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A banner reading "CONGRADULATIONS!" spanned the main hallway of the community center two doors down from Westside High as over half of the senior class, some of them still sporting their graduation caps, filled the building for the all-nighter.

"Ugh, I can't believe I forgot to pack my swimsuit!" the Manectric bemoaned as their group of eight made their way past one of the gymnasiums, this one apparently being used as the party's main dance hall.

"Don't worry, Shana, both Vanessa and I brought backups!" the Floatzel responded immediately. "I'm sure one of ours should fit you."

"Ah, thanks!"

"I mean, you don't HAVE to wear one," the Houndoom at her side teased.

She laughed, giving him a playful shove. "As if, Nando!"

Most everyone laughed at that interaction before trying to figure out what to do next. Shana and Fernando weren't officially a couple, though they certainly seemed to have a good rapport, and certainly fit well with the other couples in their group - Ryan and Vanessa, Terry and Meghan, and Kyle and Jack.

"I could go for some food and drink to start us off," Terry suggested, to which the group mostly agreed, the four couples soon making their way over to the community center's grand ballroom.

"Too bad none of the drinks here have that little extra..." Ryan mused sadly as they claimed a table with their dinners.

Vanessa ruffled his hair. "Well they aren't going to spike anything at a school-sponsored event, of course!"

"I know! But still."

Dinner passed by easily enough, with Vanessa and Meghan getting the swimsuits out of their bags to let Shana pick one out. The group betted on the idea that most students' first instinct would be to enjoy the dance floor, so they went to the pool first - which, as the night went on, they would find turned out to be an excellent bet. Six of the eight students made their way out of their respective locker rooms and into the lazy river - the missing couple being Kyle and Jack, which caused a couple of jokes to be tossed around among the others before the final couple emerged, the Hitmonchan half-hanging off of the Arcanine's shoulder and both of them looking a little smug.

"Well look what canoodling fools decided to finally show up!" Fernando barked as the other two eased their way into the lazy river.

"You're just jealous y'all can't share the same locker room," Kyle quipped, making the girls giggle a little bit but successfully earned no real retorts from the others.

"I noticed the matching speedos!" Shana complimented with a wink.

Terry added "You look good in Westside Warriors colors, Jack!"

The Hitmonchan just laughed, blushing a bit, before responding "Well, I... ah... Okay yeah, I gotta admit they're kinda nice..." He waved his hand about as if to brush it off, inadvertently showing off the Warriors-colored wristband he had been forced to put on as a "guest" to the all-nighter (everyone else simply had to show their school IDs to get in).

"The question is," Meghan began dramatically, "does he look good in *A* Westside Warrior?"

"Meg, boundaries!" Terry chastised, though with a bit of a laugh himself.

"But inquiring minds want to know!" Vanessa egged on.

Kyle headed off further banter by answering, "Well, in MY humble opinion, I think he looks fucking amazing in OR around a Westside Warrior, but I maaaay be biased."

The eight of them continued to shoot the breeze as they flowed loops around the lazy river, all starting to look for what lay ahead of them after tonight. Ryan was off to trade school; Vanessa was going to try her chances in Los Mares and had the backup plan of going to school for either acting or dance; Fernando had landed in one of the big business schools in Smallville; Terry and Kyle were both going to Meritzen University, Terry for engineering and Kyle on a full athletic scholarship for the Meritzen University Thunderbirds battle team.

Most of them eventually moved to the hot tub, though Terry stayed out because "I'll literally wilt if I'm in there for more than a minute or two". Eventually, they left the pool area and got dressed, moving to the community center's game room to enjoy pool, foosball, air hockey, and a particularly energetic and well-matched ping pong match of Shana and Meghan versus Kyle and Jack.

After grabbing desert back in the great hall around two in the morning, they went back in to the dance hall, which had thankfully weathered down to about half of the population it had been when everyone got here, giving the group of eight plenty of breathing room to dance how they wanted. At one point, Ryan insisted that he get a chance to dance with either Kyle or Jack "just to legit see what it's like dancing with another strong guy", which after some discussion prompted two couple shifts over the next fifteen minutes or so, giving Kyle with Ryan first and then Shana, neither of which turned out to be very awkward for him at all, to his pleasant surprise (Shana clearly enjoyed dancing with him, too).

