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“It was bound to happen eventually,” Rory mumbled. “Us working together.”

“Yeah, but scheduling us a few days after the party? That was on purpose.”

Rory just smirked and dug her sneaker into the rubber mat on the floor. “Yeah, maybe.”

They stood there in silence for a bit longer, a sun beam shining through thick-set clouds outside the window. Scoops was dead, but it was early in the afternoon. Crowds tended to rush in when the elementary school let out. But they still had another hour to kill, and there was nothing else to do but wait and stare at their shoes.

Rory held her hands out in front of her, the nail polish chipping around the edges. She usually stayed on top of keeping her rainbow manicure pristine, but with prom two days away, she was spending every spare minute of her time in the computer lab, making sure every facet of the yearbook was ready to go so they could submit the file after prom with ease.

“So…” she started, heaving a sigh. “Japan, huh?”

Jay looked up at her, an unmistakable gleam in his eye. “Yeah, Japan.”

“Is it a business program?” she asked, recalling that he was planning on taking classes to get his business degree.

“No, I dropped that major this winter,” he admitted. “I’m doing something new.”

“Like what?”

Jay didn’t answer her, distracted by a pair of cat ears bobbing up to the window.

“You still have ears on your head,” Jay deadpanned. Vanessa wore one of her neon skirts—this one purple—with a World of Warcraft graphic tee tucked into the front. Her usual fishnet stockings were gone, and she donned a new pair of slim black combat boots with a slight block heel.

“Yes, thankfully they are still there,” Vanessa sassed as she reached up to her human ears, giving them a tug just like their first interaction.

Rory slid closer to the window where Vanessa stood outside. “Hey, Vee. What’s up?”

Vanessa beamed, shrugging her backpack off her shoulders. “Brought you a present.”

“My birthday isn’t for another week, you know.”

“Trust me, you want this now,” she said, pulling out a spiral-bound book. “You’re going to want to kiss my face after you see this.”

“I’d pay to see that,” Jay mused.

Rory couldn’t help herself, she stepped back and shoved Jay in his side, causing him to stumble back with laughter. Seeing him smile made her grin, and he peered around her with intrigue at the spiral-bound book Vanessa was sliding through the window.

Rory flipped it open, and on the inside was a mockup spread of the first page of the yearbook.

“Oh my god,” she breathed.

“Print proof of the book,” Vanessa said. “The printers offer it as a courtesy in case we hate the coloring of anything. I flipped through it already and think it looks good, but I’ll let you make the final call.”

Rory flipped through, not able to contain the smile sliding across her face. Each page was perfect, from the designs to the lay of the text and all of Sean’s incredible images. So much hard work, now right at her fingertips. She wondered if she would always feel this way about her art at Baybrook, this feeling of pride and satisfaction.

“Wow, Rory,” Jay breathed from where he stood right next to her, their shoulders brushing. Almost as if the art had bridged the gap between them. “This is insanely good.”

She grinned, teeth and all. “Thanks.”

Jay looked up at Vanessa, glancing at her ears before his eyes flicked down to her shirt. “So…you play?”

Vanessa smirked. “Yeah, I play. You?”

“Uh, sometimes,” said Jay with a casual shrug, but Rory could see through it. He was nervous. “There’s a group that meets at UCONN, Thursday nights, and most weekends. They game, eat pizza, hang out till the wee hours of the morning.”

“Is it they or we?” Vanessa mused.

Jay’s face flushed, his eyes flicking over to Rory.