"Are you gay?"

Nathan looked over from where he was setting up his air mattress, blankets, and pillow for the night to find Madeline standing there.

"No."

"You didn't so much as blink twice at us fucking," she said. "And didn't even join in. You're hot enough I would've let you. You sure you aren't gay?"

"Not a fan of threesomes," Nathan returned his attention to setting up his bed.

He'd claimed a quiet room in the 500 hall of the school, which was the hall furthest from the main entrance and which the Band Room and North Gym branched off of. He knew that Madeline was sleeping with Michael that night, which meant that the only reason she was down there was likely to hunt him down and question his sexuality.

"Oh," she fluttered her eyes at him, before realizing it was pointless, since his back was turned to her. "Would you like to now? It's just the two of us here."

"I don't like you enough to just sleep with you," he stated. "And I'm not desperate enough to fuck anyone who offered."

"Am I hot enough?" She asked, and Nathan looked over at her, looking her up and down.

She'd removed her school jacket and bow, leaving her in just the skirt, knee-high socks, shoes, and skirt, her top three buttons undone, showing off a little bit of skin up there. Nathan moved his gaze up to her green eyes, her flawless skin, her glossy brown hair, before fixing his gaze firmly on her eyes.

"Is Keith hot enough for you to let fuck you?"

"Keith is gay," she said irritably. "And that's unrelated."

Keith being gay was nothing more than a rumor, Nathan knew. It was just something else bullies used against him because of his apparent lack of interest in girls – but he also showed a lack of interest in guys. Nathan was probably one of the only, if not the only, one of them who probably knew that Keith had dated a girl for about six months the previous school year. He'd seen them on dates.

"What's your issue with him?" Nathan decided to be blunt and just ask.

"Keith needs to mind his own business and keep out of things," she stated.

"Like the game?"

"Yes!" She said. "It'd be better for everyone if he just let himself die. If he did, we'd all have a bit of peace."

"How so?"

"You saw me follow him out?" She asked, and he nodded. "I wanted to know what he'd done. He knew this was going to happen – why else did he immediately leave the room when the game started?"

There she goes again, trying to make it out like Keith knew about the game and she didn't.

"You both knew magic."

A statement, not a question, and Madeline knew that.

"Yes," she nodded. "I was raised by a family of magicians and specialize in air and fire magics, though I only knew a handful of spells. They aren't in the System as Skills, but still drain my Mana. My Fireballs take around ten, while my air slashes take twenty. Keith seemed to specialize in air magics, though I'm not sure how he learned – magicians aren't common in this area. Are you sure you don't want to-"

"I don't."

Madeline sighed, taking a few steps closer to Nathan, who adjusted his blanket a little bit, then pulled off his jacket and tie, draping them onto a desk. With the no-theft rule, it was unlikely someone would steal them, though that didn't mean someone wouldn't ruin them.

"We could always get to know each other better later," she said as he started unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his firm, toned body and tight, six-pack abs.

She made no attempt to not gawk at his body. While it wasn't thick and muscular like Michael's, taking on a more lean form, it was clear his muscles were much more dense than the jock's.

"You've proven yourself surprising," she continued. "And you've always been a decent person, even if antisocial. And I know you're intelligent – even if you aren't the top of the grade, you're still near it. I always find myself entranced by your speeches, too. That speech you did on the mounds, it was pretty interesting. You actually made it sound cool, even though you were talking about giant mounds that were nothing more than mass burial mounds. If a teacher had given us the same lesson, I probably would have dozed off. And the way you described what it felt like, standing on top of them – it actually felt like I was there, listening to you."

Nathan frowned, just a little. Madeline had actually paid attention to his speech, as little as she ever appeared to. He knew that there were only a couple of their classmates who would remembered what he'd done a speech on, much less that he'd talked about what it felt like atop the mound he'd ascended with a few others.

The only reason he'd even known what that felt like was because his Ceramics II and III class the semester before had gone on a field trip to them, and they'd gone to the top of the tallest one as part of the trip there.

He knew Madeline was just laying on the flattery in the hopes that he'd cave in, so he ignored it, removing his shirt and adding it to his jacket and tie, before adding his belt. He then sat down and removed his sneakers and socks, stretching a little bit as Madeline moved closer and rubbed his arm, assuming he was giving in.

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"Get the light on your way out, please."

Nathan then laid down and covered himself with the blanket, turning so his back was to Madeline. The latter student stared at the former in shock, then sighed and left, flipping off the lights as she went. It would take her more time, she knew, to win him over.

He knew she'd fail. She was hot, clever, and manipulative. Knowing that, Nathan was mentally guarded from her tricks. Her comments about Keith were designed to sow distrust against him. She knew he'd seen Keith leave the room immediately and used that as part of the suspicion-raising.

Nathan wasn't sure what was going on between the two of them, but he knew that they both knew about the game before it started. Keith was expecting it, and nervously anticipating it, while Madeline was simply prepared. That suggested to him that it might not be Keith who was behind it, but Madeline – and the genius had figured out what was going to happen.

There was still no concrete proof of that, however, so he cleared those thoughts from his head, went through his mental checklist, then allowed himself to fall asleep.

A little after midnight, Samantha made her way into Room 504, the classroom Nathan had claimed as his own. She made her way to where he was sleeping and knelt down.

"Nathan?" She whispered.

"What?" He responded.

