Michelle swung her clubroom door open to hear, over the general background noise, Barnaby’s voice in an unusually loud and stern tone as he spoke.

  “Landon, I’ve told you a thousand times: you can’t just fly at people—”

  There was a squawk and a rustling noise of wings fpping before Landon the rooster came flying in the air towards Michelle, gliding to the floor while still a few feet away and then running up to her. A couple of girls in his path yelped and dove out of the way, running to hide behind people standing nearby. She jumped a little, her pulse refusing to slow down.

  “Barnaby, will you just take him home already?!” someone cried. It sounded like Erin, who was terrified of birds, but the voice was muffled. Michelle couldn’t spot Erin. Maybe she was hiding behind a shelf too.

  “Hi, Landon,” Michelle said to the rooster, sliding her bag off her right shoulder. “Run away from home again?”

  Landon stopped a few feet away from her, eyeing her as if scrutinizing her entire being. He made no attempt to get closer but stayed where he was to stare at Michelle.

  Barnaby came hurrying towards them. “Sorry! Sorry! I swear I had him in my arms! Landon, get back here.”

  He scooped Landon back up, tucking him tightly to his chest with both forearms. His pet seemed to make himself cozy in his arms.

  Groaning, he looked down at Landon. “He’s been running at people who enter the room for no reason. I don’t know why he’s so excited.”

  Michelle cooed, reaching out to pet Landon’s feathery back. He was docile whenever he was in Barnaby’s hold, so she was fine with petting him. “It’s so cute that he misses you so much.”

  Barnaby chuckled nervously, tightening his hold on his pet. “I don’t think Erin feels that way.”

  The first time the drama club members had encountered Landon, Erin had dissolved into tears. Apparently, she had a fear of birds. Michelle had a feeling that if Barnaby weren’t so well-liked, Erin would have called out for him to take his pet and leave the room already.

  “How does he even keep getting out of the house? Did someone leave the window open again?”

  The st time Landon had made his way to their school, the alleged expnation was that his little sister had opened the window after taking him into her bedroom to py. When she came back after leaving to get some water, Landon was already gone. Her bedroom was on the first floor, so it wasn’t shocking that the rooster would be able to hop out unsupervised and strut his way to school.

  There was always some ludicrous expnation or another for Landon’s escapades. Not getting lost on his way to his destination was the amazing part.

  “I don’t know.” Barnaby stared glumly down at his pet. “I’ll find out when I get home and ask. I don’t even know he manages to get here half the time.”

  “It’s because you live too nearby,” Levi said. “It’s a piece of cake for even a rooster with tiny legs like those to run here.”

  That startled Michelle. He rarely chipped in with his own thoughts on general conversations that went on around him. Typically, someone had to address him directly in order to get him to talk.

  “He’s right, Barnaby.” Crissa approached them with brisk strides. “Go home. You can always come back afterwards since you live so close to school.”

  He shot her a pleading look. “Can’t I just hold him until we’re done?”

  Their club president met it with a stern one of her own. “I am not practicing lines with you while you’re holding that rooster.”

  After some more prodding from the other club members, Barnaby sadly obliged and slipped out of the clubroom with Landon in his half-unzipped school bag.

  “Be right back,” he promised Crissa before shutting the door.

  “He’d better hope the teachers don’t notice,” she murmured when he left, shaking her head. “I heard that they called his mom down the other time. I get that it’s not his fault, but he’s the one getting in trouble if Landon keeps doing this.”

  “Aww, but Landon is cute and wears a diaper.” Michelle paused. “But yeah, he probably shouldn’t be running around in our clubroom.”

  “Some of us really can’t deal,” Crissa said, gncing over her shoulder at their props cabinet, “so I agree.”

  Erin was stepping out of the cabinet she’d evidently been huddled up in. She raised miserable eyes up to the people standing nearby who jumped out of their skin at her sudden exit.

  Visibly flustered, Bridgette pced her hand on her chest. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you were in there.”

  “It’s fine,” she muttered, grabbing a random chair to slump into. “I need a break.”

  Nicole walked up to her and offered her a bottle of water.

  “How did Landon get in here?” Michelle asked, puzzled. “Wasn’t the door closed?”

  Shaking his head, Levi said, “Someone left it open for a while. He probably came in when nobody was paying attention. Erin screamed and went into the cabinet to hide.”

  “I feel bad for her.”

  This wasn’t a frequent occurrence, but it happened often enough for people to remember Barnaby as the guy with a pet rooster that sometimes went on the loose.

  “I know. I’ll sit with her for a bit.”

  Crissa started for the joined desks Erin was resting her elbows on.

  “Me too,” Michelle said, following her.

  Levi silently followed them. He’d been doing improv with Crissa. Since his partner was opting to take a break, it seemed he didn’t have much of a choice.

  Erin nodded at them in acknowledgement when they sat down beside her. She seemed totally drained from the way she stared off into space.

  Gently, Crissa patted her on the arm. “I’ll talk to everyone about making sure the door stays closed so it can’t wander in here without supervision.”

  “Thanks.”

  When Erin didn’t look like she was in the mood to say anything else, Crissa turned to Michelle.

  “So how’s your retionship with your boyfriend? Going strong?”

  She puffed her chest up. “That goes without saying. Our pn has been working well so far.”

  “What pn?”

  Sighing, Michelle stretched her arms above her head. “My friends’ boyfriends all came to our crocheting session the other day. If not for Caledon, I’d have been stuck there alone watching them being all gooey-eyed for each other. And having someone to talk to when all the couples are in couples mode is so convenient.”

