"Well the parentals couldn't deal with me and my private school ways any longer, so they transferred me here." She was curt with her words and with the way that her face was contorting when she said these things, I could tell there was more to it than that, even if she was whisking by the topic.

She looked like she was kicked in the stomach when she said parentals and there was a slight venom her voice. I took it that she didn't have too good a relationship with them. There was more to it. Aster just didn't want to talk about it, and I didn't know her well enough to push the subject, so I didn't.

We talked about music just like I planned although Aster gave me a questioning look when I started talking about Tori Amos, then another even longer and even more confounded look when the words Tegan and Sara left my mouth. Did I say something wrong? She didn't get thrown much in the conversation after that, especially when we started talking about 90s music, all the old songs that we remembered like Boyz II Men and Third Eye Blind. We were complete goofs singing at the top of our lungs in the blistering cold on a bench out in the front of school, and we didn't care.

I was right. Aster was the coolest person I'd ever met, not that I could tell anyone that. Breck was a very sensitive guy, after all. She listened to all the right music, knew about all the right things. She was fascinating with all her private school stories and scheming antics. She was amazing. Too cool for my blood, I could tell, but still there she was talking to me like she was interested, like she wanted to be my friend. The more we talked about it, though, I couldn't help but feel like some of these words she was saying and gestures she was making seemed rehearsed, practiced, like there wasn't any feeling behind it.

I didn't tell her that as the lunch bell rang. I was just happy she wanted to be my friend and that we were hitting it off as well as Breck did with her earlier.