Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The taxi dropped her off at the student union, and Susie took a deep breath, extended the handle on her roll-on suitcase, and headed in. She quickly found the check-in line, which was still fairly short. Most of the students would be arriving over the next two days, but Susie had wanted to get settled in as quickly as she could. She could hardly believe it - she was finally at college.

“Name?” the young woman at the check-in desk asked.

“Susan Derkins. D-E-R-K-I-N-S.”

The woman flipped through a file, pulling out a thin envelope. “Here you go. You’re in Everett Hall, room 119. Your room key and the code to enter the building are in there. Go over to the next desk where they’ll take your picture for your ID card. Welcome to the university!”

“Thanks,” Susie said. “It’s nice to be here.”

Her roommate, Kristin, was from Texas. Three generations of her family had all grown up in Texas, and when she finished university, she was going back as well. Susie told her about moving around as her father had moved up the corporate ladder - a couple years here, back when she was just starting elementary school, and then Seattle, Atlanta, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh. Her parents were moving again in another couple weeks, actually, but this time they were retiring to Florida.

“You used to live here?” Kristin asked. “What was it like?”

“Well, I lived on the other side of town. I’ve considered going back, but...too much work and too much money to take a taxi over there just to see a house I lived in ten years ago. We moved when I was eight. But it was an intense couple years.”

“How so?”

“Oh, the boy who lived next door was a real character. He had this stuffed tiger that he talked to, and an incredible imagination. So he used to play this game he called Calvinball, where the only rule was that you couldn’t play it the same way twice. Well, that and the masks. You had to wear a mask while playing.”

"Why?"

"Don't question the masks."

The first two weeks of school had been a joy. She was learning so much, and it was so great to be surrounded by other people like herself.

She was sitting at lunch with Kristin at a little café off-campus when an unfamiliar voice said, “Susie? Susie Derkins?”

She looked up, surprised to see a tall young man with unruly blonde hair coming toward her, carrying a tray with a broad smile on his face. She didn’t recognize him at first, but then the light caught him just right, and she could almost see the six-year-boy inside. “Calvin? Is that you?”

She stood up just in time for him to set his tray on the table and give her a big hug. “How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you in...what, ten years?” he said.

She sat, waving him to a seat at the table. “Something like that. Calvin, this is Kristin, my roommate. Kristin, this is Calvin, the boy I was telling you about from when I used to live here.”

He looked at Kristin, concerned. “Uh-oh. That sounds ominous.”

Kristin laughed. “Nah. Apparently you were kinda cool but weird.”

Calvin sagged in relief. “That’s...better than I would have ever expected.”

Susie shrugged. “You left an impression on me.”

They’d talked for a while; Kristin had had to leave for class, but Susie had a little time off. She’d planned to go to the library, but talking to Calvin felt so natural that the time didn’t seem to matter any more. He’d struggled in school until his mother had fought to get him into the gifted program, and even then, had barely survived high school. He’d had a couple disastrous relationships with girls who’d considered him a problem to be fixed. He was studying art at the local community college and working on a webcomic, Awesome Tales of Adventure, based on some of his childhood role-playing.

In exchange, she’d told him of the isolation she’d felt, moving every couple years. Being shunted off with the ‘smart girls’ but not quite fitting in with them. One boyfriend, who’d loved dating a smart girl but got upset when she was smarter than he was. A hope that college would finally be a place where she could fit in.

His phone started making noise, and he looked at her apologetically. “Sorry, I need to get going if I’m going to make it to class.” He was long gone before she’d realized that they had no way of getting in contact with each other.

She’d been at college three weeks before Billy had invited her to the party. He was pledging one of the fraternities, and they were throwing their first big shindig of the year. Kristin had convinced her to go and be more social. She’d had two beers, and then (despite Billy’s offers of more beer) had switched to Diet Coke. Billy got back with a second soda for her and a third beer for himself, and was laughing at how naive his parents were; they were teetotalers, and would be furious if the knew he was drinking.

