Hi y'all! Thanks for people who reviewed/alerted/favourtied! (dana: Don't worry about Ryan and McGee – they're coming!) Still waiting for help on how high school works, though. Namely can you/when do you pick what you want to study? I know this still seems fairly happy, but I have to finish the set up before the angst and drama truly begin.

Still waiting for advice on pairings – the dance partners here may or may not foreshadow what is to come – depends on you! (thanks to those who did tell me though )

This gets written quicker the more reviews I get, so if you want more, REVIEW! THE ANGST IS COMING! I got a lot less reviews for chapter two - was it that bad? :(

Read. Enjoy. Review. Simples.

Chapter Three #Shall we Dance?#

The bell rang loudly, and Archie groaned. "No!"

Greg grinned. "Bye Archie. Have fun with McKeen. And tell that kid to give your lunch money back."

Archie just scowled and left. "Won't do."

Lindsay hopped off the table. "Wait up! Your homeroom is right next door to mine, right?"

Archie nodded. "You coming."

The girl nodded, sending her loose curls flying. She grinned at Morgan and skipped out after Archie.

Dr. Grissom was the next person to enter the classroom. "Morgan, please get off the table."

She shrugged and slipped into her seat as the rest of the class piled in.

"Right. We've done that..." Grissom muttered to himself, filing through an endless mound of paperwork. "Now we...uh...oh, yes! Everyone find a partner on your table, preferably of the opposite sex."

Morgan turned to Greg. "Sanders?"

"Brody?"

She rolled her eyes. "You wanna be my partner?"

"Sure."

"Sara?"

The brunette looked up in surprise. Warrick was looking at her. "Uh huh."

"You wanna be my partner?" he said, trying to summon some of the courage he gained as soon as he was a few blocks away from school.

She smiled shyly, not used to being asked – more used to being the last one left at the end. "Sure."

"So that leaves me and you, Nick." Catherine grinned. "I met your sister at lunch."

Nick's eyes narrowed. "MJ? What did she say?"

Catherine just winked, and Nick moaned. "Sara?" he turned to the brunette. "Save me, please! I can't be paired with my sister's friend! That's just weird!"

Sara just laughed. "I'm good, thanks."

"Morgan?" Nick pleaded.

"Not a chance." Greg stuck his tongue out at Nick, who slumped in his seat.

Catherine just laughed. "Hey...all she said was that you were a good kid."

Nick sighed.

"I was the one that mentioned Stetler."

Nick's eyes bulged. "You what?"

"Well, I may have mentioned the thing with Stetler..." she broke off as Nick groaned.

"Aw, damn it! She'll go into overprotective sister mode. Or worse, she'll tell mom!"

"You think you're overprotected?" Greg asked, eyebrows raised.

"Six older siblings and two parents who still think I'm eight years old. Yeah, I do." Nick said.

"I'm not allowed to play sports. My mom is the queen of overprotectiveness. Last year, I got a nosebleed. She took me to the ER. Most embarrassing thing, ever." Greg left the whole table stumped.

"Ouch." Morgan winced. "My parents aren't very overprotective. They're divorcing, mom has a new boyfriend, my dad's a pain in the ass. They don't care what I do as long as I'm home by six for dinner, and tell them where I'm going."

"I have no curfew." Catherine announced. Normally, it was something she boasted, but with her current company, it felt kind of wrong. "I just have to text my mom if I'm out after 11. How about you, Sara? Warrick?"

Warrick shrugged. "My grandma raised me. She's fine as long as I don't get into any trouble with the law or anything and make it home for dinner at six thirty sharp."

Sara just sighed. "Uh...I do what I want."

"Okay, does everyone have partners?" Grissom interrupted.

There was a general nod around the room, and Catherine met Calleigh's eyes across the homeroom. She motioned to Nick and Calleigh giggled. "I'll tell MJ." She mouthed, waving her phone under the table.

