Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (8/27-ish)
Title - Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (8/27-ish)
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Many thanks to jlrpuck, who remains worried about my blase attitude toward the plotting of meal-timing.
Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.
The gorgeous icon was created by swankkatfor me, commissioned by jlrpuckfor my birthday.
Thank you for all the crossed fingers for this weekend!
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
Chapter Eight
“And there was a giraffe there?”
“Welllllllll, it looked like a giraffe. Sort of a giraffe. I say ‘giraffe,’ I mean…never mind.”
“There was a sort-of giraffe at your eleventh birthday party?”
“He wasn’t invited,” said Brem. “He crashed it. Mum wasn’t pleased. He ate all the cake.”
“Giraffes eat cake?” asked Kate, looking bemused. She had assumed her leaning-forward pose, elbow on table, chin on fist, as she listened to the story.
“Welllllll, not giraffes so much as…This particular, er, type of giraffe has a weakness for sugar.” Brem finished his hot chocolate. “Come to think of it, so do I, apparently.”
“Apparently?”
“So I’m told. I drink heavily sugared tea.”
“Oh, you drink tea?”
Brem nodded.
“I didn’t want to presume, you know.”
“Presume?”
“That you must drink tea because you’re British.”
“I drink tea because it’s good,” said Brem. “And it’s the foundation of civilization.”
“Is it now? Why do you say that?”
Brem considered. “Because my father always says it. I’ve never actually tried to figure out why he says it.”
Kate grinned. “Have you been to Tealuxe?”
“No. What’s that?”
“Have you looked at anything in Boston that’s not a bookstore?”
“Of course I have, I…looked at you, right?”
One corner of Kate’s mouth tipped up. “Because I talked about a book.”
“That’s…entirely true, okay,” he allowed, reluctantly.
Kate laughed. “Well, we’ll have to go to Tealuxe next. You’ll love it. In the meantime, you drink tea, heavily sugared, have giraffes at your birthday parties, have two little sisters, and are able to picture with stunning accuracy exactly what Cleopatra looks like. But the main question is, do you eat?”
“Do I what?”
“Do you eat?”
“Of course I eat.”
“Do you want to have dinner?”
“Oh,” he said, and registered for the first time that it was dark outside. “Oh! I lost track of the time.” The thought astonished him: A Time Lord, losing track of time. His father would be appalled if he knew. “Are you hungry?”
Kate looked amused. She usually looked amused at the things he said. He thought that was a good sign. “Yes. Are you?”
“Yes. Did you want to have dinner?”
“I’d love to have dinner. And I’m guessing you haven’t explored the restaurants around here?”
He felt himself blush. “I’ve eaten at a few, but I didn’t pay attention,” he admitted.
“I’ve explored the restaurants,” she said. “So let’s go.” She stood cheerfully, shrugging on her coat.
She took him to a restaurant just down the street, warm and moderately crowded. The waitress put chips and salsa on the table, and Kate dipped chips into the salsa and told him stories about everything: her roommate’s goldfish, who kept having to be replaced on a weekly basis; the trip to Disney World her senior class had taken; the biology lab she was taking that she hated.
“I can help you with that,” he said.
“The biology lab?” She grinned at him. “You have biology expertise to share with me?”
“I’m good with science,” he said.
Kate laughed. “Anyone named after radiation should be good with science.”
He supposed the food was excellent but he could remember few details about what they ate, because he was busy watching Kate and hoping that she was having a good time, because he had by now made up his mind that he wanted to have dinner with her every single night. At the end of the meal, she dropped her eyes abruptly, to where her fingers were shredding her napkin, and Brem experienced a flare of panic over why she suddenly seemed shy. “You, uh, don’t have anywhere you’re supposed to be, do you?”
“I…When?” he asked, confused, and also thinking he might not have anywhere to be ever again for the rest of his life.
She looked up at him then, smiling. “Now.”
“No, nowhere to be.”
“Maybe we could try Tealuxe?” she suggested.
“Good idea,” he agreed, because it was. He settled the bill, turning down her offer to split it-he was horrified at the idea-and then followed her, down a side street to Tealuxe. She clearly knew the Square much better than he did.
Tealuxe was small and very cozy, and had an impossible number of teas to choose from. Brem was a bit dazzled by the selection. He took the menu, studying it closely, then looked up at Kate, who was watching him. “This may take a while,” he told her.