“Hey, Susie,” Calvin said, surprising her as Billy bristled at having another man near her.

“Calvin! What are you doing here?” she asked.

“One of the brothers, Rob, was a friend of mine in high school.”

The beers she’d had had gone to her head a bit, but not enough to mess up her judgement. The taste of the beer must have thrown off her taste buds, though, because she could still taste the alcohol as she drank her Diet Coke. She drank her soda as she chatted with Calvin and Billy.

She started feeling warm, and found herself leaning on Calvin a bit. He didn’t seem to mind, though. He told a story about when they were kids, and it was absolutely the funniest thing she’d ever heard, even if she didn’t remember exactly what he’d said. Billy laughed along, more quietly, watching her intently.

She finished her soda, and Billy offered to go get her another. “No, that’s okay,” she mumbled. “I think I’m not feeling so well.”

The look on Calvin’s face was a bit puzzled. “Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded, and the motion was a bad thing. She could feel her insides complaining about something, and urgently. She spotted a trashcan, and ran over to it, barely arriving before spewing the contents of her stomach into it. Calvin came over beside her, with Billy on the other side.

“I’ll help her back to her room,” Billy said.

“I’ll give you a hand,” Calvin said.

“No, really, I can get her back,” Billy said nervously.

Susie looked up blearily, wondering why they were getting uptight about this. Calvin stared Billy down, then took one of her arms, putting it around his shoulder. “It’s okay,” Calvin said. “Let’s get her back.”

Susie woke up in her bed, still in the dress she’d worn to the party. Her head hurt a bit, and she saw two ibuprofen and a glass of water on the desk next to her bed. Calvin was asleep in her desk chair, wrapped in his jacket. Across the room, she saw that Kristin was asleep in her own bed.

She sat up and reached for the water first, and Calvin started awake. “Hey, you okay?” he asked.

“I think so. Tired. Still kind of dizzy. What happened?”

“Billy and I helped you back here after you got sick. Kristen let us in. How much did you have to drink last night?”

She winced, taking a sip of water and washing down the pills. Her throat felt cottony and strange. “Two beers,” she said.

Calvin raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t acting like you’d had two beers. What else were you drinking?”

“Just Diet Coke. Billy got me two of...them...” She put her head in her hands. “Crap. I thought they tasted funny. I thought it was just the beer.”

Calvin nodded. “I guessed as much. He probably spiked them. I know they had vodka downstairs.”

She shook her head, then regretted it as the world didn’t quite keep up. She looked over at him. “Did you spend the night here?”

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I needed to make sure you were safe. Billy kept trying to convince me he didn’t need any help getting you back. I got suspicious.”

“What did your parents say about you not coming home?”

“I told Mom I was helping a friend who’d been slipped more alcohol than she’d thought. Not sure if Mom believed me or not. Anyway, once you’re feeling better, we can work on revenge plans.”

“Revenge?”

“What, you aren’t going to let him get away with this, are you? I managed to convince Moe to leave me alone, I’m sure we can find something interesting to do to Billy.”

Susie picked up her pillow and hugged it to herself. “I can’t believe I let this happen. Mom talked to me a bunch of times about making sure I was careful accepting drinks from others.”

Calvin shrugged. “He lowered your defenses with the first couple beers. So we make sure he doesn’t try this again.” He looked behind her on the bed, waving. “Hey, Mr. Bun. Hobbes said to say ‘hi’ if I saw you.”

Susie blushed as she realized what had happened. Mr. Bun lived under her pillow, so when she’d picked it up, he’d been revealed. She put the pillow back. “Okay, what’s the plan, then?”

Chapter Text

Billy had given her worried looks the day after the party, but was back to his normal self quickly enough. On Tuesday, she met up with Calvin at the café where they’d first run into each other.

