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have to be somewhere?”
    Ava laughed. “You sure you don’t want to come to the library with me? I thought you have an English paper you need to start.”
    Lucy didn’t get up, choosing instead to pull a pillow over her face. “Maybe later,” she mumbled. “I think I need a nap.”
    “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me,” Ava called as she headed out the door.

    Ava got about an hour of focused studying in before Lucy found her in her usual corner on the library’s third floor. She dumped her backpack on the table, yanking out her books and unceremoniously shoving aside some of Ava’s stray papers.
    “Hey!”
    Lucy ignored her protests, as well as her own books, and propped a chin on her fist with a wide grin. “Guess who called me.”
    “Hmm?” Ava asked distractedly, jotting down a few notes on the Michelson-Morley experiment. What in the world was luminiferous aether again? She flipped to the glossary in the back of her text.
    “. . . and then he said I could fly in his rocket to the moon.” Lucy slapped a hand down on the table, making Ava jump. “You’re not listening to a word I’m saying,” she accused.
    Ava blinked. “Sure I am. Someone called. He’s got a rocket.” At Lucy’s frown, she sighed. “I’m sorry, Luce. I’m just worried about this quiz, okay?”
    “You worry too much. You know what they say about all work and no play.”
    “That it’ll help me keep my scholarship?”
    Lucy laughed. “Anyway,” she said, drawing out the word into about fifteen syllables. “As I was saying, Philippe asked me out to dinner. Très bien .” She kissed her fingers with a flourish.
    Ava raised a brow. “You know, you don’t need to do that every time you say something in French.”
    “But I like it. C’est magnifique! ” Lucy kissed her fingers again. “And I need you to help me decide what to wear, s’il vous plaît. ”
    Ava groaned. “Luce . . .”
    “Not now,” she added hurriedly. “But before you go to work. We can study, then go have lunch, and then you can help me pick out something to knock Philippe’s French socks off, okay? If things go well, I’ll nab a date for the party tomorrow night.” Lucy fixed a pleading look on her face. “C’mon. Don’t make me waste my Snow White costume. If you’re not going with me, you can at least help me lock up Philippe.”
    Ava eyed her friend warily and sighed in resignation. “Fine, but you have to let me study until then.”
    “I promise,” Lucy said, opening a book and pulling a pen from her bag. “I’ll be good until lunch.”
    Ava made a noncommittal sound, turning back to her notes.
    “When is lunch, by the way?”
    Ava flopped down onto the table in defeat, her physics book cushioning the blow to her head. To her surprise, a masculine laugh drifted toward her.
    “I don’t think you can absorb it that way.”
    Ava looked up to find Caleb leaning against the table, a teasing grin on his face. “Caleb!” she sat up, quickly removing a post-it note stuck to her forehead. “What are you doing here?”
    He hitched his backpack up on his shoulder. “Studying, same as you. Well, except I tend to try and read the material instead of sleeping on it.”
    “I wasn’t sleeping.” She glanced at Lucy, who was watching the two of them with a curious look on her face. “I was expressing my frustration.”
    “You shouldn’t take it out on your physics book. What has it ever done to you?”
    “It exists, ” she said with an exaggerated grimace. “And why are you studying on a Saturday, anyway? I thought one of the perks of being a genius was not having to study.”
    He shrugged. “Research for Quantum Mechanics. We all have to put the nose to the grindstone occasionally.” With a smile, he turned to Lucy, holding out his hand. “Hi. I’m not sure if you remember me. I’m Caleb? We met last night at the Palace?”
    He seemed to be almost searching her features for some reason, and Ava felt