Sophomore Kaitlyn Dauphine sat in math class, multiplying fractions. With her pencil poised and one finger on a multiplication chart, Kaitlyn's eyes scanned between the math problems and senior Ally Daniels, watching for her nod.

"That's right," Ally said. "Now you divide. Two goes into 15 how many times?"

Every minute or so, Kaitlyn put down her pencil and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked Ally.

"Yeah, I think you're gorgeous. So six goes into 65 how many times?"

Kaitlyn and Ally have the same hair: long, straight, deep dirty blond. Kaitlyn is small, thin and friendly. She sings in the Concord High School choir. Ally, who is tall and outgoing, is captain of the girls' basketball team. When she visits Kaitlyn in math class, they add, subtract and talk about boys. Sometimes, Kaitlyn calls Ally's cell phone on the weekends and gushes about a tall, handsome junior named Tom.

Ally, who wants to be a nurse, will go to college next year. Kaitlyn, who has a learning disability, has several more years at Concord High.

Ally was one of 34 Concord High students enrolled last semester in the first leg of a year-long class designed to foster relationships between what educators call "typical" students and students with disabilities. Called Peer to Peer, the class includes academic and practical components. First, students learn about disabilities and how to interact with people who have them. Then they're assigned to work with a peer who has a disability.

Funded by a $32,000 grant from the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, as in singer Clay Aiken, who was studying to be a special-education teacher before he became a star on American Idol, the class is meant to crush stereotypes and create a climate where friendships can bridge the disabilities divide, teachers said. The hope is that those friendships forged in school will extend beyond the classroom - to the mall, to the movies, to parties on Friday nights.

But the fledgling program, which starts with a new batch of students tomorrow, raises questions: Is forcing relationships the best way to make kids with disabilities socially accepted? Are those relationships real? If not, is it still worthwhile to nurture friendships that end at 3:00, or should the school district focus on improving the entire special education system to better integrate kids in the first place? And in the end, who's to say whether the program is working -adult experts or the kids involved?

There's also the question of whether the class will continue beyond June, when the grant runs out. In the next few months, the Concord School Board will decide its fate. Board members asked to comment for this story said they didn't want to weigh in before Peer to Peer is officially evaluated.

But Kaitlyn, and other students participating in the new partnerships, did. Kaitlyn said she likes it better when Ally helps her in math class than when a teacher's aide acts as her tutor.

"It's different because we can be funny," Kaitlyn said.

'Regular teenage stuff'

Five days before Christmas, sophomore Justine Gayhardt scooted around the darkroom at Concord High, developing a photo of a dog and its owner's feet. She moved deftly in the dimly lit room, maneuvering around kids hunched at enlargers and closing cupboards left open by her classmates.

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