"Canada!" I hear the voice of Gayle shout from down the hallway. He runs up to me, the rest of the Save the Planet-ers close behind. "How was your break?"

"Great, yours?" I ask.

"Pretty darn good. My mom's and I are vegetarians, so it's all sides, baby." He says, broad smile on his face.

Jordan is the second person in the group to walk up to me. "You ready?"

"For what?" I ask. "What are we preparing for?"

"Holidays in a high school." Leah says. "Namely, this high school."

"Why?"

"It's intense. The kids trying to put up mistletoe, the fights that break out because of gifts, the glitter, the assembly of 'Clean up your acts, we're going to start having children around because of Christmas plays, or whatever'. It's all just not fun." Jordan cringes. "Take my word for it."

"Okay, then." I say.

"By the way, according to the course syllabus, we have our finals project coming up in Earth Sciences. Tell me when you're available to hang out."

"I think I'm available whenever I'm not with Save the Planet."

"Awesome, well, let's arrange a time, yeah?" Gayle offers.

"Yeah, that'd be great."

The time we ended up arranging was right after school that day. Gayle told me to wait by my locker, so I do. I clutch my extra thermos to my chest, nice and tight.

"Hey." I turn my head, not focusing on the voice, but the words. I turn over to see, not Gayle, but Emma and David. "Mom wanted us to give you this." Emma hands me a thermos.

"Thanks." I say, nodding.

"Remember to control yourself." David warns.

I nod my head. "I will."

"Be careful, okay? Call us if anything gets too bad." Emma says.

"I will."

David leans against the lockers, in a voice so low that only we can hear. "Abigail told us to stay close."

"Matthias will be dropping off a car for us to use." Emma says.

"Okay."

"And, if you want us to look away, just ask."

"David!" I practically screech in the now empty hall.

"Okay, okay, just remember that the forget fee is $5.99 per minute."

"David!" Emma and I both hiss in unison.

"What's going on?" We all turn around to see Gayle, back pack strung across one shoulder.

"Just being a big brother." David says, love-tapping me on the shoulder.

"I see." Gayle nods. "You ready to go?"

"If you are."

"See you when we see you." Emma says, waving.

"I can break your face." David says as a farewell.

"David!" Emma whacks her brother on the arm.

"Okay, okay, sheesh." David says. "Have fun, okay?"

"We will." I say. Gayle and I turn and walk the other way. I feel my heart rate rising faster and faster.

What if I do hurt him? I ask myself. What happens if I lose control? I clutch both thermos's to my tighter, afraid that maybe if I let go a little bit, I lose it completely.

"You okay there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What you got in those thermos's of yours?" He asks.

I can't come up with a lie quick enough. "Oh, it's nothing."

"Okay. Want to listen to some music?" Gayle offers one of his earbuds.

"Yeah, that sounds great." I say, I start moving my hands to take, but I soon realize that both my hands are still holding onto my thermos's.

"Here, let me help." I half expect him to take one of the thermos's out of my hands. However, he moves a strand of hair away from my ear, and plugs in one of the ear buds. "Sorry, that was probably a little invasive."

"No, it was fine." My hand bats a little at my chest. A uniform beat of drums lays underneath an electric guitar, with a sort of falsetto male voice on top of that. I look over at the boy I'm sharing the music with. "Wouldn't peg you for a rocker."

"I'm full of surprises, you know."

"But usually you're routine."

"Yeah, usually I'm routine." Gayle pops open the door that leads to the outside world. "After you, my lady,"

"Why thank you, kind sir." I say. "How was school?"

"It was school. How was yours?"

"Same old, same old."

"Here's Mom's car." Gayle says. We hop into the car, and Bernice sits in the driver's seat. I take this rare chance to sit shot gun.

"Hello, Ms. Canada, how was school?"

"Good, how was Save the Planet?"

"Oh, it was good, as usual. Maggie's on a business trip somewhere, so, there's that." She says. "Oh, and pardon the carbon emissions. Until Musk starts charging less for an electric car, I'll stick with ol' Robert." Bernice tap her hand on the dash board.

We pull out of the school parking lot, and I place into the rear-view mirror, an see that there is a car trailing right behind us, filled with Emma and David.

We keep driving until we pull up to a little one-story farm style house. I can only describe it as a house I know Gayle's family would live in. It's small, it's run on solar energy, and I can tell that there's a garden in the back. All of it is made to be as eco-friendly as possible.

"We tried making one of those Earth Ship, but we knew it'd be too cold in the winters." Bernice says. We all get out of the car, and I can see Emma and David drive past the drive way. They let me into their house, and it just about fits the outside. Eco-Friendly. Some vintage poster's hang on the walls, and I think I might see an old record player.

"I'll take her to my room, if that's okay."

"That's fine, just keep the door open, if you wouldn't mind." Bernice says.

