Amaya spent that weekend at her grandparents' house along with her parents and sister, and she hated to think it, but she was glad to be away from Connor and Greg for so long. She was still unable to completely shake off her depression, and being her best friends they'd want to know why and how they could help—and right now, Amaya was in no mood to feel better. They were under the impression that she'd already fixed her anemometer, after all, and she had no good answer as to why that wasn't the case. And, of course, she wasn't ever going to tell them that she'd sought out Romeo. She hated to hide things from them, but she also just hated what she was feeling, and couldn't do that good of a job of faking it.

Her family noticed, of course, and after Amaya admitted to her family the only thing about Friday night that she could—that her anemometer got broken—her sister immediately sprung to action and helped her build a new one, sturdier and with braided pipe cleaners for support rather than plastic straws. And that was nice of her, and Amaya did feel a little better about that. She just didn't know if she was feeling good enough for her friends to not notice there was anything still wrong about her.

Monday morning, she met Greg and Connor outside of their houses to walk to school together, doing her best to appear adequately cheerful. "Hey, guys!"

"Hey, Amaya!" Greg greeted her.

"How was your weekend at your grandparents' house?" Connor asked her.

"It was great!" The three friends began their short jaunt to school, Amaya happy to have a safe topic of conversation. As long as they could avoid the word 'science' she'd be good. "They took us to the zoo on Saturday and there were some new birds in the aviary. The condor was amazing! I've never seen a bird that big!"

"I bet Owlette's bigger," said Greg with a grin.

"I don't know," laughed Amaya. "Seriously, it was gigantic! The zookeepers said it has the largest wingspan of any bird in the world!"

"It still probably couldn't create as good of an owl wing wind as you, though!" Greg said.

"Speaking of wind," Connor said, "were you able to get your measurements for your science fair project at your grandparents' house?"

"Yeah," Greg added. "We know how important that is to you."

Amaya sighed, her face falling in an instant. Man, that hadn't lasted long. "Actually… I'm kind of feeling down about the whole thing. I might ask the principal today if I can quit."

"Quit?!" Greg and Connor cried, utterly shocked.

"Yeah," Amaya quickly explained, "I don't think it's such a good idea for me anymore. I was letting it completely take over everything else. Night Ninja nearly won the other night because my priorities were so skewed."

"But you realized that you were letting it get too out of control," Connor reminded her. "You don't have to pull back this much."

Amaya sighed again. "It's not fun anymore, though. I'm not even looking forward to this afternoon. I'm gonna go in the library and Romeo will just laugh at me, the older kids will completely ignore me, and—and having to put up with all of that just to be able to be in this science fair isn't worth it anymore." Her brows burrowed in determination. "I'm going to quit. Today will be my last day."

"But Amaya," Greg said to her, surprised, "you've worked so hard for this! You can't quit now!"

"If it's the other kids that are making you feel that way," Connor said encouragingly, "there are things you can do about it without just quitting. Ask the older kids what you can do to help with the project. They might not ignore you if you really show them that you want to participate." He paused for a moment, then shrugged apologetically. "I have no clue what you can do about Romeo, though…"

"Hmm." Amaya stroked her chin. "I guess I could still try that. I did give them information about my project, after all, and they should have included it in their report—I can at least ask to go in and embellish my own section."

"I don't see why they wouldn't let you," Greg said with a smile. They had reached the school and were climbing up the steps to the main entrance. "It's everyone's report, not just theirs."

"Right." Amaya finally smiled again. "I'll do that this afternoon. Thanks, guys."

"No problem," smiled Connor. "We'd hate to see you quit now."

Amaya continued to smile as confidence finally began to flow through her again. Trying to hide her unhappiness from Greg and Connor now just seemed really foolish, but she was perfectly happy to prove her gloomy thought process from earlier wrong. Their pep talk not only cheered her up, but it had also made perfect sense, and, as she made her way into her classroom, she was already feeling her dread for the afternoon slipping away.

…

"Um… excuse me?"

Amaya winced at Emily's condescending tone. "I said… can I help you guys with anything on the group report?"

