“Oh my god, happy early birthday Gwen!! I’m so glad you invited me!”

The sight of Naomi and Gwen hugging was a picture more akin to one of best friends who hadn’t seen each other in years rather than two friends meeting up for a weekend at the mall. Was this how girls always acted with one another, or was their friendship just that much deeper than I’d initially thought?

“I’m glad you could make it, Nao. It’s nice to see you.”

Gwen’s eyes drifted over to me, and I ended up flashing her a nervous smile. She was wearing a long-sleeved purple sweater that revealed much of her shoulders, something I imagine would not have flown well at school considering the dress code. That aside, since her current piece of clothing was also a purple sweater, it seemed that Naomi’s hastily chosen gift might not have been a bad one after all.

I avoided her gaze just as quickly as I smiled at her, however, as I had decided it would be in my best interest to avoid any unnecessary tension with Ben, who I could tell was already drilling holes into me with his intense gaze. There was no reason to make things worse for me by staring too much at his girlfriend.

Beside the two of them, my eyes landed squarely on Lawrence and Penny, who also ended up saying their hellos to Naomi and myself, and then Warren, who was staring off into the distance a little ways off from the group.

“Oh, I got you something by the way.” Naomi turned back to her seat and picked up the bag we’d gotten at the store earlier. “Hope you like it!”

“A gift? Nao, you shouldn’t have.”

“Yeah, you really shouldn’t have,” Lawrence said, looking away with a crystal-clear expression of guilt coloring his face.

“Don’t bring Nao down to your level just because you didn’t get me anything,” Gwen said.

“Sorry Gwen, I’ve just been so busy lately that…” Penny’s voice lost its vigor halfway into her explanation.

“Quit it with the theatrics.” Lawrence picked up. “You said you were fine with us not getting you anything.”

“I said the same thing to Nao, though. That didn’t stop her.” She pulled the turtleneck out of the bag and stared at it in awe. “Oh wow, this is so cute! I’m glad you got me something I’d actually wear.”

“Oh, that’s a relief! I kind of picked it instinctively so I started second guessing myself after I walked out of the store, but...”

 “No, it’s great. Thank you, Nao.”

The smile of satisfaction on Naomi’s face told me everything I needed to know. I was glad to have forced the issue. If she hadn’t gotten it, then I’m sure that she wouldn’t have been as elated. It was just the kind of injection that the two of them needed to brighten their day.

“What about Tristan then?”

Benjamin’s voice was like booming thunder jolting my heart out of my rib cage.

“Huh? What about him?” Gwen asked.

“Do you think he got you anything?”

With the attention of everyone suddenly focused on me, I found that coming up with the safest answer was far more difficult than it should have been. In fact, it was so tense that Naomi had decided to speak up to help me out.

“Actually he-”

“No,” I interrupted her. “I didn’t get her anything either.”

However, I decided that it would be better to go with the flow. Sure, it was my idea for Naomi to get Gwen a gift, but since the others hadn’t gotten her one, it was probably better to avoid saying anything more than I needed to.

“What,” Gwen started, elbowing Ben gently. “Would you have been jealous if he had? Hmm?”

“Shut up. Let’s go buy you something.”

“Whaaat?” Gwen pouted. “But I’m hungryyyyy. Let’s eat first.”

“No way. I’m not gonna be outdone by Naomi.”

She was deflecting. It seemed like Gwen really was serious about softening his jabs at me. I felt my body loosening with relief as my medication fatigue continued to weigh down on me.

“Aww, Bennyben is jealous.” Naomi poked his cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to take over your boyfriend duties from now on. Right Gwen?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not…” Ben scratched his head. Never mind. Come on guys, let’s go.”

Benjamin walked off in the direction of a nearby women’s clothing store with so much purpose in his step that you’d think he was late for a basketball game. I guess it made sense. Now that his basketball career was potentially ruined and that Zoey was no longer an option for him, it was certainly possible that Gwen was all he had left. In that sense, not having prepared a gift for her might have hurt his pride. Still, it was the first time I’d seen her smile like that since their breakup. Perhaps the long shadow that Zoey had cast over her was finally beginning to recede from the picture.

“Seriously? I don’t actually need anything, guys…”

“Don’t say that! We’re your friends! Of course we’re going to want to get you something.” Penny, having said those words, ran off behind Ben. And Warren, who hadn’t said a single word beyond his initially greeting, followed behind the both of them.

