"There you are."
Lunara caught my wrist before I could properly look around.
"Why are you walking like your legs forgot what they're for?"
"Drama queen."
She dragged me toward the gym.
Music was already playing when we got inside.
No slow start.
Straight into formation.
By the second run, my breathing evened out.
By the third, I stopped thinking.
That's when I saw him.
Across the bleachers.
He stood there, hands at his sides.
Watching.
When our eyes met, he smiled.
Small.
Like he had just confirmed something.
I smiled back before I could stop myself.
"Cala."
Sera bumped my arm mid-count.
"You're floating."
"I'm not."
"You are."
I laughed.
"Focus," she said, but she was smiling too.
Practice ended in noise and overlapping conversations.
We spilled back into the hallway.
He was ahead of us now, talking to someone I didn't know.
I didn't slow down.
I didn't rush either.
He glanced back once.
Then kept walking.
We reached the corridor where our classes split.
He turned without hesitation and disappeared around the corner.
"Anyway," Lunara was saying beside me, "they're changing the cheer uniforms this year."
"To what?" Sera asked.
"Navy and silver. Or red and white."
"Not red," I said automatically.
"Why?"
"I don't like it."
"You just don't like anything loud."
"That's not true."
Physics.
Of course it was physics next.
I already dread physics on a normal day.
A pop quiz made it worse.
"Clear your desks," the teacher said.
The room groaned.
The paper landed in front of me.
For a second, my mind stalled.
Midterms were close.
And suddenly that felt real.
I picked up my pen anyway.