Emily, who was sitting in front of one of the library laptops, continued to glower at Amaya in a very unamused fashion. "We've already got it written. As much as we could, anyway."

"That's great!" Amaya said, a bit too eagerly. "I can look over my section and tweak it, then."

"Why?" Emily asked.

Amaya was taken aback by the blunt question. "Because—because my project's part of this, and I have some additional data I can add to it. All I gave you were a few notes on it, but I have more details to add now."

"That would mess up the flow of what's already written, though," Emily said, not really trying to hold back her disdain. "We don't want to have to rewrite our own parts just so you can add more to yours."

"But—but you wouldn't have to," Amaya stammered. "All I'm asking is to add a sentence or two to my own section." She could feel her brow knitting in anger as Emily continued to regard her with the same contempt as if Amaya was a cockroach. "Why is that such a bad thing to ask? Isn't this report supposed to be a group effort?"

"Group effort?!" Emily repeated incredulously. "That's rich coming from the girl who refused to do what the group asked; gave me the scantiest, most basic notes as if that would help; and then has spent the entire rest of the time up until now not even trying to talk with us, instead just playing chess with that weird kid who I'm halfway convinced is plotting to take over the world or something. And now you're going to waltz over here and try to tell me I don't understand a group effort? Please." She rolled her eyes at her dismissively before turning back to the laptop, effectively ending the conversation.

Amaya's limbs slacked as she stood frozen to the spot, the verbal accusation driving a wedge through her heart.

It was over now. It was really over.

She should have known all along that quitting was the only option.

Red-hot despair constricted her throat, and her eyes began to tremble.

No, no, don't cry! Not at school! Not here!

But as Amaya turned and heavily walked away from Emily, trying to hold her head high, she could already feel a tear trickle down her cheek. She somehow made her way to the reading corner and sank down into a beanbag chair, taking off her glasses and pressing her face into her palms. Tears wetted them in an instant.

How was she going to quit? It wasn't a matter of if anymore… it was how.

Should she go up to the principal and tell her that she didn't want to participate anymore? Should she simply stop leaving class early for this? Should she stick it out until the science fair next Friday and when it came to be her time to present, just blow a big raspberry and leave the stage? She didn't want to talk to the principal and explain she was quitting, and she definitely didn't want to tell her teacher, or Connor and Greg. But she didn't want to spend a minute more in this library, either.

Well… to be fair, at that moment, she didn't want to do anything but sit where she was and wallow in self-pity.

Sniffling, she rubbed at her eyes but didn't lift them from her palms.

This was the worst day ever.

"What are you doing?"

And it just got worse.

Amaya lifted her tear-stained face and glared at Romeo, who to be fair looked more surprised than antagonistic. "Go away!" she whimpered.

Romeo didn't acquiesce her demand, instead continuing to stare at her in honest astonishment.

"I said go away," Amaya said weakly, sniffling again and wiping her eyes.

"…What could you possibly have to cry over?" Romeo finally asked.

The question surprised Amaya, but more than that it irritated her. "The fact that I'm constantly being talked down to and left out of the loop by the older kids, and that's not even getting into the insults you hurl my way, and my project is simple and horrible and stupid and I'm not going to win, and—and I just don't wanna do this anymore! I'm quitting!"

"What?" Romeo actually looked angry at that. "You can't quit!"

"Why do you care?" Amaya mumbled harshly. "I thought you wanted to beat me!"

"Duh I want to beat you, but it doesn't count if you just keel over and give up not even halfway to the finish line!" Romeo snapped back at her, outraged. "Any moron could beat a quitter! I need to prove I'm better than you! How can I do that if you just give up?!"

"You've already beaten me! You and I both know it! So—so just take your win and your bragging rights and leave me alone, okay?"

"Really?! That's how it's gonna be?!" Romeo got down right in her face, causing Amaya to recoil into the beanbag chair a bit. "You don't make any sense! You never back down against me in the nighttime even though I'm coming at you with robots and inventions that can stop you or capture you or take away your powers—you don't even ever break a sweat! But some silly science fair is what breaks you down? That's pathetic, Owlette!"

