Chloé didn't allow the incident with the older girl from the school paper bother her. She was sure it wouldn't be a big deal once everything was sorted out later. As long as she proved she was a capable enough writer, there would be no reason for any trouble. And if there were hostilities between Moose Track Falls students and their neighbours from Loon's Lake...well...she would do whatever she could to smooth things over. Besides, she wasn't native to either town. Perhaps she would be able to bridge the gap.

Angela and the others seemed quite bothered by it, however, each giving her concerned looks throughout the rest of their orientation. Chloé appreciated their concern, but it was a little unsettling standing out like this. She wanted to stand out because of something good, not because she was seen as a helpless little girl.

Sois forte, Chloé! she told herself. Be strong.

"We should be getting to see the school clubs next, shouldn't we?" Chloé asked the others as they lingered at the back of the crowd of students outside. They were finishing up their tour of the sports fields. Chloé had hoped the ice rink would be part of the tour, but it seemed that was left for students to see on their own time, or if they participated with the required teams.

"I think so," Victoria said. "That bi- I mean that unpleasant individual from earlier looks like she's getting ready to lead us back to the gymnasium."

"Vicky!" Angela admonished, cheeks reddening.

"Sorry. Sorry. I did say I wanted to watch my language."

"You didn't actually say it, though," Brooke pointed out. "I think it was a nice save."

"Aww, thanks Brookie!"

"Never call me that. That's worse than a swear word."

Chloé giggled as she watched the three girls for a moment. She could tell they were close just by how easily they interacted with each other. She was grateful that they had welcomed her into their group so easily. She really had lucked out drawing Angela as her locker buddy.

It turned out that the unpleasant individual, as Victoria had called her, was, in fact, leading the way towards the gymnasium. Despite the incident from earlier, Chloé had a bounce in her step as she followed along with the other students. This was her chance! She could finally see what a school paper was like, and truly begin working her way up to becoming a sports journalist.

When they reached the gymnasium, Chloé heard quite a bit of noise inside, and as they headed inside, she could see why. Tables were set up across the entire floor, organized into rows. It seemed that sports clubs had a little more space towards the back of the gym, along with a couple artistic clubs. Smaller clubs, such as what appeared to be a gaming club of some sort, were set up at smaller tables in the front rows.

As the students paused around the entrance of the gym, they took in the sight, staring curiously at some of the nearby booths. Chloé turned to Angela as they waited to set off, interested to see what she thought. Angela was staring curiously at a boy playing a game at one of the front tables, though. Chloé was pretty sure it was some kind of manga or anime club, since it had some posters of what appeared to be characters from Japanese series she'd heard of.

"That's the guy with the beard...what in the..."

"What are you on about, Angela?" Victoria said. "C'mon. Let's go check out the clubs. Hockey's probably at the back, but let's see what else they got."

"Mm," Brooke agreed quietly, staring blankly at a couple of tables. "We should see what else there is."

Dragging a distracted Angela with them, Victoria and Brooke led the way as students were told to visit the different clubs. Chloé followed after them, not having noticed the table with the school paper yet. They would probably come across it soon enough, though, so she was interested in seeing what else was there.

It was actually fairly surprising to see how much was available for students to do. While Moose Track High did have two towns worth of students, they were still both small towns. Nonetheless, it appeared as though students had options to participate in a wide range of activities. Chloé was intrigued as they passed by a chess club, a baking club, and even a strange club apparently devoted to studying ghosts. The person in charge of that one was a little creepy, though, and Victoria quickly sped their group away. Brooke had looked back somewhat wistfully, however.

As they walked among the club tables, though, Chloé and her new friends seemed to find themselves somewhat overwhelmed by the options, not really finding any that stood out. At least, aside from the ones they were already interested in. For Chloé and Angela, their previous interest in the hockey team and school paper was likely their reason for not pursuing any others, but Victoria and Brooke seemed like they weren't catching on with much.

"It's like when you're scrolling through Netflix and there's a lot of shows you might be interested in, but you can't find anything you really want to watch," Victoria said, and Chloé actually found that to be quite an accurate statement.

"The ghost club might be interesting if there's ever a murder in town..." Brooke murmured ominously.

"Good lord, you're never joining that club, Brooke." Victoria shivered as she stared at her friend.

"Maybe we should check out the hockey team and the school paper, then," Angela suggested. "You guys could still try out for hockey."

