"Do you think Dr. Hall will have had a chance to look at the photos I had Mrs. Weaver send?" Fitz asked, leaning toward Jemma so only she could hear him. "Because I am really looking forward to proving you wrong."

It was a few days later, and they were sitting in their desks in Mrs. Weaver's classroom waiting for their teacher to arrive so the Astronomy Club meeting could get started. The other members of the club buzzed excitedly around them; it was the last meeting before school let out for the summer, and everyone was busy discussing their plans for the upcoming break. Fitz and Jemma, however, had more pressing concerns.

Jemma shot him a withering look and folded her hands primly on her desk. "Don't hold your breath, Leopold. I'm sure if he's sent anything in, it will show that I'm right."

Fitz couldn't help but grin widely. Jemma only ever called him by his full given name when he'd really riled her up. Swallowing a laugh, he leaned over the side of his seat even further. "Why are you so convinced that you're right?" he asked.

"Why are you?"

This time, he couldn't hold back a laugh. They'd been having the same argument on and off ever since the stargazing trip, and neither of them was willing to budge. Fitz was absolutely certain he'd discovered something new, and Jemma felt just as certain that it was Megrez. Showing her star charts hadn't helped, and at this point he suspected that pride might be a contributing factor. Jemma normally didn't have a problem admitting she was wrong, as that meant that there was more, correct, information out there to learn, but in the past couple of months they'd formed the possibly bad habit of trying to outdo each other in the knowledge department. Maybe, he thought, looking at the thin press of Jemma's mouth, after this round he would lighten up a bit.

But, while they were still at it, there wasn't any reason they couldn't have a bit of fun.

"Want to bet on it?" He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Her own eyebrows drew in. "Define the terms and I'll think about it."

"Well…" Fitz made a show of thoughtfully tapping his chin. "If I'm right, you have to go to World Market and buy me all the Aero bars, Dairy Milk, and toffee that I want. Oh, and some of that malt whiskey fudge they have."

Jemma wrinkled her nose. "Fitz, I am not going all the way to Glen Allen for you. I don't think my parents would even drive me that far."

His eyes widened. "That sounds like you're suggesting I have a chance at being right." At her answering glare, he laughed and held up his hands. "Those are my terms. Name yours."

"Fine." She sighed. "If I'm correct…you can't have any sweets for-two weeks. And I'll get your mum in on it."

Fitz's jaw dropped. "What-Jemma-that is just cruel and unusual, even for you. What do you even get out of that?"

Jemma rolled her eyes. "I get the satisfaction of knowing you're actually eating well for once, instead of binging on biscuits and toffee-"

"Binging? I'll have you know-"

"-And honestly, I will never understand how you manage to pack down junk food the way you do without just-ballooning."

"Superior physiological makeup," he shot back, preening. "And excellent metabolism. Just another way in which I as a Scot excel over your Englishness."

Jemma scoffed, but was stopped in any reply she might have made by the arrival of Mrs. Weaver, who strode in carrying a few files and papers. Both Jemma and Fitz sat up straighter in their seats, eager to hear whatever news she had, but Jemma shot him a small smile before she faced fully forward. They were good enough friends by now for the reassurance not to be necessary, but it was still nice to know that she didn't truly mean any of her jabs.

Once everyone had settled down, Mrs. Weaver stepped forward, her mouth pulled into a frown. "I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news," she said, folding her hands in front of her. "Earlier today I learned that Dr. Hall passed away a few days ago in a car accident."

A dismayed murmur went up among the students; Fitz sat back in his seat, stunned, as Jemma whispered, "Oh, no."

Mrs. Weaver nodded. "I know. I'm sorry. This isn't the way I wanted to close out the year for us. Dr. Hall has been such a tremendous help in getting this club up and running, and his support and knowledge has been invaluable. I know he'll be greatly missed, both here and in the academic community. I've brought a card for all of us to sign that I'd like to send to his family. We'll do that at the end of the meeting." She paused, and sighed. "Now, let's talk about some things that will be available for you to do over the summer, starting with the ongoing programs at the Science Museum…"

As Mrs. Weaver went on, Fitz found that his eagerness to trump Jemma had diminished significantly. He still wanted to know whether or not he was right, but his curiosity suddenly felt very small next to the fact that Dr. Hall had died. Bickering over who was correct when a man's life had been cut short just didn't feel right.

He spent the rest of the meeting lost in thought. Once it was over, he shouldered his backpack and went with Jemma to sign the card that Mrs. Weaver had put out; then, he gave her a questioning look and she nodded once, as if to say go ahead. He approached the older woman slowly, where she stood rearranging some papers on her desk. "Ah…Mrs. Weaver?"

She looked up. "Yes?"

