Salem ends up in the seat diagonal from Atlas, closer to the front. He's fidgeting like crazy, heart racing. He doesn't even know why he's so nervous, the hard part of being late to school is already done. However, due to the fact that Salem takes primarily advanced classes, it's rare that he has any with Atlas.

He actually can't even remember the last time he and Atlas shared a class together. In short, this is weird.

Then again, Salem didn't sign up for an advanced world history class. This is made apparent when he sees someone standing up from the corner of his eye. He turns his head, as does Mr. Morris, and finds Cam gathering his things. A second later and he's walking across the room, Mr. Morris pausing in his lecture and looking annoyed at the second interruption.

Cam walks over to the teacher's desk and grabs two papers, which have been stapled together. Then, he walks over to Salem and takes a seat next to him—in front of Atlas. Salem has no doubt in his mind that Cam didn't pay attention to who he was sitting in front of. He feels on edge from the conversation they had a few weeks ago, and he didn't tell Cam about. If Cam knew Atlas Di Angelo had it out for him, he'd probably never come to school again.

Cam reaches over and hands Salem the stolen syllabus, then turns back to pay attention once again. Mr. Morris just stares at him for a minute longer, probably wanting to quit his job, before continuing on with whatever he'd been talking about. Cam has a grin on his face, and he and Salem share a glance. Salem rolls his eyes, but is internally thankful.

About a half hour goes by before Mr. Morris stops talking, granting them about ten minutes of free time. Cam immediately turns to him. Atlas is still sitting there. Salem tries to appear calm.

"You're wearing your glasses! That's so cute." He mockingly gushes. Salem glares at him, irritated. This is partially due to the stress, since he's typically a pretty patient person. Especially when it comes to Cam, he kind of has to be.

"Shut up."

"You actually kind of look like shit. I bet you overslept." Cam continues, directly contradicting his earlier words. Salem sighs.

"No. I had a family matter." Salem lies. Cam raises a brow.

"Everyone knows that's a lie. Your entire family is like, dead."

Salem gives him a deadpanned expression. Yeah, Cam is definitely acting strange. He typically isn't that blunt.

"My phone didn't wake me up." Salem finally admits, and he starts reading the syllabus over. He can hear the amusement in Cam's voice when the guy speaks next;

"So you did lie."

"I didn't—okay," Salem turns to give him an exasperated look. "I did not lie. The girl in the office did."

"Probably 'cause everyone likes you." Cam says, mostly to himself. Then, a look of excitement crosses his face. "Actually—wait, wait, was it Lara?"

Salem shrugs, going back to reading the syllabus. Cam is way too excited for this situation. He must've had coffee or something, that's usually the cause when he gets like that. "I don't know."

Salem went to middle school with her years ago, how would he remember her name? "Oh my god, she has it bad. She wants you bro, holy shit, and Vanessa told me—"

"How much coffee have you had today?" Salem interrupts, not in the mood for Cam's gossiping. Cam does not seem pleased at the question nor the interruption.

"None." Cam lies. Salem doesn't believe that for a second. He is refusing to look away from the paper. "You probably should, though. You look absolutely horrible—where did you even get that shirt? I've never seen you wear it before."

Salem can't even stop himself from looking up from his syllabus and directly at Atlas. Atlas had been on his phone, but he glances up at the question as well. Salem immediately averts his eyes before they make contact. He can feel his face getting warm again. Why is Cam fucking calling him out right now? Even if it's not intentional, Salem rubs the bridge of his nose in stress. Can this class please end?

"I—I don't remember." Salem replies, and he's so obviously lying. He sees a slight movement from the corner of his eye, in Atlas' direction, but still refuses to look over there. "I was in a rush this morning, so I didn't have time to do a lot."

"Wow." Cam replies. "That's so embarrassing. Do you want to come over today?"