The eight of them filed back out into the hallway around four-thirty in the morning, Shana sitting down on a bench to rest up a bit and causing Fernando and Kyle (and Jack) to hang around while the other two couples split off to go find some quiet corners to go make out, as if the dance floor hadn't been enough.

"Sit next to me, Nando!" she said, patting the bench next to her, to which the Houndoom obliged. Jack then leaned up against the wall on Shana's other side, leaving Kyle to stand in front of the others.

"Did you say you were gonna ship off to Meritzen well before Terry, Kyle?" the Hitmonchan asked, holding out a hand to his boyfriend.

"Yeah, I am," the Arcanine responded, squeezing the proffered hand. "I'm actually already packing, since the battle team apparently practices a lot during the summer. I'll be leaving next week."

"Dang, you're hitting the ground running then, huh?" Fernando asked.

"Yup! It'll be quite a rush, I think."

"No kidding! And you'll be one step away from becoming a pro battler, at that. Moving on up fast!"

"College sports and pro sports are kinda "life in the fast lane", right?" Shana took her turn to ask with a quick glance between Kyle and Jack.

"Yeah, so I've heard a bit..."

"From what I hear occasionally of Enrique's experience at National University out in College City, the athletic department is fantastically hedonistic!" Fernando said with a naughty smile.

"And people are more likely to either be out or at least open to experimenting in college, so I bet you'll get a ton of action!" Jack added.

"And you're okay with that?" Shana asked the fighting-type skeptically.

"Well, we're kinda in a open relationship already..."

"Yeah, you've told me stories!" Kyle said with a laugh, "damn hot stories!"

"I know, right?" the Hitmonchan smiled, glad to hear the Arcanine would say he was okay with Jack's openness in public (Kyle had said as much to Jack in private already, but the Hitmonchan was always at least a little worried about offending his boyfriend, so hearing that repeated in public was reassuring). "And now it's your turn! Just don't forget me, hun, will ya?"

"I won't forget you, Jack," Kyle responded, reaching out to squeeze hands again before pulling his boyfriend into a quick kiss, earning a "d'aww" from Shana.

A moment later, Jack turned and asked her "And what about you two? What with Nando heading off to Smallville. You two ARE a couple, right? Can't say I've really been able to tell."

Shana and Fernando shared a glance. "Well, if it's confused you, I guess that's somewhat expected" the Houndoom answered. "We did go on several actual dates early on, but we eventually sat down and agreed to kinda be Schrödinger's Couple."

"We haven't gone on a one-on-one date ever since, as neither of us really felt the pull we expected for a boyfriend or girlfriend," Shana continued, "but we did still really enjoy hanging out with each other generally speaking."

"We only had a bit more than a year to be together in the first place when we initially got together anyway, so knowing we probably wouldn't have the same post-high-school plans meant we both kinda assumed it wasn't going to last. But it was certainly fun being "together-ish" for that time!"

"I guess though that does mean we'd technically be breaking up our Schrödinger thing now, wouldn't it?" Shana asked.

Fernando thought about it for a moment before shrugging and nodding. "Yeah, I guess so. Fun while it lasted?" he asked, holding out a hand to shake.

"Definitely!" the Manectric responded, rightfully shaking the offered hand, before both of them leaned back in the spots on the bench with a smile, moving the conversation on as if it was no big deal to either of them. It took a couple minutes, but Kyle did come to the conclusion they were both completely truthful and happy about their time together. / One week later, his parents were getting back in their car, having just finished helping Kyle get all his things into his freshman dorm room. They said their goodbyes, his mother tearing up a bit as they wished him fun on the two-week-long retreat that he and the rest of the Thunderbirds battle squad would be leaving for in a couple of days, and then drove away.

He went back up to his dorm room, flopping down on his XL twin bed as the sudden reality of living as a completely independent individual started sinking down on him. He stared up at the ceiling for a while, a bit intimidated but more excited, until he finally got up and updated his Pawbook status as well as his education information.

About half an hour later, his phone went off with a text from his soon-to-be-roommate that he'd been chatting with for the past month and that was a Meritzen local.

<Hey! Saw your Pawbook status. All moved in, huh? Wanna nab an afternoon snack? There's this awesome café about a block south of the athletic complex.>

<Sure! Half an hour?>

<Half an hour works for me! See you soon! Excited to meet you.>

Kyle knew his roommate would be a Pyroar named Sky, but beyond that not much. He guessed Sky probably knew a bit more about him than he knew about Sky simply because of his being as much of a public figure as you can be in high school on top of his status as one of Meritzen's top battle recruits.