Victoria raised an eyebrow. "Hockey does bad things to me."

Brooke nodded. "It does bad things to her."

"What bad things?" Chloé asked, but Angela was already pulling her away, murmuring her agreement.

"It does do bad things to her. Let's go see the school paper staff." She seemed to have noticed where they were, leading Chloé towards a table with the girl from earlier, along with a pair of others. One was a girl that appeared just a year older than them and the other a boy who must've been a senior. "Let's see if that chick is nicer in front of her friends," Angela muttered, holding Chloé's arm a little tighter as they approached.

"Oh...it's you," said girl greeted as Chloé and Angela stopped in front of the table. The second year girl looked confused, while the older boy grimaced, apparently familiar with this attitude.

"Chloé's interested in joining the school paper," Angela said, patting Chloé on the back as Victoria and Brooke arrived behind them.

"Oh, excellent," the boy said, smiling. "What kinds of things are you interested in writing? Or would you be interested in photography, or something along those lines?"

Chloé, feeling a little awkward about suddenly ending up in front of these people, swallowed nervously. "Er...well..." She took a deep breath as Angela patted her on the back again. "I'm interested in hockey. I would love to write about one of the hockey teams if possible."

"Hmph!"

"Nat," the boy said quickly, holding up a hand. When she looked away, he smiled at Chloé. "Well, hockey's pretty popular. We do rotate our writers for it, but we usually use our best. We'd need some kind of writing piece to make sure you're up for it. Might be tough to get the prime spots in your first year, but you could still work your way up."

"Listen to her accent, Joey. She's not writing anything for us."

"It's an accent, you idiot. She speaks better English than you do, Natalie," the other girl muttered. She brushed her brown hair away from her glasses and glared at the older girl.

"Easy now, Lily," the boy, Joey, whispered calmly. "Sorry," he said to Chloé. "Not looking like the most welcoming place, is it?"

The older girl, Natalie, rolled her eyes at that, before storming off. She seemed to be heading over to her fellow volunteer orientation leaders. Her plastered on smile returned as she joined them. Chloé really couldn't understand what was up with that girl.

"What's her deal?" Victoria asked, apparently thinking the same as Chloé.

"Are you guys from Loon's Lake?" the second year girl, Lily, asked.

Everyone nodded except for Chloé. "I recently moved there," she explained. "I'm from Quebec."

"Oof. Double whammy," Lily said. "She hates Loon's Lake, and she hates Quebec. Loon's Lake for the silly old rivalry, and Quebec because she failed French and got embarrassed on her class trip there in middle school. Not sure what the story is, but apparently it was bad. She'd tell you another reason, but that's obviously why."

"French aside, she's the best we've got on our crew, though," Joey said. "And she knows how to play the teachers so well that we just have to deal with the attitude. She isn't...that bad once you get to know her."

"Oh I bet," Victoria said. "She seems like the kind of person I'd love to give that privilege to."

Joey nodded awkwardly at that. "Er...right. Well...Chloé, right? I'll...er...put you on the list as interested. Try to get a trial piece to me by next week if you can. Doesn't have to be too long. We meet in a class by the English department. One of the teachers there will be able to direct you to us."

Chloé nodded, nervousness fading at having the opportunity to prove herself available. "I'll try my best. Merci! I mean...thank you!"

As they stepped away from the table, Angela turned excitedly towards Chloé, eyes bright as she grinned. "Isn't that great, Chloé? You'll be able to get in for sure!"

"I'll try. Hopefully I can do something that can give me a good chance." She was happy, but she did feel a little nervous the more she thought about it. Natalie's assumptions about her weren't totally wrong. It was a little more difficult for her to write well in English.

"As long as that bi- I mean that...big ol' wonderful girl doesn't get in the way, you'll be fine!" Victoria assured her, giving a thumbs up as Angela narrowed her eyes.

"So why don't we go and see the hockey team?" Chloé suggested, glancing at Angela. "You should get your name on their list, right?"

Angela nodded, pumping her fist excitedly. "Definitely!"

They looked around for a moment, confused about where to go. Chloé noticed a table at the back that seemed to be where the boys' team were located, but she didn't see any sign of the girls' team. Angela noticed a moment later, scratching her head curiously. Just then, though, a blonde girl passed by them, appearing to head in that direction, and Angela gasped.

"Kelsey?"