"Don't call me that in school!" Amaya hissed at him. "Because don't you get it? That's the difference! I'm not Owlette for this science fair! I'm just Amaya! Plain, ordinary Amaya, no superpowers, not even really all that smart, I'm just a nobody! You're basically the same person day and night, but I'm not! You could do everything you do in the nighttime when it's daytime if you wanted to, but I'd be powerless to stop you! In the daytime, I'm a nobody!"

"Excuse me!" Romeo shouted back irately. "There is no way I'd lose a game of chess to a nobody!"

"You don't understand," Amaya shot back. "Because you're always too wrapped up in yourself to see the writing on the wall. Unlike you, I can tell when I'm beat! I can tell when it's time to retreat!"

"You are not retreating, you stupid bird! You're curling up in a little ball and sticking your fingers in your ears! And no, I haven't beaten you yet! You're just so pathetic that you can't stand the thought of losing even once, so you're bailing before it gets to that point! You think I just sit in a corner and whine and wail every time you PJ pests defeat me? You think I throw in the towel the second things get hard?! No! I pick myself back up and plan for the next time! So there's another thing I do better than you—I deal better than you! I cope better than you! And I've dealt with way more than you ever have! You're pathetic, bird brain! Pathetic!" Disgusted with her, he spun around and walked away.

Amaya, devastated, simply pressed her face into her palms again, no longer caring if anyone saw her cry.

She at least needn't have worried about Romeo being a continued audience to her tears, as his course was definitely set and nothing was going to direct his attentions elsewhere. He marched right up to where Emily was still at her laptop and slammed a hand down on the table, getting her attention.

"Aah! What?!"

"Let me see that group report!" Romeo demanded.

Emily groaned. "You too? Listen, we already finished. Don't worry about it."

"Of course I'm going to worry about it!" Romeo shot back, annoyed. "As the future winner of this science fair I think I have the right to read it over and make sure it's up to my standards! And besides, even if I don't win, it's still my report as much as it is everyone else's!"

Emily sighed with tired derision. "Look, I told this to Maya, and—"

"Amaya," Romeo corrected her crossly, without thinking.

"Amaya—" Emily made a show of rolling her eyes— "and I'll tell it to you, too. You both had your chance to participate in this before, and you blew it. It's too late to decide to be team players now."

"Nice try, but you can't just decide to enforce a time limit now to be able to continue to ignore us." Romeo put his hands on his hips grumpily. "You never wanted to include us in the first place! At least not as equal team members! When you found out that we weren't going to fall in line like little sheep you hung us out to dry! Which is infuriating, by the way!" He was now right in Emily's face just like he had been in Amaya's a few minutes previously, and Emily finally was starting to look less scornful and more surprised, instinctively recoiling from him. "I might be younger than you, but that doesn't mean I'm not chock full of brilliant science ideas that I can choose from myself, and although Amaya might be a total bird brain, she's perfectly capable of coming up with a project without your help, too! There's a reason we were chosen as the representatives from our classes! Heck, I bet even your little brother could come up with an idea on his own if you'd let him!" He paused for a much-needed breath, giving Emily a bit of reprieve, but just as she started to straighten back up Romeo angrily glowered down in her face again. "The whole point of a team project is that we all work together as a team, not that the older kids just delegate assignments to the younger ones and expect instant compliance! I mean, come on, I'm a horrible team player and even I knew that!"

Emily stared dumbly, her eyes wide in shock.

"Now," Romeo continued forcefully, "here's what we're going to do. All six of us are going to spend this afternoon going through your precious little report and fixing it so that it's the work of all of us!"

"Alright, fine…" Emily still looked a bit dumbfounded. "Just calm down… If you go get Amaya, I'll gather up everyone else."

Romeo groaned. This was the desired result, to be sure, but he really didn't want to approach Amaya again in her current state. "Ugh, fine," he mumbled, heading back towards the reading corner.

