“You were amazing, Moon Pie!” Mom squishes me in a tight hug. Ren lightly wraps an arm around us.

“Aww, thanks,” I respond, returning her hug. She sets me down, and Ren hands me my sweater. I gave it to them earlier, knowing how hot the stage lights can get. Of course, not as hot as the magma lights that line most of the walls, but the only alternative for lighting isn’t much better and is harder to get. There’s a reason they only use lightbulbs in the theaters.

“It’s been so long since the last piano player quit. I think you’re just what the choir needed,” they say, ruffling my intricately braided hair. Mom had to wake me up extra early to finish braiding in time for the fortnightly choir concert. They step back, and I pull the sweater over my head. “Hey, isn’t that ironic! The last pianist quit because of the knights, and here you are. Two weeks a knight, one hour the choir pianist,” they suddenly remark.

“Oh, you’re right!” She’s already wearing her long silver coat, even though it was brighter and therefore hotter where she was standing with the rest of the choir. “Although… Please don’t just abandon us like they did. You don’t have to worry about homework or anything, M-Captain Grant is almost always forgiving when it comes to missing work because of the theater. And you’re so talented.”

“Does this really count as ‘the theater’?” The Captain is way stricter in real life than the narrative Mom keeps trying to sell me. I doubt he’d let me miss any assignment for any reason.

“Well, it’s in a theater?” Ren shrugs.

“Besides, Mr. Michael was so excited when I told them you’d be playing for us. I don’t want to crush his dreams like that. And he looks so sad when he's sad…” Fair point. The choir director is really nice.

“Well, if this counts as a paying job, then who am I to say no?” My parents’ faces light up. ”Even if it’s only a couple days a month, anything’s going to help if I’m to move out soon.” And just like that, their freshly lit-up faces fall. Did I say something wrong?

“Moonpie, who said anything about moving out?” Mom murmurs. I freeze a little.

“Well, you know… I mean, I already have a room with the knights, and I have graduated and all… I just thought…”

Mom and Ren exchange a glance. “You’re right. You aren’t so young anymore. It’s up to you to decide if and when you want to move out,” Ren settles.

“Just know that you can always stay with us, ok?” I smile and nod. Mom seems relieved. “Alright, enough talk about the future. Let’s focus on the present. Aren’t you meeting your friends soon?”

“Oh, right! I completely forgot!” Not only am I studying with Lava soon, but Fran, Antonio and I are meeting at the Blocky Lime for lunch. My original plan was to hang out with Fran and Toni last weekend and Lava this one, but I was exhausted from staying up late finishing that essay. Today, now that I’m energized and unburdened by homework, I’m more than ready to spend all day talking to my friends. Conveniently, Lava lives right here in the theater, so I don’t have to worry about getting lost.

“We’re going to head home now. Have fun!” I nod, smile, and look for

I can’t even knock twice before Lava opens the door. “Celly! You made it!” Her smile is as bubbly and bright as always.

“I’m not that bad at directions, am I?” I chuckle.

“Well~” She puts on a wry smile before suddenly grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me through the door. “Come on in! Watch your step though, the ceiling leaked earlier and I didn’t get a chance to clean it up. Perk of living under a lake. Thats what Dad says.”

As I follow her to her room, my eyes drift towards the walls. Somehow, on my first visit, I didn’t notice the photos lining the hallway. The first one only has her parents and a baby, but in the second one, they’re both trying to get a little boy to sit still. The next two are similar, but her mom is holding a baby, and by the fifth, the parents’ attention is split between what looks like Lava and her little sister. They’re wearing matching dresses, looking undeniably adorable. The rest are pretty much the same, the girls getting bigger with each passing photo, and from what I can tell, year. But something catches my eye a couple pictures before the last one. According to Captain Grant’s lessons, the director’s smile is fake.

“Hey, Lava,” I start, immediately regretting it. That’s not exactly something you point out to your friend. Unfortunately, I have her attention, so I quickly think of a cover. “You’ve changed a lot in these photos, yeah?”

“Yup!” She chirps. “I’m glad I got my big style change out early. Or rather, before middle school. If you wore something ever so slightly different than usual, people wouldn’t stop talking about it. Especially Farmer Boy.” I must look confused, because she facepalms and adds, “Oh, I forgot you’re younger than me. You don’t know him! Any objections to me complaining about him to you?”

I shake my head. “Nope. Complain away.”

“Great!” She claps her hands together. “So, he’s been in almost all of my classes every year since I can remember, and he would always make fun of everyone's outfits, but he himself would just dress like a really weird farmer, so that's why we call him farmer boy, and then he somehow got into my knights class last year, but then he got kicked to another class for captain training, and thank goodness he did because…”

The guy she’s talking about sounds interesting, but I can’t help but linger on the photo. In all of the others before it, the smile seemed genuine, but there’s no telling why he needed to feign one for the last few.

“...Speaking of food, Cell, you hungry? It’s getting to be around lunchtime.” Lava snaps me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, actually, I was going to meet some of my other friends for lunch,” I answer.

“We should probably get to studying, then. I can finish talking about Farmer Boy later. Where do you wanna start?”

“Cell! There you are!” Fran sighs as the bells on the cafe door jingle. “It’s almost been half an hour! Where were you?”

“Sorry. I got lost.” In reality, Lava and I lost track of time, but my newfound lying skills say otherwise.

“Classic Celly,” Antonio jokes as I sit down. I lightly nudge him in the arm. In the two weeks I haven’t seen them, they both changed their hair- his is shorter, and Fran’s is a cobalt blue, closer to her natural shade. I can only observe them for a second before Toni lightly shoves me out of my seat. “Get some food and tell us how your class is going!”

Luckily, I already know what I want, and most people go to the cafeteria to get lunch, so it only takes a couple of minutes for me to order. Once I do, I sit down and get right to filling them in on my first two weeks as a spy.

“Toni, you and Lava would really get along. I should introduce you two sometime.”

“How about…tomorrow! Right after I get out of class?”

“Sure,” Fran says, sipping her tea. “Unless this Lava chick has work or something, we should all be free.”

Huh? “I thought you had class right after Toni.”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“Order for Celestine?” The person behind the counter holds up a bowl of curry.

“One second,” I say, and one second later, I’m sitting back down with my lunch.

“Hey, Fran, why don’t you tell her while she eats?” Toni suggests.

“Yeah, let’s hear that long story!”

“Sure.” She cracks her knuckles as if she’s getting ready for a fight instead of getting ready to tell us about how school is going. “So, it all started on…"