Elena looked down. “Now you’re probably thinking that I really am a fake geek girl.”

“I try not to think that about anybody,” Gabe said. “If anything, this makes you an uber Star Wars nerd. A Star Wars hipster. You’re like one of those people who only listens to music on vinyl.”

“Do you think I should watch the prequels?” she asked.

“How would I know? I mean, I’d watch them. I couldn’t know there was more Star Wars out there that I hadn’t tapped. You could have double the Star Wars in your life.”

“Did the prequels corrupt your love of Star Wars?”

Gabe gave her a very Han Solo–like grin. “It was already corrupt, babe.”

They both laughed. This was not the Gabe she’d been sitting next to for two days.

“I don’t know,” he said, more seriously. “I saw the prequels before the original trilogy.”

“What?” It was Elena’s turn to be shocked. “That’s all wrong. That’s a perversion.”

“It is not! I think it’s how George Lucas intended it—it’s the higher order.”

“George Lucas doesn’t even know what he intended,” Elena said. “He can’t even decide who shot first.”

“I saw the prequels in the theater,” Gabe said. “When I was a kid. I thought they were awesome.”

“And now?” she asked.

“They’re my first love,” he said. “I can’t be objective.”

Elena hugged herself. “I don’t think I’ll ever watch them. I feel like I’d be letting my dad down. Like he’s going to show up someday, and ask whether I’ve seen Attack of the Clones, and if I say yes, he’ll take off again.”

Gabe looked like he was thinking. “So . . .” he said, “you won’t mind if I spoil them for you.”

“I guess not,” she said. “I mean, I already know what happens.”

Gabe sat up straight and held both hands up between them. “Turmoil has engulfed the Great Republic . . .”

When Troy woke up from his nap, he didn’t even ask what they were doing. He just joined in. His Yoda impression was uncanny.

“I knew you hadn’t seen the prequels,” Troy confided in Elena. “There were some pretty obvious gaps in your understanding of the Galactic Senate.”

Troy’s girlfriend, Sandra, brought them all pizza that night, and when she got there she joined the dramatic reenactment. She said they had to rewind so she could elaborate for Elena on how dashing Obi-Wan was. “Ewan McGregor,” she groaned. “I made Troy grow a beard after the second movie.”

“I also grew a Padawan braid,” Troy said.

Troy and Sandra and Gabe acted out a lightsaber battle that brought tears to Elena’s eyes, probably because they were all three singing the John Williams music. (Elena knew the prequel music; she’d listened to all the scores.)