The final bell rang, jolting Evan from his mess of confused thoughts. He pulled his head off his hands and stared down at what he'd written — absolutely nothing, apart from the date. The final class of the day had been English, and he wasn't sitting next to Jeremy this time; instead, he was next to Alana, at the desk parallel to Connor and Christine's.

He hadn't been able to concentrate. His brain had been filled with theories about why Connor could possibly want to go to play rehearsal. Something about it seemed off to him, for no other reason than a gut feeling.

Evan pulled himself to a standing position, dropping his notebook into his bag and standing behind his chair as he waited for everyone to leave — something he always did by default, so he wasn't caught up in the rush of people running for the door. Once everyone had left the room, except the teacher, he followed them out.

His eyes scanned the hallway, looking for a sign of Jeremy or Michael anywhere, but with no luck. A resigned sigh escaped as he made his way down towards the theatre before he suddenly felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder. "Evan?"

"Yeah?" he responded automatically, facing the person behind him — hoping the surprise didn't register too obviously on his face when he realised it was Connor.

"You're going to play rehearsal, aren't you?" Connor asked.

Evan nodded.

"Right. Well, can I come with you? I don't know where the theatre is," explained Connor, clearly quite reluctant to ask for help. Frankly, it wasn't something Evan would ever have expected from him.

"Sure, that's fine. It's not too far."

He let out a breath. "Great."

The two of them walked in silence along the corridors for a little while. Down the corridor, through crowds of people that parted a little when they moved past; probably Connor's general air of "don't fuck with me", as people seldom moved out of the way for Evan himself. It was almost reassuring to have that sense of protection; it was like nobody would dare to come close or hurt him. Then again, he didn't really like being alone.

When they arrived at the entrance to the theatre, someone was already standing outside — Jeremy, of course. He waved at Evan, then hesitantly at Connor. Evan waved back, but Connor didn't bother returning the gesture at first. A second later, however, he did wave back.

Jeremy made his way over to fall into step next to them both, giving Evan a look: "what's he doing here?" Evan shrugged in reply, not wanting to speak while Connor could hear them. They started up the steps to the back of the theatre, like they'd done last rehearsal. To Jeremy's apparent dismay, Connor followed.

"So, uh..." Connor sat down, followed closely by the other two, before continuing. "What do you actually do at rehearsal?"

Jeremy raised an eyebrow as he sat himself down directly next to the aisle. "Rehearse."

"I know that," Connor replied grumpily, "but what are we rehearsing? What play?"

"A Midsummer Night's Dream. But different. A Midsummer Nightmare, apparently. Due to 'budget cuts'," Evan explained, before Jeremy could say anything else.

"Right." There was a slightly awkward silence.

"Isn't there a script or something? Do you just wing it?" Connor asked.

"Mr Reyes isn't... the most organised of people," mused Jeremy, a small smile playing at his lips as someone burst through the door at the bottom of the theatre. "There he is."

The drama teacher had just crashed through the door, spilling a huge pile of papers all over the floor. A couple of the kids laughed, Christine being the only person who got up to help.

Connor sucked in his breath. "Ah. Well this looks... great."

"If you hate it so much, why are you here?" Jeremy snapped.

Surprised, both Connor and Evan turned to look at him.

"You're acting weird," Jeremy rushed out, his face going slightly red as he noticed the fact they were both giving him their undivided attention. "And I don't know what you're playing at, but it's creeping me out. First you shove Evan, throw a little hissy fit, and now you're being nice all of a sudden?"

Connor's hands clenched into fists by his sides; but almost immediately afterwards, they relaxed. He sighed. "Can't I just try to be nice to people? You guys are good friends. I thought I might... I dunno. Learn something."

Evan and Jeremy exchanged glances. He seemed sincere, but Jeremy was right — he had been acting strange. A complete shift from what he'd been like the first day, and all the time Evan had really known him.

"Whatever," Jeremy huffed.

Connor gritted his teeth. "Well, if you don't want me here, I can just leave you alone. I was only trying to make up for what happened."

Evan opened his mouth to speak, but Jeremy got there first. "Fine."

Without another word, Connor stood up. He moved past Evan more carefully, but didn't hesitate to nudge Jeremy — hard — as he made his way out onto the aisle.

Evan watched as Connor half-ran down the steps with a strange mixture of emotions. He'd been more tense when Connor was next to him, like he was sitting next to an active time bomb; on the other hand, he felt guilty about not giving him much of a chance. When he looked over at Jeremy, it was clear he felt the same way.

"I'm gonna go after him," Evan decided after a moment. Jeremy nodded, but didn't stand up.

Evan started down the stairs, following the same path Connor had taken to exit the theatre a minute before. He heard Mr Reyes mumble "there goes another one" under his breath as he left.