Salem frowns. He was planning to go to the station and talk to Catrine after school, about the whole undercover Atlas situation. He has no idea how to do this undercover operation, and he's going to need some direction. "I can't. I'm going to the station."

"Again?" Cam asks, frowning. It's the first negative emotion Salem has seen from him since his arrival. "Do they have a bed for you there? Jesus."

Salem rolls his eyes, and it delves into silence. He's left wondering if he should've said that, due to the fact Atlas is within earshot. He goes to the station all the time, though, so it shouldn't be too suspicious

Salem watches Cam pull out his phone a moment later, tapping around before pressing it to his ear. Salem hears a distantly familiar voice answer, and Cam makes the same proposition he just gave Salem—coming over. The person must reply with an affirmative, because Cam immediately starts discussing details with them.

Salem studies his syllabus the rest of class, acutely aware of every time Atlas moves in the corner of his vision. He's beyond relieved when the bell rings, and wastes no time getting out of there. When he reaches his next class, he takes a seat at the far side of the room, towards the front. He sits on his phone until the bell rings, and only then does he look up.

As the woman starts calling out attendance, he waits patiently until he eventually hears his name. It doesn't take long, since the letter H is somewhat early in the alphabet. Afterwards, she continues reading down the list until Salem hears an all too familiar name.

"Atlas Marino?"

Salem looks up, and around until he finds Atlas himself seared towards the back. He raises his hand half-assedly but doesn't verbally answer, or look up, though it doesn't matter since the lady sees him anyway. She continues going, and Salem is just completely frozen. Another class with Atlas?

Salem doesn't realize the fact that he is just staring at Atlas with a look of confusion and shock, until they make eye contact a minute later. He immediately faces forward again, but can't keep the frown from his face. This is getting really weird.

Lunch is next, and he has the same lunch period with Atlas as well. This is made apparent when he watches the guy grab some chips and exit the cafeteria, presumably to go hang out with the rest of the delinquents outside. Something he does at lunch.

While they were together, Atlas would actually sit with Salem and his friends at lunch sometimes. It didn't happen that often, though, due to the fact that Zona hates him and Cam and Milo are scared of him. They also rarely had the same lunch period to begin with.

Salem is pretty quiet during lunch, feeling on edge about having two classes with Atlas. He already knows he's going to do horrible. There's no way he will be able to focus, absolutely not. He should try and transfer out of the classes, make up some excuse to his counselor.

Salem doesn't say anything about it to his friends, and lunch passes somewhat quickly. When he reaches his next class and finds Atlas sitting in the very back row already, he can't even hide the disbelief from his face.

Okay, there's no hope of transferring out of three classes. No way. He's going to have to figure out a way to move past this. Three classes out of five isn't even that bad, he can deal. It's fine.

However, when Salem reaches his last period of the day—fucking proficient art—and finds Atlas in there, he stops thinking this is a coincidence. Something is going on. He's positive of this, mostly because he's pretty damn sure that Atlas never even took beginning art, let alone intermediate.

Salem goes and takes a seat beside Zona, who seems to be organizing her papers and school supplies. Atlas is sitting somewhere towards the back, next to a guy that Salem doesn't recognize. Most of the people Atlas talked to when they were together weren't people Salem liked him associating with, so he can only assume it's no different now. Anybody Salem sees Atlas with, he's immediately suspicious of.

"Zona, I need—we need to do something." Salem says immediately after sitting down at the two seater table. She glances up from the papers she was sorting, appearing both confused and unimpressed.

"Huh? Are you okay?"

"No." Salem replies, maintaining heavy eye contact. Zona is clearly concerned. "I have every single class with Atlas."

She raises her eyebrows, clearly not expecting him to say that of all things. She begins looking around the class, before finally spotting him at the back. She turns her gaze over towards Salem again, and responds, "all of them?"

"All of them," Salem affirms, even though he's not one hundred percent sure about his first class. He can only assume so, since every other class is with Atlas and this is clearly done on purpose. He doesn't understand why, though. Who would—

"That's what you get for agreeing to investigate him, I guess."