"Huh? Oh, Angela! Hi!"

The girl looked to be a senior, quite tall and very confident as she stood there. Chloé felt smaller in her presence. She was surprised that Angela was able to just call out to her like that. But compared to Natalie, this girl seemed to have a much gentler look in her eyes.

"You guys checking out the clubs? Any catch your interest?" Kelsey asked, smiling at the group.

"Nothing so far for us," Victoria said, gesturing to her and Brooke.

"Chloé here signed up for the school paper. She's gonna give them a trial piece next week," Angela said. "She's my locker buddy. And these two are Victoria and Brooke, my friends from middle school."

Kelsey nodded to each. "Nice to meet you all. I'm Kelsey. I'm just here because...well..." She looked at Angela. "This affects you, actually. Sounds like we've got a bit of a problem with our hockey team."

Angela frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Not sure yet, but I ran into our captain and she apparently quit. That's happened before with girls in their final year, but..." She shifted awkwardly. "Well...I would've thought I'd be next in line. Not that I wanted to be, really, but I was the only grade eleven alternate last year. I should've been invited to the club introductions in that case. Asked around to see if there was someone else, but didn't get any answers."

"So what, they just forgot the girls' team?" Victoria asked.

"I don't know," Kelsey said with a sigh. "I was going to ask the boys' team if they knew what was going on. Why don't you come along in case we can still get you signed up for tryouts?"

Angela nodded at that, and Chloé and the others followed as Kelsey led the way towards the boys' hockey team table, which seemed to be next to the figure skating team's table. There were two boys at the hockey table, and both looked to be seniors. One of them was chatting with the lone girl at the figure skating table, who was helping a first year girl get signed up. As they approached, the first year girl glanced their way and then took off.

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"Lavigne, your sister's kinda cute, you know," one of the boys said. He was quite large, well over six feet, and towered over his partner, even while sitting in their chairs.

"Don't you touch Eden, you creep," the girl said in response.

"Yeah, Felix," Kelsey called out as they approached. "Don't be a creep. That's worse than Maddie's helicopter sistering."

"No one asked you, Gardner," the girl, Maddie, snapped.

"Nothing like high school club politics," Victoria whispered wistfully. "Ah, so peaceful."

"You want something, Kelse?" the large boy, Felix asked, glancing up in surprise.

His partner looked awkward. "Ah damn...she doesn't know."

Maddie smirked. "Oh this is going to be good."

Chloé felt immediate tension, but tried to ignore it, watching Kelsey, who seemed to remain calm despite it. "Any idea why the girls don't have a table for their hockey team?" the older girl asked.

"I didn't hear anything about it. Just figured you hadn't shown up," Felix said, looking kind of confused. "Anything going on, Riley?"

The other boy shrugged. "Not sure myself. I was just told there was a delay in something with the hockey programs. Something to do with funding."

Kelsey narrowed her eyes. "But you guys are here."

"C'mon, Gardner, you know what this means. Your funding got cut!" Maddie said with a smirk. "The girls' hockey team is probably getting tryouts pushed to October."

"That's ridiculous!" Kelsey snapped back, losing her cool somewhat. "That would give us no time to get ready for the start of the season."

"It's just a rumour, Kelsey," the boy named Riley said. He seemed to have a calmer presence than Felix. Chloé assumed he was probably the captain of the boys' team. "It's probably something to do with getting ice for you guys, though, and they just need to sort something out."

"Would've been nice to know," Kelsey muttered. "Sorry about this, Angela," she added, turning to the group of younger girls.

Chloé felt a surge of pity for her new friend, seeing the obvious disappointment on her face, but Angela managed to contain it a moment later. "It's all right," she said. "You know I want to try out, so you can just put my name down when it opens up."

Kelsey smiled. "Yeah, sure."

"Oh what's this I hear..."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "We've been hear less than a day and I'm already sick of that voice."

Natalie strolled by, grinning as she perched herself on the edge of the table for figure skating sign ups. Maddie didn't seem bothered, smirking and exchanging a nod with the other girl. Chloé shuffled her feet awkwardly. It seemed those two were friends. She didn't want to get on the bad side of two older students, but it seemed to be happening already.

"Girls' hockey team doesn't seem to be welcome here," Maddie informed her friend. "Gardner here had no idea, either."

"Oh isn't that too bad," Natalie nodded, faking a sympathetic look to Chloé's group, eyes locking on to her. "Well then I guess you can join the school paper after all. You can write about the girls' team."