He clutched at the straps of his backpack. "Um…I realize this might not be the time, but I was wondering…" He looked over at Jemma, who had come to stand right next to him. "We were wondering if you knew whether or not Dr. Hall had a chance to look at the stuff we sent him before-well, everything."

Mrs. Weaver shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. But if I do hear anything before the school year ends, I'll be sure to let you know."

Both Fitz and Jemma nodded and murmured their thanks before turning to leave. As they left the classroom for the hall, one of the other girls in the club ran to catch up with them. "Jemma!" she cried. "Are you still coming to the party tonight?"

Jemma turned to look at the other girl-Callie, Fitz reminded himself-and smiled. "Oh! Yes, I am. Are you going too?"

Callie nodded, smiling back widely. "Yeah. Grant invited me today and he mentioned you were coming. I guess I'll see you then! 7:00, right?"

"Right," Jemma said, and Callie gave her a thumbs-up before turning and going in the opposite direction down the hall. Then she started walking again, headed for the stairwell, and Fitz followed, trying not to drag his feet too much or scowl too openly.

"That's tonight?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

Jemma nodded. "Yes. I'd forgotten about it, actually. It's a good thing Callie reminded me. I wouldn't want to disappoint Grant."

Fitz turned his face away from her so she couldn't see the ugly frown that twisted his mouth. After a pause, he carefully said, "You know…you don't have to go if you don't want to."

"But I do want to!" She looked excited, and it only made his mood sink further. "I've just been so busy studying for finals that it slipped my mind. I've never been invited to a party before; it's supposed to be like a rite of passage, isn't it? An American end-of-year bash, party, fling, you know. It might be fun!"

He made a noncommittal noise in reply as they reached the bottom of the steps. "I think I'd pass," he muttered. He was pretty sure he knew exactly what sort of party it was going to be: he'd heard Ward in the hall earlier in the week saying that his parents wouldn't be home and that his older brother was already back from university, so they'd be able to score some beer. There would be alcohol, loud music, and loads of their classmates who wouldn't normally give them the time of day. It sounded like the exact opposite of fun for him.

And that, he supposed, was why he was so upset that she was going. Over the course of the year, Jemma had given him the impression that she didn't put much stock in things that their peers considered 'typical' or 'rites of passage', so her acceptance of Ward's party invitation had genuinely confused him. He was left wondering if he'd misjudged her somehow. His lonely childhood and awkward insecurity had him fearing that this was just the first sign of Jemma pulling away, that she'd tired of him and was moving on to newer pastures. He'd never been able to keep a friend for very long; why would she be any different?

(Another reason why he was upset: because he'd been convinced she was different.)

Jemma glanced at him as they walked down the empty hallway toward the school lobby. Apparently he wasn't doing as good a job of hiding his sour face as he'd hoped, because her smile collapsed into faint exasperation. "Oh, you're not still put out over not getting invited, are you?"

"No," Fitz replied emphatically, but his voice rang a little hollow.

Jemma tsked. "You know I'd bring you with me if I could, but since it's not my party or my house, I'd feel-I don't know, rude, bringing someone uninvited."

He brightened briefly at that, because that showed she'd thought of him, but then he affected a casual shrug, keeping his eyes trained on the floor as they walked. "No, it's fine, I-you should go. If you want to. I just thought, the Eta Aquarids are going on right now, and we'd sort of talked about…you know, maybe…" He trailed off at that, feeling a bit silly. Sure, they'd talked about it, but they hadn't made any concrete plans. And why would she want to spend her Friday night watching a meteor shower with him when she could be having fun with Grant Ward and the rest of their entire bloody school?

Jemma gave him what looked suspiciously like a pitying look. It only made him feel worse. "I can come over tomorrow night, you know."

"Yeah, I know, it's just…" Tonight's the peak of the shower. "Eh, never mind." He shrugged again and forced a smile. "You should go and have enough fun for the both of us."

Her answering smile, bright and cheerful, was almost worth the hit to his fragile feelings. "Thanks, Fitz. I hope I do." They were outside now; she looked toward the parking lot and perked up even more. "Look! My mum's already here. I call shotgun today!" She ran ahead of him towards her mother's car, and Fitz followed.

After being dropped off at home, Fitz spent most of the late afternoon up in his room sketching out designs for gadgets he'd dreamed up to try and build over the summer. His mother came home from work around 6:00 and prepared a quick dinner for them. After they ate, she settled on the living room couch with a stack of her students' final papers to grade while he went upstairs to prepare for a night of sky-watching. He took his small telescope out of his closet, then propped it against the wall while he slid his bedroom window open. Once he made sure the window was secure, he carefully eased his telescope out and down to the flat roof of their covered back deck, just below his window. Then he climbed out himself.

