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AN: dedicated to lunasidereal because thank youuu for all your support and encouraging comments! I LOVE YOU ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ♪) shoutout to her amazing story In His Shadow, too, which i absolutely love! i ship levi/bailey so HARD i squeal every time levi shows up. if you guys like drama you should definitely try it!

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When I got within several feet of him, Nolan seemed to notice that I was approaching him, because he started slowing down.

Eventually, he stopped and just floated in one position until I reached him.

"Hi again," I said.

"Hi," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"I was wondering if you wanted to join me and my friends," I said. "We could race each other."

"No." The word left his mouth before I even fully finished my sentence.

"Ouch, that was direct," I said but smiled to show that I wasn't offended.

I really wasn't expecting him to say yes, anyway.

"I mean, not really," he amended.

This time, I chuckled for real. "That doesn't really soften the blow, you know. It's the same thing!"

"It should," he said. "I could have just stuck to 'no.'"

"Isn't it boring to swim alone, though?" I gestured around him.

"Maybe I like it that way," he said, swimming closer to me.

I frowned at the slow smile spreading across his face. "What are you—"

Nolan splashed water onto my face.

"Hey!" I spluttered, instantly flicking my hands out and splashing him back. "What was that for?"

"I felt like it," he said, backing away. "Are you done asking questions? I want to swim."

"Fine, let's swim," I said.

"Won't your friends miss you?" he said.

I glanced back at my other friends. They seemed like they were having fun swimming. Melissa caught my eye and raised a thumbs up at me. Feeling my cheeks burn all of a sudden, I swiftly turned back to Nolan. I hope he didn't notice that.

"Nope, they'll be fine without me for a few minutes," I said, shaking my head.

They were the ones who prodded me into approaching Nolan, after all.

I decided to try one last time. "Are you sure you don't want to join us?"

He looked at me appraisingly for a few seconds.

"Tell you what," he said, raising his hand to point to the other end of the pool. "I'll race you there. If you beat me, I'll go with you. Breaststroke only."

"You're on!" I blurted out before he could change his mind.

It didn't occur to me until we started our little competition why he was willing to bet on this. Nolan knew he would win. The moment we began, he sped ahead of me. I expended all my efforts into each stroke, but with my mediocre swimming skills, it was no use. By the time I was halfway there, he was already at the other end. My brain almost couldn't catch up with how quick he was.

"You're fast," I gasped out when I finally got to the end. "Were you holding back during the medley relay just now?"

Nolan yawned. "Who knows?"

"But why?"

"I'm not telling you," he said with a half-smile curving his lips.

"Oh, come on! You know, you're so good at swimming," I said. "I have no idea why you were so resistant to the idea of coming to class."

"I just don't like it," he said.

"Don't like what? Gym? Even when it's swimming class? That can't be it since you were actually in the swimming club in your previous school."

He shrugged. "You got to see me in gym, happy now?"

"Not as happy as Mr. Robinson," I said, nodding at our teacher who was a good distance away. "He looks like he's about to break out into song."

Nolan's snort was pretty loud. "I hope he doesn't get too happy. I don't plan on making a habit out of this."

I laughed. "That's a shame. I'm glad you came today. You're never this awake in other classes."

"Kind of hard to sleep when you're constantly moving," he said.

Cracking a grin at him, I said, "Good point. Now that I think about it, isn't that why you never attend gym?"

"Maybe."

I laughed and said, "Don't give me that, I bet that's exactly the reason why. Okay, I should probably be going back to my friends now."

Nolan smiled slightly. "Have fun."

"Thanks, you too!" I added as an afterthought, "Remember that you can join us if you start feeling lonely!"

"I'll keep that in mind." He splashed me again before swimming off in another direction.

"Hey!" I protested, but he was already too far away.

Ashley and the others all stopped swimming and waited for me along the pool wall when they saw me returning.

"You didn't bring him back with you," Melissa complained when I got back to them.

"He refused to come," I said. "Was I supposed to drag him through the water?"

"You could have tried," Derek suggested.

Snorting, I rolled my eyes at him. "I don't have that kind of strength!"

"I should've gone with you," Melissa said, the disappointment on her face obvious. "We could have grabbed him by the ankles. Together we could have done it."

"I'm not so sure about that," I said, recalling the way he carried me while climbing up four stories worth of rope.

"Oh well," she said, and then she splashed off to swim another lap.

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The pasta tonight tasted so good, I had to stop myself from licking the plate when I was done. Instead, I took a swig of my orange juice.

"Do you want to study together after we're done eating?" Ashley said to me.

"Sure," I said. "Want to come to my room?"

"That's fine," she said.

