“Uh . . . yeah,” said Sal, and Héctor could see the relief soften their body. They had tensed up so visibly before. “Don’t think I’m a guy or a girl at all, so if you could use ‘them,’ I would be happy.”

Héctor raised a thumbs-up in response, and then saw how delighted Juliana was. “You’re enjoying this,” he said.

“I might be,” said Juliana, and then turned to Sal. “What I think Héctor meant is that he is confused by . . . well, all of this.” She waved her hands at the Room.

“Exactly,” he confirmed. “So . . . what happened?”

Juliana sat next to him. “I think our little Room just got bigger.”

“Yeah!” Héctor gestured in front of him. “A whole lot bigger!” He walked over to the bookshelves, ran his hand along the wood, pulled out a book. A real book. With pages.

“Every time I think this can’t get weirder,” said Héctor, “it gets weirder.”

“Sal, tell him what you told me,” said Juliana.

They smiled at Héctor when he looked at them. “Well . . . I found this place a week ago. The library at my school got closed down, and that was my favorite place to be. I used to go there as much as I could.”

Héctor raised a hand. “Hold on,” he said. “Where exactly is your school?”

Sal looked at Juliana, who nodded. Then they continued. “Ummm . . . I think I’m pretty far away from you two. Juliana is in Charleston, and you’re in . . .”

“Orangevale.” When Sal narrowed their eyes at Héctor, he sighed. “Northern California.”

Sal paused, and their mouth dropped open.

“I’m at Saguaro Academy. Just outside . . . Phoenix. Arizona.”

“Phoenix,” said Héctor.

“Uh-huh.”

“Arizona.”

“Yep.”

“You’re in Arizona.”

“I am,” said Sal, looking a little self-conscious.

“You’re really not joking,” said Héctor, shaking his head. “You know, I wish I knew how to, like . . . faint on cue. That would be a great skill to have right now so I could do it.”

“Wow, you really are dramatic,” said Juliana, smiling.

“Wait, you do theater?” Sal asked.

Héctor nodded. “Unfortunately, I can’t do it here, since they don’t have a drama club.”

“Was it shut down like my library?”

“Years ago,” said Héctor. “Before I moved here.”

“That sucks,” said Sal. “Anyway, I found a door I had never seen next to the entrance to the library, which had been locked up. It led to this place.” They spun around, waving their hand at it all. “I’ve just been calling it the Library because . . . well, that’s what it looks like.”

“I’ve started calling it ‘the Room’ in my head,” said Héctor.

“Well, I guess it is just a room,” they said. “So it never looked like a library for you two?”