Felix was sitting at his desk, stained with rings of coffee. An assortment of different papers from school were scattered around the student's arms. 'Ugh, school. What's the point?'

Clank

Felix looked around, trying to see what made the noise.

Something, or someone, hitting his window.

He turned around, seeing the same girl from earlier. Shadow was sitting in the tree near his window like last time. He opened his window and she jumped down, sitting on the window ledge with a bag of jelly beans in her hand. She was wearing a flower crown made of sunflowers and daises, with her long hair tied up in a ponytail. This time, she was wearing a black sweater with vines stretching up to her neck, with various flowers and leaves decorating them. Her smile seemed dimmer than last night and her hair was covering her left eye.

"Hey, Kittyboy."

She practically yawned the sentence out, but her words were as clear as day. Why was she still awake?

"Shadow."

He replied with a frown. He was obviously exhausted from the piles of work he was doing, and yet he found himself next to the windowsill, having another conversation with this peculiar girl.

"What are you doing up? It's midnight."
"Revision. Wait, don't you have school too?"
"Nope, I'm homeschooled."
"What?"
"I have a tutor who comes over every day and teaches me stuff there."
"Cool."
"I know, I'm pretty awesome, right?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself."

She sighed and reached over to grab something. It was a miniature coffee flask, decorated with different colored miniature stars.

Felix scoffed.

"What?"
"Stars? Really?"
"Duh."
"Lame."
"Stars aren't lame! They're cool!"

Shadow looked hurt and angry, but she soon calmed down. Felix shrugged as she blew away wisps of steam rising from the starry bottle.

"...Do you believe in stars?"
"What?"
"Some people believe that, when you die, you become a star and live up in the sky."

She gazed up at the stars like this was the first time she'd ever seen them. Felix followed her gaze, wondering what was so fascinating about them. They were always there, weren't they?

"Yeah, whatever."
"Stardust flow through our veins."
"Seriously?"
"Yep, we're all stars in our own way."
"Well, I wouldn't consider myself a star."
"I would, Felix. You're pretty dazzling."

Felix felt his face warm up a bit from the compliment, but he quickly shook it off.

A human star... That's how he would describe Shadow. She was bright, full of energy, and practically radiating light. She was a star, alright. He smiled at her as she pointed up at the sky.

"You see that really bright star?"
"They're all bright."
"No, the REALLY bright one."

He squinted and saw one star shining brighter than the others.

"I see it."
"It's called Sirius, or a dog star."
"Dog star?"
"It's part of a constellation called Canis Major, which means Greater Dog in Latin."
"So the brightest star is part of an astronomical dot-to-dot of a big dog?"
"Yep!"
"Weird."

They went silent for a few minutes and Shadow sipped the contents of her star flask and looked over at Felix.

"Y'know Felix, you're a good guy."
"I am?"
"Mmhm, you're the first friend I've had in a while."
"Oh, well I'll try to be a good friend."
"I'm sure you will."

It was a normal sentence, but it sounded bittersweet when Shadow said it. He wondered why.

Felix turned off the lamp lighting up his room and made eye contact with Shadow for a few seconds before they both went back to their beds.

"Good night, Kittyboy."
"Good night, Shadow."

It was only a few minutes later when Felix realized he had forgotten to ask why Shadow had covered her black and red eye.