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“Are you going to share?” Knight prods softly, and I turn to glare at his tugging at the blanket.

“Come on. You can share the blanket. There’s enough of it.” Those blue eyes are so dark and so near.

“You know, I put your chair over there for a reason.” I break open my gummy bag to accentuate my point.

Knight just grins at me and tugs at the blanket again. “Yeah, I know, because you don’t care if I freeze to death.”

I have to fight my smile with a frown, but he can tell. Just like Noah always can.

“How did you not already know it was going to get cold?”

“Why are you trying to be so stingy with that giant blanket?”

Finally, I relinquish some of the blanket to him and munch on a gummy, savoring it. If I eat too many, I’ll make myself sick, so I have to limit myself. And I want to make them last.

After eying my small treat, he squirms for a minute before slipping out from under the blanket to dash over to the snack table. Professor Knight returns with a half-bag of popcorn, a container of juice, and peanut m&m’s.

This time, I let him see my full smile. Of course, it only makes him lean in and steal one of the few gummies I have left. It’s in his mouth before I can even protest, but my mouth falls open.

“No, sir. You did not.”

He chews and looks pleased with himself, offering me the cherry juice. How does this glare not faze the man? He must have been a burden on his mother if he’s so immune.

I take the bottle and turn back to the movie. It’s easy to ignore him, even as we swap snacks back and forth. A few times, he leans in to whisper something about the way a scene is portrayed or shot, or how a plot device is used.

Part of me wants to elbow him to get him to shut up, but I like the small snippets of discussion. I always get in trouble for commenting too much on things at home. I get it. All of the analysis can ruin a movie for most viewers.

After the water planet, I’m growing more and more aware of Knight beside me. How his shoulder is pressed into mine. In fact, the contact spans down my entire arm. Tension is creepingin, a slow build that spreads across my chest, up my neck, and into my cheeks. Like boiling a frog, I’m submersed in heat when his pinky brushes over mine.

When I don’t pull away, Knight links his fingers with mine under the blanket. His palm is rougher than I expected, but his squeeze has strength and comfort in it.

After a minute, I turn to peer at him. It doesn’t take long for him to tilt into me. “Watch the movie, Sofia.”

Resettling myself, I do watch the movie, aware of his hand and how he strokes the back of my thumb with his. It’s somehow both silly and sweet.

I like this side of him.

But fear gets the better of me when the credits start rolling. I pull away, which earns me a small wounded look. It’s a good thing, though, because here comes Leann, marching straight for Professor Knight to slay him with her giggles.

12

SOFIA

Birdie and I are full-blown in the middle of her project. She has recorded a lot of content to sift through, and she’s done some really good rough edits, and I like the quirky style. It suits her. And her art.

And man, her art. Birdie has talent. Especially at eleven. I can tell she’s spent a long time perfecting her craft because it’s beautiful. Surreal and colorful, with strong and confident brush strokes. The texture… I would love to put her paintings up in my house.

I hug her to my side after looking over it one more time. “You are brilliant. I’m so proud of you.”

Birdie’s grin and matching blush endear me even more to her. We’ve spent a lot of time over the last two weeks together, and if I learned one thing, it’s that she’s special and needs a friend. I don’t know how she doesn’t have a horde of girls trying to be her friend.

I mean… I do. I was that girl, too, quirky and creative and always just on the outside of a group. Girls can be mean at her age.

“Let me show you some options for refining this. Okay? Making sure there’s always movement is a big one. You don’t want the screen to be static unless you’re trying to draw attention to it. So use that sparingly. The rest can be snipped away a little at a time until everything smooths out.”

She nods, eyes bright, and we start at the beginning, snipping and cutting before I leave her to the embellishments.

Before the weekend is over, we have a few completed videos and all the means of uploading them. Now, we only need her father’s approval. I won’t let her post without it.