She smiled, and he heard her order her tea while he continued reading descriptions. He finally decided on a tea called “Golden Monkey,” and ordered it happily. When he tried to pay, the clerk said Kate had taken care of it. He took his tea over to where she was sitting at a table, already drinking her own tea, and said, “You didn’t have to pay.”
“Oh, my pleasure. You’ve been paying all night.”
He sat with his tea and its little egg timer. They had the place almost to themselves, and Brem decided he liked it here, all dark woods and burnished copper, and he looked across at Kate, who looked beautiful as she regarded him back steadily. He wished desperately he could just ask her if she was having a good time, if things were going well, but he didn’t know how to begin.
“Your timer’s up,” she said.
“Oh,” he realized. Where was his sense of time tonight? He reached for the sugars, pulling out seven, based on the size of the teacup.
Kate watched him count out his sugars. “You weren’t kidding,” she said, as he began the process of ripping each of them open.
“What?” he asked, glancing at her as he continued the operation.
Her eyebrows were lifted in surprise. “Heavily sugared tea.”
“Oh.” He felt himself blush again. “Yeah.”
She smiled. She kept smiling at him, and each time it flummoxed him a little. To cover it, he concentrated on stirring the sugar into his tea and then trying it.
“How is it?”
“It’s excellent,” he said, honestly. “This place is excellent. Thank you for the tip.”
“You’re welcome. I’m so glad you like it. Next time you can show me the bookstores you’ve discovered. We might go hungry, but we’ll be well-read.”
He grinned. “I may allow you to show me some more of the restaurants you’ve discovered. Then we won’t go hungry.”
“I’d love to,” she said.
Brem was suddenly distracted by whether or not she’d just agreed to go on another date with him, took a bigger sip of his tea than he anticipated, and scalded the inside of his mouth.
They didn’t leave Tealuxe until one of the workers said they were closing. Brem realized he’d lost track of time again, as he followed Kate out the door and into the cold dark of Harvard Square.
“Where do you live?” asked Brem. “I’ll walk you home.”
“Wigglesworth,” she said, naming another of the dorms on the Yard.
“I’m in Hollis,” he said, as they began walking.
She startled him by taking his hand as they walked. “I like living on the Yard,” she said, as if her taking his hand was not the universe’s most momentous event. “I’d be upset if I was in one of the dorms off the Yard. They feel far away. Don’t you think?”
He was busy trying to get over the fact that she was holding his hand, and was startled by the direct question, which he hadn’t actually heard, if he was honest. “I…yeah,” he stammered.
She smiled at him, then glanced down the street to check for cars as they crossed it. “I didn’t think you’d ever ask, you know.”
“Ask what?” he asked, as they walked onto the Yard.
“Ask me to dinner. Or, you know, coffee. Or whatever you decided was shorthand for ‘casually going out.’” She tossed him a grin.
He was astonished. “I…You…What…?”
She laughed. “You’re impossibly cute.”
“…Oh,” he said, bewildered by that. They’d reached Wigglesworth by now. She had stopped at the door, had dropped his hand, and was looking at him expectantly. He stood, hands in his pockets now, wondering why she didn’t go inside. Did he want her to open the door for her, maybe? “I need your key,” he said.
She blinked. “For what?”
“To open the door for you.”
She blinked again. “Oh,” she said, slowly, and then dug in her bag and pulled it out, handing it across to him solemnly.
He inserted the key into the door, pulled it open for her, and held the key out to her. “There you are,” he said, pleased with himself.
She looked from the open door to him. Then she took her key. “Impossibly cute,” she said again, and then, “Thank you. Really.” She stood for a moment, framed in the doorway, and then waved to him as she ducked inside.
Brem stood for a second, outside Wigglesworth, in the cold, before turning and walking back to his own room.
Digger was there, playing one of the off-world videogames, and Brem sighed. He hated dealing with Digger. Matt was at his desk, highlighting a book. He looked up when Brem walked in.
“Hey,” he said.
Digger looked up, too. “Breeeeeeeeeeeeeem,” he said, by way of greeting.
Brem sighed. “Hi, Digger.”
“Where’ve you been?” asked Matt.
