, and Adam tried not to show the effort he was making to see what was on it. It was a drawing – some sort of animal sketch. Andy suddenly noticed Adam's curiosity and flipped the picture over. Seeing the picture didn't really help Adam identify the animal – it looked like it was some cross between a leopard, snake and deer.

"My brother drew it for me when we were little," Andy began. Adam decided this explained why it was such a bizarre drawing. "There was this one summer we spent at our house at Lake Erie. We were so close to Cedar Point, but our parents wouldn't take us and I got really mad. So Matt distracted me by making up stories and drawing me pictures."

Adam smiled softly. "You were at a beach house and you were complaining that you couldn't go to a theme park?"

"Ha, well," Andy laughed. "Port Clinton wasn't very interesting to an eight year old."

"Port Clinton?" Adam asked abruptly. "My parents just bought a house in Port Clinton. I think they want to use it so they can visit me for a while."

"That's cool. I take it they're not there yet?"

"No."

"We should throw some sort of party over the summer. Matt used to invite everyone to our beach house over Spring Break – back when I was too young to go."

"Oh." Adam gave a noncommittal nod, but Andy got a gleam in his eyes and Adam could tell that he was already lost inside the memory.

"The one year someone kept spiking Charlie's drink because they didn't believe he couldn't drink…And then Justin figured it out and had a fucking panic attack trying to figure out how much Charlie had drunk."

Adam could tell it was the kind of thing he was supposed to laugh at. But Andy wasn't really laughing either, so he didn't feel compelled to pretend he thought it was funny.

"Yea, well, I can't see any harm in knocking him down a peg," Adam mumbled. He even found himself not regretting admitting it to Andy.

But the second he said it, Andy knew. Adam found himself wondering if maybe he should regret his newly formed confidant.

"It was you, wasn't it? The message?" It didn't sound accusing – it was too soft – and it didn't sound like a question. So Adam didn't answer.

"It's okay." Andy sounded kind, but fumbled over his words. "I get it – kind of. I mean, not really. But I don't really need to, right?"

Adam raised an eyebrow and hesitantly asked, "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

Andy shrugged like he hadn't considered it. "Who would I tell?"

That seemed to be enough, and Adam smiled slightly.