"Put it away, please, Calleigh." Grissom said mildly, without even looking at her.

"Sorry, Dr. Grissom." She shoved the phone into her pocket as the teacher frowned.

"Just Grissom is fine, thank you. Anyway, this school – and I quote – 'was created for students of particular talent to develop those talents and new ones.' Were any of you invited for dancing?"

A couple of hands at other tables nervously raised into the air, including Natalia Boa Vista's. Greg looked at Morgan.

"I'm good at it, but that's not what they invited me for." She whispered.

"What did they invite you for?" Greg whispered back. She just winked.

"Wait and see."

"For the record," Grissom began, "this was not my idea. We're going to go out there-" he pointed to a courtyard outside the classroom, "-and you are going to, uh, dance with your partner."

The whole class burst out in murmurs, and Greg, Nick, Sara and Warrick moaned.

"But, it says here, 'ballroom style'. So that means waltzing, fox trots, tangos..."

"What's the difference between them?" Nick frowned.

"Now, quoting again 'whilst dancing, couples must perform three physical trust exercises: falling backwards and being caught by the other, a simple dance lift, and one partner closing their eyes for thirty seconds, being verbally and physically guided by the other.' This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

A couple of students giggled.

The door opened, and Morgan's laugh turned to a scowl.

"Dr. Grissom," Vice Principal Ecklie said stiffly, addressing the teacher whilst glancing at Morgan. "I trust you are about to start the dance exercise."

"Yes, Conrad. Are you checking up on me?" Grissom mocked slightly, and Ecklie bristled.

"Not at all. Merely some teachers are leaving it out."

"Could you perhaps tell me the point of the exercise?" Grissom glanced at the class. "This is a homeroom, not a dance class, or for that matter a social club."

Ecklie sighed. "It is meant to develop trust between the students, and remove boundaries like fear or embarrassment. Also, all students are to participate in Physical Education lessons, and dancing is one activity on the curriculum for all year groups."

"Since when?" Grissom asked incredulously.

Ecklie went slightly pink, and Morgan grinned. She was enjoying seeing her home room teacher make her father squirm.

"Since it was put on our curriculum. And Morgan, wipe that stupid smile off your face or I will cut your allowance."

Morgan's mouth dropped open and she went bright red. She could not believe that her dad would... she stood up angrily, but Greg tugged her back down.

She glowered at her father, who smirked.

If looks could kill...Grissom thought. "Uh, Conrad, maybe you should go."

"Asshole!" Morgan shouted as he disappeared out of the door. The whole class looked at her in shock.

"Uh, Morgan?" Greg said hesitantly, "maybe you should be qui-"

"Don't you dare tell me to be quiet." She huffed. "He always ruins everything." Humiliation flooded her body. Both her father's little revelation and her outburst of temper had made her feel like a laughing stock, even though no one was laughing. Embarrassed beyond belief before lunch. She just wanted to cry.

But of course she didn't.

"Everyone outside. Now." Grissom said, and the class began filing for the door. "Morgan, could you wait please."

She frowned apologetically at Greg, who hung awkwardly at the door. Grissom smiled at the boy.

"Go, Greg. She'll be out in a minute." As the spiky haired boy walked over to join Nick and Warrick, Grissom turned to Morgan. "That wasn't acceptable language for school. Although personally I agree that what your father did was cruel. If you want to get over the social consequences of being the Vice Principal's daughter, just ignore him. I know it is easier said than done, but just don't acknowledge his relation to you."

"A little hard now." Morgan muttered, refusing to let the prickly tears fall.

Grissom smiled sympathetically. "If you don't dwell on it, they won't either. The kids on your table especially."

"You can't know them, sir." Morgan sighed. Thinking that they understood all the students' problems was one thing that bugged Morgan about teachers. "You can't even know everyone's name yet."

"I listen, Morgan." He answered simply. "And I am good with names. Now, outside."