“I…I’m not entirely sure. It started at Burdick’s, and then we went to a restaurant, and then Tealuxe. Do you know about Tealuxe? Real tea! Not this teabag rubbish!”
“What were you doing in all these places?” said Matt.
“I think I was on a date.” Brem couldn’t believe it even as he said it out loud.
“A date?” Matt looked suitably impressed. “With who?”
“Kate Bonneville. Do you know her?”
Matt looked startled. “You were on a date with a girl?”
Brem sighed. “I’m not gay, Matt.”
“You use a lot of hair gel for a straight guy.”
“That’s because I have nice hair,” Brem retorted.
“You went on a date,” inserted Digger. “With Kate. Date. Kate.” Then he giggled.
Brem frowned at him.
“So,” prompted Matt. “How’d it go?”
“I think it went well. I think it went…She called me impossibly cute.”
“She called you what?”
“Impossibly cute. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Brem,” said Digger, urgently.
“What?”
“You have. The best. Music.”
“You know, Digger, I can feel your brain cells dying. Literally feel them.”
“That must be wild, man,” said Digger.
“Not exactly the adjective I would have chosen.”
“So she called you cute,” said Matt.
“Yeah. It’s good, right? Wait. Or it’s not good. Is it good?” He’d managed to confuse himself.
“I don’t know,” mused Matt. “I mean, puppies are cute. And babies.”
“Oh, no,” realized Brem. “I don’t want to be cute.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“This is a disaster.”
“Nah, it’s good,” contributed Digger, concentrating on the videogame.
“No offense,” said Brem, “but I don’t think I’m going to rely on your opinion, Digger. What does that even mean? ‘Digger?’ Dig what?”
“Everything, man. I dig everything.”
“Oh, leave him alone,” said Matt. “You’re named after radiation, do you radiate?”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Matt.”
“Nothing makes sense, dude,” inserted Digger. “Nothing.”
“That’s because you have three brain cells left,” Brem told him.
Digger looked at him. “Bremmmmmmmmm,” he said.
Brem rolled his eyes and turned back to Matt. “I thought it was good, being cute.”
“Well, I guess it’s better than not being cute,” offered Matt.
“This is so impossible. It’s like a bloody riddle.”
“Well, girls are riddles,” said Matt. “Look at your sister, telling me I don’t have enough appendages: riddle.”
“No, she means that literally,” said Brem. “And that’s a good idea.”
“What is?”
“Sister. She’ll know how to interpret this correctly.” Brem reached for his mobile and scrolled to Athena’s name, then dialed.
“Is that your sister Atheeeeeeeeeeeena?” asked Digger.
“Shh,” Brem told him, as Athena answered.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. What are you up to?”
“I’m watching Dad do something that looks innocent enough but will no doubt have us running for our lives in a little while. What are you up to?”
“Digger is playing videogames.”
“Who’s Digger?”
“The stoner you met at the party who has a fascination with your name.”
“Atheeeeeeeeeena,” said Digger, on cue.
Athena, hearing him, laughed.
“But don’t take it personally,” said Brem. “He has a fascination with all names.”
Matt was waving at him, mouthing Tell her I say hi and pointing to himself.
“And, er, Matt is here studying. He says hi.”
“Hi, Matt,” she said.
Matt was now waving again, mouthing Did she say hi?
“She says hi back,” Brem told him. “So. Athena. I’ve got a riddle for you.”
“A riddle? That’s more Dad’s thing, isn’t it?”
“Not this particular riddle.” Brem cleared his throat. He didn’t want Athena to realize how important this was to him. He wasn’t ready yet to share the magic that might be Kate with Athena. He wanted a better grasp of the situation first. “So, today this girl called me cute.”
“What girl?” asked Athena, scenting gossip of interest.
“Just a girl. Not a…I don’t know, a girl in my class, and she said I was, quote, ‘impossibly cute.’ What’s that mean?”
“It means she likes you!” exclaimed Athena.
“Really?”
“Yes! You should ask her out!”
Ha! he thought, smugly. Way ahead of you there! “You think?”
“Yes! Brem! This is so-oh.”
“What?”
“Got to run.”
He grinned. “Thanks, Theenie.”
“Yeah. Bye.” He switched off his mobile and looked at Matt triumphantly. “She says it’s a good sign.”
“Atheeeeeeeeeeena,” said Digger.
