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Yulia needed more time than Annie. She kicked him out again, and Hollis couldn’t hide how much that hurt him.

This time Annie left with him, even though she didn’t have to. Looked up at the two of them as they walked home together. Studied them, and they let her; it was the least they could do.

“When you guys eat, do you both taste the food?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you use each other to cheat on tests?”

“Not really, but we do have different subjects we’re better at.”

“Is one of you stronger than the other? I imagine the Jorge fight was you, Walt?”

“No, we’re the same. It’s not magic. Hollis’s body is Hollis’s body, I’m not doing anything to enhance it. But, yeah, I did fight Jorge.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “How can you say it’s not magic when it’s literally magic? Textbook supernatural. This is fantasy.”

“I like to think of it as science fiction,” Hollis interjected. “It doesn’t seem to be common, but there aren’t a lot of other fantasy creatures around or anything. We just don’t have a way to explain it yet.”

Annie bit her lip.

“You also must be the reason for the smoking... What else can you do that Hollis can’t do?”

Walt smirked. “Dance, of course. Knit, I’m a good fisherman. A bonny fighter. I know a lot of games. Passable at chess, ace at baseball. I’m fair at building things out of wood, but it’s been about fifty years since I’ve had to. I play the violin, some Spanish guitar, but not enough to brag about it—”

“You play the violin?” Annie gasped. “Whoa, can you come over? My dad has one. It will be freaky to watch Hollis do that.”

Walt laughed. “Sure. If Hollis gives me permission.”

Permission? Do what you want. We were supposed to be at Yulia’s all weekend. We don’t have anywhere else to be.

“He’s fine with it, kind of.”