I checked the time and felt hope blossoming inside of me. It was getting late and I was hoping that Kaz and his gang had forgotten about dragging me into a life of illegal actions.

The door open and I froze, cursing myself for jinxing everything. But when I looked over, it was just Leo and Mikayla walking in.

Leo jumped up onto his bed and laid down on his stomach. Mikayla settled herself in his chair, texting on her phone.

"I just can't believe Pete forgot again," Mikayla said, shaking her head.

"Mika, seriously, it's Pete. Are you really that surprised?" Leo said. "He forgets everything."

"He was in a shitty mood this morning," I said.

"That's how Pete actually is," Leo said, glancing over at me. "He has conduct disorder. Trust me, the guy is a goddamn nightmare when he's off his meds."

"What's he on meds for?" I asked.

Leo snorted. "What isn't he on meds for? Behavioral control, anxiety, strong pain killers, sleeping pills...you name it, Pete's on it."

"That explains the hydros," I mumbled.

"He has a really bad knee. Before he was on meds for his behavior, he got in a nasty fight and his knee got wrecked. It gives him a lot of pain and gives out on him a lot, so he started taking hydros," Leo said, shrugging.

"The meds mess with his memory, though. Pete's so drugged up, he can't remember shit," Mikayla said.

Hopefully he'd share his drugs with the others so they'd forget about tonight. My eyes shot to the clock against my will.

"Oh, you're not getting out of tonight," Leo said, noticing where my stare was. "Kaz is just finishing up a paper."

Our door opened and Siggy came in, shutting the door behind him and locking it. He leaned against my bed, arms crossed, hair pulled back into that tiny ponytail.

"Don't be idiots," he said. "I'm not cleaning up your messes for you."

"What's your excuse tonight, Sig?" Leo asked.

Siggy shrugged. "My excuse is that my allergies were bothering me so I took medication and it made me drowsy. I went to bed early. Are you bringing Beckett?"

"You know Kaz barely goes anywhere without him," Mikayla said. "Trust me, no one is getting caught tonight."

Siggy glanced at me. "Don't fuck this up, newbie. Just do what you're told."

I wanted to spit back a sarcastic comment, but I was too busy mentally comparing him to his brother. God, the two could not look less alike.

"Stop staring at me."

I snapped out of my daze. "Huh? Oh, I was just comparing you and your brother. It's like comparing a chocolate bar to mayonnaise."

Jesus Christ mouth, why do you spit out words before they're processed by the brain?

Siggy's expression remained cool and closed off. "Rogan and I are adopted. We're not blood related."

The door opened again and Kaz stepped in, followed by Beckett and Pete. He shut the door and let his eyes roam around the room.

"Siggy," he said. "Good to see you. Get out."

"Don't be a bitch to me, Casimir. All I have to do is tell Cam you were acting suspicious," Siggy said.

"And all I have to do is get you cut off from your brother," Kaz said. He smiled easily. "I go by Kaz. Now get out. Run along, Blue bitch."

Siggy gave Kaz a dirty look, but left the room. Kaz locked the door and shoved Beckett further into the room before turning to me.

"O'Malley, homework done?" he asked.

"Nope. Probably won't be done all night. Oh darn," I said.

Beckett crossed his arms. "Kaz, he doesn't want to come and we don't want to bring him. Just leave it at that."

"I want to bring him," Kaz said, resting his elbow against the top of Beckett's head. "And you see, Beck, I'm calling the shots here. Unless you think you can pull this off without me."

Beckett ducked out from under Kaz's elbow, glaring. "I don't get it."

Kaz snapped and pointed at Beckett. "And you never will if you don't shut your mouth and watch everything unfold." He turned back to me and gestured at me to get up. "Dark clothes, O'Malley. Make it quick. Leo will get you out of the dorms. They'll be going around in the next half hour to make sure everyone is in their rooms."

Pete grinned at me. "Get excited. It's going to be fun."

He left the room, followed by Kaz and Beckett. Mikayla got up and stretched, checking the time.

"I better head out too before the night inspections start. See you in a little," she said to Leo before slipping out of the room.

Leo got up and moved to his closet, looking through his clothes. "Wear the darkest thing you own, Killian. Easier to get away unspotted."

"I would really rather stay out of trouble," I groaned.

"You won't get in trouble. Kaz wouldn't let that happen. If you go down, so do we. He can't trust you not to snitch us out, so he'll make sure no one knows you were involved. If the teachers catch you, you might rat us out to them. I'm assuming he's doing this to see how much we can trust you," Leo said with a shrug. "Don't screw us over. Trust me, you'll make way more enemies than you can count."

"Hey, what did Mikayla do to get stuck here?" I asked, standing up and opening my closet. I felt a little better after Leo's speech. He was right; Kaz wouldn't risk letting me get caught.

