“What?” This time, it sounded like a real question.

“I’m serious,” I insisted. “I still don’t know your last name. Do you know my last name?”

Being friends with someone meant that you at least knew what their full name—sans the middle name—was, right? It seemed almost bizarre to ask him since we had already gotten so close, but the fact remained that I didn’t know what it was. It never seemed to come up in conversation, and for some reason Nolan never wrote down his full name on his notebooks or worksheets.

He took several seconds to answer me. “No. Why would that matter?”

I tore my gaze away from Blue to frown at him. “You have to be kidding me. How does that not matter? When you’re friends with someone, the least you should know about them is their name, right?”

“Yeah, and I do know your name. Chelsea. See?”

“I knew it! You don’t even know my last name.” Or maybe he didn’t pay enough attention to figure out what my last name was.

“Isn’t your first name enough? I don’t need to call you by your last name.”

“Well, you never know what might happen. What if some kind of emergency happened and you needed to provide the police with my full name?”

“I’m pretty sure the school has that filed away in their database,” he said, snorting.

“Come on, just tell me, Nolan,” I said, dragging out the last vowel in his name. “I’ll tell you mine, too! And I’ll even give you another box of those mints I have.”

His breath had always been minty, but I had noticed recently that it smelled strongly like the ones I had given him a few weeks ago. Not that I would mention that to him.

“Throw in the apple mints you let me try the other time, and we have a deal,” he said, after a moment of hesitation.

I’d gotten two boxes of those when I was at the mall, so I could afford to share.

“Trust bribing you with mints to work when nothing else would,” I said, laughing. “Fine, now tell me your last name!”

“Rowe,” he said. “It’s Rowe.”

“Nolan Rowe,” I said, trying it out the way it sounded on my tongue. “Thanks for telling me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t go around telling anyone else,” he said.

“What? Why?” I asked.

His name?

That would explain why he hadn’t put his full name on our project report, too. Cheryl hadn’t put up much of a fight when he just typed his first name, likely because she was used to it. She probably figured this mystery wasn’t worth solving, especially since it involved Nolan. When I asked him why, he shrugged and said if the teacher insisted, he would add it later on.

Blue nipped at the cricket I was still holding, and I held my breath as I loosened my grip. It promptly grabbed it from my hold with its beak. Its head bobbed as it swallowed up the cricket.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, pumping my fist in the air. “Success!”

“Congrats,” he said, taking out the container he’d previously returned to his fanny pack. “Ready for another one?”

“Yeah, I am!” I beamed at him.

Nolan passed me a new insect, and with renewed fervor, as well as courage, I grasped it firmly.

“I just don’t want people knowing my last name.” He stroked down Blue’s back.

Blue released a small chirp. I melted a little on the inside.

“Is it some kind of secret?”

We met eyes, and my heart fluttered a little at the seriousness of his expression. “Sort of.”

It was sort of a secret, and he was trusting me with it. Granted, he didn’t seem to want to share why, but he could’ve continued to refuse telling me in the first place.

“Alright,” I said finally. “I won’t tell anyone.”

It wasn’t like anyone else was dying to know, anyway. This would be an easy secret to keep.

“Thanks. Aren’t you going to tell me yours?”

“Oh, right,” I said, grinning sheepishly at my forgetfulness. “Mine is Arnold!”

“I’ll remember that,” he said, nodding.

With much less hesitation this time around, Blue accepted the next insect that I offered it.

“Maybe you seem like less of a threatening figure now,” he said. “It probably helped that you’ve been here a couple of times.”

I watched it tip its adorable little head back. “Hey, is Blue male or female?”

“You know,” he said, scratching it on the head with a finger, “I’ve never tried finding out. I could do a bit of research and let you know.”

“Oh, were you never curious?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

“Not particularly,” he said. “While I had it, I never planned on keeping it. I only intended to keep it until it recovered.”

I yawned. “I guess it belongs to the wild, after all.”

“And it’s a little hard to constantly be hiding it,” he said.

Good point. We weren’t allowed to keep pets in our dorms.

“So, you released it right after it healed?”

“Yeah.” He moved his forearm a little closer to my hand. “I wasn’t expecting it to still recognize me when I came back here.”

“That’s so sweet,” I said, unable to stop myself from smiling. “It’s super attached to you.”

Blue scuttled sideways down his arm to peer at my hand.

“I’ve grown attached to it, too,” he admitted.

“Did you miss it when you finally set it free?”

“It was nice having company,” he said. “I don’t miss its droppings, though.”

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to snort or laugh. “Way to ruin the little heartfelt moment we were having!”

“I’m serious,” he said. “It’s even more pungent than your lemongrass was last week. Speaking of which, thanks for toning it down. My nose appreciates it.”

Nolan snickered when he saw that I was looking at him with narrowed eyes.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “On the other hand, I don’t appreciate being called pungent.”

“I didn’t call you pungent,” he said. “I said your repellent was.”

“Which was on me!”

Blue ran back up Nolan’s forearm and settled on his shoulder.

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress tonight,” he said. “We can continue next week. It’s best not to rush things. We’ll let it get accustomed to your presence first.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Handling two bugs in one night is already more than enough progress for me.”

