Orange Cat Confidential

I'd been spy-ing on Kai's Instagram for forty-seven minutes when my orange cat, Barnaby, headbutted my laptop shut.

"Dude, I'm being thorough," I muttered, pushing him away. Barnaby meowed like he understood my desperation. He'd witnessed enough of my pathetic crush moments to qualify for emotional support animal status.

Tomorrow marked three weeks since Kai Thompson had actually spoken to me. We'd been partnered in chemistry, and when he laughed at my terrible joke about covalent bonds, I'd practically forgotten my own name. Now I was conducting background research like a creep instead of, you know, talking to him like a normal person.

My phone buzzed. Unknown number.

"Hey, it's Kai from chem. You still coming to Jamie's party tonight?"

I stared at the screen until the letters blurred. Kai. Texting. Me.

"Uh yeah! Definitely!" I replied, then immediately wanted to die. Who uses that many exclamation points?

Barnaby flopped onto his back, exposing his orange belly. This cat had more game than me.

I spent two hours getting ready – not that I'd admit that to anyone. When I finally walked to Jamie's house, my stomach was doing full gymnastics routines. I practiced casual greetings in my head, but everything sounded dumb. "Hey what's up" no. "Hi Kai" absolutely not.

I was still running through terrible options when something massive lumbered out from behind a parked car.

A bear.

An actual freaking bear – not the school mascot, not some guy in a costume. A real bear, standing there like it was just out for a casual Friday night stroll.

I froze. The bear huffed at me. I calculated my chances of survival and they were not great.

"HEY!" someone shouted.

Kai came sprinting down the street, waving his arms like a maniac. "GO ON! GET OUT OF HERE!"

The bear gave him this look like humans were so dramatic, then ambled away into the darkness.

Kai jogged up to me, breathless. "You okay?"

"I—yeah. You just—" I gestured vaguely at where the bear had disappeared. "You bear-whispered?"

He laughed, and it was even better than chemistry class. "My uncle's a wildlife ranger. He taught me the basics. You heading to Jamie's?"

We walked the rest of the way together, and I forgot all my practiced greetings. We talked about bears and chemistry teachers and why Barnaby makes weird noises at 3 AM. By the time we reached Jamie's house, I wasn't thinking about being cool anymore.

Sometimes the universe sends you bears and weirdos who know how to scare them away. Sometimes you just have to let yourself be seen – even by an orange cat who's definitely judging your life choices.