Next Chapter
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Many thanks to jlrpuck, who remains worried about my blase attitude toward the plotting of meal-timing.
Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.
The gorgeous icon was created by swankkatfor me, commissioned by jlrpuckfor my birthday.
Thank you for all the crossed fingers for this weekend!
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
Chapter Eight
“And there was a giraffe there?”
“Welllllllll, it looked like a giraffe. Sort of a giraffe. I say ‘giraffe,’ I mean…never mind.”
“There was a sort-of giraffe at your eleventh birthday party?”
“He wasn’t invited,” said Brem. “He crashed it. Mum wasn’t pleased. He ate all the cake.”
“Giraffes eat cake?” asked Kate, looking bemused. She had assumed her leaning-forward pose, elbow on table, chin on fist, as she listened to the story.
“Welllllll, not giraffes so much as…This particular, er, type of giraffe has a weakness for sugar.” Brem finished his hot chocolate. “Come to think of it, so do I, apparently.”
“Apparently?”
“So I’m told. I drink heavily sugared tea.”
“Oh, you drink tea?”
Brem nodded.
“I didn’t want to presume, you know.”
“Presume?”
“That you must drink tea because you’re British.”
“I drink tea because it’s good,” said Brem. “And it’s the foundation of civilization.”
“Is it now? Why do you say that?”
Brem considered. “Because my father always says it. I’ve never actually tried to figure out why he says it.”
Kate grinned. “Have you been to Tealuxe?”
“No. What’s that?”
“Have you looked at anything in Boston that’s not a bookstore?”
“Of course I have, I…looked at you, right?”
One corner of Kate’s mouth tipped up. “Because I talked about a book.”
“That’s…entirely true, okay,” he allowed, reluctantly.
Kate laughed. “Well, we’ll have to go to Tealuxe next. You’ll love it. In the meantime, you drink tea, heavily sugared, have giraffes at your birthday parties, have two little sisters, and are able to picture with stunning accuracy exactly what Cleopatra looks like. But the main question is, do you eat?”
“Do I what?”
“Do you eat?”
“Of course I eat.”
“Do you want to have dinner?”
“Oh,” he said, and registered for the first time that it was dark outside. “Oh! I lost track of the time.” The thought astonished him: A Time Lord, losing track of time. His father would be appalled if he knew. “Are you hungry?”
Kate looked amused. She usually looked amused at the things he said. He thought that was a good sign. “Yes. Are you?”
“Yes. Did you want to have dinner?”
“I’d love to have dinner. And I’m guessing you haven’t explored the restaurants around here?”
He felt himself blush. “I’ve eaten at a few, but I didn’t pay attention,” he admitted.
“I’ve explored the restaurants,” she said. “So let’s go.” She stood cheerfully, shrugging on her coat.
She took him to a restaurant just down the street, warm and moderately crowded. The waitress put chips and salsa on the table, and Kate dipped chips into the salsa and told him stories about everything: her roommate’s goldfish, who kept having to be replaced on a weekly basis; the trip to Disney World her senior class had taken; the biology lab she was taking that she hated.
“I can help you with that,” he said.
“The biology lab?” She grinned at him. “You have biology expertise to share with me?”
“I’m good with science,” he said.
Kate laughed. “Anyone named after radiation should be good with science.”
He supposed the food was excellent but he could remember few details about what they ate, because he was busy watching Kate and hoping that she was having a good time, because he had by now made up his mind that he wanted to have dinner with her every single night. At the end of the meal, she dropped her eyes abruptly, to where her fingers were shredding her napkin, and Brem experienced a flare of panic over why she suddenly seemed shy. “You, uh, don’t have anywhere you’re supposed to be, do you?”
“I…When?” he asked, confused, and also thinking he might not have anywhere to be ever again for the rest of his life.
She looked up at him then, smiling. “Now.”
“No, nowhere to be.”
“Maybe we could try Tealuxe?” she suggested.
“Good idea,” he agreed, because it was. He settled the bill, turning down her offer to split it-he was horrified at the idea-and then followed her, down a side street to Tealuxe. She clearly knew the Square much better than he did.
Tealuxe was small and very cozy, and had an impossible number of teas to choose from. Brem was a bit dazzled by the selection. He took the menu, studying it closely, then looked up at Kate, who was watching him. “This may take a while,” he told her.
