“Sorry I put them through that.”
I wave my hand. “It’s cool. I told them not to be weird around you. Just because we weren’t friends, it didn’t mean they couldn’t be your fr—”
“Mr. Barrett and Miss Mitchell.” Mr. Lewis stands before our desks, his eyes flicking between Raven and me. “Have you noticed that class has begun?”
Raven’s cheeks are red as she squishes her hands on her lap. I know she hates bringing attention to herself. The last thing I want to do is get her in trouble.
“It was my fault,” I tell the teacher. “I was asking Raven something about our project and didn’t realize class started. I’m very excited about the topic we chose and got a little carried away.”
He studies me like he’s trying to determine if I’m being genuine. I try to look as innocent as I can. It’s not a total lie—I am excited about our project, especially because Raven and I are friends now and aren’t forced to spend time together.
“That’s all right,” the teacher finally says. “Next time, please pay attention to your surroundings.”
“Yes, sir.”
As he walks away, Raven turns to me with wide eyes. I give her a bright smile. She tries to hide her laugh so Mr. Lewis won’t hear.
Nearly an hour later, the bell rings, the class empties out, and I’m taking my time collecting my things. Raven takes her time, too, but she’s not as slow as me. She stays seated in her desk chair as I finish up, then we leave the classroom together.
“Want to meet up in my room later for the project?” she asks. “We need to start building the Globe Theatre and we still haven’t found a scene to perform.”
“Yeah, sure. It’s a date.” As soon as the words are out, I flinch. “No, not a date. I meant it’s a project date. Like, we’re meetingup at a later date to…” I shut my eyes for a second, mumbling under my breath.
Raven just smiles. “I know what you meant. I’ll see you.”
I wave lamely. “See you.”
Watching her leave, my lips once again lift in a smile. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited to work on a project.
***
Sophie lies on her bed upside down, her head hanging off the side of it as she reads a book. She’s been at it for over an hour, since Raven and I started building the Globe Theatre.
She and I are sitting on the floor, in a pool of Lego. We’ve barely built the foundation of the theater because we want to take our time to get it right.
Bending forward, I whisper, “How does she do that?” I tilt my head toward her friend.
She looks up. “Hmm? Oh, Sophie?” She shrugs. “Even if she was in a cage with a tiger, she’d read without getting distracted.”
I lift both brows. “I don’t think I ever met anyone who loves something as deeply as she does.”
Raven laughs. “Me, either.”
We glance at her to see if she heard us talking about her, and she says, “Yep. I can hear you.”
“Of course I don’t mind that you’re here,” Raven tells her. “But didn’t you say you have plans with Damian all week?”
She flips over to a sitting position. “Well, it seems Principal Harrington felt like we’re too obsessed with each other and kindly asked me to skip dinner with them tonight.”
“That stinks,” Raven says.
Sophie shrugs. “I mean, she’s not wrong. Weareobsessed with each other. But it’s okay. I want them to have some mother/son bonding time. It’s good for them.”
“Want to help us build the theater?” I offer.
She takes one look at what we have so far, which isn’t much, frowns and says, “No thanks.” She goes back to reading while we continue building this thing.
We don’t really say much because we’re focused on our task.