Amaya was still huddled up in a little ball on the beanbag chair, not looking ahead—she probably hadn't seen or heard any of what had just happened. She still looked small and devastated and absolutely pitiable.

And it was giving Romeo a really painful knot in his stomach to see her like that.

Gritting his teeth, he marched up to her, overcome with anger at her for compelling him to do this for her. It was embarrassing to have to help one of those pesky PJ Masks to get himself feeling back to normal.

She still hadn't taken notice of anything when Romeo reached her, still too deep in her melancholy. Romeo gulped hard and rolled his eyes at her simultaneously. "Come on!" he barked out.

Amaya looked up, fresh tears lining her cheeks. "What?"

Romeo gulped again as the knots in his stomach tightened. "Come on!" he snapped again. "We're all going to work on that group report now."

Amaya rubbed at her eyes and slowly put her glasses back on. "…what?"

Romeo threw up his hands in annoyance. "Would you stop saying that?! Just come on!" Before he could stop himself, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of the chair and vehemently led her back to the laptop, where the other kids were gathering as well.

"Okay, they're here," Brody said to Emily.

"What did you want to talk about with all of us?" Isaac asked her.

"Right." Emily stood in front of the laptop, fidgeting a bit, her brother Adrian standing close to her side and looking up at her expectantly. "Listen, uh, Amaya…" Emily looked her directly in the eye, and Amaya flinched, knowing how visible the tears still had to be on her face. "I'm sorry for brushing you off like that. I wasn't really thinking. Taking a quick look at the report is probably a good idea for all of us, since, you know, it's been a week now. We probably all have something to add."

Amaya blinked, unable to say anything. Was… was this some sort of joke they were all playing on her? Her eyes flickered to Romeo, who had let go of her hand but remained at her side, glaring at Emily. This had to be a joke, as she couldn't imagine why Romeo would apparently stand up for her like this. But if it was a joke, why wasn't anyone laughing yet?

"I'm kind of curious about your projects, actually," Isaac said. "Everyone's projects. We've all been kind of little solitary islands this whole time when we were supposed to be bouncing ideas off of each other."

"So, progress report time?" Brody asked. "I'm down with that."

"Ooh! Me first!" Adrian said, jumping up and down.

"Alright, alright," Emily said, finally smiling in her brother's direction. "We can go youngest to oldest."

"Of course," muttered Isaac.

"Just give me a second to pull up the document here…" Emily sat down and made a few clicks on the laptop. "There we go. I already know how yours is going along, Adrian, but why don't you let the rest of our teammates know how you're doing?"

"It's going great!" Adrian exclaimed excitedly. "The volcano's all built. I just have to paint it and then I can start testing making it erupt!"

Amaya cracked a small smile at his enthusiasm, although she still felt a bit uneasy, not able to comprehend this complete change in behavior she was witnessing. Any minute now Romeo was going to start cracking up at her for being stupid enough to fall for this… right?

"You could compare the different test results if you want," Brody suggested. "Like, see how it does with different amounts of vinegar versus baking soda and chart that."

"Great idea!" said Emily. "I'll make a note here to add that…" After quickly typing something, she looked back up at Amaya. "So how's your project going, Amaya?"

Amaya blinked. Apparently this actually was legit. Or legit enough to make Emily open the report again, which was a victory as far as Amaya was concerned. "Well… I had a bit of a setback this weekend. My anemometer broke. I wasn't able to fix it, but my sister did help me build a new one, so I can start up again tonight and start collecting new data on wind speeds at various altitudes."

"Is the new one made out of the same material as the old one?" Isaac mused.

"No… my sister used sturdier materials," said Amaya.

"That's another variable you could track, if you wanted to," said Isaac. "I know the wind's pretty variable as it is, but you could look to see if there's any noticeable differences in readings between the two."

Amaya blinked again, her uncertainty fading away with a more genuine smile. "That's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that."

"Don't get bogged down with too many variables," Romeo piped up calmly. "You'll lose your focus."