"No one said it was gone forever," Riley stepped in. "It's just a delay."

Natalie burst out laughing at that. "Get your head out of your jock strap, Riley. You know exactly what this means." She stepped away from the table and began walking away once more, before stopping next to Chloé. "The girls' hockey team should've died out a long time ago, but the Loon's Lake girls kept it alive longer than it should've been around for. We don't need them taking all our resources."

"Yeah, all right, Maddie," Kelsey murmured. "Let's go, guys," she said, gesturing for Chloé and the others to follow her.

She began to walk away, and Angela followed a moment later, Brooke and Victoria behind. Chloé paused just before following, though, looking up at Natalie. "I don't know why you're acting like this, but...my friends will play hockey no matter what. And maybe I will accept your offer and write about them. Don't count us out without knowing anything about us."

Turning away, Chloé began to follow her friends, who were looking back in surprise and admiration. However, as Chloé took a step forward, they disappeared from her view, and the floor came rushing up at her instead. She hit with a fairly loud smack, her glasses flying off of her face. Everything around her went silent for a moment.

"Oh no! Are you all right?" came a singsong voice from above. Chloé looked up in a daze, head barely rising from the floor. She was pretty sure that was Natalie speaking.

"What the hell was that, Natalie?!" Kelsey's voice shouted out. "You tripped her!"

"Of course I didn't!" Natalie said. Her voice was very convincing. "I would never do such a thing."

"Chloé! Chloé, are you okay?" That was Angela's voice, she and the others rushing forward to her. They were fairly blurry shapes before Chloé's eyes now that her glasses were off.

"I'm...I'm okay. I...can someone get my glasses for me?" She rubbed her eyes. She did feel mostly all right. The fall wasn't too bad. Her wrist was a little sore from when she'd put her hands out to break the fall, though.

"Here, are these your glasses?"

"Oh, merci." Chloé reached out, taking the glasses from the hand reaching out. She was a little taken aback, noticing a hush around her. As she slipped the glasses on to her face, though, she realized with a start that it wasn't one of her friends who had given them to her. She looked up with wide eyes at a boy's face staring down at her, concern in his brown eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked, smiling gently.

Chloé glanced around for a moment, seeing people looking at the scene. Those at the hockey table, along with Maddie and Natalie, were staring at the boy in front of her in shock. Angela and her friends looked surprised as well. Chloé turned her attention back to him, feeling her heart beat a little faster as she took in his smile once more.

"I...yes," she squeaked. She felt her cheeks heat up. Her voice had never gone that high.

He knelt down a bit, wincing somewhat as though he was in pain. Chloé wondered if she'd fallen on him or something and hurt him. He reached out a hand. "Let me help you up."

"S-Sure," she said, smiling slightly and taking his hand. It was warm and gentle, but strong as he helped her to her feet. "Merci...er...thank you," Chloé said quickly.

He smiled at her, and then turned to Natalie. "You fool a lot of people, Natalie," he whispered darkly, his gentleness evaporating as he stared at the other girl. "I always saw through it."

She laughed awkwardly. "Aw, Theo, don't be silly. It was just an..." she trailed off, seeing that he wasn't buying it. "Er...see you all later," she said as she turned away and scurried off. That seemed to signal the other onlookers to return to their business as well. Chloé seemed to be fine, so there didn't seem to be any further trouble. No teachers had seen what had happened, either, so they weren't getting involved.

"Byers."

Chloé looked over to see Riley staring at the boy that had helped her up. Byers. Theo Byers. She glanced at Angela and the others, remembering what they'd mentioned about a boy who had been a star hockey player. This was him!

"Hey Riley," Theo said cheerily. "I'm here to put my name down for tryouts. I know it's just first years right now, but class let out a few minutes early in case anyone wanted to get a head start."

Riley looked uneasy, eyes shifting towards Theo's leg. "Are you sure, man?"

"Bro, there's no way," Felix yelled out a moment later. "No way you can play!"

Theo narrowed his eyes. "I'm signing up for tryouts. Nothing wrong with seeing what I do there, right?"

"I...guess not." Riley picked up a pen and looked at his sheet. "Not like many first years are even bothering after what happened last year..."

"First years don't even make the team, bro. This is always a waste of time," Felix muttered.