“Looks like you made a real mess of things, huh Gwen?” Lawrence chuckled.

“What? I just thanked Nao for her gift, that’s all.”

“Yeah, yeah. So Tristan, what kind of moves did you pull on Zoey anyway?”

I blinked twice. “Moves…?”

“Lawrence, why would you even…” Gwen sighed.

“What? Surely he’s the reason Zoey’s single right now, right? I just wanna know how he got that dusty old prude to take an interest in him. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Ben.”

“She’s not interested in me. We just talked about world history. She was helping me and Lance out on our paper.”

“Oh yes, that old ‘helping me with my homework’ story. Good one,” Lawrence sung it as if it were a classical piece of folk music I just wasn’t cultured enough to have heard before.

He was suspicious of me, but I doubted that he had anything. He shouldn’t know that Zoey and I were close, even if he knew about the photography club. There was nothing to talk about with him.

“Lance, huh?” Gwen pondered. “Speaking of, where is the old rabbit anyway?”

“Rabbit?” I asked.

Gwen nodded her head, as if it were obvious. “Only someone as lucky as a rabbit could be that loved by Naomi while being… like that.”

“Like what?”

“What? You hang out with him all the time and you’re going to pretend not to know?”

I definitely knew, but I wasn’t exactly planning on saying anything bad about him. I glanced at Naomi, and she seemed more interested in taking in her surroundings than defending his honor.

“Well, I think he’s cool,” I said.

“I’d hope so. You’re the one who spends every day with him.”

“Hey, I think he’s cool too,” Lawrence joined in. “Really interesting guy.”

“Seriously…?”

“Hey Naomi. What made you fall in love with him anyway?” he asked, ignoring Gwen.

“You’re just asking her so you can use it on other girls,” Gwen said. “Don’t answer him, Nao.”

“Hey, don’t ruin the fun. I’m just curious.”

“Hmmm,” Naomi pondered, finally redirecting her attention to the conversation. “I don’t know how to describe it. He’s just… like a summer breeze.”

“Like… what?” Lawrence’s expression did nothing to hide his confusion. “No, I mean like, what did he say to make you fall in love with him?”

“What did he say? Uhmm, he was talking about… Oh, you were there Tristan. Remember? About mutism?”

“Mutism? Ohh.”

Of course, I remembered it clearly. It was during our first year, and it was the first time a girl had approached either of us. Back then, Naomi was a scary girl who would pick fights with whoever set her off that day. It’s hard to even think back to it now since she’s a completely different person now, but that was basically it. We just so happened to be within range of her that day.

“Wait, mutism? Like he’s got superpowers?” Lawrence asked.

“What? No, not mutant-ism,” Gwen said, staring at Lawrence as if he had just answered a 3^rd grade math question incorrectly. “Mutism. Like, you can’t speak.”

“Yeah, that.” Naomi continued. “It was one of the strangest conversations I’d ever listened to. I was walking to class on my own one day when I heard him arguing with Trist about whether being mute was a good or bad thing for making friends.”

“It’s pretty obviously a bad thing,” Gwen said as we entered the store. We were enveloped by the light sounds of a pop song that I didn’t recognize. “Feels like unless everyone knows sign language then you’re probably playing at a disadvantage.”

“I thought so too, but apparently he disagreed.”

“So your boyfriend’s a fucking idiot then.” Gwen sighed.

“Well, he had his own reasoning.”

“Reasoning? Oh yeah, I’d love to hear this,” Lawrence said, grinning.

“He said that people never really listen to others when they speak anyway. A lot of people’s goals in conversations are just to be validated by someone else. To have them react to your jokes, to listen to your troubles, to acknowledge your feelings, to boost your confidence. It’s all a big jerk-off with no real back and forth. Besides on, you know, small silly things that don’t really matter. ‘Who wants to listen to someone else blabber about their own problems or talk about themselves nonstop? Just pay attention to me instead!’ is I think what he said. And of course, taking that into account, he introduced the topic of their conversation. The silent listener. Offering nonverbal positive feedback to everything that you could possibly have to say.”

“So, he’s scapegoating people with an actual condition to make his point?” Gwen asked.

“Yeah, he was.” Naomi had said it with so much affection in her voice that I thought she was going to fall over.

“So… what about that made you fall in love with him?”

