For the next few weeks, Naz and D settled into a routine. Whatever Naz had in mind when he came back to live with Mr. Tesla in the Exclave, he could not have imagined it would involve him being happier than he’d ever been. He and D were almost always together.

Dr. Gwen talked to the principal at Union, and one of the few empty classrooms officially became home to the Union Press. John did the research, and Dr. Gwen outfitted the new high school press with everything it needed to get started, including a state of the art security system.

Naz and D stayed after school every day. Naz either helped D come up with ideas for pictures at the Press, which had yet to publish its first issue, or she watched him, Harvis, Soul, and Ham scrimmage against Coach Fears’ team at practice. When they left Union, they would always go to MeeChi’s, where D would help Naz stock shelves or watch Mr. Tesla train Naz on the inner-workings of the store. Afterward, Naz would walk D home.

Naz hadn’t met D’s parents yet. When he walked her home, he stopped on the sidewalk just in front of her house, never going up the walkway to the stairs even. They never talked about it, and he was OK with that, not really interested in meeting her parents anyway. He did see her mother come to the door a few times, and he could see her father peering out of the window, but that was it. From what he could gather they weren’t that friendly.

On the last Friday before Christmas break, Naz and D sat in the stands behind the Union bench at one of the basketball games. While D took picture after picture with her phone, Naz fidgeted. He missed playing basketball on the team more than ever now.

“Let’s move a little closer so you can get some shots of the team in the huddle during the next time out,” suggested Naz over the crowd noise. He stood up and reached for her hand.

“I don’t wanna get in the way.” D reluctantly grabbed his hand and followed.

“You better get used to it. That’s what reporters do: get in the way. Plus, I wanna hear what Coach is sayin’.”

They made their way behind the Union bench.

“You miss it, don’t you?” asked D.

Naz shook his head. D raised an eyebrow.

“A little, maybe.”

“Why didn’t you play?”

Naz thought about it. “To be honest, I don’t remember.”

Fears called a timeout, and the team huddled around him.

“Come on; time to go to work. You only have a minute.” Naz grabbed D’s hand and pulled her right up to the huddle.

She looked uncomfortable, but pulled out her phone and went to work as if she’d been doing it all of her life. “They kinda smell.” She scrunched her face but kept snapping away.

Naz laughed. Watching her work made him forget about playing basketball again—she’s a natural. He had an idea, but he would need to talk to Mr. Tesla and Dr. Gwen.