She slouched out and Grissom shook his head. That whole table...there was something about them...Grissom shook his head, and left the room.

"Okay, with your partners. No, Rick, she's right, please take your hands off her ass. Boys, one hand on their hip, the other underneath the girl's hand. Girls, one hand on top of the boy's hand, one hand on their shoulder. I see we have more boys than girls..." he stared at Don Flack and Tim Speedle, who were busy arguing over which one of them was the girl. "Tim, you're the girl."

"Ha!" Don laughed, as Speed groaned.

"Right...begin." Grissom put on some classical music, and couples began awkwardly waltzing.

"Stetler!" Grissom barked, getting irritated. "I told you! Hand off her ass!"

Nick found to his great disappointment that he wasn't quite as tall as Catherine, and he had no idea where to look. If he looked into her eyes, that would be weird, but if he looked at his feet, that would just be a repeat of the incident when Molly, his cousin had screamed to the world – "NICKY'S LOOKIN' AT MY BOOBIES!" He glanced at Warrick, who was laughing with Sara as they desperately tried to avoid each other's feet.

"Nick." Catherine said. "Close your eyes."

"What? Why?"

"Because we're supposed to. I'll guide you."

"I thought the boy was supposed to guide the girl."

"What are you, sexist?"

"No. Just a gentleman." Nick winked.

Catherine laughed. "You have an answer for everything, don't you?"

Nick shrugged. "I have a lot of practice. And I get judged a lot."

"Really? How come?"

"I have six siblings. Everyone assumes that I'm just like them. I mean its not a bad thing, I just wanna be my own person, y'know. And also, I'm from Texas. So I must be a redneck. I play baseball so I must be a jock."

Catherine nodded. "I hear you. Now, close your eyes, you Texan Jock!" Nick grinned, shaking his head and closed his eyes. Suddenly, the music sped up, as did Catherine. "Keep your eyes closed!" she laughed, and he squeezed his eyes shut as they twirled here and there, weaving between partners. Catherine was a good dancer, and led Nick through the crowd in a flurrying step of moves that impressed a lot of people.

Greg laughed out loud at the half terrified look on Nick's face.

"You wanna try that?" Morgan asked with a smile.

"Nah. How about we do the lift thing?"

"You've got the muscles for that?" Morgan teased.

"Well, you are about the size of a baby doll." Greg quipped back.

"Fine. What did you have in mind?"

Sara was in hysterics, laughing as hard as she had laughed in years, and Warrick wasn't far behind her. Sara had fallen over twice, once pulling Warrick down with her. They were moving in time to the music, but they were both proudly terrible dancers, and kept kicking each others feet. Sara looked up with everyone else as she heard Morgan squeal loudly.

Her legs were wrapped around Greg's wait as if she were having a forwards piggy back, but she was dropping close to the floor, gripping Greg's hands tightly. The grinning boy spun around in circles, and Morgan whizzed around with him.

"That looks kinda professional." Sara thought out loud.

Morgan screamed as her head came within two inches of a flowerpot.

"Maybe not!" Warrick reasoned.

Greg stopped spinning and looked at Morgan, who looked dazed and dizzy.

"You have to pull yourself up." He said. "I can only get you so far."

Morgan nodded and tried to pull herself up, but her hands slipped and she fell face first onto the floor.

"Sorry!" Greg cried, as she glowered up at him. Grissom began to jog over, but then Morgan laughed.

"That was so much fun!" She leapt back onto her feet.

"Sorry sir." Greg said to Grissom. "It won't happen again, I promise."

Warrick and Sara laughed again. "Okay," Warrick chuckled. "We should probably do the fall back option. It seems safest. You wanna go first."

Sara shrugged and fell back, relieved when Warrick caught her.

"Your turn." She sang.

"But you're tiny." Warrick said. "No offence."

"Humour me." She replied, and Warrick fell back, bracing himself to hit the floor.

