“Jack!” someone called.

The world snapped back. Warm air hugged my face and baked the green grass under me. Distant chatter and shouting. I forgot. I was at school, sitting under a giant, old tree. My bookbag laid wide open for any bugs to crawl inside.

I rubbed my forehead, trying to massage the weight out.

A pair of bulky combat boots stuck out from the side of the trunk. I leaned forward to see who it was.

Korey slouched against the bark, hands stuffed in his aviator jacket. Leaves collected in his cropped tangerine hair. He turned to me.

“Finally, you're awake,” he said. “Maybe you should’ve sat this day out.”

“I dunno.” I yawned. “I can’t afford to miss any more days.”

“We’re cooking out here.”

My dream gleamed in and out of my mind. The silhouette of a boy with golden eyes. Clouds of blue dust gathered at his feet. It looked so familiar…

Korey hauled his camo bookbag between us and dug inside. Seashells, two weird looking phones, a golf ball, dice, blah blah. It looked like a thrift store there. You don't just have those things. Of course, I keep a drawer of crap I don't use, but it's funnier and more mysterious when it's someone else and not me. He's probably done more in a week than I could do in five months.

“Doing anything this summer?” he grunted, scavenging for something.

“No,” I said. “Nothing that cool.”

“Oh… Well, it might get even less cool.”

“Hmm?”

He pulled out a snow globe—still intact somehow—with a mini evergreen forest inside. Words were engraved on the black base, though I couldn't make them out.

“Uh, this is for you,” he chuckled. His grip tightened around the bottom before he handed it to me. I kept my hold gentle and off the warm glass. Korey stuffed his hands in his deep pockets, slouching deeper in the grass. He glanced at the sky, then at his tapping feet.

“I’m gonna be gone the whole summer,” he sighed.

I sprung up. “Are you moving? Please don't.”

He elbowed my arm. “What? No. I'm just seeing my cousin again. My mom got mad at me.”

"This is the fourth time!"

“It’s for the best.”

I caressed the glass dome.

“Is it fun up there?” I asked. “In the city?”

Korey smirked. He played with his fingers and shook his head. "Mostly yeah, but be happy you're stuck here.”

Thunder growled in the sky, catching everyone's stare, while the shadows of storm clouds darkened the grass. Korey's eyes widened, like he suddenly remembered something.

One minute, it was sunny and bright. Now, you would've never known there was a sun. Water began soaking the grass and dripping from the leaves above us. Everyone, even the aggressive soccer players, stopped to gaze at the sky, groaning.

"I thought it was supposed to be sunny today," I said, confused.

"It's finally two o'clock." Korey glanced at his phone. "God, today's really lagging."

“It's gonna take me years to get back in the rain.”

I could still smell the last storm in my stupid jacket.

A girl’s voice called from a distance. “Jackie!”

She scurried into the shade, her coiled black hair waving behind her. The storm dullened her mahogany skin and bright clothes, but her smile still shone through. She panted.

“Dori, what’s wrong?” I asked.

She grinned through her breaths. “Absolutely nothing. That’s the bad part. Everything’s too perfect today.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“Feels nice outside.”

Her eyes bloomed as they met Korey, but he didn’t meet hers. His silver eyes locked onto my bookbag. Dorothy rolled up her jacket sleeves to rub her arms. Her legs hugged each other as if she were shivering.

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“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Korey didn’t move.

I shook the snow globe under his nose.

“Yoo hoo!” I sang. “Merchandised Earth to Korey!”

“What is that?” he whispered, pointing to the opening of my bookbag.

He leaned closer, lifting the fabric with his fingers. His eyebrows furrowed, like he had an answer stirring in his head.

A faint marine light glowed from the inside.

Oh no.

I grabbed his wrist. Immediately, my heart sank at the cold eyes glaring into me.

“It’s for a craft…” I drawled, racking my brain for a reason. “It’s a surprise, though, so no spoilers. You’ll see it next year.”

He narrowed his eyes.

I pretended to laugh. “It’s just a light.”

His icy scowl melted to the relaxed smile he had before. He slipped from my hold, and zipped the bookbag shut.

“Don’t want anyone else seeing it too,” he said, patting me on the head. Weird.

I forced a smile. “Yeah. It's gonna be pretty cool.”

“Cool, indeed.”

“Yep. Cool incarnate.”

He took a deep breath and whisked his hand away.

“Anyway,” he yawned. “It’s not getting any brighter out. I should head back soon.”

“Where? The day isn’t over.”

“It is for me.”

He grabbed his bag and jumped to his feet too quickly to be tired. I knew he wasn't exactly the scrawniest, but that seemed ridiculous. He stepped over my legs and stood straight against Dorothy, face to… neck. She burst into a toothy grin and stepped aside.

“Sorry. Hi, Korey.”

“Hey, Dorothea.” He pursed his lips and huddled on. In seconds, he lumbered a few yards to the fence, with his head hung low.

Dorothy whipped back to me.

“Aww,” I teased. “Dorothea. What a gentleman.”

She rolled her eyes and helped me out of the grass before we sat down at the picnic table. A concrete picnic table, which felt wonderful.

“Dorothy, what's up?” I waved my hand in front of her face.

“Turns out I won't be sleeping in all summer,” she groaned. She yanked out a laminated pamphlet from under her thin, baggy jacket.

Immediately, my eyes hurt from all the colors. Bold, yellow text read “Ovidie Club for the Adolescence". Smiling teenagers waved in the middle in clothes ripped from a 90s teen movie.

“It’s a recreational thingy my mom signed me up for,” Dorothy explained. “It's just games, sports, and other stuff. I have to learn how to swim.”

“The pamphlet’s nice," I laughed. “I went there in the third grade. It was fun, but I hated swimming class."

“But you got to sleep in your bed,” Dorothy’s face sterned. “I have to stay at my mom-mom’s for the summer.”

“Aww. That sucks.”

“Make some room!” a guy running towards the bench yelled. His shaggy black hair stuck in his eyes, making him trip over his baggy pants. He dove next to the picnic table and crawled behind me.

Dorothy stood up. “Jamie! Wh—”

A soccer ball pummeled against the table right in front of me. I looked down to my right and met Jamie cozying up in the grass. He reached under the table, grabbed my shoelaces, and twirled them around his finger.

I crossed my legs. “Why are you being attacked?”

He smirked and stood up, brushing wet grass off his black sweatshirt. “Just making myself known before the year ends.”

“Hey, we were just talking about Y2K disasters,” Dorothy snarked.

“Very cool, Kansas,” he said. “But I'm more grunge. Also, you left your donut in my bookbag. You’re lucky my cat didn’t eat it.”

He tossed his bag on the table, unzipped it and pulled out a wrapped pastry from Java Star. I wasn't a big fan of their stuff. He dropped it in front of Dorothy.

“Not sure I want a donut smothered in your gym shirt.” She pretended to gag. “I think you're taking the grunge thing too literally.”

“Fair.”

He grabbed it and almost put it away before he looked at me.

“Do you want it, Jackson?” he asked, hushed.

I shrugged. “Yeah. I barely ate this morning.”

He chuckled and gently handed it to me. As I took it, he nestled back in his seat and plunged his hands in his deep pockets. So much further away.

“You know, if you're staying at your mom-mom’s, you can't be that picky,” I reminded her. “Donuts are donuts, smothered or not.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I just didn't want to leave Caedispear.”

“You’re not the only one leaving. Korey’s going to New York this summer.”

“He is?”

A staff member blew their whistle and yelled. “2:00! We’re going inside! Get all of your stuff or you’re not getting it back!”