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“Unknown human. Unknown human. Must secure the premises.”
Colton flinches back with wide eyes.
Crap.
I jet into the room and grab my robot before she starts messing up the place. “Sorry,” I say as I press a few buttons to calm her down. “I think I might have programmed her with too many safety protocols.”
“Willow! Why did you send her to get healthy snacks?”
Colton looks at me, eyes even wider. “You built that in eighth grade? All on your own?”
“Yeah.”
“My sister’s a genius,” Mia says. “But she’s too busy to tutor me. Or hang out with me. Or even talk to me.”
“Shut up,” I tell her in Korean.
She sticks out her tongue.
Colton glances from Mia to me. “Am I getting in the middle of something?”
Mia crosses her arms over her chest. “No. I’m just being overdramatic like usual. Right, sis?” She smiles at him. “I’m going to be a famous actor like my dad one day.”
Colton returns the smile. “That’s pretty cool. Good luck.”
She beams. “Thanks! And I starred in a few movies with him. Wanna watch them?”
“Mia,” I warn. Is she so comfortable with him that she’s already getting distracted?
“No movie,” he says. “No fun until we finish. Just a few more problems and then you’ll have your break and we’ll continue again.”
She reluctantly nods. “Okay.”
Chapter Eleven
Colton
I watch Willow leave the dining room, clutching her robot in her arms. That has got to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve written a lot of code, but have never built my own robot. Willow Park sure is something else.
We’ve never interacted because we don’t hang out in the same circles, but I’ve noticed her. She’s the only one who seems obsessed with tech like I am.
Middle school me would probably want to be her friend. Heck, if I was living here back then, maybe we would have gotten close. My family moved to Edenbury right before I started my freshmen year. That was when I decided to transform myself into the guy I am today. To keep the old me—the real me—hidden from the rest of the world.
I asked Willow not to tell anyone what she saw in my room last night and I hope she keeps her promise. Same way I’ll keep my promise not to remember what she confided in me.
Truth is, it’s hard to forget her words when I feel the same way.
Mia bites her lower lip as she concentrates on the problem I instructed her to solve. I let my eyes wander around the room. There’s a china closet filled with many different items, including pictures. I see a younger Willow smiling with missing teeth as she holds up her first coding award. There are a few with her and her parents and little sister. One where she’s holding Mia when she was a baby. Willow looks a little freaked out, which makes me chuckle. But she seems more comfortable holding her little sister in the next several photos.
“What are you looking at?” Mia throws me out of my thoughts.
I raise an eyebrow at her. “Hmm? Oh, just those pictures. Very cute.”
After Bri died and Mom left, I came home one day and couldn’t find any of their pictures. Dad took them down. I found the ones with my sister in a box in the basement and brought them to my room. I left Mom’s where they are because I don’t want her in my life. At all.
Bri’s photos are still in my room, and sometimes I talk to my dead sister when I’m feeling lonely.
Mia shrugs. “Okay.”