She smiled, and he heard her order her tea while he continued reading descriptions. He finally decided on a tea called “Golden Monkey,” and ordered it happily. When he tried to pay, the clerk said Kate had taken care of it. He took his tea over to where she was sitting at a table, already drinking her own tea, and said, “You didn’t have to pay.”
“Oh, my pleasure. You’ve been paying all night.”
He sat with his tea and its little egg timer. They had the place almost to themselves, and Brem decided he liked it here, all dark woods and burnished copper, and he looked across at Kate, who looked beautiful as she regarded him back steadily. He wished desperately he could just ask her if she was having a good time, if things were going well, but he didn’t know how to begin.
“Your timer’s up,” she said.
“Oh,” he realized. Where was his sense of time tonight? He reached for the sugars, pulling out seven, based on the size of the teacup.
Kate watched him count out his sugars. “You weren’t kidding,” she said, as he began the process of ripping each of them open.
“What?” he asked, glancing at her as he continued the operation.
Her eyebrows were lifted in surprise. “Heavily sugared tea.”
“Oh.” He felt himself blush again. “Yeah.”
She smiled. She kept smiling at him, and each time it flummoxed him a little. To cover it, he concentrated on stirring the sugar into his tea and then trying it.
“How is it?”
“It’s excellent,” he said, honestly. “This place is excellent. Thank you for the tip.”
“You’re welcome. I’m so glad you like it. Next time you can show me the bookstores you’ve discovered. We might go hungry, but we’ll be well-read.”
He grinned. “I may allow you to show me some more of the restaurants you’ve discovered. Then we won’t go hungry.”
“I’d love to,” she said.
Brem was suddenly distracted by whether or not she’d just agreed to go on another date with him, took a bigger sip of his tea than he anticipated, and scalded the inside of his mouth.
They didn’t leave Tealuxe until one of the workers said they were closing. Brem realized he’d lost track of time again, as he followed Kate out the door and into the cold dark of Harvard Square.
“Where do you live?” asked Brem. “I’ll walk you home.”
“Wigglesworth,” she said, naming another of the dorms on the Yard.
“I’m in Hollis,” he said, as they began walking.
She startled him by taking his hand as they walked. “I like living on the Yard,” she said, as if her taking his hand was not the universe’s most momentous event. “I’d be upset if I was in one of the dorms off the Yard. They feel far away. Don’t you think?”
He was busy trying to get over the fact that she was holding his hand, and was startled by the direct question, which he hadn’t actually heard, if he was honest. “I…yeah,” he stammered.
She smiled at him, then glanced down the street to check for cars as they crossed it. “I didn’t think you’d ever ask, you know.”
“Ask what?” he asked, as they walked onto the Yard.
“Ask me to dinner. Or, you know, coffee. Or whatever you decided was shorthand for ‘casually going out.’” She tossed him a grin.
He was astonished. “I…You…What…?”
She laughed. “You’re impossibly cute.”
“…Oh,” he said, bewildered by that. They’d reached Wigglesworth by now. She had stopped at the door, had dropped his hand, and was looking at him expectantly. He stood, hands in his pockets now, wondering why she didn’t go inside. Did he want her to open the door for her, maybe? “I need your key,” he said.
She blinked. “For what?”
“To open the door for you.”
She blinked again. “Oh,” she said, slowly, and then dug in her bag and pulled it out, handing it across to him solemnly.
He inserted the key into the door, pulled it open for her, and held the key out to her. “There you are,” he said, pleased with himself.
She looked from the open door to him. Then she took her key. “Impossibly cute,” she said again, and then, “Thank you. Really.” She stood for a moment, framed in the doorway, and then waved to him as she ducked inside.
Brem stood for a second, outside Wigglesworth, in the cold, before turning and walking back to his own room.
Digger was there, playing one of the off-world videogames, and Brem sighed. He hated dealing with Digger. Matt was at his desk, highlighting a book. He looked up when Brem walked in.
“Hey,” he said.
Digger looked up, too. “Breeeeeeeeeeeeeem,” he said, by way of greeting.
Brem sighed. “Hi, Digger.”
“Where’ve you been?” asked Matt.
