“How is Todo doing?” Jackie asks as she scratches Todo’s chin.

This can’t be real. After weeks of agonizing over what you said, you this morning you made up your mind to approach her and now here she is, like magic. When you first met her, as a kid, you thought she was magic, you’ve since dismissed the idea, but now.

She looks up at you and tilts her head slightly to avoid the sun's glare. “A few months ago the dog got lost and I was the one who found him.” She stands up; she’s a few inches taller than you. “When I saw him, he started wagging, so I came over to pet him.” She looks at the dog with love, but when she looks at you, she’s glaring. You want her to look at you, to care about you, the same way she cares about your dog.

“N-no problem at all! Todo hasn’t been able to get out again so I’d say he’s been doing pretty good. Thanks again for bringing him home, though.” You should apologize before she realizes she doesn’t have to keep talking to you.

As the thought crosses her mind she turns and takes a step. You panic as she starts to leave. This can’t be the end of this. You’ve finally got the chance to talk to her, and you just blew it so, on instinct you reach out and grab her arm.

She turns to you, but says nothing so you blush and let go of her. “I’m sorry. About what I said last time and everything else.” She’s still glaring. “I know you’ve got places to be but I need you to know I didn’t mean it.” You don’t know what you’re saying, because the real reason you did what you did is too pathetic to tell her.

“...” She keeps staring at you.

You blush, look away from her, and keep rambling. “I’m sorry, I just meant that I love my dog and I’m really thankful. Is there anything you want as a thank you.”

“Do I make you uncomfortable?”

You look up in surprise. “What?” You’re the one who insulted her, why’s she apologizing?

“You have been acting strangely ever since I came over here.”

“No, no.” You shake your head. “You don’t make me uncomfortable.”

“Then why have you been acting so odd?”

Another blush. “I-uh…” What do you say?

“You don’t need to tell me, I was just curious.” She stays directly in front of you, still staring at you, but now there seems to be some kindness in her eyes.

“I was wondering if maybe you wanted to have dinner at my place?” You did say you wanted to thank her in some way and your parents had berated you for not inviting her in after she brought the dog home.

Your mom is making dinner and she always makes way too much. You’re sure she and your dad won’t mind if you bring Jackie with you.

She looks at you for a long moment before saying, “That sounds nice.”

“We can do it now. We’re having spaghetti tonight, that is, if you don’t have any other plans.”

Again, she pauses before speaking: “Are you sure your parents won’t mind?”

“No, of course. Wait, I mean they’ll love to have you… I’m sorry, the term ‘won’t mind’ has always confused me.” You laugh awkwardly.

“Have you invited random people to dinner with no warning before?” she asks.

“You’re not random.” You manage to stop yourself before you say something to make you sound even more like a stalker. “I mean, you brought our dog home. We owe you.”

“Do all forms of appreciation in your family include food?” She smiles slightly as your cheeks grow hotter.

“No,” you mutter.

“Then I’m glad I get to experience such special circumstances.”

Her smile is not like the ones on the news, the ones from interviews that the newspaper got by bothering her as she walked around the town. There have been many of those stories, asking her why her mother has opened up her father's unfinished inventions to the world and in the process brought both scholars and tourists to the town. Interviews about how awful it is that Baru is becoming just another big city instead of the unique little town it was. The smiles on the covers of those papers show how annoyed and sad she was when they were taken. Those smiles were fake, just put there to be polite. This smile feels real.

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Looking at the smile on her round face and seeing the slight dimples in her cheeks, it changes something. Tangible, everything’s the same, but something’s still different. It’s like when you finally find a comfy way to sit after shifting around for several minutes. That change is that in your mind now that she’s smiling, she’s safe, trustworthy and not someone you have to be nervous around.

“... Aren’t we going to go now?” she asks after a minute of you staring at her like a psycho.

You shake yourself out of your… bi panic? That is the best way you can describe what just happened.

“Yeah, my house is right this way.” You point in the direction of the Brown house. The house is actually blue, but that doesn’t matter. The house shares your last name, it was your dad’s idea of a joke.