"Nope, not at all." Gayle says. He walks me to his room, which is a little cluttered, but I can tell that it's organized chaos. He has a cork board filled with notes, a couple of those Bill Nye 'The Planet is on F****** Fire' memes. Along the wall above his bed, is a map of the world with a couple of sticky notes and pins one various different places ad things. Some of the sticky notes say things like '2% less Green House Gases than last year!' and 'Charles Darwin Birthplace.'

Gayle stands a foot or two behind me. "I see you've found my map."

"Yeah, these places you wanna go?"

"Yeah, one day, I wanna see the world. See what mysteries about our planet that I can't uncover."

Like the mystery of whether vampire's exist or not.

"That's really cool." I say, nodding a little bit.

"Eh, everybody's got a bucket list." Gayle says. "So, our topic for our science final; How does Climate Change Effect the World around us?"

"Pandemics, storms, heat, dramatic highs and lows, increased medical issues, crop failures, what am I forgetting?"

"I think if you continues, we would have enough for a dissertation."

"Sorry." I mumble.

"It's okay, I was just kidding." He says. Gayle pulls out a lap top, and sits down on his bed. He gestures for me to do the same, which I do. "So, time to start an intro." Gayle says.

I feel something nudge into my leg, and I look down to see a little blue bull dog. "Hello," I say, smiling a little bit at her.

"Oh, that's where you went, old girl?" Gayle asks, moving his lap top and setting the dog on his lap. "This is Blue, dog one, and Mouse should be around here-"

Paws scratch against the hardwood of the hallway.

"There he is." A chocolate lab pokes his head through the door. "Wanna hold her?" Gaylle offers me the little bulldog.

"No, dogs don't really like me that much."

That's true. Mom and Dad's dog hated me. I wonder how he's doing.

"Nonsense." He says, plopping the big girl right in my lap. The puppy stays, just staring at the wall. "You can pet her, you know."

I begin to slowly stroke the beast in my lap, and she slowly turns her head to look at me. "Hello." I say, smiling a little bit. The dog just extends his tongue out at me in response.

"I don't speak fluent pruppet, but I think she likes you."

"Me too."

"Oh, before I forget, what are you doing on the 23 of December?" Gayle asks, once more pushing back us doing our assignment, not that I mind. "It's the day after school gets out."

"Sorry, Gayle, I've got a thing going on that day, why? What is it?"

"It's the kind of, Save the Planet Holiday Get Together."

"Oh, I'm sorry I can't go. I've got to fly out for sort of... family reunion."

"Oh, sounds like fun."

"Thanks. Still, I'm sorry I can't go to your thing."

"Hey, it's okay." He shrugs. "You're fine."

"Thanks." I look down a bit at the bed, looking at the patterns of the folds and creases of his comforter. "Can we finally start talking about our project?"

"Yeah, that sounds great."

We work for a few hours, and the Bernice and Maggie call us for dinner. I try Tofu for the first time. It didn't taste horrible, it just lacks the things I need in my diet. I made sure to drink out of my thermos the whole time. I feel my phone buzz once Gayle and I get back to his room.

EMMA
Hey, you ready to come home?

CANADA
Yeah, sure.

EMMA
On our way, ETA of about five minutes

"Emma's on her way to pick me up." I wave my found

"Aww." Gayle whines. "This was a lot of fun."

"Yeah, it was." I say, nodding a little bit. "We got a lot done."

"I know right. That's why we're the dream team." Gayle sticks his hand out for a high five.

I smack his hand, and we both hear a honk from outside. "That's my ride. Thanks for letting me come over."

"No problem, thanks for coming over." He says as we start walking out of his room.

"Next time, maybe we'll do this at my place." I suggest.

"Yeah, maybe. See you at school, Gayle."

"See you at school." He says. We stand and stare at each other for another minute.

Do I hug him? Do I shake his hand? Do I just wave and leave?

I just wave and leave. I open the door, I walk out, and I hop into the car. I close the door behind me, and look at Emma and David who were in the front seats.

"So, how was your study date?"

One week later, I waited by my locker again, waiting for Gayle. This time, he was coming over to my house. Which meant that Emma and David wouldn't have to sit in their car the whole time. Emma and David come from my right, taking the same path they usually do.

Emma hugs her papers close to her chest. "How was school?"

"Good, yours?"

"Same old, same old." She shrugs.

"See the fight in the east hallway?" Asks David.

"No, why?"

"I was just hoping you had some footage or some sort of an account. My American Wars teacher asked us if we had any good videos." David explains.

I slam my locker shut. "He was probably just trying to bust you for having a fight video on your phone."

"I don't think so. He asked my class too, then he asked where he could find one. I think that's just his personality."

"Hey, guys!" Gayle says, turning around the corner at my left.

"Hey, Gayle. How was your day."

"Great. Aced my AP Spanish test." Gayle says.

"Nice."

"Hashtag goals." Emma says, nodding a little bit. Both Gayle and look over at her, both of us having at least one eyebrow in a way that it usually isn't.

"Anyways, you ready to head over to my place?" I ask.