Calvin picked up his meatloaf sandwich. “Mm. Worm meat casserole with squished maggot sauce on toast. Just like Mom used to make.”

Susie shook her head. “Doesn’t work on me anymore, Calvin.” She plucked a grape from her fruit salad. “Mmm, eyeballs,” she said, popping it into her mouth. Chewing and swallowing it with an audible gulp, she said, “The retina’s the best part.”

Calvin burst out laughing. “You’ve definitely changed in the past ten years.”

“So have you. Actually going to class voluntarily, and doing your homework. Most of the time, at least. Never would have expected that ten years ago.”

“I kind of realized that I need to pretend to be an adult occasionally. Hobbes yells at me if I let too many things slide.”

“How’s he doing?”

Calvin sat back. “Same as ever. He keeps telling me...well, he plays conscience sometimes. Not always.” He looked around to make sure they couldn’t be easily overheard. “So, I talked to Rob. Billy’s politically untouchable in the fraternity - his sponsor is the house president. If we try to push through there, it becomes he said/she said, and Billy’s sure to argue that you just can’t hold your beer.”

She nodded. “I figured as much.”

“However, Billy’s annoying the heck out of some of the brothers. Parents’ Weekend is this weekend, and he’s trying to get everyone to get all their alcohol out of the house in case his mother goes snooping. Meanwhile, some of them figured out what probably happened to you - somebody saw Billy putting vodka into a cup on the night of the party - and they’re livid. If you had reported anything to the university, they’d get had for letting an underage person drink.”

“Okay, so if we can’t get him through the fraternity, what do we do?”

“I’m thinking we do something while his parents are here. Something to let his parents know what sort of kid they’ve raised. Oh, speaking of which...Mom and Dad want me to invite you over for dinner some night.”

“Any particular reason?”

“Just that they haven’t seen you in ten years, and want to see how you grew up.”

“How’s tonight?”

“That’d probably be fine. I’ll ping Mom.” He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his mother.

“Not your father?”

“Oh, please. Dad will take a cell phone when they force it into his cold, dead hands. He’s annoyed enough that Mom has one.” His phone chirped, and he glanced at it. “Okay, tonight’s fine. So, here’s my idea...”

Calvin picked her up after her last class, driving her into the neighborhood she hadn’t seen in so long. She didn’t recognize anything until she saw her old house, and then the memories came crashing back.

“That’s it!” she said, pointing.

Calvin grinned at her. “Yep. An older couple bought it when you left. They...didn’t like me much. They moved out after about four years, and tried to rent it.”

“That can’t have ended well.”

“Nope.”

He pulled into the driveway. “Anyway, they sold it to a couple with a toddler. I’d calmed down a bit by then, and the kid’s pretty cool. Her name’s Sophie. She’s about nine now. We get into snowball fights in the winter. She’s got pretty good aim.”

Susie laughed as she climbed out of his beater car. He led her into the house, calling, “Mom, I’m home!”

Susie looked around. “No tackle from Hobbes?”

“He stopped that when I got bigger than he is,” Calvin said.

“Susie, how nice to see you again!” Calvin’s mother said, bustling into the room and giving her a hug.

“It’s nice to see you too,” Susie said.

"Dinner's in twenty minutes, so I need to go finish up," Calvin's mother said. "Why don't you show her around, Calvin. Your father's running late today, he'll be home soon." She hurried back into the kitchen as a timer started beeping loudly.

"Hey, you wanted to show me some of your drawings," Susie said, poking Calvin in the shoulder.

"Yeah, they're upstairs in my room. Let me go get them," he said, heading up the stairs.

She decided to follow him. His room was cluttered, with piles of books - textbooks, fiction, art instruction, Photoshop tutorial, and more - stacked near the desk, which held a computer monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a graphics tablet, and Hobbes. She waved to the stuffed tiger, feeling only slightly stupid, and said, "Hey, Hobbes. Mr. Bun said to say hi back."