Amaya raised an eyebrow at him quizzically, still completely baffled to his reasoning for… for whatever it was he'd just done. "That's about all I have to report right now on my project," she said, "so if we're going by age, then you're next, Romeo. What are you working on?"

"Yeah, at least Amaya gave me a few notes on hers last week," said Emily. "I haven't gotten anything from you yet."

"When you're a genius like me, sometimes the hardest step of a project is picking the most brilliant one," said Romeo with a sly smirk. "But I've made my decision. I've decided I'd like to have a little fun and push the mental stimulation to the fullest. I'm going with a chessboard that I've programed to play on its own. Essentially it's a chess-playing AI or robot, but I'm going to program it into the board itself, so no screen or monitor is necessary."

"So all that chess playing you've been doing was actually working on the project?" Brody asked as Emily quickly typed more notes in the document.

"Hmm… indirectly, I suppose," mused Romeo. "It did give me the idea, at least."

"Hold up," said Isaac, a hint of disbelief twinging his words. "Are you actually talking about… like, robotics? Not only building something like that, but programming it too?"

"Of course I am," replied Romeo, a bit offended. "What's the problem with that?"

"Can you actually do something like that?"

Romeo just smirked at him. "I guess you'll just have to see for yourself next Friday, huh?"

Emily peered over the laptop screen with a questioning look, but to Amaya's surprise it was aimed in her direction, not Romeo's. In response, she gave her a mild shrug and said, "Believe him, he can do something like that."

"You have no flair for the dramatic," Romeo muttered to Amaya.

Amaya raised an eyebrow at him again, hoping for at least something of an explanation, but Emily was finishing her notes and starting to speak about her project now, and Romeo only gave Amaya a kind of weird eye-roll in return before turning his attention back to Emily. Amaya sighed, tucking the desire to understand away for now. Now that she was finally being included, she could wait to split hairs later.

…

It had been a surprisingly productive afternoon in the school library. After sharing their progress on their projects, all six students had gathered around the laptop and worked on the report together, each one taking his or her turn to lean over and make their own additions. The resulting document was now flowing between six distinct voices, but it gave the report life and individuality in contrast to the previous concise, yet dry, version.

As the bell rang and Amaya moved back to the corner where she had dropped her belongings earlier, she passed by the principal, who had been in the library every day so far but only as an observer, and caught a smile on her lips.

Hoisting her backpack off of the floor, though, Amaya felt her own smile morph into confusion.

Had… had that really just happened?

It hadn't even been that long ago that very day that she was curled up in the beanbag chair a foot away from her, sobbing and feeling helpless over this whole ordeal. The fact that everything had turned around so spectacularly was astounding enough, but the apparent instigator of said turn-around was even more impossible to believe.

Amaya bit her lip as she slung her backpack over her shoulders and turned to the door. Given every other unbelievable thing that had just happened, she found she wasn't surprised at all to see that Romeo was apparently waiting for her.

"How did your anemometer break?" he asked her.

Amaya made a cursory glance to make sure no one was listening before realizing that unless one knew what she was talking about, it would just sound like a code or gibberish anyway. "Night Ninja sticky splatted it," she said, the two of them walking out of the library and towards the school doors together, comfortably, almost as if they were old friends.

"Really?" Romeo raised an eyebrow. "Good for him, I guess. Maybe he's not a total joke after all."

On a normal day Amaya would have been annoyed by that (usual) kind of response from him, but today was not a normal day. "Romeo… I'm still not sure what exactly you did back there, or why you did it, but… thank you," she finished softly.

Romeo huffed and rolled his eyes. "Don't get mushy on me. When I win I'm going to have to take that group report with me to regionals, and so it'll need to be perfect, with all six projects described in detail. This was a solid start today, but it'll still need some major tweaking to be worthy of being associated with me. Don't think I did that just for you. I did it for me!"

Amaya sighed, a bit disappointed, although she wasn't quite sure why; that explanation should have been expected, after all. "Well, no matter what your reasoning was, it still means a lot to me that you did that."

Romeo huffed again, his cheeks turning red. "Would you just drop it already, bird brain? It had nothing to do with you, other than the fact that I have to do this with you at all!"

