Sehun's lifesaving training kicked in and he raced along the side and plunged back into the pool without even thinking. In a second he had looped one arm around Kai's chest, pulled him to the surface and towed him to the side. Luhan and the assistant coach, Simkins helped hoist him out of the pool.

Kai had been pale before, but Sehun saw that even his full lips were white now - his gums and tongue, too.

'Should I get the nurse?' Sehun offered. He wasn't sure, but he thought he'd seen the nurse's office some-where near the principal's.

'Nah. We just need to get him rehydrated,' Luhan said confidently. 'And get him some air.' He waved Sehun away, then Luhan and Simkins led Kai into the locker room, clearly supporting most of his weight.

Chen jogged over to Sehun. 'What the hell was that? Is Kai all right?' he asked.

Sehun shrugged. 'He looked completely damaged. but, I don't know...'Sehun replied doubtfully. He couldn't believe Kai wasn't on a stretcher right now. The inside of his mouth had been as white as his teeth. That wasn't a take-two-aspirin kind of thing.

'Guess he should have listened to Luhan and taken it easy,' Chen said. 'Although easy is not Kai's style.'

'Competitive, huh?' Sehun asked, trying to push the image of Kai's limp body out of his mind.

'Extremely, in everything, and mostly with Luhan - probably because they usually come in within a second of each other,' Chen answered. 'And because Luhan ended up with the girl Kai had his eye-'

'Set me up Chen!'

Chen broke off as Kai's voice interrupted.

Sehun couldn't believe his eyes. Kai was powering over to his starting block as if nothing had happened.

'Are you sure you know what you're doing?' Simkins called, following Kai out the locker room.

Sehun noticed that the assistant coach's face was pale under his tan, each of his freckles now clearly visible. Obviously, he'd been as freaked by Kai's collapse as Sehun had. Except that, other than the pale, he didn't seem wigged out. In fact, Sehun thought, he looked more like he'd just snared an admirable buzz.

'Sure, I'm sure,' Kai replied cheerfully.

'Well, I'm sure you're hitting the showers,' Coach Middleton yelled. 'I want you in top form for the first meet.'

At least somebody around here is sane, Sehun thought.

His old coach would definitely have sent Kai to the nurse. Maybe even ordered him to go to the doctor and get blood work done.

'I'm in top form already!' Kai protested, with a grin. And even from where Sehun was standing, it was clear that the interior of his mouth was now a healthy deep, dark pink - almost red. His cheeks were flushed too, like he's been running a marathon.

'I got juiced up,' Kai announced. 'Simkins supplied the sweet, sweet Gatorade.'

Gatorade? Sehun shook his head. Clearly they made it differently out here.

After practice, Sehun meandered toward his car, enjoying the warmth in his body from the combo of exercise and a hot shower - not to mention the omnipresent sunshine of Malibu. How disturbing would it be to have a seventy-five degree Christmas this winter? Sehun smiled to himself; somehow, decorating a palm tree on the beach wouldn't be quite the same as stringing lights on a pine tree.

'Hey, Michigan! Can I borrow your cell? Mine died.'

Sehun already knew that voice. Yuri. he felt his pulse quicken as he walked over to her and the imported Alfa Romeo Spider - hood up - that she was leaning on.

'What did you do to your car, Malibu?' he teased.

Yuri shrugged. 'It's temperamental.'

'Oh, well, temperamental, that's beyond me. I could fill up the wiper fluid thing. You out of wiper fluid?' Sehun asked.

'Nope,' she answered. 'So I guess you're no help to me.'

'And that's where you're wrong. I know exactly where to get you a cell phone,' Sehun said. But he didn't make a move to retrieve it.

'So are you going to? I'll say thank you and everything,' Yuri promised.

'Yeah. But instead of saying thank you, just tell me something about yourself.' Not bad, Sehun thought. 'It's not right that this whole school seems to have the 411 on me when I don't know anything about anyone.'

Yuri laughed. '"The 411"? I haven't heard that since elementary school.'

Oh. 'What? You have no appreciation for retro?' Sehun asked, attempting to recover.

'I'm all about the new,' Yuri breathed, taking a step closer. 'So, what do you want to know? I answered your retro question. I'll give you two more.'

Two questions. Sehun's brain started to spin. What did you think of English class? What kind of movies do you like? Did we know each other in a former life? All moronic. 'I'll think about it while I go get the cell from my car. My sister has it.'

'You drive your sister home?' Yuri asked.

'Yeah.'

'Most guys wouldn't do that.'

'I guess I'm not most guys.'

Yuri smiled that slow smile of hers. 'Good. We need someone different around here. New blood.'

Is she flirting with me? Sehun wondered. He felt a huge, goofy grin struggling to break across his face and quickly turned away from her. 'Be right back.'

Luna was waiting for him in the passenger seat, flicking through a glossy. 'Finally,' she said when she spotted him. 'I need to get home and have a nice, private panic attack.'

'It can't have been that bad,' Sehun said.

'First day at a new school? First day ever in my life as the new girl?' Luna gave him her patented sarcastic head shake. 'Are you kidding? I've definitely had better days!'

'I need two more minutes,' he told her. 'And I need the cell.'

Luna handed the phone over, sighed, and returned to her magazine.

Sehun hesitated. He wanted to come up with something memorable to ask Yuri. Something that would intrigue her, not something like, 'If you could be any kind of animal, what animal would you be?'

Maybe something like, 'When were you the happiest ever?' Sehun thought as he walked back to Yuri. Or maybe... maybe, 'Do you have a boyfriend?'

Although the answer to that one was pretty clear, because Yuri wasn't leaning against the Alfa Romeo anymore, she was leaning against Luhan. Her arms wrapped around his neck, his hands were plunged into that amazing black hair of hers. And they were kissing as if they never planned to stop.

*Note - Woah, Kai collapsing... and what's with the mysterious Gatorade, huh? Sehun is such a hero saving Kai~ He's so manly, haha.

Big shock for Sehun finding Yuri kissing Luhan! She seemed like she was single right?