It took him a few minutes to get the telescope set up, making sure the legs were tight and locked before aiming the lens in the general direction of where the constellation Aquarius would be visible in the night sky. After he was done with that, he reached back inside for his sleeping bag and a red-filtered flashlight, just in case he needed it. He spread the unzipped sleeping bag out across the roof, and then all that was left to do was wait for it to get dark enough for any meteors to be visible.

He stretched out on the sleeping bag, folding his hands beneath his head, and gazed up into the rapidly-darkening sky, an inky purple shot through with dark blues and a touch of pink. The sounds of crickets singing in the yard below him and the occasional car passing by on the road lulled him into a sort of half-doze, helped along by the late spring heat. If he closed his eyes, it wasn't hard to pretend that he was back in Scotland, out on the terrace of their small flat in Glasgow. But he was thousands of miles away from there now, and in some ways he felt just as far away from the person he'd been then. So much had changed for him in just one year.

Fitz had never really pictured himself living in America, or going to an American high school, much less finding a niche for himself. He knew that his happiness was due in large part to Jemma and how she'd made him feel welcome and wanted in those first crucial weeks of school. He would never forget sitting in the back of first period math class on the first day, slouched in his seat and trying to look as small and unassuming as he could. The teacher was calling roll and he'd been dreading hearing his name, knowing that he would have to correct him and that the other students in the class would laugh. Sure enough, once the teacher said "Leopold Fitz?" he'd heard someone off to the side of him snigger, and a few others looked around for the unfortunate bearer of such a ridiculous name. It was only when he'd raised his hand and said, "Here-and, uh, just Leo, please," that every single head in the class had whipped around to look at him. He'd slumped down even further in his seat, fervently wishing he was back in Scotland where he sounded just like everyone else and where his accent didn't single him out as a curiosity.

But no one had turned to look as fast as a girl sitting in the front row, her brown hair flying as she twisted in her seat. Fitz remembered it because while everyone else was gawking, she'd looked excited. She'd turned up in nearly all of his classes over the course of the day, but she always sat front and center while he chose to try and hide in the back. When he arrived in sixth period Chemistry, however, the only empty seats left were up front. He'd taken the table to the far right and hoped that the class didn't fill up so he could keep to himself. But a moment later, someone had cleared their throat and politely asked if the seat next to him was taken. He'd looked up so quickly he'd almost given himself whiplash. It was the girl from math class, and she had spoken in the sweetest English lilt he'd ever heard. He'd stared at her for a moment, his mind blown-there was another Brit in school and Christ alive she was pretty-before he'd stammered out a negative. She'd smiled at him, sat down, and launched immediately into conversation. Her name was Jemma Simmons and she was so excited to meet a fellow Brit, she was originally from Sheffield in England, she remembered him from their morning math class, and did he know that they were the only two freshmen who met the requirements to take Chemistry a year early?

He'd only been able to stare in amazement as he nodded, too stunned to really reply. A wonderful friendship had been born that day, and even though it had taken her a few weeks to really get him to open up, Fitz wasn't sure he'd ever really stopped being amazed by Jemma.

It was easy at first to occupy himself with good memories of Jemma, of how she'd fallen into his life and brightened it up and broken through his awkward shell. But as the night lengthened and the sky turned black, he found his thoughts turning more and more to Ward's party, and what Jemma was likely up to at that very moment.

Fitz knew his mind was conjuring up worst-case scenarios, but he couldn't stop himself. He could see Jemma in his mind's eye, surrounded by their classmates, laughing, a plastic cup in her hand. She looked bright and alive, her eyes sparkling. He imagined her dancing to the music that was surely killing everyone's eardrums, imagined all of the guys there watching, imagined them asking her to dance, one by one. And worst of all, there was Grant Ward, making her smile so widely it made her eyes crinkle and her nose scrunch up the way it did when she was really happy, the way that made his stomach swoop every time he saw it. He imagined her doing perfectly fine without him.

He sighed and briefly closed his eyes. Jemma was free to do things without him, and having a pity party of one was no way to spend a Friday. Maybe having her as a friend had spoiled him for company, but on the whole he was used to being alone. One night, or more if his fears were actually true, wouldn't make a difference.

At least, that's what he told himself.

He fixed his gaze on Aquarius and focused, curious and determined to see how many meteors he could spot in one hour before the peak reached its zenith later in the evening. After that, everything else fell away until it was just Fitz left below the endless sky, feeling like he was floating among the stars. After awhile, he spotted his first meteor-just a quick zip of light across the sky-and he smiled to himself. This, science, was where he was happiest, even if it was something as simple as stargazing and watching for meteors.

He'd counted twenty of them, unsure of how much time had actually passed, when he heard a noise at his window. He looked over to see an arm sticking out of it, setting a can of Coke down on the roof. A second later, Jemma climbed through, carrying another can. He sat up quickly, staring at her in surprise.