"Wasn't last year," Theo said quietly. He made sure Riley wrote his name down, and then smiled down at Chloé once more. "You sure you're okay?"

"Mhm," she said, struggling to speak. "Th-Thank you."

"No problem," he said with a wink. He started walking away, giving a small wave to the others. "See ya around, Angela. See ya, Kelsey."

Angela watched him go with narrowed eyes, before turning to Chloé. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw Chloé's face. Chloé was pretty sure there was no hiding her red cheeks. Angela smirked a bit upon seeing her, as did Victoria.

"So that," she said, stepping forward and sidling up next to Chloé, "was Theodore Byers."

----------------------------------------

Theo's leg was feeling fairly good by the end of the school day, other than having been a bit sore when he'd bent down to help that girl, Chloé. He supposed it probably helped that he hadn't walked the whole way to school in the morning and that he hadn't needed to do too much other than sit in classes all day. And, of course, signing up for hockey tryouts had put a bit of a pep in his step. He was pretty sure people had even noticed it as he'd walked proudly away from the sign up table.

It would still be some time before Whitney was done working, so Theo figured he'd stay in town a bit longer. There was, admittedly, a little more to do in Moose Track Falls than there was in Loon's Lake so he didn't feel like catching the bus or getting another ride. There was a great little café nearby that he'd grown fond of the year before, so he decided he'd wait there.

TimBucks was probably going to get sued for their name one day, but until then, Theo thought it was a great place to wind down after school and get a nice snack. He could never say no to one of their iced cappuccinos, and today he felt he'd treat himself to a chocolate donut. He'd stop himself after today to focus on staying fit for hockey tryouts, but he was already craving the sugar.

It only took a couple of minutes to get there, and Theo headed inside and grabbed himself a seat by the window. The view wasn't actually too bad from TimBucks. The best views were downtown by the waterfall, but here there was a nice view of a nearby river where the occasional deer would roam by. Sometimes even a moose, which was where the town got their name.

After putting his backpack down and leaving his hat at the table, Theo headed over to the counter to make his order. The woman at the cash register was about the same age as Whitney, and had gotten to know Theo fairly well the year before. She grinned as he stepped up.

"Ice cappuccino and a donut. Let me see...maple?" she asked.

"I'm thinking chocolate actually," Theo answered with a laugh.

"Maybe I'll throw in a maple one on the house," she whispered with a wink. "You can share it with Whitney."

"She eats enough sugar at work," Theo said. "But thanks, Emma."

"We'll have it ready in a moment for you. You can go and sit down."

Theo nodded his thanks and left the money at the counter. He felt a little embarrassed at Emma knowing his order. He had changed it up sometimes since coming here, but she seemed to know the look in his eyes whenever he wanted his iced cappuccino. Well, he thought, at least she didn't guess the donut right. He'd been somewhat disappointed in himself for not switching to maple when she'd suggested it, though. He wondered if she'd seen that and that was why she was giving him one for free.

He shrugged that off and decided to pull out his phone and connect to the café's internet. The internet in Loon's Lake was pretty bad, so he always liked to do a little browsing when he was at TimBucks. He tended to look up one specific thing, of course.

How to recover from a leg injury...for hockey players.

He'd researched this almost all year last year in his after school visits to this café. Dozens of articles and videos and all kinds of various suggestions on forums had provided him with a wide range of things to try that doctors hadn't necessarily told him about. He knew he wasn't healed perfectly just yet, but his hard work had paid off. He would be able to take the ice again, and not just to do a little bit of light skating like he'd been doing in Loon's Lake the past little while. He would take the ice for real.

Nonetheless, he still wanted to recover fully. He so desperately wanted to race around the ice like he used to, feeling no stings and twinges of pain in his leg. He knew he could be a good player as he was right now. But good wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be great.

Theo sighed as he scrolled through his phone. He'd already clicked on everything that had shown up in his search. He'd been looking through these pages long enough that he could remember what websites showed up on each page of the search without even looking. He wondered if maybe it would be better to just pop in his earphones and watch a video or listen to some music.

"Um...excuse me. I have your..."

Theo closed the web page and set his phone down, looking up. His mouth dropped open in surprise, recognizing the girl from earlier who had been tripped. She was dressed differently now, no longer in her school uniform, but rather the TimBucks' red and green one. He'd thought she was cute before, but he was fighting himself to stop from awkwardly averting his eyes as he took in the sight of her now.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "Long time no see!"

