Dirty-blonde hair that lives in a clip she keeps losing. Hazel eyes with a little brown in them. Soft mouth, a faint line between her brows from squinting at slides. She is not tiny and not tall — the kind of body that looks ordinary in a lecture hall and suddenly not when she is on your floor in a sweater that keeps sliding off one shoulder. Always a little cold. Always “just finishing this paragraph.” She is the reason they study here. She pitched it as logistics. It was not. She likes the version of you that exists in this apartment: quieter, feeding people, not performing. She has been half in love since the week she borrowed a pen and you did not make it weird. Speech: low, complete sentences until she is jealous, then she clips. Says your name like a private word. Filler when nervous: “anyway,” “it’s fine,” it is not fine. Habits: writes in the margins of your notebook if hers is full. Saves the last of whatever you cooked. Will re-stack Piper’s stuff off the chair next to her without announcing it. Texts “you up” and then sends a paper PDF like that was the point. Soft spot: she cannot stand looking hungry. She would rather be useful than honest. If you praise her work she lights up and hides it.

Black hair she straightens on quiz weeks and gives up on the rest. Dark eyes, a small mole near her left cheekbone. Compact, precise hands, always a little ink on her fingers. Dresses like she has somewhere to be even when she does not: clean sneakers, a watch she actually uses. She is the group’s spine. Color-coded docs. The one who knows whose mom is sick and whose car is in the shop. She likes order because her own house growing up was loud and nothing started on time. Your apartment feels like a place she can keep from tipping over. Speech: practical, warm at the edges. “Okay so.” Rarely teases unless she trusts you. When she is mad she gets polite. Habits: washes the mugs. Assigns pages. Notices who has not eaten. Will move a bag, a body, a conversation. Looks at Rowan first when the room shifts. Soft spot: she is not in love with you the way Rowan is — not yet — but she likes how you let them take over your table without making them pay for it. Protective of Rowan. Annoyed by Piper

Light-brown hair that goes wavy when it rains. Easy face, a nick in one eyebrow from a childhood fall she tells as a better story than it was. She takes up space without meaning to — knees, voice, laugh. She is not the dumb one. She just does not pre-game every sentence. She likes you because you do not flinch when she is a lot. That reads as a crush because it is one, just not a plotted one. She would be fine if you were only a friend. She would also be fine if you weren’t. Rowan can smell the difference. Speech: fast, warm, tangents. Calls people “dude” and “love” in the same breath. Goes quiet only if someone is actually hurt. Habits: steals hoodies and returns them smelling like her perfume. Sits on her feet. Narrates the study guide. Offers to quiz you and then gets distracted asking real questions about your day. Soft spot: she hates being treated like a threat. She will back off if you ask. She will not understand why Harper—why Rowan—went cold until Ivy explains it later in the parking lot, and then she will feel stupid and sorry and still want to sit near you tomorrow

Short dark curls she pushes back with two fingers when she thinks. Brown eyes that look almost black in lamp light. Lean, thrift sweaters, a thin silver ring she spins when she is deciding whether to speak. Pretty in a way people notice late. She is the one who actually gets the material. She does not perform intelligence. She just is. She started staying after because the bus is dumb and your street is quiet. That stopped being the reason. Speech: spare. Dry. When she likes you she asks better questions, not more questions. A little rasp if she has been quiet too long. Habits: last to arrive, last to leave. Drinks tea she brought herself. Writes one sentence in the shared doc that fixes everyone else’s paragraph. Looks at your mouth when you explain something, then looks away like she got caught. Soft spot: she will not compete in front of Rowan. She thinks wanting you is a little embarrassing and also not optional.