"No, it doesn't."
"Yes, it does."
He smiles and the smile comes through his voice. "Zara, you are not needy."
I rip another piece of paper and edge it finely with an X-Acto knife while I groan. "Yeah, right."
"Plus," I say after I work a little bit on the wing and my logic. "A real friend would not bring up something that would so obviously embarrass his friend because of its innate patheticness."
He starts laughing, but it sounds like a snort. "Innate patheticness?"
I pretend like I'm going to stab his chiseled forearms with an X-Acto knife. Of course, our art teacher notices.
She points at me with a glue gun. "Zara."
"Just kidding!" I say.
"Do I need to ask Mr. Colt to move?" She wiggles her lips. "Are we having a little love in the afternoon?"
Everybody titters-not laughs, but titters. I can feel my face turning red. "No. No, it's fine. He's fine."
"He sure is," mutters some girl with mall bangs at the next table. Her table mate slaps her five.
"Back to work, people." The art teacher pulls on her smock so the top of her cleavage shows. "Let's leave Nick and the new girl alone."
I scowl and stab the knife into the newspaper. "I hate being the new girl."
"Why?"
I glance up at him, trying not to get all crazy fluttery about his eyes or his jawline or his hands. I don't answer.
We sit there another minute working. I am so ridiculously, intensely aware of him there, right next to me.
It's like I can feel the heat he generates. It's nice.
"Okay, so when I came into school Mrs. Nix was acting really weird. She told me if I'm going to go out at night I should wear my coat inside out."
"What?"
"I know. Weird, right? So I googled 'wearing clothes inside out,' " I say.
"Yeah?"
"It says that pixies can confuse humans alone in the woods at night, but wearing clothes inside out protects us."
He presses paper to glue, paper to paper. "That's weird." He pauses. "I talked to Betty about stuff."
"Yeah, you said that."
"She's going to let you in on some things tonight."
"Why don't you just tell me now?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
He gestures around "People might hear."
"You have to give me a hint what it's about."
"You're pouting. Pouting is not allowed. It's too cute."
My heart opens wide and then his face shifts. His eyes narrow. He suddenly turns serious.
"Tell me now," I insist.
"No way."
"Please."
"I promised Betty."
"So?"
"You know you can't cross Betty."
"True." I give up.
Then after another little bit I get enough courage to say, "If we're Mends I should know things about you."
He opens up his arms. "Go ahead."
"Um." I think for a second. "What do your parents do?"
"They're nature photographers. They travel a lot."
"Really? Where?"
"All over. Right now they're making a film in Africa."
"No way."
"Really."
I start with the glue. It squirts on my finger a little. "So you're all alone?"