"Ha...ha..." she laughed nervously. She shakily set down his drink and donuts. "Th-Thank you for helping me earlier. I'm-"

"Chloé, right?" Theo asked. "I heard Angela call out your name when you were tripped."

She looked shocked that he'd remembered her name. "Yes," she said, smiling shyly. "And you're Theo...er...Theodore?"

"You can call me Theo," he said. He frowned, looking at her curiously, wondering about her accent. He was pretty sure she was new to the area. "So did you move here recently?"

"Mhm." She nodded. "I'm from just outside of Quebec City. My dad got a job teaching French here. I got this part time job to stop my habit of speaking en Francais too much."

"You speak English better than anyone here speaks French, I can tell you that much," Theo said, picking up his drink and taking a sip. "Ah...that's good stuff. So, are you a Moose or a Loonie now?"

Chloé stared blankly at him. "I..."

Theo shook his head. "Sorry. Did you move to Moose Track Falls, or Loon's Lake?"

"Oh, right!" Chloé laughed. "We moved to Loon's Lake. Angela mentioned that you were from there, too, right?"

Theo nodded. "Angela and I grew up there. Guess you heard we were best friends growing up." She looked a little surprised hearing that, which disappointed Theo somewhat. Clearly Angela hadn't mentioned it. "Well...anyway, I guess you two hit it off?"

"Oui! Angela was very nice to me. We're locker buddies." Chloé seemed quite proud of this fact, fists clenched as she said it.

"Oh you lucked out!" Theo joked. "Angela's gonna keep that locker extra clean. She hates a mess. She always hated it when her hockey equipment got marks on it that she couldn't get off." He smiled at the memories playing through his mind. "Hockey's always been our thing."

"She mentioned that you were a pretty good hockey player," Chloé murmured. "It sounded like you had the respect of those older students, too."

Theo looked away awkwardly at that, unsure how to respond. "I...had some success. My season was a bit short last year." He glanced up at her, noticing her listening attentively. He patted his leg. "I crashed into the boards and broke my leg pretty badly," he found himself saying, surprised how easily it had come out. He hated talking about it, but it didn't feel quite so bad as he said those words to Chloé. "That girl that tripped you...she wrote about how I'd probably never play again in the school paper. It's bothered me ever since. I've wanted to prove them all wrong for thinking it, even if it's looked true all this time."

"I'm so sorry," Chloé whispered, reaching a hand out and resting it on his for a moment. She blushed fiercely a moment later, though, and pulled her hand away. She winced as she did so.

"You okay?" Theo asked, glancing at her wrist. She rubbed it for a moment, but backed up a step.

"I...yes. It's a little sore after falling earlier, but I'll be okay." She slowly raised her eyes, meeting his. "I believe in you, Theo. I think you can have a career in hockey."

"What makes you say that?" he asked curiously.

She shrugged. "I'm not quite sure." She rubbed her wrist a moment. "You and Angela seem to be special people. Your motivation is really inspiring. It's making me want to do my my best in trying to join the school paper. I want to be a hockey journalist."

"A hockey journalist, huh?" Theo grinned at that. "That would be cool. I'll be sure to give you an exclusive when I get to the NHL."

"I would be honoured to interview you!" she said happily, smiling shyly. "It's a deal. We'll both get there."

"Deal! And...thanks..." He stared at his donuts awkwardly, wanting to thank her somehow for her support. Sometimes he didn't even feel he received that much from his friends, no matter how well they meant. "Hey...uh...would you..." He glanced up, seeing Chloé's cheeks turning bright red. "Do you want a donut?" he muttered quickly. Yikes! She probably thought I was asking something else!

Chloé coughed, clearly surprised by the offer, and perhaps wondering if it was something else. "M-Maybe later," she whispered nervously. She started to turn away. "I should probably get back to work. I'll...see you at school. Or later...or..." Flustered, she continued walking away.

"Yeah," Theo said, raising his hand as she headed back to the counter and disappeared into the back. He met Emma's eyes over at the counter, and she winked, causing him to turn away quickly and take a big sip of his cappuccino. "Agh!"

There was nothing quite like brain freeze. Especially when you were embarrassed.

When he left Timbucks later on, he left one of the donuts on the table in a takeout box, along with a note.

Hope your wrist feels better. The donut will help! We'll have another one for our interview!