Page 51 of Starrily

“You know me already.” She put a hand to her chest. “I’m honored that such an important entrepreneur would bother looking into our little school.”

Pull yourself together.“Sure,” he said with a practiced smile. “No school’s too small.”

“We’ve gathered the kids in the gym,” Principal Hernandez said, focusing back on Calliope. “I hope you won’t mind that?”

A big place to hold a talk. Simon checked for Calliope’s reaction—she may have thought it would be a smaller affair. Would the nerves get to her?

“It’s perfectly fine,” she said. A bit nervous, perhaps—but more than that, she seemed … electrified. Perhaps Phoenix had found her calling. It wasn’t all about being locked up in the office, alone, all day long.

“Wonderful,” Principal Hernandez said. “I have some last-minute business to take care of, but I’ll find someone to show you—”

“I know where the gym is,” Simon’s mouth uttered without much approval from his brain.

The heads of the three women snapped to him.

“Uh …” he ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, they’re always in the same place, right?”

“Of course.” The principal didn’t appear entirely convinced. “Down the hallway, all the way to the back, yes?”

They headed that way, eventually running into a teacher who showed them the rest of the way and led the group into a side room where Calliope could prepare before she took the stage.

“I’ll go mingle with the kids,” Jessica said. “Get some first-hand accounts.”

“Spoken with the confidence of someone who’s never been bullied in school,” Calliope said, then paused with her mouth still open as if she’d just realized she’d spoken directly to Simon.

Come on. You can talk to her. Maybe not about the intricacies of your friendship, but at least about everyday stuff.

“Jessica? Nah, you can tell she was the popular kid.”

“You must’ve been, too.”

Simonprobably had been.“And you, star of science class,” he responded instead.

There was a flash of hurt in her eyes, and she looked away, making Simon instantly regret his quip. What was it about her early life that made her so cautious, so unwilling to speak about it?

“I’ll take a walk,” he said. “See you later.” He had to admit—he didn’t do it only to make her feel better by relieving her of his presence. A part of him—the part ofhislife he didn’t want to, or rather, couldn’t talk about—was so curious and demanded that curiosity be satisfied.

He was here, so he had to see.

He wandered through the empty hallways, passing classrooms, looking at the posters, art, and notifications hanging on the walls.Marching band practice moved to Thursdays. Sign up for the drama club.He rounded the corner and nearly collided with a chubby man with a receding hairline.

“Oops, sorry,” the man said. “Didn’t see you there.”

Eddie.Simon barely stopped himself from saying the name out loud. Eddie Grenville, math teacher, unironic lover of dad jokes. They used to be such good friends.

“Oh, hey! It’s you.” Eddie waved a finger at him as if trying to remember.

Did he? It didn’t seem possible, but Simon himself didn’t know—

“You’re the tech guy. Aries, yeah?”

Of course. What was he thinking? “Yup, that’s me.”

“Nice meeting you.” Eddie nodded and continued on his way.

He needed more. He needed to see. It was easy to find the science classroom—he didn’t even need to think about it. The same old wooden door, the same old sticker on it, with a molecular structure of penguinone and a cartoony picture of a penguin next to it. He tried the door—unlocked—and slipped inside.

It was like a punch in the gut and an explosion of joy in his heart at the same time. So much of the classroom remained the same. The paper mache models of the planets of the solar system still hung from the ceiling; looking at the neatly arranged desks, he could see the day his students hand-painted them—the desks in disarray, glue and paper and paints scattered all over, the buzz of the kids chatting and laughing. Bright-colored posters of prominent scientists were still plastered along the wall; Marie Curie judged him sternly, while Rosalind Franklin’s picture seemed to say, “Really, you came back here? What did you think would happen?”