“It didn’t. In fact, it got on my nerves listening to him talk about that stuff. He didn’t know the first thing about people like that, so why was he talking about them so casually just to make his point? When I said that to him, he made a weird face and asked me if I knew any. I said no. He asked what they’d think if they heard him say that. I said I thought that they’d probably be upset. Then he asked if I would put a thousand dollars on it.”

“I’d take him up on that.” Lawrence smiled, knowing that neither him nor Lance had a thousand dollars to either of their names.

“You would? I didn’t. I don’t really know anything about it. And, actually, it really bothered me that I wouldn’t take him up on it right after I came on so strongly. So much so that I kept on thinking about it for weeks after it happened. I justified it for a while. ‘Maybe he has a pick-me mute friend who lets him think that saying that kind of stuff is okay’. But then I started digging even deeper, and that’s when I started questioning myself. What about it was so terrible that I just had to step in like that? Why did I feel like fighting on behalf of mute people when I had never interacted with any first-hand in my entire life? It kinda bothered me that I was so compelled to step in and fight him, to see the bad in what he was saying. I hated how angry I was. And looking at him and how happy and free he was in saying it kinda made me jealous. Like he didn’t think twice about if he was being perceived as rude or not, because he knew that there was nothing demeaning or detracting in what he was saying. That’s when I kinda realized that the argument wasn’t like, a real argument. He was just having fun. And I felt like a complete idiot for letting my pessimism lead me by the nose when he was just out here enjoying himself with Trist.”

Naomi spun the clothing rack around while looking at the different women’s tops hanging off of it, then turned back to face Gwen. “So if I had to pick a reason, it’s because he made me remember what it’s like to be a kid again.”

As Naomi’s words hung in the air, the sensation of my phone vibrating in my pocket snapped me out of it. I wasn’t expecting any calls, so I could only assume that my parents were checking up on me. However, when I saw the word “Captain” flashing across my screen, I panicked and quickly answered the phone.

“Uh, hello?”

“Did you just try to hack me?”

“What?”

I was taken by surprise. Hack her? I had no idea what she was talking about. She should have known that I was at the mall with Gwen and company for her birthday. Was it some kind of a trick question?

“Give Gwen the phone.”

“W-what, but?”

“Right now.”

Her stern tone of voice terrified me. It was like a military sergeant giving marching orders to a dopey-eyed private. Deciding not to protest too much, I handed the phone over to Gwen. She flashed me a strange look, but decided to answer it anyway.

“Who is this?”

Once Zoey answered her, the look on her face eased into a terrifying grin.

“What? No happy birthday?”

She quickly walked off to have the conversation.

“Hey Mr. Popular, who was that?”

Without missing a beat, Lawrence cozied up to me by wrapping his arm around my shoulder, eager to get in on the secret.

“Huh? Oh, just someone who wanted to talk to Gwen.”

“Someone, huh?”

As it turns out, I was still a terrible liar. And Lawrence’s hounding was not making it easy to change the topic.

“You can just tell him who it is,” Naomi said, turning to face us. “He’s going to find out eventually.”

“Find out? Find out what?” he asked.

“Trist joined the photography club.”

“Oh, really?” For some reason, Lawrence didn’t seem very surprised at all. “That’s cool. Good for you man! I don’t know if we should tell Ben though, wouldn’t he take that pretty badly? He already looks like he wants to beat Tristan to a pulp.”

Lawrence saying that with a smile on his face was a bit concerning, but I’ll pretend that it was just a joke.

“He’s gonna find out eventually,” Gwen shrugged, returning my phone. I couldn’t help but wonder what the two of them talked about, but I couldn’t just go ahead and ask it in front of everyone else.

“And what about you?” Lawrence joked. “Aren’t you mad that this guy’s cozying up to Zoey?”

“It’s none of my business. As long as she stays away from Ben then the rest of you can go to hell for all I care.”

“Yikes.” Lawence grimaced. “Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed today.”

Naomi giggled at the conversation unfolding before us. The girl Lance had reintroduced to her child-like outlook on the world. It’s true, he does have that effect on people. Hanging out with him is like having the wind at your back and wanting nothing more than to enjoy the moment as you’re lurched forward into the unknown. But for someone like me, that kind of naivety is just impossible.

