There was one awkward moment when on Monday Professor Stilinski made eye contact with Isaac by accident. Isaac hurried to look away but not quick enough to miss the smile playing on the professor's lips. For a second Isaac felt as if he'd been the one who'd been caught with the marks of a wild sex night all over him.

The professor didn't even falter in his lecture, that bastard. He just shared that knowing look with Isaac and for the rest of the class, he mostly just glossed over him.

Isaac half-expected the professor to ask him to stay after class, to tell him to keep his mouth shut, no doubt, but Stilinski just shooed them all out like usual.

"Isaac?" Erica caught up with him. "Do you and Danny have plans for the weekend? They say it'll be sunny the rest of the week."

Isaac had kept an eye on the weather forecast as well and if the weather was holding up, he and Danny did intend to spend Saturday night out in the park again. Maybe see if they could take a good picture or two as well.

"Yeah?" Isaac made but he could guess where this was heading.

"Well, maybe …" Suddenly shy she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You think I could join you? Just to see what it's like."

Isaac wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of somebody joining them. This was a Danny and him thing, they were co-owning a telescope.

"I'll have to ask Danny," Isaac said, avoiding a straight answer for now. However, he'd seen Danny and Erica the other day, he knew what Danny's answer would be.

"I don't want to impose," Erica back-paddled but he could tell that she wanted this.

"At this rate, we're going to start a stargazing club." Isaac said, warming up to the idea. "But sure, I'll ask Danny."

"Thanks." She beamed at him.

Danny didn't mind Erica coming along. That way Danny was no longer the one least experienced but Isaac had to admit that Danny had caught up rapidly. Isaac didn't want to know how many hours he'd spent on that website by now.

The rest of the week went by without any weird incidents. Outside of class Isaac didn't see Stilinski or Hale, not even the other Hale, which he counted as a win.

On Thursday, he went out for lunch with Scott and Allison. He didn't spot any familiar faces in the crowd and Allison acted normal around him as if he'd never brought up her crazy aunt. Isaac counted it a win.

The weather was holding up so on Saturday Isaac packed his bag mainly with snacks, a thermos full of extra strong coffee, and his notebook. He'd researched a few things they should be able to see and he was eager to find out of they would be able to find them. Since they would be in the park again, their field of view would be limited and they were still in the middle of freaking New York, light pollution was their main problem.

"We really should think about that weekend trip," Isaac muttered to himself. With three people the individual cost for each of them should go down. But first, they had to see if Erica was willing to join them more often or if this was a one-time only thing. She might get bored by the real deal.

When Danny picked him up that evening, Erica was already riding shotgun. Looked like Isaac was interrupting a 101 on stargazing here.

"You've been out there two times," Isaac reminded Danny but he couldn't deny the butterfly feeling in his stomach. For one, he was looking forward to what he'd planned out for the night, and second, introducing somebody to something one was passionate about was always fun. And scary. Isaac just hoped that it would hold up to Erica's expectations. It had worked out with Danny, though.

At the park, Isaac took the lead and walked down the by now familiar path that would lead them to the grassy area they had used before.

They set up camp and then Isaac showed Erica how to set up the telescope and explained the basics. Danny supplied them with coffee and added a word here and there but mostly he let Isaac do this part. He might be a bit rusty but he was the one with years of experience under his belt and he was glad that Danny acknowledged that.

At first, this was a copy of his first night here with Danny but thanks to Danny, and maybe a shared link and some reading on her own on a certain website, Erica had a basic understanding of what they were doing here. That she was taking Professor Hale's astrophysics class might come into play here as well.

Sooner than expected they switched to actually looking for things. Danny had made a list of his own but most of it overlapped with Isaac's.

"Great minds think alike." Danny grinned at him and Isaac didn't have the heart to tell him that their options were limited here and they were bound to pick the same things.

They took turns at the telescope and while one of the others had their turn, Isaac experimented with his phone. He didn't have the equipment for pictures like he'd seen on the internet, he didn't even have a tripod to keep the phone steady, and this was not a good location for this but it was still amazing what the camera of his phone was capable of. The night sky was framed by architecture and nature, it wasn't what he'd been looking for but it did have its appeal.

"Look at this." Isaac showed Danny the photos while Erica had her time at the telescope. They were sitting on the blanket, sipping coffee and nibbling at the cookies Erica had brought.

"Not bad, really not bad," Danny said through the cookie between his teeth because he needed both hands to hold the phone and to swipe through the pictures. "You should give them to Allison, she might be able to enhance some stuff."

