Page 22 of The Pinkie Pact

Saturday morning, well, almost lunchtime, Kara and I headed down to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I couldn't believe how close our campus was to such iconic national treasures. She rushed me through the Mall, though, which was incredibly crowded.

"We'll show you all this later," she said. "Don't look!"

"Don't look? How am I not supposed to look?"

She laughed. "I know. Kind of impossible not to stare at the gigantic phallic symbol right in front of you."

I resisted as best I could, concentrating on getting past the throngs of people. "And who's thisweanyway?"

"Hmm?" she asked as we dodged a gigantic triple stroller.

"I said, who is thisweyou mentioned? You and who else?"

She didn't answer, just maneuvered her way through a huge group of protestors holding signs. "Oh, and we should also go to the planetarium today."

"That would be amazing. I don't even remember the last time I went to a planetarium."

"Next time we go, we'll make it even more interesting by eating a little gummy bear friend."

I had to laugh because of course she'd go there.

We walked up to the humongous building that was big enough to hold a fleet of airplanes, but Kara stopped and moved to the side of the line of doors.

"But today, well, we're meeting my brother. So..." She shrugged as she leaned up against the museum's outer wall. "And he said we couldn't go in without him."

"Excuse me? Kieran's coming?" I was stunned.

"I hope that's okay. It's just if he found out we went without him, he'd pout like a two-year-old."

She looked at me like she was nervous about my answer. But I thought about that little truce Kieran and I had made yesterday, which I hadn't told Kara about for some reason, and I realized it might be kind of interesting. And maybe I'd get a chance to actually see brother and sister act normal together.

"Hey there," a voice said.

I glanced up to see Kieran walking right up to us. Speak of the devil. His eyes caught mine, and he smiled.

"Hi," I said, a little breathless. Clearing my throat, I looked away, needing to break eye contact.

"So Christina actually let you out of her clutches," Kara said.

He shot her a quick glare. "Come on. Let's go in. Sorry if I kept you two waiting," he said as he held the door open for me.

"Thanks," I said. "We just got here ourselves."

For a second, the air left my lungs, and I forgot all about polite conversation because there were gigantic airplanes hanging above me plus some kind of huge, spacey-moon thing in front of me.

I felt a gentle hand on my back, guiding me away from the entrance where I was probably blocking the people behind me.

"Oh, sorry," I said, realizing it was Kieran's hand touching me. And it felt strangely good. Weird but good. Before I could even process it, his hand fell away, and I returned my focus to the amazing sight in front of me.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Kieran said from beside me.

"It's awe-inspiring," I said, still staring and trying to figure out what everything was, recognizing the Spirit of St. Louis in the corner.

Kieran pointed at a bright orange plane hanging above us. "That's the Bell X-1 that Chuck Yeager used to break the speed of sound."

"Whoa," I said, remembering watching some movie about that with my dad.

"And that's the Apollo Lunar Module."

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