Once she was out on the roof, she bent to pick up the first can, then straightened before grinning down at him. "I'm not too late, am I?" she asked, crossing the short distance between them. "Look, I brought you another Coke too, for some extra caffeine so we can stay awake." When he didn't respond, just kept staring open-mouthed up at her, she nudged his knee with the toe of her shoe. "Budge over and make some room for me, will you?"

"Uh-yeah, uh, hey," Fitz managed, scooting over on the sleeping bag so Jemma could have room to sit down. As she made herself comfortable, handing him one of the Cokes, he said, "Um…I thought you were going to Ward's party?"

Jemma popped the tab on her Coke and took a long swig, sighing in satisfaction after she swallowed. "Oh, I did, for a little while. And I had one hypothesis proven correct, at least."

"Yeah?" he asked warily. "What's that?"

She turned to smile at him. "Definitely not as interesting without you around."

His heart thudded heavily in his chest. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she echoed, stretching her legs out before shifting to sit cross-legged. "All anyone wanted to do was drink or play silly games like beer pong, and I couldn't even hear myself think over how loud the music was. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't complain." She shrugged. "Which is perfectly fine if that's the sort of thing you like, I guess, but…it's not really me."

Fitz couldn't stop the brief plume of smugness that flared up. He'd thought so. But he didn't say that. Instead, he opened his own can of Coke and took a drink before looking at her. "Did you have any fun?"

"A little," Jemma said. "One of the girls said she was going to Miami for a week and when I asked if she was going to the Everglades she said no, just the beach." She sighed. "Callie was there, though. We talked for awhile, but then one of the guys got her to do a row of shots, and that was around the time I decided to leave. It was getting a little…much for me."

He raised his eyebrows. The thought of Callie Hannigan doing shots was mildly intriguing-she'd never struck him as the extreme partying type-but he was more concerned with the slight frown that pinched Jemma's face, only just visible in the dim, pale moonlight. "What do you mean?"

Jemma shrugged, looking down. "I felt like the only person there who wasn't drinking. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that whatever Grant's brother got was awful, cheap, nasty stuff. I poured mine down the sink when no one was looking. Plus, you know, it was-we were all underage there." She laughed quietly. "And people kept wanting to dance and I don't really know how, and Grant-well, he just-" She cut herself off, shrugging again.

It was his turn to frown. "Ward? What did he do?"

She shrugged yet again, mumbling something indistinct, and her obvious discomfort sent up a red warning flag in Fitz's mind. Every horror story he could think of involving Jemma and Grant Ward flared to life, and suddenly white noise was buzzing along his nerves. He felt too hot inside his own skin. "Did he-did he do something?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice neutral.

Something in his tone made her look up, though, because she shook her head sharply, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. "Oh! No! No, nothing like that, nothing-he just-I think he was trying to get me alone." Fitz's stomach lurched. "But I kept making up excuses, because I didn't really feel like..." She waved her hands about. "Anyway, I'm sure if you'd been there to talk to I wouldn't have had a problem."

It was easy to believe her when she smiled at him the way she did then, all teeth and dimples and shining eyes. He smiled back, feeling his nerves cool down, and elbowed her gently. "Sounds like you did just fine without me."

Jemma smiled, then took another sip of her Coke. "Well, I did it. I went to a party, so I guess I can cross it off my bucket list now. When I realized I'd much rather be here with you, I just texted my mum to come and get me. She brought me straight over. And she said that since it's Friday, I can stay as long as I like! Your mum agreed, too, by the way, when I talked to her downstairs. Isn't that great? It means we can watch the peak together! How many meteors have you seen so far? I know we still have a couple of hours to go but I'm sure you've seen some. Tell me everything!"

Fitz blinked rapidly, a little dazed by the deluge of words she'd just unleashed on him; he'd honestly blanked a little on everything that followed I'd much rather be here with you, but he caught that she'd remembered tonight was the peak of the shower. Feeling his heart skip and warm up considerably inside his chest, he leaned back on his elbows and pointed up toward where Aquarius was in the night sky. "Well, most of them are coming from around Aquarius-you know that-but I think I've seen maybe twenty so far? It should start picking up soon, though. Maybe if we're lucky we'll even see a fireball. Here, you can watch better if you lie flat on your back, you won't get a cramp in your neck that way…"

He lay back on the sleeping bag, gesturing for her to follow, and once they were settled shoulder to shoulder, he pointed back up into the sky. "Okay, there-oh! Look! There goes one!"

Jemma gasped, reflexively reaching over to grab his arm in excitement, and he rolled his head to grin at her. As she grinned back, Fitz felt the last of his earlier unease break away and crumble into dust. All that was left was contentment and the promise of a night spent stargazing with his best friend. Maybe, he thought, it was time that he stopped being surprised by Jemma wanting to be in his life, and time he started trusting her to always be there, no matter what.