For example, even now, I’m wondering why they’re all so cool with Gwen inviting me to hang out today. They barely even knew I existed before last week, so what was the point of all of this? Were they pining for information on Zoey? Or was this really just Gwen’s way of showing me gratitude for everything? My hyperactive imagination was preventing me from sitting and enjoying my time with them in this new environment. I was jealous that Naomi felt like she could just smile without a care. It’s something I wished that I could enjoy on my own too.

“Gwennn!” Penny ran up to us with her own shopping bag in hand, though this one was much smaller than the one Naomi had handed over. An expression of relief dyed with a hint of emotional fatigue was present on her face as she looked over at her friend. “I got you a present!”

“Penny, really. You didn’t have to.”

“Of course I did! We’re besties, right?”

Gwen reached into the bag and unveiled Penny’s gift to her, a brand-new black bracelet with a moon charm mounted in the center.

“Wow, it’s great. You really shouldn’t have.”

Why did it sound like she really thought that Penny shouldn’t have?

“Yep yep, and look!” Penny raised her arm, revealing that she was wearing a white bracelet with a sun charm attached. “We match!”

“Oh, this is a friendship bracelet,” Gwen said.

“No shit,” Lawrence chided, before getting elbowed by Gwen. The girl then slipped the item onto her wrist, then examined it for a moment.

“Yep, we totally match now,” Penny said, reaching to grab Gwen’s hand and lifting it up to their faces. The sun and the moon shared a passionate kiss as their arms came together in unity before us. Even Gwen, who I was used to observing with a huge frown tugging down at her cheeks, couldn’t help but smile.

“Thanks Penny, I love it.”

“Really?! Oh my god, that’s great!” She wrapped her arms around Gwen. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get you something more expensive. I really wanted to since you deserve better, but…”

“No, this is plenty. It means a ton Pen, thanks.”

I didn’t know much about Penny Taylor, but from the few times I’d seen the two of them together, their connection did seem genuine. So much so that she was willing to hang out with someone like Benjamin for her sake. Because God knows why anyone besides Gwen would put themselves through that.

“Now it’s my turn.” Speaking of the devil, Benjamin had just rejoined us with his own shopping bag in hand. “Happy birthday babe.”

“Ben…” she smiled while accepting the bag. However, whatever she found inside had given her enough pause to melt her smile away. “How much was this?”

“Don’t worry about it. I had to go out through the back and find it at a different store though, so it took a while.”

What she had in her hand was a bottle of perfume that could not possibly have been cheap. The name of the perfume, which I remember distinctly as being French, added to the perceived exclusivity of the fragrance that Gwen had now owned. However, I couldn’t help but feel like the bottle itself looked familiar.

“Do you have the sample card?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah totally. Check it out.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white rectangular card which he handed to Gwen. She inhaled the scent coming off the card after placing it next to her nose.

“Hmm… yeah, this is really good! Come try it, Penny.”

“Okay,” Penny said, appearing a bit anxious about the whole situation. However, the look on her face had all changed after she took one whiff of the card. “Wow, you’re going to have such a fancy scent now, Gwen.”

“I know, right? This is great!”

“Okay, now I’m curious,” Naomi said, receiving the card from Gwen after asking permission then taking its scent in. “Oooh, not bad! This smells like some really expensive stuff. Here Trist, you try it too.”

She held the card out to me. It was a simple act of kindness on her part, but the reverence I felt toward her in that moment was almost religious. She was making sure to extend the offer to me so that I felt included in the group. I smiled at her as a show of thanks, then inhaled the scent wafting off the card.

“Oh.”

An image of Zoey flashed through my vision. I quickly looked around for any sight of her, but I couldn’t find the girl herself anywhere. Was it my imagination? No, of course it wasn’t. How could it be? What made me believe that she was here was, of course, the scent of cinnamon coming off the sample card. There was only one conclusion to be drawn from this.

A horrifying realization suddenly came over me. This guy wanted his girlfriend to carry the same scent that Zoey Brahm did. Was it a conscious decision on his part, or just a coincidence? I turned to Ben, who was chatting happily with Gwen over the gift. The fact that he was allowing the card to be handed around so casually was either a sign that he wasn’t aware of it himself, or that he believed no one else would notice.

The bright light of a camera’s flash filled my retinas. After my vision returned, I stared at Naomi who was smiling with her phone held up in front of her.

“Sorry, you were making such a weird face that I couldn’t resist.”

“Oh, was I? I guess I must have just really liked it.”