"Their stories are not mine to tell. All I can say is that Mikayla and God don't really get along," Leo said, pulling out a black shirt and dark jeans. He changed quickly and I copied him, putting on the darkest clothes I had and feeling like I should take a selfie and post it to Myspace with Escape The Fate lyrics.

"Hop in bed," Leo said.

I stared at him for a second before remembering that not everyone was a flaming homo. I climbed up onto my bed and Leo got on his. We both got under the covers and Leo turned the lights out.

"Uh..." I waited for Leo to say something.

"Just shut up and pretend you're asleep," he said.

I rolled over to face the wall and wondered what the hell we were doing. Maybe Leo was planning to just nap and skip Kaz's night of unlawful activities.

Aw, who am I kidding, he was a Conversion Academy student. Unlawful activities were his specialty.

The door opened and I heard Leo shift. Had Kaz come to drag us along with him?

"Some of us are trying to sleep, asshole!" Leo snapped in a voice that sounded barely awake. I heard him throw something and the door slammed.

I rolled over and sat up, looking at the dark room. Leo was also sitting up, but there was a grin on his face. One of his pillows was on the floor near the door.

"Blues come to check and make sure everyone is in their room when it's time for shut in hours. The only reasons you're allowed out of your room is if you need to talk to someone on duty, if you're doing laundry, if you're getting something from the vending machines, or if you're going to the bathroom," Leo explained. "If they think we're asleep, they won't come back to check on us. Especially not if they're afraid to wake us up."

He got out of bed, but kept the lights off. He went over and locked the door, picking up his pillow. He stuffed it under his blanket until it resembled a believable lump of body. He grabbed one of my pillows and ushered me out of my bed before stuffing the pillow under my covers.

"They have keys to our rooms, so it's just a precaution," he explained when he was satisfied with how the pillow looked.

He went over and pulled a bag out of his closet, securing it on his shoulders before moving over to the door. He quietly unlocked it and creaked it open, peaking out. He motioned at me to follow him and we darted out into the hallway and down to the staircase.

Leo carefully crept down the stairs to the side door on the first floor. He flipped up the hood of the jacket he was wearing and I copied him. We ducked our heads and slipped out the side door, hopping the railing and hiding ourselves against the side of the building.

"This is ninja shit," I hissed.

Leo grinned. "Just wait."

He darted out to a cluster of trees and bushes across from our dorm building. I followed after him, struggling to keep up with his quick speed. I was built for metaphorically running away from my problems, not physically running after my insane roommate.

Once we were safely hidden in the trees, Leo slowed down and led me deeper into the cluster. I nearly pissed myself when a smaller figure stepped out from behind a tree.

"Great, he's jumpy," Beckett said in annoyance.

"Shut up, you're like 12!" I said, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart.

"He's 11," Leo said, laughing a little.

"Both of you shut up. Let's go," Kaz said. Pete and Mikayla were standing with him.

"Where's Cara?" Leo asked as we started walking, keeping carefully hidden by the trees.

Mikayla sighed. "She had to be the distraction so I could sneak out. She said she'll come next time."

"Is anyone ever going to tell me what the hell we're doing?" I asked impatiently.

"What we're doing is shutting up and following Kaz," Kaz said.

"Very helpful, thank you," I said.

Still, I fell silent, worried that the kids in blue vests might be roaming the campus. The others seemed at ease, even a little excited, as we walked.

We rounded the edge of the campus until the trees ran out. Then I found myself running out of breath as I tried to keep up with the freaking ninjas darting around the buildings and any cover they could find.

I looked up as we ducked behind a driverless car and realized that we were at the back of the building where our classes were held. Kaz nodded to Leo, who grinned and reached into his backpack.

He pulled out something slim that rolled between his fingers with ease. Leo pushed away from the car after looking around. He made his way to the back door, peeked in through the windows, and knelt down, hands fidgeted with the handle on the door.

I watched in shock as the door swung open a few moments later. Leo slipped inside, coming back out after a minute and gesturing to us.

We got up and entered the dark building, Kaz shutting the door once we were all in. He pulled out his cellphone, turning on the flashlight and clamping his hand over it so that only the smallest hint of light slipped out from his fingers.

"Follow Kaz," Leo mumbled in my ear.

My heart was pounding as we moved deeper into the building. This was definitely not allowed. We'd just broken into a building on campus. I could only imagine how much trouble we'd get in if we got caught now.

Kaz led us through a doorway and up a set of stairs to a long hallway. We filed down the hallway and out into the main lobby of the building. Kaz seemed to know exactly where he was going, even in the dark. How many times had he broken into this place?

The thought made me feel better and worse at the same time.

Kaz stopped and Leo moved forward again, kneeling in front of the door and working on it until it creaked open. We all slipped into the room and Leo closed the door.