"I know that," Amaya countered, pushing open the main doors, "but you being able to pull us all together at all is still really impressive."

"Well, duh. I'm super impressive. Nice of you to finally notice." Upon stepping outside, and seeing Greg and Connor sitting on the steps waiting for Amaya, he scowled a bit. Greg and Connor tensed a degree or two and also gave slight grimaces at seeing him with Amaya.

"Okay, whatever you say," Amaya said, forcing a light laugh. "See you tomorrow, Romeo."

"I can't wait until this whole stupid thing is over," Romeo snarled forcefully, making a show of stomping past Connor and Greg down the stairs and to the sidewalk, turning huffily and disappearing from view behind the fence.

"Sooo…" Greg said, hesitantly, "how did everything go today?"

"It was…" Amaya blinked, the days' events still a bit strange to try to take in. "It went really well, actually. It's the weirdest thing. I was so sure I was going to quit, especially after what both Emily and Romeo said to me, but then we were all suddenly… working together. And I was being listened to. I was… included." She shook her head, still not sure what to make of the afternoon. "I honestly have no clue what happened, but… but I think I'm going to be alright now."

"That's great!" Connor said, smiling at her. "I'm glad you're feeling better about this whole thing."

"And that you're still going to participate," Greg added eagerly. "It would have been horrible if you'd quit now."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on quitting anytime soon," Amaya laughed. "But I'm going to need to start gathering new data tonight if I want a project to present in the first place. Anything we need to do tonight?"

Connor shook his head. "Not that we know of. We'll let you know if something comes up."

"I hope nothing does," said Amaya, grinning, "because I've got to take my measurements with my new anemometer!"

"That's the spirit!" Greg cheered.

"We don't know what happened either," said Connor, placing a hand on her shoulder, "but whatever it was, we're glad that it's made you excited for the science fair again!"

"Me too, Connor," said Amaya, an authentic smile back on her face. "Me too."

…

On Tuesday afternoon, the science fair students started work on their poster boards for their presentations, Isaac thoughtfully bringing in one for each participant. All six children happily got to work, chatting with each other and helping each other out as needed. Amaya was strangely satisfied to see that even Romeo seemed to be getting into it. Wednesday was spent much the same way, and with all of the sudden focus and teamwork, the students had mostly completed their poster boards, at least as much as they could until they had all of their data available. Thursday, then, as Amaya entered the library, she wasn't sure what exactly they would spend their time on that day. She had arrived before most of the other kids, seeing only Romeo back at the chessboard, biting his lip in concentration as he surveyed the board. Amaya hesitated for only a moment before approaching him.

"More field research for your chess AI?" she asked him.

Romeo glanced up at her, smiling with confidence. "Just straightening out a few final loose ends, feathers! I've nearly perfected the programming. It's going to beat your insignificant little project so hard, you won't even know what hit you."

"Yeah, I know," Amaya said lightly. "I got that the last hundred times you've said it." She glanced down at the board before picking up both kings and holding them out to Romeo. "So… rematch?"

Romeo's surprise only lasted a second before his confident grin returned. "I'm white this time," he said, snatching the white king from her hands.

"Works for me," shrugged Amaya, placing the black king back on the board and sitting herself down on its side.

As Romeo also placed his king in the correct position and began contemplating his opening move, Amaya felt that sense of confusion she had tucked away a few days ago begin to bubble up again. There was no large group unity to overshadow it at the moment, not like it had been for the past few days.

What were they now, anyway?

Were they actually… friends?

Amaya mentally pushed that notion aside. No, that was impossible. It went against every notion of goodness, and heroism, and friendship, and decency to consider such a fiendish villain like Romeo as a friend. And yet, despite knowing all that, she couldn't help but consider how weirdly sociable their interactions had been lately. Certainly not perfect by any means—Romeo still continued to snark at her at every turn, and Amaya was returning that snark more often than not now—but she had to acknowledge that anyone who had only seen their interactions at school from the past week and a half would have assumed they were… friends.

But they weren't.