  Crissa belly ughed, cpping her hands. “I remember Nicole telling me about how you guys started dating! So it’s really like that, huh?”

  Levi’s stare was heavy on her face. Michelle looked back at him to see the most incredulous expression she’d seen on him, with his jaw dropped and his eyebrows raised like she was the strangest creature he’d ever come across.

  “What?” she said defensively. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  With a shake of his head, the shock left his face to be repced with his usual serious look. “It’s nothing.”

  She narrowed her eyes. It clearly wasn’t nothing, but it was impossible to pry anything out of Levi when he refused to open his mouth.

  “Tell us,” Crissa persisted anyway, nudging him in the side. As his childhood friend, she was granted a little more insight into his behavior and perspective. It was just as well, because Michelle wanted to know too. “Are you confused because Michelle’s just ‘dating’ her ‘boyfriend’ so she won’t be stuck with all the couples around her?”

  Although Michelle didn’t appreciate the way she’d posed the question.

  “Hey! I get enough air quotes from my parents. I don’t need this from you guys!”

  “Your parents used air quotes on you?!”

  This time, Crissa’s cackle was loud enough to reverberate around the clubroom, drawing the attention of several people in the middle of minding their own business. Michelle couldn’t roll her eyes hard enough.

  Even Erin was smiling at this point. Some of the color had returned to her complexion, which had paled significantly after Landon’s exit.

  “You know what?” she told Erin. “Since it got you to cheer up, I’ll count this as a win. Be thankful I’m magnanimous.”

  “My arms are killing me,” Caledon groaned, letting his arm fall limply to his side after pressing a button on the vending machine. “I didn’t expect to get this sore from that little bit of climbing.”

  Nodding, Michelle pced a commiserating hand on his shoulder. “I know that feeling. Happens every time I jog for longer than ten minutes.”

  The drink fell down to the drop-box of the vending machine with a clunk.

  “That’s just a sign that you need to run more often,” Autumn said unsympathetically, opening her canned drink. “That’s what you get for turning me down every time I ask you to jog with me.”

  She scowled. “Not every time. I join you sometimes! Did you forget st week?”

  The morning jogs Autumn went on were the only times she wasn’t joined at the hip with Xavier. Every once in a while, when Michelle was desperate to spend some quality time with her friend that wouldn’t be infringed upon by her boyfriend, she would accept the invite. It always resulted in soreness in her leg muscles the next day.

  Autumn paused to think about it. “Oh, yeah. I forgot. My bad. But it’s obviously not frequent enough, or you wouldn’t get sore muscles the next day.”

  “You’re such a sve driver,” Michelle griped, pulling out the small Tupperware she’d poured cornfkes into earlier from her bag. “You should be a personal trainer in the future.”

  She stuffed a handful in her mouth. Owing to snoozing her arm too many times this morning, Michelle was forced to bring her breakfast with her to school.

  “Why are you eating cornfkes like this?” Caledon asked.

  He offered her the bottle of Snapple he’d just taken a sip from. She drank a little before passing it back to him.

  Recently, he and Michelle had made it a point to sharing drinks and food whenever they were in the company of friends. Their goal was to have their friends realize how annoying it was when couples acted all lovey-dovey in their presence, but it was hit-and-miss. Sometimes they would dispy some form of discomfort, but other times they would simply not care.

  “I woke up te,” Michelle said in between swallowing bites of food. “Want some?”

  She held out a handful of cornfkes before his mouth. After a split second of hesitation, Caledon went for it. Bowing his head, he tried to scoop up as many of the cornfkes as he could with his mouth.

  A small giggle slipped from her mouth at the ticklish sensation of his lips moving against her palm.

  “That tickles.”

  His own ughter came out in a snort. He tried speaking through his mouthful of cornfkes anyway. “You’re the one who offered it to me like that.”

  Autumn was staring at them in scandalized horror.

  “You guys, can you not?”

  “Not what?” Michelle said, schooling her face into the most innocent expression she could manage. “Not act like you and Xavier or Hailey and Carter or Sylvie and Jordan?”

  Because they had all done significantly worse things than that in front of her. The only difference was that they were usually too wrapped up in each other to notice what the other couples were doing.

  Autumn recoiled.

  “We don’t—”

  As if a light bulb had gone off above her head, an astonished but troubled look entered her eyes. Gaping disbelievingly, she lowered her gaze to the ground.

  “We don’t act like that … Do we?”

  “Babe! Morning!”

  Right on cue, Xavier appeared. To be fair, they had been waiting for him by the vending machine because he’d asked Autumn to meet him here. He grinned happily when he saw his girlfriend.

  From behind, he looped both arms around her waist and leaned in to greet her with a kiss on the mouth. Michelle had gotten used to the desire to barf that arose whenever she saw this. She’d never been more thankful that she had Caledon by her side.

  Her eyes bulged when Xavier’s face was met with a hand instead.

  “Babe, not in front of our friends,” Autumn said, sounding mortified as she pulled away from his embrace.

  “What? Why? What do you mean? But we always …”

  Like a wounded puppy, he let himself be led away by the hand as Autumn slinked off with him.

  “See you at lunch,” she said to Michelle without meeting her eyes.

  If not for seeing it happen with her own eyes, Michelle wouldn’t have believed this.

  It took everything in her power not to punch the air in victory and holler her triumph for all to hear.

  Deeply satisfied, Michelle leaned closer to Caledon to whisper, “You are seriously the best boyfriend ever.”

  LotteStarburst