“Really? Here, let me try it too,” Lawrence said before receiving the card from Naomi and trying it out. “Wait, this…”

Lawrence appeared to have realized it too. Of course he would. Besides Ben, only Lawrence and I spent any repeated amount of time in close proximity to Zoey. Or was it just that guys are quicker to assign scents to the women that they’re attracted to? Regardless of the reason, it’s one thing to recognize that someone wears perfume. But to be so consciously aware of their signature scent that you could spot it in a crowd of different aromas is something else entirely. How did Ben find this?

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Naomi asked Lawrence.

“No, it’s nothing. I was just surprised at how expensive this thing probably was.“ He turned back to face Ben, just as I had. Naturally, he probably wouldn’t say anything about it in front of Gwen. It would ruin the entire day if this came out.

“Well, I guess I should try it too...” Warren, who had returned to the group silently at around the same time that Penny had, took the card from Lawrence and sniffed it audibly, to the point where it was almost disturbing.

“Why do you do that? Don’t make so much noise,” Penny said, in a rare bout of irritation.

“Oh sorry,” he apologized then redirected his attention to the card. ”Wait, this… doesn’t this smell like Zo-”

A hand suddenly covered Warren’s mouth before I realized what was happening. My brain hadn’t processed it nearly as quickly as Lawrence’s had. Was he about to say what I think he was?

“Like zoo? Warren, come on man. Be nice about Ben’s gift. He spent a lot of money on it. Uh, excuse me guys. Can you wait for us at the food court? Me and Warren need to talk in private for a bit.”

Gwen turned back to Lawrence with a bewildered expression. “What the fuck? Where are they going?”

“They must have decided to go buy you something after seeing my gift, huh babe?” Ben grinned.

“Pfft, yeah maybe. But don’t worry, a gift from my Ben is always going to be the best.”

The two of them wrapped their arms around one another, staring into each other’s eyes as they slowly danced to Blank Space by Taylor Swift as it reverberated through the clothing store. It was a sight so sickening that I couldn’t stand to be there for even another minute.

“Uh, I’ll go check up on them…” I quietly muttered the words before slipping away from the group of three girls and Benjamin. I had no doubt that they were going to talk about the perfume, and I wanted to be there to listen to the conversation. I thought I caught a glimpse of Gwen raising her hand at me in the corner of my vision, but I decided that I must have been seeing things when I left.

Eventually, I caught up with them and found the two entering a dressing room in one of the corners of the store, and I steeled myself to follow them through the curtains.

“I’m coming in,” I said as I parted them.

“What? Why did you follow us?” Lawrence said, obviously displeased.

“I came to talk about what you guys were about to talk about.”

“Oh yeah?” he smiled. “And what would that be?”

“Zoey.”

Both of their expressions hardened when I said her name. Of course, this was the first time I had been assertive with any members of that clique when it came to talking about Zoey, so this was uncharted territory for me.

“What about her?” Lawrence asked.

“If you’re going to play dumb then maybe I’ll just go talk to Gwen about it.”

“Wait. Okay man, relax. I get it.” He sighed. “So, this stays under wraps, right? I mean, if Gwen finds out, then…”

“I guess so. The group’s gonna implode on itself,” Warren continued, seeming to have already been briefed by Lawrence. Truth be told, Lawrence aside, it surprised me that Warren recognized her scent so quickly. Was he also into her, by any chance?

“So Tristan,” Lawrence turned back to me. “Can we count on you to keep quiet about it?”

“If you guys want to then I guess I’ll keep quiet too, but like… don’t you think you’re doing more harm than good by not telling her the truth?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, it’s just not a real relationship. Ben… as much as I hate to say it… doesn’t seem to even be thinking about Gwen all that much. He just looks bitter that he can’t have the girl he really wanted, and now he’s going to mold his second choice into being just like her.”

I couldn’t imagine how she’d react to realizing that. Besides, what if she heard about the similarities in their perfumes from some stranger or from Zoey herself, then realized that none of us even bothered to tell her the truth?

“I don’t think it’s quite that bad,” Lawrence said with a smile. “I mean, isn’t that what relationships are? You trying to make your partner into the version of themselves that you’re the most attracted to?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said, staring away for a moment. “But at the very least, I think you should love your partner for who they are at least a little.”

