Jay felt his breath catch a little in his chest as he took a seat in the classroom, feeling a little bit of trepidation sink into him as he let what little oxygen he had left after his sprint whoosh through his nose. He had slept in – on the first day back – and had thought he would have walked into a lecture hall of glaring sophomores; however, most people seemed to be chattering away, and he slid onto a spare seat, running a hand through his dark hair, which had decided not to behave today, sticking up at the front like TV antenna.

"Hey."

He turned his head to the left, and a familiar face greeted him, blue eyes dull with tiredness. Alex Kralie, holding a cup of coffee and looking characteristically unamused by Jay's red face and shortness of breath, slid up a little to accommodate his presence.

"You're late," he murmured, and pushed a second cup of coffee his way. Jay took it willingly, weakly grinning his thanks at his friend, and took a gulp, yelping as it burnt his mouth. He felt a little better already.

"Skilled as always, Warner," Brian laughed from the other side of Alex, and reached over to high-five Jay, who returned the gesture a little sheepishly, wincing at the loud noise that he was sure was going to drag more attention to his red cheeks. "Are we awake yet?"

"No. I hope they don't just launch us back into this straight away," Jay winced, and Alex smiled at him, shaking his head. "What, Kralie? It's Monday morning!"

"Dumbass," Alex grinned. "Did you forget? This year, we work on our projects."

"So, I know what I'm doing this year," Alex announced, as the trio trudged out into the pale sunshine that heralded lunch-time, already thoroughly overjoyed at their workload – or lack of – for the year. "I spent all summer writing the script for it, so I don't want to let it go to waste now we've got a free year."

"Thrill us, Kralie," Jay said, lying back against the bench and closing his eyes. The sun gently warmed his face, and he pulled his cap off, enjoying the light.

"It's a kind of drama, you know, kind of if someone wrote a coming-of-age novel then wondered 'what happened next'," Alex explained, sitting on the picnic table next to Jay's head and grabbing his cap, putting it on himself. "It's called 'Marble Hornets'."

"No offence, Alex, but that's the dumbest name," Jay murmured half-heartedly, and Alex shook his head, snatching the cap from his head and smacking Jay lightly with it.

"No, Jay, it's connected to-"

"Those statues your parents have two-thousand of?" Brian finished with humour in his voice, and Jay smiled, eyes still lazily closed. "I can't argue with that."

"Anyway, I need someone to play various parts in it, so would you guys be willing to act for me? Assuming of course you can act?" Alex asked bitingly, and Brian nodded, as did Jay. "Thanks, guys. I swear, there are Oscars in it for all of you," he added, humour in his voice, and Jay laughed, sitting up.

"Can we discuss this over, I don't know, lunch or something?" he pleaded, and Alex nodded. "Come on, Marble Hornets crew, let's go!"

"I know someone who can do music, and maybe act a bit too," Brian said, taking a bite out of the Subway that was currently dwarfing his head. "Hif name'f-" he swallowed, eyes bulging a little as the sandwich refused to go down, and then coughed a little, "his name's Tim. He's doing Music at the moment, but he's cool, and he only lives a few doors down from me."

"Amy's got a couple of friends who can play the female roles," Alex suggested, and Jay nodded.

"I know some people who can do makeup and stuff," he said, in between bites of his own sandwich. "Want me to talk to them?"

There was a moment then, of impending something – and they all smiled. The year was going to be good; they were going to make a kickass film together, and, who knew? Maybe even get a decent grade at the end.

"This is really coming together," Alex grinned. "Want to meet up? I'll get a few people, you guys call in some favours, and we'll get this show on the road. Is tonight good?"

Alex's living room was full by the time everyone who was coming had arrived. Jay had arrived first, closely followed by Sarah, a slim, brunette friend of Amy's, and then Seth, another guy from the Media class who looked around nervously and then sat next to Sarah, Brian and finally Tim, a heavyset guy with floppy brown hair and what seemed to be a permanent scowl.

"I guess you've all been told why I asked you to come here?" Alex asked, and everyone nodded, sneaking looks at each other. "Well, I figured I'd ask you officially, and it'd be easier to gather you all in one place and question you. I've written the script for a film-"

"Is this gonna be a full-length film?" Tim asked, folding his arms and leaning forward, and Alex nodded. "Oh, cool." His face had not changed from 'mild upset', but his tone of voice indicated he liked this idea. "So am I doing music, or acting, or what?"

"I was thinking maybe both," Alex said, and Tim nodded, leaning back. "Definitely music, if nothing else."

"So, like, who's playing who?" Sarah asked, and Alex held up his hands.

"This isn't any kind of decisive meeting," he clarified. "This is just a casual thing, to see who can do this, who can do what, and, you know, kind of get the ball rolling…"

The room filled with chatter, and Tim looked over at Jay.

"Hey," he commented, voice level and almost carefully weighted with interest. "You're Jay, right?"

Jay nodded, and Tim looked around.

"So, how many of these people do you know?"

Across the room, Sarah was chattering to Brian, who was clearly attempting to edge Seth out from the conversation using a shoulder and the old 'Brian-flirting' face, which settled somewhere between 'amusement' and 'constipation'. Seth rolled his eyes, and moved over to the couch containing Tim and Jay, who had struck up a tentative conversation about apartments in the area.

"This seems exciting," he said, awkwardly, and Jay nodded. "Do you think it's going to turn out okay?"

"I've not even seen the script," Jay laughed. "But as long as it doesn't turn into a horror or something stupid, it's fine by me."

AN: As we are not given surnames for anyone but Alex, I'm making them up loosely based on the actor's surnames.