Instead, a pair of small, strong arms caught him, and gently pushed him back up.

"Phew. Thanks." He grinned.

"Do you know any simple dance lifts?" Sara asked. "Because we are not copying Greg's."

"Yeah." Warrick nodded. "You're prettier with your head on anyway."

Sara grinned. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Warrick smiled. "Uh, well, my grandma watches Dancing With the Stars, so...uh..." Warrick put his hands under Sara's arms and heaved her into the air, spinning around for a second before placing her down on the floor.

"Yay! I didn't land on my head – we rock!" Sara called, and Morgan stuck her tongue out from across the room, which Sara was quite impressed by, as she and Greg were engaged in a very fast tango style dance.

"I suppose you can open your eyes now, Nick."

With great relief, Nick opened his eyes. "My turn." He said. "I get to pick the lift."

Catherine bit her lip. "You're a sophomore."

"And probably less than a year younger than you." Nick replied. "I know what I'm doing."

"You dance a lot, Nick?"

Nick laughed. "Hell no. I just watch my sister, Katie. She's the dancer. And her dance partner Jason taught me some things. Okay, put your hands around my neck." Catherine obeyed, and Nick held out the arm he had used to hold her hand. "You gotta jump into my arms." She looked him as if he was crazy. "Just trust me. Please?"

Sighing, she obeyed. Suddenly, Nick swung her around so she was wrapped around his back, his arms holding her in placed. She whooped similarly to Morgan as Nick spun around on the spot.
Once again, people stared as Nick slowed to a stop. He removed one arm and somehow managed to swing Catherine around to his front, placing two feet gently on the floor. The class cheered, including Greg and Morgan. The dancing continued for another hour - when Grissom asked if they were done after a half hour the majority sung "NO!"

A couple of other pairs drew as much attention as Nick, Catherine, Greg and Morgan - Eric Delko held Calleigh Duquesne by the hands and swung her through the air, narrowly avoiding the head of Ryan Wolfe, a freshman dancing with a girl called Erica Sykes.

The other pair that drew attention to themselves was the two boys. Tim Speedle leapt into Don Flack's arms. As they spun around in a circle they both sang at the very badly top of their voices:

"And IIIIIIIIIIIII, will always, love youuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

Which caused a lot of laughter, and almost a fight when a sophomore called Dan Cooper asked if they really were gay.

Finally, the happy class filed back into the room, a few of the slightly out of breath.

Grissom watched with interest. At the beginning of the day, there had been a lot of unease in the class. After the fear and skill exercise, the tables started becoming more relaxed. Now, the whole class looked fairly comfortable with each other's company. There was obvious and expected tension between some year groups and developing cliques, but it was a lot less that Grissom thought there would be.

After the dancing, Grissom declared the time their own, as he wanted to speak to a few students individually. "These people are the people you'll see everyday for a long time. I know there's no way in hell you'll all get along, but it would be good if you could stand to be in the same room. I won't force you to socialise, but I'm not sure what else you want to do for the next hour until lunch. So, don't leave the room, don't break anything. You have a little of your own time."

"How cool is Grissom?" Greg asked the others immediately as Grissom called up Dan Cooper to come to the front.

"Pretty cool." Nick agreed. "What do you reckon he teaches?"

"Well, this is a language room." Catherine pointed out. "So he obviously teaches-"

"Science." Sara said. "When I was in San Francisco he stood in for a science teacher on maternity leave-but he's not a sub. I asked him at the time, he's a science teacher. He's the one who invited me. It said so on the letter."

Catherine frowned. "Oh. I'll see you later." She flounced off to join Calleigh, Natalia and a few others.

"What was that about?" Nick asked in confusion.

"She doesn't like me." Sara shrugged matter of factly.

"Why?" Greg asked.

Morgan rolled her eyes. "Many reasons you will never understand. Some girls are like that. For the record, I think she's wrong."