"Yeah. I finally get to see the mythical house of the... what's your guys' last name again?"

"Wayward." All of us say in unison.

"Right, I'll remember that next time." Gayle nods.

"Y'all ready to go? It's only going to get colder."

"Gotta love winters in Michigan." Gayle says. "But, yeah it'll just keep on getting colder."

"Let's go." Emma turn on her heel, leading us down the hallway. We all walk down the hallways to the parking lot, and into the car that Matthias let us drive to school today.

Gayle stares wide eyed at vehicle. "Holy heck, that's a car."

"I know, right." David gleams with a little pride.

"Hop on in, we won't bite." Emma invites.

I note her saying 'won't' instead of 'don't'. We all sit in various places, I get the back, as per usual, and Gayle takes the seat right next to me.

"So, what are your interests, Gayle?" Emma asks. Emma took the drivers seat, as per usual.

"Oh, I, of course, love saving the planet. I really dig rock, and I also really like reading." Gayle says. "Sorry if those seem really generic and basic."

"I've heard worse." Emma looks back at him through the mirror.

"You like sports?" David asks.

"Not really, no." Gayle responds.

"Huh."

"I didn't even know that." I say.

"You can never really know a person until you know their favorite sport." David says.

"Oh, then my favorite is Quidditch. Love the sport, don't really like the author." Gayle says. "Sorry, if I have offended you by my opinions."

I shrug. "You're fine, Gayle, don't worry."

"I always worry up here."

"You've got nothing to fear. We've always been progressive." Emma says.

"That's great to know-oh. Where are we going?" Gayle cuts himself off.

"Home." David says, simply.

"The house is in the middle of the woods." I explain.

"Oh. Huh." Gayle says as we continue to drive down the dirt path that goes to the house. We finally see the house coming through the covers of leaves and branches. "Holy-" Gayle doesn't allow himself to keep going on. "You're house is awesome."

"Thanks." I smile a little bit.

I had grown numb to how elaborate the house is. It feels like decades ago when I came to this town in the first place. I forgot how my heart rate rose when I showed up to the dark manor. The car comes to a stop, and we all get out of the car. We unlocked the door, and walked in.

"Come on in." Emma says, encouraging the human into our house.

"Okay." Gayle says. He walks in, and takes a look at the entry room. "This place is stunning. It's like Downton Abbey."

"Thanks. I like it, too."

We stand there awkwardly for a minute. I rock on my toes while Gayle stands idly. "I can take your coat."

"Yeah, that'd be great." He says, slinging his bag off, and then his coat. I take the coat, and put it up on the hanger.

"You want snacks? We've got fresh fruit."

"Yeah, that'd be great." I take him into the kitchen, and walk towards the fridge.

"You like apples?" I ask.

"Love 'em. Apples are so good." Gayle replies swiftly. "Gosh that sounded really weird."

"It's fine, trust me." I say, pulling out a juicy red. "This one look good?"

"Looks great." He says. I also grab an apple out of the fridge.

"Wanna head upstairs and start getting to work?"

"Yeah, sounds great." Gayle says. We walk up the stairs, and then to my room. "Everything about your house is awesome."

"Thanks." I smile meekly. We both sit down on the bed, and I pull out my laptop. "You can sit at the desk if you want to." Gayle obliges, sitting down at the desk, and twisting back and forth in the swivel chair.

"What's this?" Gayle asks, picking up a sheet of paper. I feel my breath catch in the back of my throat.

In his hand, is the rough draft of my speech for the Feast of Restoration.

"It's nothing." I slowly start coming closer to Gayle.

Remember, Canada, there isn't any use of the word vampire in the whole thing, you're fine, a voice calls in the back of my head.

"The Effects Music Has on Mental Health?" He asks, reading the title.

"Yeah, for that family reunion thing over Winter Break. It's a tradition that people make speeches on a topic of their choosing. I couldn't come up with anything, so Emma gave me the idea for this."

"Nice, nice." Gayle says. "You'll kick butt."

"Thanks, I sure hope I do." I say. "Now, let's work on this paper, eh?"

"Sounds great to me. Where did we leave off again?"

"I think we left off on the Paris Agreement."

"Let's get typing."

And we do type. We type so many words, cite so many sources, it isn't even funny. We finish the first rough draft, and decide that it's probably where we should stop for tonight.

"Fingers tired?" Gayle asks.

"Nope." I say. "I think I might run the next draft of my thing tonight." I gesture over to the paper that lays on my desk.

"Want me to read it over? A second set of eyes could never hurt."

"Go ahe-" My voice fades out as I look down onto the paper that's still on the screen of my laptop. "That's it! Climate change!"

"What?"

"I won't do my speech on music and mental health, or whatever, I'll do it on Climate Change!" I declare.

"Genius."

"So, I better get typing tonight." I say. "And, I might need your help fact checking it."

"I would have no greater pleasure." As Gayle says this, I can't help but see those gold specs return in his eyes, and I start to wonder if they never stopped being there.