Calvin stopped and grinned at her, that grin that she never could quite tell if it meant Thank you for playing along or Sucker, I made you act silly. With a smile, he sorted through piles, tossing books and papers into new heaps as he went. One paper, yellowed and covered in childish scrawl, drifted out of its stack, and she picked it up. Glancing at it, she was surprised to see her own writing at the bottom, so she looked more closely.

It was a contract he’d given her when they were six, saying they would ignore each other’s existence and not attempt any sort of conversation. It also specified that he would never ask her out on a date.

"You still have this thing?" she asked, showing it to him, and he flinched as if he were barely holding back from snatching it out of her hands.

"Well, I sure wasn't going to get rid of it, it was important at the time. And then you left, and..." He gave her an embarrassed smile. "I missed you," he said in a small voice.

Susie looked down at the piles, unable to meet his eyes. "I missed you too. Eventually. It took a while."

"What, it wasn't an instant pang of loss?" he asked dramatically.

She sat on his bed, still holding the paper. "Nope. When we moved to Seattle, there was a boy a year older living next door. I was thrilled to live next to someone normal. For about a month."

"And then?"

She looked up at him, noticing the grin on his face. "I got bored. He didn't do anything interesting."

From below, Calvin's mother called, "Calvin! Susie! Dinner!"

She set the contract on the desk and followed him out the door.

Billy was off meeting his parents at the airport for Parents’ Weekend when Calvin arrived, carrying a paper bag with their supplies. “Let’s go,” he said. “Rob says he’s showing them the fraternity first, so we’ve got twenty minutes or so.”

Susie kept a lookout down the hall as Calvin picked the lock on Billy’s door. “How did you learn to pick locks?” she asked quietly as the lock clicked open.

“Internet,” he said. “That’s where I got the picks from, too.” He opened the door and they slipped through quickly.

Susie hadn’t been in Billy’s room before, and shook her head at the posters of mostly-naked women on the walls. Calvin handed her the bag, then took up station in the hallway as a lookout. They’d decided that, as the injured party, the pleasure of planting evidence should go to her. She pulled three bottles of cheap beer out of the bag, sliding them behind a couple bottles of Coke. A cheap bottle of vodka went underneath the bed, propped to roll out if the bed was jostled too much. Half a dozen empty beer cans were hidden in the closet, set to clatter if the closet were opened.

Susie’s phone buzzed; Calvin had sent a message. he just left the frat.

She looked around; everything was hidden, but likely to be visible if his parents did any snooping. She sent a quick message: All done. Clear to come out?

The reply came back almost instantly. clear

She slid out the door, closing it behind her and hearing it lock automatically. Calvin nodded, and they went into her room, opening the door enough to hear what happened. “Good thing he doesn’t have a roommate he can blame it on,” Calvin whispered. Susie grinned back at him.

They heard Billy leading his parents down the hall, telling them all about the fraternity and how they were a bunch of serious, studious young men who would never drink or throw wild parties. Billy’s mother sounded skeptical, but Billy led them into his room triumphantly.

“I don’t think those posters of tramps will help your chances of finding a decent woman, Billy,” his mother said loudly.

“He’s a boy, Marge,” his father said. “And he’s got good taste in pictures, at least. You got anything drinkable here?”

“I’ve got some Coke,” Billy said. “It’s in the fridge.”

“I’ll get it,” Billy’s mother said, then suddenly shrieked, “Oh sweet merciful Jesus! BILLY! How could you?”

The shouting had brought the RA, who, upon seeing the alcohol, had been required to write Billy up for violating the dorm alcohol policy. He was officially on probation with university housing until the end of the year. Half the people on the floor had turned out to hear the shouting, and when Billy tried to argue that he didn’t drink and was being framed, somebody talked about seeing him with a beer at the party the previous weekend. Billy’s parents gave him an ultimatum: depledge from the fraternity and enter alcohol counseling, or drop out of the university and come home immediately. Calvin and Susie had had to fight to keep from cracking up.

