Hey guys! So this is where we get a bit into the Tiana stuff. Happy reading!

Fanta

"You think it looks okay?" I ask, holding up the huge Revolutionary War poster we've spent about two hours making. It looks good to me, with infographics and long paragraphs written out in Tam's surprisingly beautiful handwriting.

He backs up and scrunches his eyes up, cocking his head adorably as he inspects it. "Yeah -- but maybe a little more glitter glue," he says, grabbing a silver one from the basket beside him.

I grin. I wouldn't have thought that someone like Tam would like glitter so much, but it's cute.

Very cute.

I clear my throat, trying to get rid of that last thought. "My pleasure," I say, grabbing the silver one from his hand. As I carefully line a paragraph, Tam hunches over the project, gluing a piece of craft paper down to it.

Another surprising thing: Tam is better than me at crafting. And I'm practically the queen of crafting.

When I finish the line of glitter glue, my hand flies up, and hits him in the head. Oops.

"Hey," he complains, "You got glitter glue in my bangs!"

"Sorry," I say before seeing the twinkle in his eye. I laugh. "I mean, they're already silver, nobody's going to notice."

Tam fake pouts, and, smiling, I reach up to brush the silver glitter glue away from his bangs. Thump, thump, thump.

I ignore my heart, but it's hard, because it hasn't beaten that way since Keefe.

I ignore that thought, too.

As the glitter glue dries, me and Tam talk. "So," I say, curious. "Do you have any siblings?"

Tam beams. "Yeah, I've got a twin sister, Linh..."

For the next hour we chat and chat and chat. Tam tells me all about how sweet Linh is and how she has a huge crush on a boy named Wylie who's FOUR (Tam yells this out loud) years older than her, but they're practically dating.

He tells me other things too, things that make my throat go dry with sympathy. Tam tells me about his parents, who are "huge jerks" (his words, not mine, although I agree) and kicked him and Linh out when they were just 11.

I haven't even known Tam for a full day, but I can see he doesn't regret telling me.

But finally, at 7:15, he has to go.

And, I realize, just five minutes later, I already miss him.