“I…I’m not entirely sure. It started at Burdick’s, and then we went to a restaurant, and then Tealuxe. Do you know about Tealuxe? Real tea! Not this teabag rubbish!”
“What were you doing in all these places?” said Matt.
“I think I was on a date.” Brem couldn’t believe it even as he said it out loud.
“A date?” Matt looked suitably impressed. “With who?”
“Kate Bonneville. Do you know her?”
Matt looked startled. “You were on a date with a girl?”
Brem sighed. “I’m not gay, Matt.”
“You use a lot of hair gel for a straight guy.”
“That’s because I have nice hair,” Brem retorted.
“You went on a date,” inserted Digger. “With Kate. Date. Kate.” Then he giggled.
Brem frowned at him.
“So,” prompted Matt. “How’d it go?”
“I think it went well. I think it went…She called me impossibly cute.”
“She called you what?”
“Impossibly cute. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Brem,” said Digger, urgently.
“What?”
“You have. The best. Music.”
“You know, Digger, I can feel your brain cells dying. Literally feel them.”
“That must be wild, man,” said Digger.
“Not exactly the adjective I would have chosen.”
“So she called you cute,” said Matt.
“Yeah. It’s good, right? Wait. Or it’s not good. Is it good?” He’d managed to confuse himself.
“I don’t know,” mused Matt. “I mean, puppies are cute. And babies.”
“Oh, no,” realized Brem. “I don’t want to be cute.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“This is a disaster.”
“Nah, it’s good,” contributed Digger, concentrating on the videogame.
“No offense,” said Brem, “but I don’t think I’m going to rely on your opinion, Digger. What does that even mean? ‘Digger?’ Dig what?”
“Everything, man. I dig everything.”
“Oh, leave him alone,” said Matt. “You’re named after radiation, do you radiate?”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Matt.”
“Nothing makes sense, dude,” inserted Digger. “Nothing.”
“That’s because you have three brain cells left,” Brem told him.
Digger looked at him. “Bremmmmmmmmm,” he said.
Brem rolled his eyes and turned back to Matt. “I thought it was good, being cute.”
“Well, I guess it’s better than not being cute,” offered Matt.
“This is so impossible. It’s like a bloody riddle.”
“Well, girls are riddles,” said Matt. “Look at your sister, telling me I don’t have enough appendages: riddle.”
“No, she means that literally,” said Brem. “And that’s a good idea.”
“What is?”
“Sister. She’ll know how to interpret this correctly.” Brem reached for his mobile and scrolled to Athena’s name, then dialed.
“Is that your sister Atheeeeeeeeeeeena?” asked Digger.
“Shh,” Brem told him, as Athena answered.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. What are you up to?”
“I’m watching Dad do something that looks innocent enough but will no doubt have us running for our lives in a little while. What are you up to?”
“Digger is playing videogames.”
“Who’s Digger?”
“The stoner you met at the party who has a fascination with your name.”
“Atheeeeeeeeeena,” said Digger, on cue.
Athena, hearing him, laughed.
“But don’t take it personally,” said Brem. “He has a fascination with all names.”
Matt was waving at him, mouthing Tell her I say hi and pointing to himself.
“And, er, Matt is here studying. He says hi.”
“Hi, Matt,” she said.
Matt was now waving again, mouthing Did she say hi?
“She says hi back,” Brem told him. “So. Athena. I’ve got a riddle for you.”
“A riddle? That’s more Dad’s thing, isn’t it?”
“Not this particular riddle.” Brem cleared his throat. He didn’t want Athena to realize how important this was to him. He wasn’t ready yet to share the magic that might be Kate with Athena. He wanted a better grasp of the situation first. “So, today this girl called me cute.”
“What girl?” asked Athena, scenting gossip of interest.
“Just a girl. Not a…I don’t know, a girl in my class, and she said I was, quote, ‘impossibly cute.’ What’s that mean?”
“It means she likes you!” exclaimed Athena.
“Really?”
“Yes! You should ask her out!”
Ha! he thought, smugly. Way ahead of you there! “You think?”
“Yes! Brem! This is so-oh.”
“What?”
“Got to run.”
He grinned. “Thanks, Theenie.”
“Yeah. Bye.” He switched off his mobile and looked at Matt triumphantly. “She says it’s a good sign.”
“Atheeeeeeeeeeena,” said Digger.
Next Chapter