Sebastian's eyes widened at Kurt's question, and he swallowed audibly. He quickly tried to compose himself, but the damage was already done. Kurt had seen it all.

"Um, I'm actually, really in a hurry," he lied. "We'll talk later, okay?"

Sebastian started walking away, but Kurt wouldn't let him escape that easily. He grabbed Sebastian's arm and stood in front of him to block his way. He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.

"What is it? Why won't you tell me?"

Kurt watched as Sebastian sighed and darted his eyes to the nearest escape.

"Look, it's nothing, just a… production err- an older edition of the uniform. I mean, um, I gotta go."

This time, Kurt didn't try to stop him. He knew it wouldn't do any good, because Sebastian wouldn't tell him the truth anyway. Instead, he turned to Nick and Cade, who were walking away in the other end of the hall.

Running to catch up, Kurt joined them as they walked to class.

"Hey," he said breathlessly.

"Hey," Cade said back. Nick only smiled.

"Listen, do you guys have any idea where room E214 is?" Kurt began, not wanting to spook them by coming on too strong, as he'd clearly spooked Sebastian. This was a matter that had to dealt with delicately, Kurt realized.

Cade laughed.

"You hear that, Nick? The new kid finds Dalton's room codes puzzling."

He winked at Kurt, and his face was lit by a big grin that spread all the way to his brown eyes. Nick only hummed by his other side and watched his feet as he walked. Cade watched him, his grin fading to a frown as he patted his friend on the back.

He turned back to Kurt, frown still deeply set on his face. As he spoke, he sounded more reserved than before.

"Yeah, it's the chemistry building. About twenty yards south from this building, across the backyard."

"Oh, it's a separate building?" Kurt asked dumbly, head shooting back to the schedule he'd fished out of his bag.

"Yup," Cade affirmed, "For safety reasons, I suppose. Because Dalton is solely made of wood, and you never know what kinds of fires reckless students can start by accident. At least, that's what I heard happened fifteen years ago."

"Wait, what happened fifteen years ago?" Kurt asked, intrigued.

Nick muttered, "Nothing."

But Cade continued to explain persistently, "The school had a south wing, where the chemistry and bio classes were held. Fifteen years ago, a student or maybe a couple of students did some sort of experiment with a gas tank. Long story short, the whole south wing burnt down."

Kurt gasped in shock. "Oh my God! That's terrible!"

"Yeah," Cade agreed. "I guess they decided a separate building was more suitable after that."

Nick groaned deeply and stumbled over his feet. Cade, surprised by Nick's sudden deterioration, caught him by reflex just as he started to fall, and steadied him with his body. Until now, Kurt hadn't noticed the beads of sweat glistering on Nick's forehead and on his face in the yellow light of the chandeliers. His bangs were sticking to his forehead in some places, and his eyes were watery.

"Is he okay?" Kurt asked Cade, because Nick didn't look like he was in any state to carry on a conversation, "He looks like he's got a fever or something… Should we take him to the nurse?"

Cade gave Nick a long look, and Nick fought to keep eye contact. Kurt watched the wordless movement of Nick's lips and the way his eyes bored into Cade's and thought that Nick looked like he was pleading to Cade.

"Cade?" Kurt asked unsurely, wondering if he'd been too preoccupied to hear him.

"What? Yeah."

Kurt shoved his schedule back into his bag and moved to step around Cade and support Nick on his other side, but Cade stopped him.

"Um, it's okay, I can take him. You're right, it's probably just a fever."

He tried to smile, but it didn't reach his eyes this time. It looked more like a grimace.

"Are you sure?" Kurt asked. "I don't mind, I want to help."

"No, we'll be fine," he assured, "Besides, you'll have to leave now if you wanna make it in time to class, with it being in the other building and all."

"It's really no big deal," Kurt said sternly, getting the feeling that Cade didn't want his help, and wasn't just trying to look out for Kurt.

"It's your first day," Cade said then. "You don't wanna be late for every one of your classes. The first one was enough, right?"

He gave Kurt another insistent smile and flung Nick's arm over his shoulders.

Kurt nodded and started to walk away. It wasn't until he'd taken a few steps that Cade's words suddenly connected in his head.

"Wait, how did you know I was late for-"

Kurt spun around to face Cade, but neither he nor Nick was there anymore. Instead, they had been replaced by swarms of students making their way to second period. Kurt felt a couple jabs and shoves against his back guys hurried past him on their way to class, almost knocking him over in the process.

Frowning, Kurt let it go for the moment and decided to leave it until he saw either of them again. For now, he had another issue on his mind: getting to class on time.

He pushed up his sleeve and took another look at his watch. With barely five minutes to spare, Kurt sighed and kicked himself internally for allowing all these conversations to interrupt his schedule. Why couldn't they have waited until after school hours?