“I do feel a bit guilty that it’s gone this far,” Susie whispered.

“He spiked your drinks, then set himself up to be the one to take you home. You know as well as I do he was trying to get into your pants while you were too drunk to consent.”

“I know. But...”

“He tried to use alcohol against you. We used alcohol against him. Let the punishment fit the crime.”

Chapter Text

They started meeting up on Tuesdays and Saturdays for lunch, and she had a standing invitation to visit his parents for dinner on Tuesday nights. Initially she’d gone to get away from the dining hall food - Calvin’s mother’s cooking wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d always claimed. After a couple weeks, though, she’d realized that she liked spending time with him. They talked about things as he gave her a ride to his house and back, and frequently ended up hanging out in his room as his mother finished up dinner.

She sat on his bed, flipping through a sketchbook. “You’ve really gotten good at this,” she said, looking at a picture of a bird. It was just a rough sketch, but she could see the skill involved, the subtle strokes that brought it to life.

He shrugged. “Dad wanted me to do something with,” and his voice dropped into a fair imitation of his father’s voice, “a real future.” He grinned. “Mom argued that art hadn’t hurt her, and now that she’s working in graphic design again, she can try to get me an internship when I’m ready. If I’m ready.”

“You need to pass English for that to be an option,” she said with just a bit of snark.

He shrugged, then turned to Hobbes. “Don’t you start.” The tiger, as always, didn’t react. “Actually, Susie, I need to ask you a favor.”

“I’m not writing your English paper for you,” she said primly.

“No, not that. It’s for my drawing class. I need...would you be willing to model for me?”

“Model...how?”

“Wear something you like, sit in a chair long enough for me to get the sketch done. Simple.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“Thanks. It means a lot to me.”

She flipped through her small wardrobe, trying to find something that felt right. This wasn’t a date, so she didn’t really want to dress up; she was just doing a favor for a friend. But he’d said to wear something she liked, and she didn’t get enough chance to wear her dressier clothes.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were getting ready for a date,” Kristin said.

“That’s silly. I just want to look good while I’m modeling.”

“What, it’s not nude?”

“No, of course not.” Susie picked out a blue dress Calvin hadn’t seen her in before. It was modest but attractive, and she’d always liked how she looked in it.

“Why not?”

Susie paused. “Well, that’s not what he asked for.”

“If he had, would you do it?”

She looked over at Kristen, who was grinning. “I don’t think so.”

“You sure? You two seem to spend an awful lot of time together.”

“He’s just a friend,” Susie said quickly.

Susie sat still on the park bench, one arm stretched along the back, trying to move as little as possible. Calvin sat on the grass a few feet away, alternating between looking up at her with a practiced eye and intently sketching. Finally, he paused and smiled at the drawing briefly before frowning again.

“No. The face isn’t right yet.”

“Am I doing it wrong?” she asked. “Sorry, it’s a little chilly.”

“Sorry about that. I’m almost done. It just needs a different expression.” He thought for a moment, then said, “That’s it. Remember the time I tried to lure you into the back yard with a note that I accidentally dropped...”

“And I ambushed you instead. How could I forget?” Susie laughed, and Calvin sketched madly.

“Perfect, thank you,” he said, then looked down at the picture and nodded in satisfaction. He turned it around and showed it to her. He’d caught her in mid-laugh, and the picture was so beautifully-done she had a hard time believing it was her.

“Thank you,” he repeated. “That was exactly what I needed. Now I need to ink it.”

“You’re welcome. Can I see it when you’re done?”

He smiled at her. “Absolutely.”

A sudden warm spell had hit, and Susie was enjoying a final chance to wear shorts before autumn turned cold again.

She saw Calvin’s car in the café parking lot, with him sitting on the hood. She waved, and he broke into a broad smile.