The Pyroar greeted him with a hug right off the bat, which was a bit surprising but surprisingly felt welcome. "Nice to meet you, Kyle! I'm Sky, in case you were worried a complete stranger just came up to hug you."

The Arcanine laughed. "I figured! Nice to finally meet you, too!"

"Enjoying Meritzen so far? Here, let's get in line for food, they have eeexcellllent smoothies here."

"Ah awesome. Yeah, I'm enjoying the city and the campus so far."

"How's our room?"

"It's nice enough! We have our own bathroom, which is amazing, especially since I think it's the handicap room on the floor so the shower stall is huuuge."

"Sweet!"

"Yeah. The beds look nice - memory foam, I think - and big enough for me, so definitely for you too since you look a couple inches shorter."

"And not quite as built, either - you look gooood, man!"

"Ah thanks! I try. Anyway, the beds are raised enough that you could fit our desks underneath them, but then you wouldn't actually be able to use the desk surface. The posts actually look like you could turn the two beds into one bunk bed if you really wanted too, there's room."

"Interesting. Ah, looks like we're next to order here."

Kyle quickly decided on the "mango pineapple splash" smoothie since the smoothies had been recommended, which Sky then copied expect for asking for half the yoghurt, no mint, and adding a splash of lemonade; Kyle made a mental note that Sky clearly knew the spots around here well enough to know what kind of custom orders one could ask for.

They sat down and sipped for a while before Sky asked "So is your boyfriend coming up to Meritzen as well, or no?"

Kyle wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not that his freshman roommate already knew he was officially taken, by another guy no less, and just took a sip before deciding no harm in answering honestly. "No, he's staying back home and taking a gap year before deciding what to do next. So we won't be in the same city, but we didn't break up at graduation, we're gonna see how long distance works out. I'm guessing it should work with no major issues, at least in terms of wandering eyes or whatever, since our relationship has kinda been "open" from the start. He's been the only one to really use his "free passes" thus far, though, but I think he's expecting some salacious stories from me now that I'm a college athlete."

"Well, then! That sounds like a nice setup. I wish you two luck, in both aspects!" He raised his smoothie cup as if in toast, and Kyle raised his as well to "clink" the two plastic cups together, both of them then taking a nice, long sip. Sky continued "I hope I have a boyfriend by the time I graduate from Meritzen... Would be nice, but no hurry I guess."

Kyle nodded. "I guess it might be a good idea to come up with a warning system for the chance we have someone over to our room?"

"Yeah, that'd probably - wait, a "system"? the Pyroar asked with a grin, followed by a laugh. "What, are you suggesting one warning for "clear out" and another for "feel free to join" or something?"

Kyle laughed at that too. "NOT what I meant, but if college athletic life lives up to what I've heard, might not be a bad idea... You had a wild life thus far?"

"No, actually very much not," Sky answered, shaking his head. "Most I've done with another guy is kiss; it was a straight guy I'd had a crush on for a while, and it was after I'd had a really bad day. I mean, he was legit my friend already, so it wasn't just a pity kiss, he honestly wanted to help me feel better."

"Well that's nice of him! So you're still a virgin."

"Yeah... I'm sure college will change that. I mean, I DO have a toy I've used once or twice, but that doesn't really count... And I think I'll be more of a top anyway."

"It'll be fun! Just make sure you don't spend your first time on a random hook-up; it should be with a friend who'll be more likely to put effort into making it enjoyable for you and to hang around after."

"Speaking from experience?"

"No, thankfully, at least that it wasn't a random hook-up."

They lapsed into silence for a bit before the conversation picked up with more mundane things, such as what majors they would be pursuing (Kyle didn't know; Sky would be doing art), what both of them knew thus far about what the Thunderbirds season (and preseason summer retreat) would be like, and how Kyle's move went.

"When do you want to move in, by then way?" the Arcanine asked. "I mean, I know you can't register to get in to the room until the official move-in weekend, but I can let you in whenever. Well, except when I'll be out on the retreat, but you know what I mean."

"I guess I could start bringing some things in once you get back from your battle squad retreat. Do you know where you guys will be going?"

"No clue, they just said pack enough for one week in a cabin and one week roughing it in the woods..."

"Ugh, joyous."

"Indeed..."