…were they?

They were still enemies, right?

Were they some weird mix of both? Like… frenemies, or something?

Amaya sighed, not having a good answer. She was looking forward to when this whole science fair was over and they could get back to being just enemies again.

Although that meant that she'd lose her chess partner…

Romeo looked up at her when he heard her sigh, raising an eyebrow. "You're not going to go all depressed on me again, are you?" he accused her, moving a knight forward almost as an afterthought.

"No," Amaya said, quickly shaking her head. "It's just… this is weird, isn't it?"

"What's weird?"

"You know… us." Amaya shrugged awkwardly.

"What's weird about us?" Romeo demanded. "Besides, you know, the obvious…"

"Well… we are still enemies, right?"

"Of course we are," Romeo said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I did tell you that once this science fair is over, I'd go back to my usual world conquering schemes, didn't I?"

"Yes—"

"And you and the other PJ morons will try to stop me when I do that, right?"

"Of course we will!" Amaya declared, almost defensively.

"Well, there you go," Romeo said matter-of-factly.

Amaya sighed again, the answer not completely satisfying her. "But that's at least a week from now. What are we now?"

Romeo's face flushed a bit at that, although it didn't seem to be from anger. His reply was still dripping with annoyance, however. "We're chess partners now. Now hurry up and make your move already!"

Amaya exhaled again with slight disappointment, moving a pawn forward, realizing that maybe some questions weren't always going to have satisfactory answers.

…

The next week passed more or less uneventfully, at least considering the unusual circumstances.

The PJ Masks weren't kept completely idle. Luna Girl kept them busy one night, and a few nights later Night Ninja had caused another ruckus. Still, though, Amaya was able to continue to collect data for her project (and had learned her lesson against bringing her anemometer with her on missions). By the day before the science fair, her poster board was complete with data plotted and a brief analysis that she could expand upon during her presentation.

With the only work left to do that week was to continue to take and record measurements, Amaya's time in the library every afternoon was freed up again, so she and Romeo happily continued their chess game, Romeo claiming he needed the research to continue fine-tuning his self-playing board. Amaya suspected, however, that he merely was just like her in wanting someone to play against. Someone good.

Because they were both good. This time they were both much more thoughtful with their moves, no (well, few) rash plays being made this time. Competitive barbs were still exchanged, but this time it was as if both children were making sure to take their time, knowing that their period of being able to interact like this was nearly up. When Amaya made a careless move on Thursday that stalemated the game, they both just stared at the board in silence for a few moments, neither one of them wanting to acknowledge the finality of the situation.

Finally, Amaya said apologetically, "You can count that as a win against me. It was my mistake."

"Stalemates don't count as wins," Romeo muttered angrily.

"I know. I'm sorry." Amaya stood up awkwardly. "But it was probably for the best that that game ended today anyway. This time tomorrow, we'll be presenting our projects to the rest of the school…"

"I know that, bird brain!" Romeo snarled at her. "You don't have to provide exposition to me!"

His tone was unusually harsh, and Amaya flinched at it. "I said I was sorry. Maybe sometime later we can get together and play again—"

"Forget it. You and I both know that's not going to happen." Romeo grabbed his backpack and looked back at Amaya, his eyes looking not only angry, but also almost dejected, much to Amaya's shock. "We can go back to being just enemies now, just like you wanted." And even though the final bell hadn't rung yet, he stormed his way out of the library, leaving Amaya no time to respond to him.

The silence and solitude she was left with almost hurt.

Was that what she wanted? Part of her said yes, but she still was unable to feel very happy about the thought. Her desire for things to go back to normal didn't cheer her up, but at least it made her comfortable. She was tired of questioning things. She didn't like not getting answers.

She didn't like that after these past few weeks, she'd never be able to avoid questioning things again.

Sighing helplessly, she methodically began moving the pieces back to their opening positions.

It didn't really matter what she was tired of, or what she wanted, or anything. Things were going to go back to normal after tomorrow regardless of how she felt about it, so she'd better finally learn to cope with the things she couldn't change.