“And you think Ben doesn’t? They dated for years before the Zoey thing came up. You don’t know anything about them, man. You’re just some guy she invited because…”

Lawrence held his tongue. Whatever he was about to say, he probably didn’t want me to hear it. But whatever the reason, I knew why she had actually invited me. And it had to do with my help in getting his team to lose the basketball game. I didn’t have any interest in whatever phony excuse she fed him to get him to agree with me being there.

“Yeah, I’m not your friend. But that’s why I can say this stuff without worrying about some magical friend group implosion. And besides, it doesn’t take a friend to know just how much Gwen despises Zoey.”

“Lawrence,” Warren suddenly spoke up. “She’s going to find out eventually. It might not be from Tristan or from either of us, but Zoey is popular. Someone is going to recognize the scent. And when they do, it could break her.”

“Yeah, but…” Lawrence scratched his head in frustration. It looked like he was going through the dilemma of a century. “Ben man, you are such a piece of work...”

He sighed.

“The truth is,” Warren continued. “I don’t want to be the kind of friend who lets their friends do whatever selfish things they want anymore. I’ve done that all my life, and this is where it’s brought me. Things just get worse and worse, and it never gets better. And it’s not just affecting me, but you too Law. And Penny. And Gwen.”

“Yeah, but…” Lawrence tried to fight back, but he eventually resigned with a sigh. “Fine. Okay, how about this as a compromise then? Just let her have it today. It’s her birthday outing. We planned this day for her, so let’s at least let her enjoy it.”

“It’s going to be ruined retroactively when she finds out anyway,” I said.

“Not all of it. When she looks back, she’ll still be able to remember the fun stuff we did together. But if she finds out now, then the day’s over and there won’t be any fun stuff to remember.”

“You think so?” Warren asked.

“Well, it’s worth a shot. Better than the alternative,” Lawrence said.

“Maybe.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed that things would be settled. I wasn’t entirely sure how Gwen would take the perfume thing, but there’s no doubt that it’ll hurt her deep down to have her status as Zoey’s replacement laid out so openly.

“Anyway, let’s head back.” Lawrence smiled at me. “Thanks for talking some sense into us Trist.”

“No... it’s nothing.” I returned it nervously, then the three of us left the changing room and made our way to the food court.

“Still Warren, that was a surprise,” Lawrence said. “How’d you recognize Zoey’s perfume so quickly?”

“I worked next to her for a year in Chemistry. It’s kind of hard to miss.”

“Oh really? Did you two talk a lot?”

“No. Not really,” he said.

“Haha, figured as much. You’re not really the sociable type.”

“But…” he started.

“But?”

“I did find it strange that she never took notes.”

“Never?” Lawrence looked surprised.

“Not once. It’s not all that uncommon to not take notes during Chemistry, but she somehow got perfect grades in the class. I was confused. I’ve never seen anyone do that well in a class like that without taking notes.”

“Hmm. Yeah, that is weird. Did she take photos or something?”

“No, and there weren’t that many notes on the whiteboard in the first place,” Warren said. “Most of the information came from the teacher’s mouth.”

I immediately realized, from Warren’s explanation, how she managed to pass the class.

“Weird.” Lawrence folded his arms. “Maybe her memory is just that good. Or she had someone else give her the notes. She’s pretty popular after all.”

“I think the second option is more likely since her notebook was gradually being filled up as the year went by,” Warren said. “What do you think, Tristan?”

“Huh? Uhm, maybe. She seems pretty dedicated to her school work though, so I think it’s weird to depend on other people for notes like that. It’s not like she’s doing anything else in class, right?”

“I agree,” he said. “But the upside is that she’s focused more on the lecture than the actual note taking process, so she can internalize it better too.”

“Hold on,” Lawrence said. “Why do we suddenly care so much about her not taking notes? Did it bother you that much?”

“I don’t know if it bothers me. I just think it’s interesting, that’s all. Right Tristan?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah…” I didn’t like where the conversation was going, so I was glad to have Lawrence step in and pull us away from the topic. Naturally, the reason she never took notes was probably because she didn’t need to. The spy glasses she wore to school all the time basically doubled as her notebook, after all. Being able to re-watch lectures exactly as they’re explained by the teacher was a huge advantage for studying. She could focus on the task at hand in class, then do her own notetaking at home that served to solidify her retention of said information. But this was her secret. I couldn’t go on and explain it to others when she trusted me with it like that.

Speaking of Zoey, I still couldn’t understand what it was that made her think that I’d hacked her earlier. I hoped dearly that she was doing okay on her end.