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At the end of the following week's meeting, all the Warblers sat down on the leather sofas to listen to the results of the closed ballot.
Ryan sat between Kurt and Jeff and Nate stood up to the side of the room, leaning against one of the tables there. Since Ryan had snapped at him the previous week, he had been uncharacteristically quiet. When the chance arose, he would stare sultrily at Ryan, or wiggle his eyebrows at him if he caught him staring back, but the cheesy comments had toned right down.
I hope I haven't offended him. Ryan thought guiltily, observing him out the corner of his eye. I know he can be a bit full-on, but I don't want to be rude. I would like to be his friend. His traitorous stomach did an odd flip as he stared at the raven-haired boy, who was actually paying attention to Wes for once, not staring at Ryan.
Wes was droning on from the council table. "...and that brings the meeting to a close, except for one last order of business..." Wes paused for dramatic effect, "the annual Warbler bonding activity and party."
He continued "by a majority vote by way of closed ballot, the activity has been decided as... paintballing!" Cheers and high fives broke out around the room.
Cool, that sounds like it could be fun. Thought Ryan. I've never been paintballing before though, so I hope I'm in a group that doesn't mind if I'm a bit rubbish! He looked at the two boys on either side of him. Kurt looked bored and unimpressed, but Jeff was bouncing in his seat with excitement. Ryan laughed at his enthusiasm.
"I take it you voted for that then?" He asked the blond. "Yes! I'm so glad it got picked, it's gonna be awesome!" He replied.
"Order!" Wes shouted pompously over the din, quietening those present. "This year we have decided that we should compete in teams for this exercise as usual, but we have made it more interesting by adding a penalty for the losing team.
The team coming last will perform a song to be chosen by the council. This performance will take place the day after the paintballing exercise, at the Warbler party. We have been given permission to hold the party in Warbler Hall and have arranged for the catering and hire of a karaoke system. Any questions from the floor?"
Jeff leant sideways to whisper into Ryan's ear. "You can bet the song will be really embarrassing for whoever has to do it!" He nodded knowingly at the redhead as he spoke.
Nick called from the back. "Yeah, what about alcohol, Wes?" Shouts of assent greeted this request.
"Well, the official response is that of course, this party is on school property and will be alcohol free. But, the council can't reasonably be expected to check every bottle brought in by the Warblers, now can we?" He smirked. "Keep that last exchange out of the minutes please."
"Now, the teams for the paintballing exercise have been drawn randomly and are as follows..."
Ryan waited patiently to hear his name. While he waited he continued to stare at Nate, who still wasn't looking his way. Maybe I should talk to him? I'm not sure what I should do. Why am I so bothered? I keep telling him to stop, but as soon as he does I'm not happy about it. What's wrong with me?
Ryan's attention snapped back to the front as he heard Jeff's name, hoping he would be on the same team as his friend.
"...Jeffrey Sterling and Ryan O'Sullivan, and the final team will be Warblers Blaine Anderson, Nicholas Duval and Nathaniel Harris."
At the mention of Nate, Ryan couldn't help looking over to him again, wondering if he was okay. Nate immediately locked eyes with Ryan, smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. Yep, he's fine. Thought Ryan.
The red team were hiding off to the left hand side of the area just before the flag. They had just seen Kurt advance first, heading for the flag, with the remainder of the green team currently out of sight, presumably providing cover. Their aim was to pick off the green team members, who were currently the weakest team, nothing personal to them. Blaine got the signal from Nick to move up to ambush Kurt.
Suddenly a figure quietly appeared from their right, sneaking towards his teammate, Kurt. A few strands of blond sticking out of his helmet gave the boy away, and Nick took his cue to follow him in parallel motion along the left flank, ready to ambush him before the flag.
That left the only remaining red team member, Nate, waiting patiently for his prey. Not long after Jeff had disappeared from sight, an unmistakably tall green team member rose up and started sneaking forwards to join his teammates.
Nate admired him from afar. Wow. And I thought he looked hot in just the Dalton uniform! He looks smokin' hot in combat gear! Nate drooled, unable to stop the wolf-whistle escaping him. He suddenly remembered his mission and decided to pounce early in case Ryan had heard him and warned the others. He lifted his gun, took aim at the most gorgeous ass Dalton halls had ever seen and pulled the trigger.
Bullseye! Nate thought triumphantly, as he saw Ryan shoot upwards to a standing position, before rubbing his backside. I'll happily help you with that! He thought, then was struck by a sudden wave of guilt as Ryan got pebble-dashed by multi-coloured paint bullets. Ouch, that's got to hurt. Get down! Or run! Don't just stand there!
Nate could hear a high-pitched yell from up ahead. This seemed to get Ryan to run for cover. That'll be Kurt, I hope Blaine got to the flag first! He smirked, and ran as silently as possible to join the red team, ready to hunt the next flag.
The green team had already returned to the dressing area and changed back into their own clothing by the time the red team came in.
Nate slapped Blaine and Nick on their shoulder's in congratulations. "Nice work, team! I think we are in with a good shot of the victory!" The other two grinned and agreed, all of them starting to take off their protective clothing, followed by their combat gear.
Nate caught sight of Ryan standing in the changing room in tight jeans and a dark blue sweater. Damn, I missed him changing. Maybe this is the time to test him, it's about time I find out whether he finds me attractive or not. The dark haired boy smirked, a plan formulating in his head.
He shouted over to the redhead to make sure he knew he was in the room, about to get changed. "There's my favourite target! You must be sore, want me to help rub it better for you?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Ryan, his hand starting to reach out for the redhead's ass, who smacked it away with a glare "You wish, Nate."
He laughed. "Actually, yes, I do. It's your fault for looking so sexy in combat gear, I couldn't take my eyes off your ass so I may have accidentally shot at it a few times."
Ryan blushed profusely and ducked his head as Kurt rolled his eyes. "Come on, lets get back to Dalton, I need a shower!"
Here goes. Thought Nate. He surreptitiously moved his casual clothes to the other side of the bench from where they currently were, making sure he was in Ryan's direct line of sight.
He pretended to be looking in a different direction as he slowly pulled off his combat top, leaving a t-shirt. He then slowly swapped his combat pants for his jeans, lingering for as long as possible as he bent over, ass pointed at Ryan. Finally, he exagerratedly slowly pulled off his t-shirt, leaving his upper body completely naked.
He fiddled around with his mussed up hair as he looked carefully out the corner of his eyes in Ryan's direction. Said boy was indeed staring, his mouth open slightly, eyes dark. Oh yes, he definitely likes me. Game back on. He was enjoying basking in Ryan's gaze since it was so often the other way around, and he didn't want to obscure the redhead's view by finishing dressing too soon.
However, Kurt was obviously keen to get back to Dalton for a shower, so he reluctantly pulled his green v-neck t-shirt on over his head, breaking the spell on Ryan. The grin on Nate's face the whole way back to Dalton could only be described as Cheshire-like.
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