As I finished my sentence, I felt a small spot of wetness land on my arm.

I glanced down at it. “Oh.”

“What?” Nolan had already gotten out his binoculars and was fiddling with the strap.

“I think it’s starting to drizzle,” I said, looking up at the inky night sky sprinkled with tiny twinkling stars.

I promptly felt another tiny droplet on my other arm.

“Okay, it’s definitely drizzling.”

He reached up and ran his hand through his black hair. “You’re right. Some raindrops just got on my head.”

Blue let out a chirp, and then flew off into the trees a short distance away.

“Let’s go back,” he said, getting to his feet.

“But we just got here.” In spite of the protest I’d just voiced, I stood up anyway. I couldn’t stay here without him.

Picking up the plastic sheet I’d been sitting on, I began folding it.

“We don’t even have umbrellas,” he said, unzipping his hoodie. “And even if we did, we wouldn’t be able to get much stargazing done through the rain, anyway.”

Although he had a point, I was still reluctant to leave. Logically, I knew that there wasn’t much of a point in staying here if it was going to rain, but I had been looking forward to this for the past few days.

“What are you doing?” I said, as he slid out of his black hoodie.

“Giving you a makeshift umbrella,” he said, putting the hood over my head and throwing the rest of it over my shoulders. “Now let’s go.”

He grabbed my hand and began heading in the direction we came from.

At this thoughtful action, I felt my pulse speed up again. The wonderful scent from his hoodie jacket ensconced me, and I had to refrain from sniffing at it.

Now isn’t the time to creep on his laundry detergent fragrance!

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said feebly, but I didn’t want to take it off me.

“I know,” he said, making a turn to the left. “I just don’t want you to catch a cold.”

I stuck closely to him. What poor visibility I already had in the thick darkness of this area was made worse by the rain that had rapidly grown in size.

“Thanks, Nolan,” I said, abruptly feeling a strange rush of joy at his words. “What about you, though? Won’t you catch a cold?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I don’t need it.”

“But you’re always wearing it,” I said.

This didn’t make sense. I’d always thought it was because he got cold easily. It was weird seeing Nolan in just a black T-shirt.

“Hey, I didn’t judge you for wearing one purple sock and one yellow sock last Monday,” he said. “Are you really questioning my clothing preferences?”

My mouth fell open and I stared wordlessly at him. I couldn’t believe he had noticed! They were ankle socks, so I had been pretty sure my sneakers mostly covered them. I’d been in a huge rush that morning when I was leaving my dorm, and just grabbed the first socks I could find. Supremely relieved that I had made it in time for breakfast, I’d put that matter completely out of my mind once lessons started.

“Th-the fact that you’re mentioning it means that you’ve already judged me!” I began, finally finding the words to express my shock. “I didn’t wear those on purpose, okay? I was in a big hurry! You, on the other hand, wear this hoodie every single day!”

Nolan’s snigger was both loud and clear. “I wasn’t judging. I just thought it was weird, but it’s nothing new coming from you.”

“Now that’s completely unnecessary and totally judgmental!” I said, glaring at him.

I hoped he felt it.

“I really wanted to stay here a little longer, though,” I added. “It rained before we could do anything.”

“You got to feed Blue before it started raining,” he said. “We can come again soon, if you want.”

“That’d be nice.” Waiting for another week would feel like torture. “Could we do it tomorrow?”

I didn’t have any plans in particular with the others this Saturday, so I figured I would have enough energy to stay up late.

“Sure,” he said. “I’ll text you again tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said. “Sounds good.”

I needed his help to get over the wall this time, since the bricks were a little wet from the rain.

When we got to the rope that I’d left down the wall earlier, I smiled up at him.

“Well, this was fun,” I said. “Thanks for helping me feed Blue and for lending me your jacket. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As I began shrugging off his jacket, Nolan instantly held out a hand to stop me.

“No, keep it on. You don’t know if the rain might get heavier on your way up,” he said. “You can return it to me tomorrow.”

“Right,” I said, touched again. “Okay.”

Nolan looked completely unbothered by the rivulets of rainwater running down the front of his face. “See you tomorrow. Good night.”

“Night,” I said, putting my arms through the hoodie sleeves.

I didn’t want it slipping off mid-climb.

Climbing up a semi-wet rope proved arduous but the knowledge that Nolan was right below watching gave me the strength I needed to continue until I reached my room. When I jumped in through my window, we exchanged waves before I began collecting the rope back into my room.

I learnt last week that he somehow didn’t need the rope to climb up to his own room, too. Nolan was a lot more physically capable than I had ever thought possible.

After one last sniff at it, I fitted his hoodie on a hanger. I hung it on my doorknob, hoping that it would dry up in the night.

I crawled into bed once I’d changed into more comfortable sleepwear, already exhausted because it was three in the morning.

I couldn’t wait to fall asleep, knowing that it was one step closer to tomorrow night.

Sleep came almost immediately.

When I awoke the next morning, there was a text from Nolan waiting for me on my phone.

‘Blue’s a male bird.’

I grinned as I read it, already typing my reply to him.

‘Cool. I can’t wait to see him again!’