I looked around, squinting in the darkness. My eyes widened as I recognized Mr. Sternberg's classroom. Oh, we were in so much trouble.

Kaz grabbed a couple books and shoved them against the crack between the door and the floor before flicking on the lights in the room. There were no windows in the classroom, and with the crack in the door covered, no one would know we were in here.

"Mika," Kaz said.

"Yea, yea, I'm on it," Mikayla said, moving to the back of the room and grabbing a stack of bibles. I watched in horror as she began to tear out the pages. I had a feeling that, somewhere miles away, my mother was sitting up in her bed clutching at her chest.

"O'Malley, come here," Kaz said, motioning me over.

I walked over to him. "Why did you drag me into this? I want nothing to do with this. I'd rather not get the shit beaten out of me by a teacher."

Kaz picked up the paddle Mr. Sternberg had struck Leo with earlier and held it out to me. "Break it in half."

"I'm not getting in trouble. I want to keep my head down and get out of this damn place," I said.

Beckett crossed his arms. "Haven't you figured it out yet? You're not getting out of here. None of us are. Our parents dumped us here and they don't plan on taking us back anytime soon."

"You can bow to them and let them make your life miserable, or you can fight back," Kaz said, still holding the paddle out to me. "We don't know why you're here. You don't know why some of us are here. But the fact is that, for our own reasons, we're here, and we're not getting out anytime soon."

I stepped back from him, not about to turn myself into a criminal just because my parents dumped me at a school for them. I looked around at the kids in the room. Leo had shifted to help Mikayla tear pages out of the bibles, Pete was searching through Mr. Sternberg's desk, and Kaz and Beckett were watching me. I didn't belong here with these people. These kids in the room with me had real issues; I just had a hard-on for guys.

"Well, suit yourself then," Kaz said, and promptly brought the paddle down over his knee, snapping it. He tossed the pieces in the general direction of Leo and Mikayla.

"He's useless," Beckett said, walking away and over to Pete.

"Someone missed his nap time," I grumbled.

"He's wrong. No one is useless if you just find their talent," Kaz said.

"Thanks, I love getting pep talks from thieves," I said.

Kaz smiled easily. "Even thieves can have a little compassion. You'll be useful to us. I can tell."

He moved over to the desk and I watched as he reached out, snatching a little figurine off the desk. He didn't even look as he took it, just extended his hand, swiped it, and let it disappear into his pocket in a swift, smooth motion.

This was stupid. I shouldn't be here. I didn't have to be useful to a bunch of kids who should be in jail or rehab or anger management. I was just a guy who liked to play video games and sleep in until noon and go out to the mall with my friends and occasionally tongue a hot guy. This was not the place for me.

"Are we ready to go?" Mikayla asked, stepping up next to me with Leo.

I turned and stared in surprise at the wall they had been standing near. They'd taped up the pages of the bible to form a phrase. "God is dead" was spelled out in bible pages with the broken pieces of the paddle resting on the ground beneath it.

"All of you head out except O'Malley," Kaz said.

"Kaz!" Beckett said, shooting him a dirty look.

"Did I fucking stutter, Beckett?" Kaz asked sweetly.

Beckett turned the dirty look on me before following the others out of the room. Kaz kicked the books away from the door.

"Sternberg will know we were involved. He won't know about you. He won't deal out the punishment. But people will ask questions, and you won't give answers," Kaz said, looking at me. "If you sell even a single one of us out...well, trust me, O'Malley, you don't want that."

"My name is Killian," I said.

"Don't act tough with me. Tonight is a trial for you. Fail it, and you'll really hate being at this school." He grinned a little. "Trust me, O'Malley, it's not hard to tell you're not here for the same reasons as the others. Whatever landed you here, you're a goddamn fish out of water. The others can tell, too. That's why they don't trust you. You're not like us. It's sink or swim here and I'm the only thing that'll keep your head above the water. Think on it when the Blues come around asking what you know."

Kaz left the room, flicking the lights off. I followed him, only so I wouldn't get left behind to take the blame for what had happened in the room.

I followed the others out of the building and back to the dorm in silence. Leo had to break us into the building, but from there, it was easy to get back to our rooms.

Leo changed and collapsed on his bed, passing out almost instantly. I changed and laid down, staring up at the ceiling.

Everyone kept telling me that I'd never survive Conversion Academy without Kaz. But after tonight, all Kaz had been good for was dragging me down to his level and getting me caught up with their brand of trouble.

Good job, mom. Your son was now a gay criminal. I wonder if they had bumper stickers for that. "My son is a boy scout!" "My son is a gay criminal!"

I rolled over to face the wall, unable to quiet my mind enough to go to sleep. Kaz was right; they would come around asking questions tomorrow. And I had a feeling that tonight had set the stage for the rest of my stay at the Academy.