Fillmore and Ingrid's summer was winding down, and with ninth grade behind them, the future felt bright. They had already been accepted into their high school's Safety Patrol and, even though Ingrid didn't say it, Fillmore knew she was excited. Safety Patrol offered a lot of perks- if grades were good, and they tested well, with officers having "liquid class schedules". Officers had to stay on school property during school hours and any absences were excused when used for Safety Patrol work, but they still had to do all assigned homework from class.

Fillmore felt good about it. If they hadn't gotten on the Safety Patrol, he would see much less of his best friend. Ingrid was doing more and more advanced classes, and without Safety Patrol they wouldn't have had many class periods together, anyway. Ingrid was a genius and kept advancing much more than him, or anyone. She had already been taking High School classes during their time at X Middle School, and no doubt would be taking on extraordinarily complex subjects within the year.

The sun was bright as it began to set, the heat of summer slowly beginning to cool, and Fillmore and Ingrid sat next to each other, enjoying the other's company, even if they were relatively silent. They were on the top of an old wooden picnic table, their feet resting on the bench below, watching the last summer day beginning to end. To celebrate their upcoming debut in high school, the five "Orange Belts" decided to have one last summer picnic. Anza and Tehama were tossing a ball back and forth in a game of keep-away with O'Ferrel between them. The redhead was actually doing rather well keeping up with them, having grown out of a lot of his clumsiness. Ingrid remained quiet as they watched.

"The sun's starting to go," Fillmore mused, breaking the quiet. Ingrid didn't respond, just leaned her head back a little, to look up into the changing sky. He decided not to pry and returned to watching the game his other friends were playing.

Anza and Tehama were a good team, able to read each other's body language to the point that the way they tossed the ball it looked like they had practiced. It almost seemed unfair, with Danny barely missing each time, unable to catch onto the rhythm the two had. But just as it seemed O'Ferrel was going to fade, he catapulted into the air, snatching the ball out of the sky before Anza had a chance to react.

He did a small victory dance, exchanging places with Joseph, leaving the other teenager stunned for a moment.

Fillmore laughed, clapping his hands and standing up, "Way to go, O'Ferrel!"

Danny bowed, grinning big, then threw that ball to Karen. Anza jumped, but was much too late and missed.

"Losing your touch?" Tehama teased, catching the ball with ease.

Anza rolled his eyes, smiling at her. "I'll won't be here long!"

The sun drooped lower, sending hues of tangerine and scarlet across the skies. The shadows slowly crept as the sun got lower and lower, and the heat of the summer day began to fade. Ingrid brought her legs to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. Her gaze was far from where the two of them sat. She'd been unusually quiet, even with their friends laughing and enjoying the day, Ingrid's daze felt odd to him.

"Ingrid?"

She kept staring, not hearing him, or too deep in thought to come back.

"Ingrid Thiiiird?"

The pale girl blinked, shaking her head. She blinked a few more times before she returned to earth with him.

"What?" Ingrid's voice confirmed to him that she was thinking about other things; her mind was sometimes dark, and he worried about her; especially when she didn't quite meet his eyes.

"What are you thinking about? You've been so quiet all day," Fillmore asked, waiting until she looked at him, "More quiet than usual."

Ingrid's eyes shifted away from his gaze again, shrugging, "End of the summer," she mused, "we only have two summers left."

"If you include senior year's summer, we have three," he replied, trying to get her to smile.

"Still not very many," Ingrid almost whispered.

Fillmore watched her. He knew that her mind went deep, and there were galaxies of things jumping around in her brain, but so much went unsaid. Even though he understood her better than others, he often felt like a third wheel to Ingrid and her own mind.

"It's the same everyone else gets. We have plenty of time," he said, trying to reassure her.

Ingrid's green eyes locked on him and he gazed back. For a moment, she looked almost sad, and Fillmore couldn't help but feel like she was trying to tell him something, but suddenly her expression changed, and she smiled sadly, "Someday there won't be any more summers for us."

Fillmore knew she often dreaded the future and getting lost in her mind could lead her to spiral. Her words made his stomach drop, nonetheless, and concern crossed his face. He touched her shoulder, and she jolted, then forced herself to relax.

"Ingrid Third, I will always be there for you, you know that, right?" Fillmore said earnestly, keeping his hand on her shoulder, squeezing her gently, trying to pull her awareness back to him and their small celebration.

She gave a small, dark chuckle, "Summer promises? What happens when winter comes?"

"I'll still be here, but in a coat," he said, firmly.

Ingrid's eyes rolled, but her mouth gave a smile. Slowly, she uncurled herself, jumping up. Raising her arms over her head, she stretched her body, a sliver of shadow against the setting sun, the cold shade stretching far behind her. Ingrid's face had changed, her smile felt bigger, but it was definitely fake. Fillmore stared into her eyes, and she looked away.

"We should have a toast!" she exclaimed excitedly, turning her head to where their three other friends played.

Fillmore knew she was trying to push away something more serious and distract him, so he didn't move for a moment, looking at her earnestly, hoping to make her believe him. Getting impatient, she finally grabbed his arm, pulling him up. "Come on; there's only five of those fancy root beers left, it'll be a great way to end this summer."

He relented, allowing Ingrid to fill his arms with three of the glasses of "RootEE Beer" brand sodas. She carried two herself, walking so quickly Fillmore could barely keep pace with her. She always walked faster than him when she was hiding something.

But he decided not to push it, and instead allowed Danny and Joe to grab two of the sodas from his arms. Ingrid handed Tehama one, the two girls twisting off the caps almost in unison.

Fillmore lifted his glass bottle up, "To the First-year Five!"

"Sophomore Corps!" Joe Anza cheered, lifting his bottle, too.

Karen Tehama lifted her drink, clinking against Anza's, "Unified Underclassmen!"

"The person pentagon?" Danny tried, but slapped his face. "Ugh, sorry, that was awful-"

"No," Ingrid said firmly, looking at him, a gentle smile coming to her lips, "It was great," her bottle joined the other four, the five root beers lifted up together in the setting sun.

"Let's be ready for the future, as a team," Fillmore said, looking each of them in the eye. "Here's to all of the days ahead, together!" All of them hit their bottles against each other.

"And the days we've already had," Ingrid added before anyone could drink. Murmurs of agreement went around as they all partook from their fancy root beer.

Fillmore's gaze went to Ingrid's as the others pulled their bottles back, getting several big gulps. He barely got a glance of Ingrid's look of uneasiness before she took a sip. It broke into a grimace as O'Ferrel burped loudly.

"Bring on High School!" Danny shouted, throwing his fist into the air, "We've gone through worse!"