“Hey, Susie! Think fast!” he said, tossing something to her. She caught it out of reflex; it was a squirt gun. Just as she realized that, she felt a cold spray of water hit her bare leg.

“Ah! You!” she shouted, ducking behind a trashcan as she pumped up the squirt gun. Fortunately, it was full of water, so when she broke around the corner and sprayed at where he’d been, it fired; unfortunately, he’d moved. 

“Gotcha!” he said, attacking from the side and hitting her in the chest.

“Calvin!” she yelled, chasing after him, squirt gun firing.

He ran, dodging across the mostly-empty parking lot, firing back until they both ran out of water.

She caught up to him, panting. “Any particular reason for that?”

“Nope,” he said with a grin. “Just felt like it.” He glanced down, then quickly glanced back up, looking her in the eyes with an embarrassed expression.

She looked down, realizing that she’d picked a white shirt today, which was now wet enough that it was obvious her bra was light yellow. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Shaking her head, she led him in to get some lunch.

It was the final party before Thanksgiving break, at a different fraternity; Susie wasn’t sure how Calvin had gotten an invitation. She was careful to keep an eye on her drinks this time, watching them get poured and covering them with her hand when she wasn’t drinking out of them. Calvin didn’t comment, but she noticed that he was keeping an eye on her drinks as well.

He suddenly waved to a tall, dark-skinned young man across the room, who came over to greet them. “Hey, Calvin! How’ve you been? Who’s this?”

“Rob, this is Susie, an old friend who used to live next door to me way back when. Susie, this is Rob, a friend of mine from high school.”

Rob nodded. “Is this the young lady that Billy caused problems for?”

“Yes, she is,” Calvin said.

Rob bowed to her. “On behalf of my brothers, please accept my apologies for Billy’s actions. Even though he was not fully one of us yet, his unacceptable actions were done under color of membership. We are truly sorry.”

Susie smiled. “Thank you. And thank you for your...”

Rob waved her quiet. “He left on his own before we could remove him, but I suspect one of my brothers may have helped. Apparently one of them placed some alcohol in his room just before his parents arrived.”

Susie glanced at Calvin, who was barely suppressing a smile. “Oh, is that what happened?” Calvin asked. “We heard the blow-up when his mother found it.”

“We’re not sure who it was; everybody denies it was them,” Rob said. “The fraternity president was furious, but without a culprit, there isn’t a lot he can do.”

“Last I heard, Billy’s transferring at the end of the semester. His mother wants him closer, where she can keep an eye on him,” Susie said.

“Better for all parties involved, then,” Rob said. He raised his glass to her. “Nice meeting you, Susie.”

“Susie, welcome home,” her mother said, giving her a hug at the airport. She’d flown back for Thanksgiving break, and really didn’t have the heart to tell her mother that a place she’d never been before wasn’t really home.

Her room had been unpacked, and her mother had arranged it as best she could, but...it wasn’t right. But then, she never really had had a home for more than a couple years at a time. Now she was at college, but she knew that was only going to be temporary too. Will I ever have a home to call my own?

Her mother had offered to take her out shopping for Black Friday, but she’d decided not to go along for the pre-dawn sales. She’d borrow her father’s car and meet her mother for lunch at a reasonable hour instead.

She was reading her history textbook when her phone rang, the sounds of Eye of the Tiger indicating that it was Calvin. Her father looked up from his newspaper, shrugged, and went back to his reading as she wandered up to her room for some privacy.

“Hey, Calvin. What’s up?”

“I had to tell somebody about this. Awesome Tales of Adventure got mentioned in today’s Penny Arcade newspost!”

“That’s good?” she asked.

“That’s fantastic!” he said. “Penny Arcade is huge, and I found out early enough to warn my webhost. They’ve bumped up my bandwidth for the month if I give them a promo. I’m getting literally thousands of times more page hits than usual. If even a small chunk of them stick around, Awesome Tales starts making money for me.”

“Oh, that’s great!”