At those words, everything clicks into place. Salem doesn't know how it didn't occur to him sooner. He's supposed to be doing undercover work, at the request of Catrine, and she had notified him that she'd help how she could.

Salem remembers wondering what she meant by that. Clearly, she meant pulling strings until they had every fucking class together.

Salem is not happy. He may have agreed to help with the Di Angelo investigation, but he definitely did not sign up for this. His grades are basically fucked this way. He won't be able to pay attention or focus on a goddamn anything.

This is why, as soon as school lets out, he's driving to the station. Obviously he meant to anyway, but now he's even more determined. He needs to speak with her about this. He basically speeds the whole way there, internally freaking out, until eventually arriving. He wastes no time entering the building, making a beeline for Catrine's office.

He doesn't knock, and upon entry, finds Jordan in there as well. He decides that he doesn't care. He's immediately pointing at Catrine, bag slung over his shoulders and looking like shit due to his late wake up call.

"I need to talk to you."

She raises her eyebrows, clearly confused about the normally polite and respectful Chief's son barging in like this. She responds simply, "yes?"

Jordan is in here, and Salem is vaguely aware that he's supposed to keep this whole thing a secret from him. Oh well, though, he's stressed.

"I have all of my classes with Atlas, Catrine—I can't do this."

Catrine frowns, glancing at Jordan and back at Salem. It seems as though they've both stopped giving a shit if Jordan knows, though, at her next words. What would Jordan do, anyway? The chief won't believe him over Catrine, not to mention Catrine is technically his boss. At least, she's the one he answers directly to. Best not to get on her bad side.

"It will make your undercover work easier."

"How?" Salem asks, raising his eyebrows. "I won't even be able to focus in class, let alone try to investigate him."

"Why can't you focus in class?" She asks, eyebrow raised. "This is why I questioned you beforehand. You said you were over him."

"I-I am," Salem stammers, averting his eyes and feeling frustrated. "But he's still distracting—how would I even start? He broke up with me. He has made it clear he doesn't want anything to do with me, there is no hope of getting on good terms with him again."

"You said it was mutual." She states, and she seems equally as unimpressed with Salem as he is with her.

"It was." He stresses, fists and jaw clenched. He's normally not this rude, but it appears as though being late for school just set the tone for his entire goddamn day.

"You don't have your first class with him." She notifies Salem. "Your teachers will be pairing the two of you up as much as possible. You already agreed and you will have to see him a lot. It's not something I can reverse now, at least not easily."

Salem purses his lips, taking a deep breath to try and relieve some of his frustration.

"Are you quitting the investigation?" She asks finally. Salem frowns, thinking about it despite the fact he already knows the answer to that. No, he's not quitting. Even with how upset he is about having to see Atlas so much, there's still a part of him that doesn't mind. A desire that he's constantly pushing deeper and deeper down.

The magnetic pull towards Atlas that he can hardly resist. There's still a part of him that craves this.

"No." He sighs, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Then I need you to make due. Your art teacher will be assigning a project somewhat soon, and it will require you to spend time with Atlas outside of school. I need you to get a handle on these emotions before then, and focus on the task at hand. If you succeed with this, it will benefit your future career astronomically in the long run."

It seems like Catrine and Salem are both breaking promises. She isn't keeping her promise to Jack, about making sure Salem stays out of the action. Salem isn't keeping his promise to countless people, about not pushing his limits. Not getting too close.

He already knows this will push him dangerously close to the edge. He needs to be so careful. Catrine is right, he needs to get his emotions under control. He can't let the way he used to feel about Atlas affect this. If he helps put the Di Angelo's behind bars, he would have respect, a name for himself in the department even before he enters the academy. Add on who his father is, and he's almost guaranteed to have a career that's beyond successful. He just needs to do this.

"Okay. I will." He promises.

He hopes he can actually keep this one.