Page 37 of As You Walk On

“This is all very... nerdy,” I finally say, grinning.

Luca sizes me up. “Let me guess: Your favorite is Midoriya, right?”

I duck my head, not answering.

“I thought so!” He laughs. “Reserved but not shy. Overachieverwithout being annoying. Slightly dramatic. Tendency to overanalyze. Underdog who’s A1 when it comes to friendships.”

“Whoa, whoa! I’mnotreserved,” I practically screech, clearly owning the Wright extra-ness in my DNA. Fine, I might’ve read that Scorpioscan bereserved. Cautious, actually.

“Also, I’m not an underdog,” I point out.

I’m not, right? Do Jay and Darren think the same thing? Wow, way tonotoveranalyze.

“If you say so.” Luca smiles amusedly. On my other side, River’s thrown a hand over their mouth, but it’s barely hiding the grin I know is there.

“This is an attack!”

“Ooh, thoughts onAttack on Titan?” River asks Luca.

It takes them two seconds to fall down another rabbit hole about a series I could never get into. Way too dark.

“There’s nothing wrong with liking the main character. It doesn’t mean anything,” I note with a hint of defensiveness. Ignoring their eye rolls, I say to Luca, “Er, I didn’t know you were so into anime.”

He frowns. “Anime club, freshman year? Remember? We were both there.”

I try not to think too much about my first year at Brook-Oak. The weirdness of being new again. Adjusting to how much more competitive high school was at every level, not just academics. All the awkwardness of feeling like I still didn’t belong. Even with Jay and Darren by my side. Even being the son of Miles Wright.

Anime club was a blip in a series of attempts to figure myself out.

Two years later, I still haven’t solved that equation.

Anyway, I attended the initial meeting. We sat around in a circle. Mr.Onyebuchi, the club’s faculty advisor, who you’ll only ever catch in T-shirts around the halls, brought these delicious red velvet cupcakes. There weren’t a ton of us, but enough that I can’t recall faces.

Mr.Onyebuchi suggested we start with a typical icebreaker: “What’s your name and favorite anime?”

I wasn’t prepared for the five- to ten-minute dialogues about the art and history and character arcs most of the others gave. Yes, I love anime, but in that moment, I felt like everyone else loved itmore. Like I had no right to call this my thing because I didn’t have the vocabulary to discuss it in the way they did.

Luckily, time ran out before I had to answer.

I never went back.

“I mean...” I shrug. “I vaguely remember?”

We’re all sitting now. River, pretzel-legged on the floor. Luca and me on the bed. Something flickers across his face. Either disappointment or indifference. He’s twisting a different ring now—the crying-heart-inscribed one on his ring finger.

River clears their throat. “I was hiding under the bed because...” Their voice drifts off when Luca and I look their way.

“Because?”

“Don’t laugh. This is kind of weird.” It takes them a second to continue. “Not everyone at school knows I’m nonbinary. I thought it’d be cool if this party were kind of my ‘Hey, this is my name! This is who I am!’ thing.”

We’re all quiet for a beat. Then Luca asks, “How is that weird?”

River tugs on their bracelets. “Isn’t it?”

“Nah,” I quickly say. “Not at all.”

A hopeful smile pulls at their lips. “My older sister Katie suggested using the name badges. As an opener. Everyone could wear one. Know what pronouns to use when talking to or about each other.”

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