Jude gets in the front seat and shuts the door. “Reese, this is Fynn. Fynn, Reese. She’s taking us somewhere special today.”

“Hello, Fynn.”

“Where are we going?” His grin is infectious and wide, his eyes sparkling with interest.

“It’s a surprise,” Jude says.

“I don’t like surprises.”

“You’ll like this one, I reckon.”

I pull out of the driveway, glancing back at Fynn, who’s now staring out the window.

“How did you two meet?” I ask.

“Jude’s my big brother,” Fynn says. “Has been for years.”

I lift my brows at Jude.

“Big Brothers Big Sisters. You’ve heard of it?”

“I have.”

Jude continually surprises me, but still, I can’t believe he does this. I didn’t even know there was a program like this in Blue Falls.

Jude turns in his seat to look back at Fynn. “Reese here is really good at numbers. She can do large sums in her head without a calculator.”

“She can?”

“Yep.”

I don’t understand why Jude is telling him this. What does it matter? But then Fynn starts to laugh, and his giggle is infectious.

“We should see who’s faster.” He’s bouncing in the back seat now.

“Good idea.” Jude turns back around and pulls his phone from his pocket. “Whoever wins the most gets an ice cream cone from the Frostee Freeze. My treat.”

And so we spend the entire drive to the university with Jude throwing out numbers and Fynn and I scrambling to answer. It ends up being best out of ten and to my shock and utter delight, Fynn wins.

By the time I’ve parked near the research building, I’m bouncing in my seat nearly as much as Fynn is.

When we have to cross the street, he takes my hand as if we’ve been doing this forever. “Do you like science, too?” he asks me.

“I do. I like literature and history as well.”

“Eh, not me. I like science and math the best. History is boring.”

“Maybe you haven’t found topics that are exciting enough.”

“Maybe.” He doesn’t seem convinced. “School can be rather monotonous.”

Jude and I meet eyes over his head and I can’t help but chuckle.

While we go through the lab, he peppers me and the techs with questions. When the lab tech starts talking about measuring the chemical composition of ore with electron energy loss spectroscopy, Jude’s eyes glaze over, but Fynn is just as thrilled and curious as I am about everything and anything.

After, we go for ice cream at the Frostee Freeze and Fynn and I are both chattering like magpies.

The interior is like an old fifties-style diner, all gleaming brass and bright colors with mini jukeboxes at each table that only cost ten cents.

Jude ends up buying us both sundaes and Fynn and I talk. He mostly asks questions about the microscopes. I do my best to answer, and the ones I don’t know, I write down and promise to come back with an answer, something that shocks Fynn.