Sara smiled. "Thanks."

"I don't get." Nick frowned.

It was Sara's turn to roll her eyes. "She thinks I'm a stuck up pre-judging irritating geeky know-it-all."

The boys were all stumped."Why?"

Sara and Morgan laughed, if slightly mockingly. "How long does it take you to size up a jock?"

"Two seconds." Greg replied quickly.

"Exactly." Sara sighed sadly.

"Oh...girl's make things a lot more complicated." Greg frowned.

"Um, can I sit here?" A new voice came up, and a hand pointed to the now vacant chair next to Greg.

"Sure," Greg said automatically, looking at the newcomer. "You're Ryan, right?"

The boy nodded. "Ryan Wolfe."

Greg introduced himself and the others, before looking at Ryan curiously. "Have I seen you before?"

Ryan frowned back. "Not sure. You do look familiar, though."

"Where are you from?"

"Miami."

"Oh, I'm from San Gabriel, so that's not it. Uh...Wolf, Wolf, Wolf - wait! Is that 'Wolfe', with an 'e'?"

"Yeah." Ryan said. Then his eyes lit up. "Oh, Sanders! I remember now!"

"You're my cousin!" They cried in unison.

"What?" Nick, Warrick and Sara cried.

"Hang on! This is turning cheesy!" Greg paused. "You're my mom's cousin - Anna Wolfe's son, right?"

Ryan nodded. "Last time I saw you we were in kindergarten! You used baking soda and vinegar to make that massive mess at Aunt Lisa's wedding."

Greg grinned sheepishly. "Yep. I haven't seen her since, how is she?"

"Divorced."

"Oh."

"Yeah, she blames you."

"Me?" Greg cried.

"Yep. She said every time James looked at his wedding band he remembered what you did. It drove him crazy."

"I was only five." Greg pouted. "Well, you did put baking soda and vinegar in his trousers. Which made enough mess without him pissing himself, he was already so nervous."

Greg shrugged as the others fell about laughing. "He made me wear a suit."

"Remind me to always stay on your good side." Nick spluttered between laughs.

"I will." Ryan chuckled. "Its good to see you."

"You too. You're a freshman, right."

"Yep."

"So what is he?" Morgan asked Nick.

"Uh...I try not to judge people by first impressions." "You sound like a politician."

Warrick laughed. Nick stuck his tongue out.

"Mature Nick." Sara snorted.

"They did it!" Nick pointed at Greg and Morgan, who instantly stuck their tongues out.

"You just proved my point." Sara smirked.

Nick smirked back. "You just proved my point."

"Oh, so you're copying me now?"

"Oh, so you're copying me now?"

"God, you're annoying!"

Nick laughed. "I have a lot of practice. In a large family its annoy or be annoyed!"

"I might kill you by the end of the year." Sara said wryly.

"I might kill you by the end of the year." Nick grinned.

Over by the other table, Catherine joined the conversation mid way through.

"...obviously likes you!"

"What'd I miss?" Catherine asked eagerly.

"Natalia likes the guy she danced with, Mark Townsend. And we think he likes her." Kate Todd explained.

"Ooh!" Catherine squealed. "Did he ask you?"

Natalia nodded shyly.

"He's looking." Calleigh grinned, and Natalia glanced over blushing. She smiled at him, and all four girls burst into fits of giggles.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

James Sidle walked around the house in a drunken rage. He'd just lost the new job in Vegas. He had been there less than a week - it was a new record. His son Tyler was god knows where. He probably wouldn't be back for a few days. Laura was visiting a cousin in Henderson for a few days. He roared, kicking a chair in anger. He needed something to lash out on. His daughter would be in trouble when she got home. He would find some excuse. Anything. Maybe she'd be late. Maybe she'd be wearing her uniform wrong. Maybe she'd say 'hi dad' in the wrong way.

Whatever it was, Sara would be in big trouble when she got home.

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