“How are you sleepy? This is so exciting I can barely stand it,” she said. “So much is happening. I can’t let myself get tired. I know the second I close my eyes again, I’ll miss something. Jewel is so amazing. This is the best day of my life.”

“What happened after we got separated last night? Er, this morning. I tried to wait up for you, but…”

“I know. You fell asleep with your lights on. I checked in on you when I first came upstairs,” she said. “We just talked in the den.”

“About?”

“I thought you wanted to take a nap.”

“Talk me to sleep. Like a bedtime story.”

Luna snorted, wriggling closer to him to lay her head on his shoulder. That was probably also a violation of the girlfriend boundary—lying so close together on a bed. Why did Melody get to say whether or not touching Alex was allowed? She didn’t own him. He wasn’t her property.

“It was like”—she hesitated, reaching for a way to make him understand how momentous it had been for her—“like being with Tasha.”

“Oh.”

How could she describe the indescribable? Talking to Jewel felt like a dream, soft and blurry like a cloud, but sharp too, razor sharp as a knife’s edge. She remembered every second and doubted herself about it.

“Yeah. And all she did was ask me about home and school and stuff. She said it was nice hearing me talk since I never do in my videos.”

“You have a good voice,” he said, matter-of-fact.

“And she said she’s wanted to get to know me for a while, I guess.”

“Something you both have in common. I guess.”

“I guess.” She giggled. “She’s so great, Alex. Different from her videos. I was right—she definitely has a wall up, but it was like I could literally see it crumbling the longer we talked. She’s so warm. And funny.”

“I’m glad you’re happy,” he mumbled, almost asleep. “You deserve to be happy.”

FRIDAY, 10:15 A.M.

Luna shot up into a sitting position, heart racing. She’d fallen asleep! NO!

Her tablet vibrated on the bed next to her, muffled but persistent, echoed by Alex’s. She pulled it onto her lap with one hand and shoved Alex with the other. “Wake up, wake up! We have a challenge!”

“No, thank you,” he grumbled, rolling over.

“Yes, thank you! GET UP!” she shouted at him, grabbing his tablet to read his message too. “We have to go to the library! There’s a key code we have to use to get inside!”

Luna had never seen the library. She’d wondered about the design in the past because Jewel loved to read. Every so often her videos flew off the rails when she mentioned a book she had finished. Once, she uploaded a thirty-minute book talk for some fantasy about twins and alchemy.