"I want to join you guys, too," Melissa said. "I have a biology test coming up next week. Ashley, you'll help me, won't you?"

"You only ever study when there's an upcoming test," Ashley accused.

Derek yawned. "Count me out. I have a project I need to work on tonight."

"I bet the deadline's near," I said, snickering.

Grinning wryly, Derek nodded. "In three days. You know me so well."

Ashley sighed. "You guys really need to stop procrastinating."

After we finished our dinner, all of us left the dining hall together to head to our dorms.

We were walking down the hallway of the main building when I saw something on a windowsill a few feet ahead of us. It was dark in color, but it was too large to be an insect. A spike of fear poked at my gut. Could it be a giant insect?

At that idea, I stopped in my tracks.

"What's that?" I said, too afraid to hide the trembling in my voice.

"What's what?" Melissa stepped forward and looked to where I was pointing.

Beside me, Ashley recoiled and leaned closer to me. "Is that an i-insect?"

Derek rolled his eyes and walked to the window. He stopped short just a couple of feet away from it.

"Don't approach it, Derek!" My volume was just a few notches below a shriek. "What if it flies towards us?!"

"I seriously don't get why you two are so afraid of insects," Melissa said, joining Derek. "Just squish them if they get near you. Is that so hard?"

I couldn't respond because I was doing my utmost best to suppress a whimper at the imagery her sentence conjured.

Frowning, Derek raised his head to look back at us. "It's not an insect. It's ... a bat. I think."

"Definitely a bat," Melissa said decidedly. "Don't tell me you're afraid of bats."

"I only like fruit bats," I said, edging towards the window because curiosity had overtaken me.

I had never seen a bat in real life before.

"Disliking something isn't the same as being afraid of it, but okay," Melissa said.

It was twitching slightly as I looked down at its little gray furry body with a white front. It was about the size of my hand. Its eyes were closed as it lay on its back. Did bats normally do that?

"For someone who sounded terrified just a second ago, you're leaning way too close towards it," Ashley said.

"That was before I discovered it wasn't a bug." I said, watching it make a weak attempt at flapping its wings. "Do you think it's hurt?"

"Why is there even a bat here in the first place?" Derek said.

"That's honestly the most important question here," Melissa said. "It probably flew in through the window, right?"

Stepping up closer to me, Ashley said, "I've never seen a bat in our school before. Don't they live in caves or something? It seems a bit far for it to travel."

I peered intently at it. "What if it's injured?"

"You're not going to touch it, right?" Derek said, sounding apprehensive. "We shouldn't be touching wild animals."

Almost insulted by his insinuation that I didn't have common sense, I glared at him. "Of course I'm not going to touch some random bat of unknown origin! I was just asking."

"We should just go," Melissa said, shaking her head. "Someone will probably come across it later. I don't think we can do anything for it."

Slowly, the bat's eyes opened.

"Oh, hey, it woke up," I said in surprise.

"Stop standing so close," Ashley said, grabbing my arm. "What if it flies in your face?"

"Right, right..." I allowed her to tug me backwards just a little bit.

After a bit of struggling, the bat managed to heave itself onto its feet.

Melissa tapped her foot on the floor. "Great, it's not injured. I guess we can go now."

"Should we get one of the teachers to make sure it gets out safely?" I said, watching it teeter on all fours on the windowsill.

The bat halted its tentative movements and wobbled while holding its position.

"I'm not sure they would do anything other than shoo it out," Derek said skeptically.

Emitting a few screeches, it promptly began flapping its wings and started flying. It took a sudden dive as its flapping slowed, but it hastily picked up the speed again and went out from the open window. As it flew off, it continued in its little haphazard flying pattern, dipping downwards and then soaring up again, changing directions each time it did.

We all stared at the window in silence for the next few seconds.

"I thought it was going to fly towards me for half a second," Ashley said, her tone relieved.

"I've never seen a bat fly before, but do they usually do it like they're drunk? Because that one just did," I said, gaping at its now tiny silhouette against the dark night sky.

"Maybe it had some kind of disease or illness," Melissa said. "You know, like those cats or dogs that walk all unsteadily like the room's spinning around."

Nodding, Derek said, "Good thing you didn't touch it. What if it really was sick?"

"I already said that I wasn't planning to!" I said, scowling at him.

"Let's go," Ashley said, still looking outside the window. "I have a lot of revision to do."

"Yeah..." I said.

We continued walking, but I couldn't help but wonder what it was doing here in the first place. The school's main building was a fair distance from the forest.

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AN: the thing Melissa was talking about is vestibular disorder! it can affect balance in the afflicted (human or animal). the severity of it obviously depends on each individual case. thanks so much for reading, i'm so glad you're all enjoying this so far ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛

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