This won’t be so bad, I told myself. Nobody’s going to notice you anyway. There’s too many people here.

Connor and I easily mixed into the crowd of people in the parking lot once we reached it. I noticed some of the student body seemed to share the same idea of bringing their siblings to this student fair thing, because Connor wasn’t the only one under fourteen here.

I kept an arm around Connor’s shoulders as we strolled through the row of tables checking out all the materials and photos student clubs put out in the hopes of getting people to join their organizations. I was definitely right about the candy bit, and I had to cut Connor off when he swiped a huge pile of peanut butter cups and Milky Ways off the Key Club table and dumped them in his backpack.

This was kind of awkward, wandering up and down the rows of activity tables and not seeing any familiar faces, but it wasn’t uncomfortable like I’d been expecting.

“Can . . . do soccer when . . . high school?” Connor asked me when I looked down at him, pointing to a nearby table where two guys in uniforms where kicking a soccer ball back and forth.

I hesitated answering his question. The honest answer was probably not. Connor’s lungs had to work so much harder than the average person’s, and physical exertion like playing soccer would put even more of a strain on him.

I settled on saying, “Sure, squirt. You can try to do anything you want.”

This was the motto I tried to live by at least.

I came to a sudden halt when I saw Nina a couple tables away, talking with some girls that had to be freshmen. I waved without thinking, and it only took a second for Nina to catch sight of me. Her waving was far more enthusiastic than mine had been.

Connor glanced up at me and signed, WHO? and pointed to Nina.

N-I-N-A, I finger spelled for him before leading him over to the student council table.

“You came!” Nina said when we reached her, giving a thousand-watt smile.

“Well, we didn’t really have anything else to do this afternoon,” I said, which was a half-truth.

Most of the time you could find something worth watching on TV.

I was waiting for that familiar spasm of panic to zip through me watching Nina say hello to Connor, ready to pull him behind me and shield him from inquisitive eyes or nosy questions like always. But that moment strangely did not come. She didn’t even seem to notice Connor was on oxygen.