“How are you doing?” he asked casually.

“Enh. Mom’s Mom. Doesn’t quite get why I’m not thrilled to be home when ‘home’ is somewhere I’ve never been before. I mean, I suppose home is where my parents are, but...”

“Home’s always more about the people than the place, I think,” Calvin said.

“Easy for you to say. You’ve lived in that house forever.”

“I wasn’t talking about that home. Think about the people you want to spend time with.”

She paused, thinking. “By that definition, I’m going home on Sunday when I fly back.”

“Why, thank you.”

“It’s quiet here without you,” she said.

He laughed. “We’ll fix that, that’s for sure. Wanna go explore the steam tunnels when you get back?”

Chapter Text

They’d had the first snow of the season the previous weekend, so she hadn’t been able to see Calvin on Saturday. She’d never thought she’d miss seeing him that much. It was just lunch and hanging out a little, right? And yet, without him there, there was an emptiness. She missed hearing him talk through the storylines for his comic, and telling him about the latest dorm drama. They’d chatted a little online, but it wasn’t the same.

Fortunately, things had cleared up by Tuesday, so they’d had lunch together and now he was driving her home for dinner again. “So, I got a little bored on Saturday without you,” he said.

“Oh?”

“You’ll see.”

They turned the corner onto his street, and she saw the front yards of both his house and the house next door filled with tiny little snowmen. Towering above them all, a giant snowman was holding one in a stick arm, about to drop its smaller cousin into its gaping maw.

“You didn’t,” she said, laughing.

“It wasn’t all me. Sophie helped make the little ones.”

“Corrupting the young, now?”

He looked over at her with big innocent eyes she didn’t buy for a second. “Who, me?”

Final exams were over; she’d done well, she thought, but wouldn’t know for sure until she got her grades. She’d met up with Calvin for one final lunch before she flew to Florida for Christmas break. Calvin had gotten the first of his grade reports - as expected, he’d gotten A’s in his art classes, and D’s in English and math.

“I passed, at least,” he said, and she shook her head.

“If you want that internship, you’re going to need better than just ‘passed’.”

He shrugged. “Awesome Tales is growing now. If it keeps this up, I could survive on that. Everybody loves the crossover between Spaceman Spiff and Tracer Bullet. The first T-shirt went up at Topatoco last weekend, and is already selling well.”

“Don’t you want an education?”

“Meh. I want to do cool things. The art classes are helping. I may see about taking more of those next semester, although they’re a lot of time each. Oh, speaking of which...” He reached into his backpack, pulling out a small wrapped package. “Merry Christmas,” he said handing it to her.

“For me? I didn’t get you anything...”

“That’s okay,” he said. “Open it.”

She pulled back the wrapping paper, revealing a frame around the drawing of her he’d made. He’d inked it carefully, and it had come out looking even better than the sketch had. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed.

She thought he mumbled something that sounded like, “So are you,” but she wasn’t quite sure. He cleared his throat and said, “Thank you. I got an A on it. And here you said you’d never help me with my homework again.”

“So, I’ll pick you up again on the third?” Calvin asked as they approached the security line.

Susie nodded. “Yes. Oceanic Flight 416, gets in at 8:15. Sorry, it’s the earliest flight back I could get.”

“You don’t want to spend more time with your parents?”

“Not particularly.”

He paused, nodding. “Okay. Take care of yourself, okay?”

“You too.” She looked at him, then decided to follow her impulse and give him a farewell hug. Her arms fit around his chest, and after a moment’s surprise, his nestled just right on her shoulders. She breathed in the smell of him, comforting and oddly familiar. This felt right in a way she couldn’t describe.

She stayed in his arms for a timeless moment, until he took a deep breath and released her. “You need to go or you’ll miss your plane,” he said softly.