Damn, Kurt thought, a bad taste forming in his mouth,�I'll have to run again.

And with that, he was off again.

000

The chemistry building lay at the edge of the forest, almost hidden under the overhanging branches of the trees. The moss-like color seemed to cover the whole stone building. Kurt supposed that the constructors had opted not use wood when they were told that the building would contain highly flammable and explosive substances.

The roof had only a slight slope, making it look almost flat. There was a chimney on top, and there was a dark gray smoke, thick as fire fumes, coming out of it.

Since there was not a single student in sight, Kurt figured he must be late again.

Just perfect, he thought with a sigh.

As he pulled the main door open, he was greeted by a large chemistry classroom with endless rows of blue lab desks. However, instead of being packed with the students in Kurt's class, it was empty.

Well, empty except for one.

The student turned his head at the sound of Kurt entering. His hair was dark, but his eyes were darker. His eyes looked almost black, and not even in the flicker of the flames by the open fire did they seem brighter. He wore a harsh expression, eyebrows drawn together tightly as if he were in deep concentration. The look seemed out of place, since his body language was casual and relaxed as he poked the fire with some sort of metal stick.

The student turned back to the fire, but not before Kurt had time to notice that the crest on his blazer was indeed blue; not that it surprised Kurt by this point. All the blue-crested students seemed to command a strange sort of presence, like they were… unnaturally magnetic.

"The class was cancelled, so you can leave," the student said, just as Kurt caught himself letting his eyes linger a second too long on the student's back.

"Wait, cancelled?" Kurt asked, baffled, "I didn't hear anything about that."

"Well, it's cancelled, no matter what you heard or didn't hear," the student said coldly.

"Why? Surely there must've been a reason for it?"

"Oh, yes," he said, looking at Kurt again, his face now covered with a smile.

There was nothing about that smile that made Kurt feel any easier, it just made the student look even more unpleasant.

"Word is, your teacher has been… occupied elsewhere."

As the student raised the metal cane from the flames, Kurt saw that the end of the stick was glowing of yellow and red from the heat. The glowing part looked odd, almost like... a symbol. From across the room, Kurt had to squint hard to make it out in the glow, but he could almost see what the symbol looked like. However, he had no idea what it was, or why it looked so familiar. It resembled a cross, but the top looked as if it had some sort of strange round and hollow flower inscribed onto it.

Kurt nodded and left, realizing that he wouldn't get any answers from the strange student. If he ever wanted to find out answers about the blue crests and the strange students, he might as well look into it himself. Sebastian had made it very clear that he wouldn't have any part in revealing the truth, although he obviously knew what was going on...

Kurt was going to have to find out on his own, starting with that symbol.

000

The library on the top floor of the main building was even quieter than one would expect. Usually in libraries, there are people whispering or speaking, and a librarian hushing them, or even just the faint buzz of a computer running. But as Kurt entered the library, it was completely deserted, and it was dead silent.

Most students were either in class or in their dorms, but it was still a peculiar feeling for Kurt to see the whole room so deserted as he tiptoed past the librarian's desk and in between the high rows of book-filled cases.

There were four computers lined up on a desk by the wall. Kurt dropped his school bag on the floor, sat down on a chair. and powered up a computer. The internal fan sighed lightly, but then returned to a quiet level as it welcomed Kurt.

Every now and then, Kurt felt the need to look through the crack between two bookshelves and see if anyone was out there. The whole library was giving Kurt the feeling that it was closed, and he probably shouldn't be there. Nevertheless, there was a small part of his brain that couldn't seem to ignore the feeling of not being as alone as he thought. He felt like he was being watched.

As soon as the browser appeared on the screen, Kurt typed�g-o-o-g-l-e�and hit enter. He looked around the room as the webpage loaded slowly before unconsciously leaning closer to the screen. He wasn't sure what he was going to search for, but if there was one thing he couldn't count on to get from his new friends, it was answers.

Kurt nibbled on his pinkie as he stared intently at the bright screen, willing the questions to form in his mind. Casting another eye to the librarian's desk, Kurt typed the words "ancient symbols."

He changed to Google images, and browsed through the many different symbols. Some looked familiar – like the trinity and the Celtic cross – while others seemed to be made up by someone who'd been reading too many sci-fi novels.

There was nothing remotely similar to what he'd seen on the metal stick. He tried other things too –�religious symbols, symbolic rites, known symbols,�unknown symbols�– but there were no hits.

He was just about to type "cross symbols" when a movement caught his eye.

Kurt looked up, horrified that someone was there and had seen what he was doing. Someone was standing there, leaning against a bookcase, his horrified expression mirroring Kurt's as he stared at the computer screen.

It was Jeff.