The two of you (three if you include Todo), begin walking in that direction.

“I’m sorry that you ended up getting sick because you walked in the rain,” you say awkwardly. She missed a couple school days because of it, so a news article labeled her a slacker.

“It was worth it.” She has an almost wistful look on her face. Her eyes close as she continues walking. “I love the smell of rain, the sound of thunder, the soft feel of droplets on my face, the way lightning arcs across the sky, all the unique wildlife that comes out to enjoy it with me. Rain’s one of my favorite things.”

“But, why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? I just told you why.”

“I mean, how can you like it so much? I hate it; it’s just wet, cold and overall unbearable.”

“You should give it another try.”

“No thanks.”

“Seriously, you should. Next time there’s a nice storm, take your friends and go dancing in the rain, it’s freeing and fun.”

“I don’t think my friends would go for that sort of thing.” Thinking of your video game playing, nerdy friends you can’t even imagine it.

Again she pauses, “Maybe I’ll show you myself.”

“What?” Is she asking you to hang out? Maybe she’s asking you out in a different way, like on a date?

“I haven’t done rain activities with someone else before, but if you need me to show you I can.

Oh. That’s what she meant. Luckily, instead of trying to find a way to continue the conversation, your house comes into view and Todo starts pulling you towards it.

You get to the door before Jackie and take out your key as Todo sniffs at the bottom of it. Once you open the door, Todo bolts inside.

“Where have you been?” Mom yells from the kitchen.

“I ran into a friend,” you yell to her as you let Jackie inside. She seems hesitant.

“I told you to make it quick, the dinner’s been getting cold!” Mom yells again.

“It’s Jackie, the girl who brought Todo back.” At his name you can hear the jingling of the dog's collar as he runs back over to you.

“Really?” Dad says from the dining room. “Did you tell her to stop by our place sometime?”

“Yeah. She’s actually here with me. I said we’d feed her.” You unhook Todo’s leash as you speak.

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Mom asks before popping her head out of the kitchen. “You two head into the dining room. What do you want, Jackie? We made spaghetti, but we’ve also got leftover pizza in the fridge if you’d prefer that.”

“Spaghetti would be great,” she says in a significantly quieter voice than the rest of the people yelling across the house.

“What was that?”

“She said spaghetti’s fine,” you repeat so your mom can hear. Jackie stays close to you as you walk to the dining room, almost like her being here makes her as nervous as it’s making you. By the time you get there, your dad’s already sitting at the head of the table.

“It’s good to meet you, Jackie,” he says with a kind smile. “I’m sorry we haven’t gotten to thank you in person before now.” He gives you the stink eye.

“I was the one who refused to stick around after bringing Todo back, it wasn’t Avery’s fault.” She defended you even though you insulted her that first day. That is so sweet.

“He didn’t mean anything by it,” you say as you pull out her chair for her. Your parents always taught you to be a gentleman and to take care of people, especially romantic partners, which you have no reason to be thinking about now! Jackie isn’t your partner, you might be starting to wish she was but she isn’t, so that’s that.

“Yeah, I just like giving them a hard time,” Dad says. “Don’t worry, they get me back for it.” He chuckles. “The other day we were working in the restaurant together and I forgot to lock the door and they spent the whole walk back teasing me.”

“Is that normal for families to do?” Jackie asks as she sits down.

“Do what?” You ask back.

“Tease each other like this.”

“I’m not sure. Every family is different, but we’ve always been like this,” You answer.

“My parents were the same way with me,” Dad says.

“Me, too,” Mom agrees as she walks into the room with another plate for Jackie.

She sets it down as she walks to her seat.

“Thank you,” Jackie says. “It smells delicious.”

“It most certainly is! I am the head chef in our restaurant after all,” Mom brags. “But on a more important note, how long has my child been hiding such a polite, well-mannered friend from us?”

“Mom! I wasn’t hiding her. I literally just ran into her earlier.”

“Oh really?” she gives you a look only moms and best friends know, it’s coded and it means ‘you like them’.

“Mom!!!”