“Yeah.” She picked up her backpack and put it on, taking the handle of her suitcase. “I’ll see you next year.” She entered the security line, looking back at him. He was leaning against the wall, looking at her with a wistful smile. She thought about what his arms had felt like around her, and could almost feel them there still. With a wave to him, she headed off toward the security scan.

Susie’s mother came into her room the day before Christmas. “Oh, that’s a lovely drawing of you. Who did that?”

“A friend from school,” Susie said carefully.

“It’s very nice. Would you mind if we moved it down into the living room? I’d really like my friends to be able to see it.”

“That’s fine, Mom. It feels kind of weird to be hanging a picture of myself anyway.”

Her mother looked at it closely, apparently reading the signature. “Calvin? Wasn’t that the name of that...imaginative...boy we used to live next to? The one your father thought was so awful?”

“He’s not so awful anymore,” Susie said defensively.

Her mother turned to her. “Wait, that Calvin drew this? How did you end up modeling for him?”

“He asked. We met up at lunch one day, he helped me out of a jam. He’s not as bad as he was at six.”

“That’s not saying much, Susie.”

“Granted. But he’s a really nice guy now. A bit flighty, but better than he was.”

“Is he the one you keep talking to on the phone?”

“Sometimes.”

Her mother looked unimpressed. “What was this ‘jam’ he helped you out of?”

Susie sighed, sitting on her bed. “Somebody slipped me alcohol at a party. Calvin got me home safely.”

“Alcohol...Susie, I warned you...”

“I know, I know. I wasn’t thinking.” She paused. “I thought Billy was safe. I was wrong, and if it hadn’t been for Calvin...”

“He sounds like a good friend, then. Or...?” Her mother raised an eyebrow.

“Or what?”

“More than that?”

“No! Not at all,” Susie said, blushing.

“Not interested? Or just not yet?”

Susie slumped on her bed. “I don’t know? Not yet. I think.”

Her mother laughed. “I’d just like to say I called this eleven years ago.”

“What?” Susie shouted at her mother’s retreating back.

“Dad couldn’t believe it was the same Calvin,” she said. “He walked away muttering about you costing him thousands of dollars when they sold the house.”

“Sorry,” Calvin said over the phone.

“He shouldn’t complain. Mom reminded him that he got the house at a bargain price for the same reason.”

Calvin laughed. “They liked the drawing, though?”

“Oh, Mom loves it. She showed it off to all her friends. From the way she talks, you’d think we’re dating,” she blurted out.

A long silence followed, and she cursed herself for the slip until Calvin quietly said, “...yeah. I’ve been thinking about that.”

“Me too,” she confessed.

“Would you like to? When you get back here?”

“I would. But you’re not supposed to ask. I signed a contract, remember?”

“But...wait, you’re going to hold me to that?”

She laughed. “I’m joking. Yes, I’ll go out with you. I’m looking forward to it.”

She exited the secure area, and didn’t see him, so she turned on her phone. One message, sent just before the plane landed, from Calvin.

sorry running late flat tire

She shook her head and rolled her suitcase down to baggage claim to wait for him, claiming a seat against the wall. She’d drifted off into thoughts of what to say to him when he suddenly sat next to her, startling her.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said.

“It’s okay,” she said, looking over at him shyly. All her pre-planned conversations flew out of her head, leaving her speechless.

He gently reached over and took her hand, his warm fingers pressing into her palm. She squeezed gently, and he smiled.

“Were...you serious about the dating thing?” he asked hesitantly.

She nodded. “Yes. I was. Actually, I’ve been thinking about your contract.”

“And?” He looked nervous.

“I don’t think the contract specified what happens if you break it. So since you broke it, I presumably get to choose the penalty.”

He exhaled. “Oh. So...um...so, what would the penalty be?”

She smiled. “Well, as you said about Billy, we should let the punishment fit the crime. So the worst punishment you could have thought of when you were six...would be to be my boyfriend.”

His eyes widened, and he smiled. “Oh. I think I could get used to that.”

She squeezed his hand. “Me too.”