Isaac hadn't thought about it but Danny was right. Among their group of friends, Allison was the one who didn't go the science route and was majoring in digital art. If anybody knew how to touch up the pictures it was her. Thinking about it, she might have a decent camera as well. She wasn't a photographer by any means but if he recalled correctly she had to take a class in photography last semester.

"You think we can borrow her camera?" Danny asked.

"I don't even know if she has a camera." Isaac reached for another cookie. They should invite Erica again, she brought good snacks. "First I'll ask her if she can do anything with the pictures, we'll see after that."

Isaac shot more photos and he was able to cross out more than half of what had been on his list, he counted the night a success. He came home after three in the morning, still too wired for sleep but with a broad grin on his face.

Scott was sleeping over at Allison's place so Isaac didn't have to be careful to not wake his friend but the best thing was that Scott had promised to take his work clothes with him to Allison so he wouldn't stumble in at an ungodly hour and wake Isaac.

For once Isaac was able to sleep in on Sunday morning. He rolled out of bed around eleven and took a long shower before he was ready to face the day. He didn't feel like going out for breakfast, he did not want to risk breaking his lucky streak of not witnessing anything he didn't want to witness, so instead of going to that coffee shop, he made do with dorm coffee and a granola bar.

With his breakfast, he sat down at his desk and opened the laptop to update his astronomy profile with last night's findings.

He had a friend request from Erica. He accepted it and then he went to check out her profile. There was not much on it yet, so far she'd put in some basics but he could see that she already had three friends. Curious who the third one was, Isaac clicked on the icon. He found himself and Danny on the list, no surprise there, but the third one was not just somebody she'd met on the forums.

You sent Professor Hale a friend request? Isaac sent her a private message.

Saw that he's friends with you so I thought why not, came the prompt answer. I didn't message him or anything

He accepted it, she pointed out a second later.

When Isaac checked Danny's profile, he found the professor on his friend's list as well. Along with a dozen other people. Looked like Danny was making friends.

Isaac made a mental note to see the professor over his office hours on Wednesday, he probably should explain why he got these random friend requests from people new to the site who hadn't interacted with him before. Erica was taking his class but Isaac doubted that the professor knew who she was. But that had to wait until Wednesday.

For now, Isaac sent the pictures he'd taken last night over to his laptop to have a look at them on a bigger screen. He would not dare to share them on the website but when he skipped through them he had to say that they were not half-bad. A tripod alone would make one hell of a difference, though. But he'd just spent money he didn't have to spare on half a telescope, he could not afford things like tripods. Or a camera.

Which brought him back to Allison.

He sent her a voice message, explaining that he'd taken some pictures last night and if she would like to have a look at them. While he waited for her response he killed some time on the website. He had work to do but it was just after noon on a Sunday, he was not in the mood to study. Besides, he needed to hit the library for his next assignment and he was not ready to put on actual pants. He was comfy in his pajama pants, thank you very much.

A few minutes later Allison answered that she was with Lydia at the archery range but Isaac could come by later in the afternoon.

Allison was one of the lucky ones who could afford a little apartment of her own. Knowing her background now Isaac understood why she'd wanted to keep to herself when she went to college. He doubted that she made friends easily and after the stunt he'd pulled the other day, it was a miracle that she wanted to interact with him ever again. Especially alone. But here he was.

"Okay, what do you got?" She had her laptop ready and opened the folder with his pictures as soon as it appeared on her screen.

"Just a few shots from last night." Suddenly Isaac felt self-conscious. When it came to art she was the expert and even if photography was not her main field, she knew more about it than him.

"Danny said that you might be able to make them better," Isaac said while she skipped through the pictures.

She didn't say anything for a long minute, just looking at the images. Isaac felt as if he was about to get graded for them.

"I like them," Allison finally said.

"They could be better." Even to his untrained eye, they looked amateurish.

"Everything could be better." Allison opened Photoshop and got the first picture up. "You said that you used your phone?"

"Yeah." Isaac nodded. "And I had to hold it in my hand."

"You should look into long exposure," Allison said while she started to do stuff with the image.

Isaac knew what she was talking about, he'd seen some awesome long-exposure photos online.

"I need better equipment and another location for that." Aside from his lack of talent for this kind of thing, Isaac was better with technical drawings than pictures.

They talked about how to get better results and Allison gave him some good pointers while she was working her magic on the picture. Isaac couldn't tell what exactly she was doing, she didn't add stars but somehow she brought them out more clearly.

"You're a wizard." Isaac hadn't thought that the picture could look this good.

"I do some photoshopping like this as a side hustle, I can give you my rates." Allison grinned at him.