"Do you mind if I join you in here?" She asked.

The air mattresses were double twins – two high, though as one piece. They weren't very large, and if they were to share the mattress, it would require them to snuggle each other. She hadn't brought her own air mattress, though if he declined to let her snuggle him, she would retrieve her own.

"Air mattress?" He asked, and she knew he was asking about hers.

"I left it in the other room," she told him. "If you refused, I'd see about joining one of the other groups. Everyone's grouping up, you're probably the only person alone."

It went unsaid that Nathan preferred it that way, and was probably the only person there comfortable sleeping by himself in their situation. Even the tougher guys, like Michael, would no doubt have at least two or three others. The girls, Nathan knew, were probably bunched up in groups of five to ten or more, of the fifty-nine of them left.

He also knew the guys were probably in groups of five or more. No one wanted to be alone that night. Well, other than him. Samantha had probably actually come from a group of girls.

After several long moments of silence, Samantha went to leave the room and give Nathan his space. As she did, Nathan turned onto his side and scooted over on the air mattress.

"If you want."

Samantha looked down. She knew that it was permission for her to join him in there, but it was also permission for her to join him on the air mattress. While others might take it as Nathan needing the comfort of another body beside him, Samantha knew him well enough to know that he was likely only thinking about her.

That was, indeed, what Nathan was thinking about at the time. Her coming in there was likely for her and not him. She probably didn't feel comfortable without having him at her back – or front, or whatever. Nor did she probably feel comfortable leaving him alone in the night. The closer she was to him, the safer she'd feel about their situation.

That wasn't to say she was weak, as Samantha was one of the strongest people Nathan knew, but Samantha was much more of a normal person than he was, and in a situation like this, comfort in numbers and the touch of others was necessary.

Samantha was already wearing just her button-up and her skirt, so she stepped out of her shoes and joined him under the blanket, her back to him as she laid on the other side of the air mattress.

Samantha did her best to calm her heart, meditating lightly. This was the first sleep since the game began that she didn't simply pass out from exhaustion. After a few minutes, she managed to calm her heart and breathing to a slow, rhythmic patter, as if she were asleep. It was something she did whenever she couldn't sleep, and sleep never fell far behind it for her.

After a few minutes of the calmness that allowed her tiredness to take over, Samantha felt Nathan shift on the air mattress as he turned over and moved towards her. Samantha did her best to remain as if asleep as Nathan began to spoon her, one arm under their pillow, the other draped over her stomach.

He clearly thought she was sleeping, and was using that to spoon her, even after she'd rejected him. She wasn't sure what to make of it, especially since she could feel him pressing against her behind.

He seemed as if he were asleep, so she decided in the end that he had likely done that in his sleep and it had nothing to do with thinking she was sleeping. It took her nearly an hour to fall asleep, though, her heart pounding in her chest and refusing to calm down.

Nathan opened his eyes after he knew Samantha had fallen asleep. She didn't move as if to push him away, and her heart had begun pounding hard in her chest after he moved against her as her breath caught in her throat. To him, that was confirmation that she did have feelings for him.

Had they existed, back when she rejected him? Did they form after? Or were they simply because of what they were going through?

After thinking about it for a few minutes, Nathan let himself fall asleep, waking a little after six. When he did, he pulled on his sneakers and left the room, making his way to the nearest restroom where he relieved both his boner and his bladder. After washing his hands, he returned to the room and dressed the rest of the way before heading to the cafeteria, where breakfast was ready.

"Hey," Tameka, a dark-skinned girl with shoulder-length hair approached Nathan, one hand on the hilt of her sword, as if ready for a fight. Nathan knew she wasn't planning on fighting him, but rather, it was a habit she'd formed over the last few days. Having one hand on the sword at all times meant one was more prepared to draw it if a fight should suddenly happen. "Samantha disappeared last night, and since she seemed close with you, we were wondering if you knew where she'd gone."

"She slept in the classroom with me," Nathan grunted, stabbing the cinnamon roll in front of him, ripping out a piece of it with his fork and shoving that into his mouth. "Was still asleep when I left. 504 if you want to check on her."

"Slept with?" Tameka raised an eyebrow.

"Clothes on."

Tameka laughed.

"Your choice or hers?" She asked.

"Both."

"Uh-huh," Tamkea snorted. "Keep telling yourself that. It's good to know she didn't get pulled into some random Challenge and die on us, then."

Nathan rolled his eyes as he downed some of his chocolate milk. He highly doubted the game would pull an individual into a Challenge, especially in the middle of the night. It could happen, but he doubted it.

Tameka tried talking with Nathan some more, but he focused on eating his breakfast, so she left. It was more than she'd ever gotten him to say before, and she counted that as a win in her book, even if that wasn't her goal with approaching him.

After breakfast, Nathan discovered that the Student Shop had added a few more items. Black shorts, white tees, and white martial arts gis. He had a black belt available, though he was sure that not everyone did. The System probably enabled them to have whatever belt suited their abilities.

It intentionally waited until the next day to add them – likely so that students would have spent most or all of their Points by then. Nathan spent the 150 Points to buy the two sets, then made his way to the wrestling room, which the student map showed as a dojo.

It still had the mats covering the floor, but it also had a few training dummies added into it. Nathan looked around it, then moved to the nearby locker rooms and changed into his gi before he entered the dojo room and started practicing.