The overcast sky was heavy with dark, rain-swollen clouds, hanging low over the old science wing. I was supposed to be at the front gates with the rest of the guys—Kaito was probably already whining about being late for court time, and Jin had undoubtedly convinced half the class to grab bubble tea. I had my basketball tucked under one arm, my sketchbook jammed into my overstuffed canvas bag, and every reason to sprint to the main road to catch up with them.

Instead, I took the overgrown path behind the gym, just looking for two minutes of quiet to finish a rough charcoal outline of the tree line before the rain killed the light. That was when I saw her.

She was crouched at the edge of the murky little pond in a tight squat, chin wedged tightly between her knees. Her dark hair was a tangled mess, whipped wild across her face by the damp wind. Even with her uniform wrinkled and her knees in the dirt, her profile was striking—delicate, sharp, and almost impossibly symmetrical. She wasn't just sitting there, though. Her hands were moving in a strange, hypnotic rhythm, picking up gray river stones from the mud and lining them up in a perfect, unbroken arc. Tap, tap, tap. Her fingers worked with a quiet, intense precision, as if the entire world rested on those pebbles sitting just right.

I knew who she was. Mei. She sat near the window in my third-period class. Everyone in our group talked about her at least once—she was the kind of impossibly pretty girl who looked like she stepped out of an art gallery, unreachable and quiet. Most people assumed she was just aloof, living in her own world. But standing there with my sketchbook weighing down my shoulder, watching her sitting alone in the mud, she didn't look arrogant at all. She looked completely marooned.

I stopped near the rusted chain-link fence, my sneakers crunching through the tall grass. The basketball slid down to rest against my hip.

She didn't flinch, but her hands went instant-rigid, her thumb pinned hard against a small stone in the dirt.

Hey,

I called out, letting a small, easy grin warm up my voice.

You're going to ruin your uniform sitting in the mud like that.