To his relief, Nott is catching his attention, using one hand to subtly mime her heart beating erratically out of her rib cage. “Oh,” Caleb says, and doesn’t want to ask what that means because it seems like a rude thing to do in the middle of such a story. They came back fine, but I had heart palpitations for a few weeks.” “There was a real bad storm when I was a kid, and my parents, um, they got stuck out on a ship overnight. “Eating more makes them, you know, worse.”īeau looks over at Fjord and squints, and Caleb doesn’t know what that means, but Fjord scratches his cheek and looks away.

“I just get stomach aches,” Caleb says, smiling apologetically. “Do you need to talk to somebody? Just so you know, our counselor here is actually really nice.” Jester’s frowning, and she looks genuinely sad, which makes Caleb feel worse.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it,” Fjord says gently. “I’m,” he says, but then can’t find the rest of the words. In his peripheral vision he sees Nott look up from the Shakespeare book she’s sharing with Beau. “If you don’t like your sandwich you can have some of my wrap!”Ĭaleb breathes in through his nose and looks down at the grass. “You’re too skinny, Caleb.” Jester uses his tail to nudge his lunch bag from the spot he just set it down. It’s Monday at lunch when somebody finally says something.

Nott the brave shirt