"Nah, Nelson doesn't mind me doing this, we hang out on each other's beds all the time when we want to," Lloyd stated, kicking his legs off of the edge of Nelson's lofted bed.

"Pretty cool of him," Nya said absentmindedly, internally taking a roll call of sorts one more time as she looked around from her spot seated on the ground below the window on Nelson's side of the room. Cole, Pix, and Kai were squished side-by-side-by-side on Lloyd's own lofted bed, while Jay spun himself repeatedly in Lloyd's desk chair and Skylor was seated on the desk itself.

They were all great to see as they wrapped up the Mission Rink Rescue meeting, but the best one to see?

Zane was sitting on the ground below the window on Lloyd's side of the room. He was actually there! And he was still there as the meeting wrapped up!

(Nya tried not to think about how their two equal positions meant they were sitting right next to each other, how if she uncrossed her legs and put them out like he was doing then their feet might casually brush, how she could reach out and just… She tried really hard not to think about that. She failed.)

"Is that it, then?" Cole asked. "Is that all for this meeting?"

Pix looked up from her notes. "'Is that all?' Cole, we have three fundraising ideas outlined and we found an excellent-looking grant that NNCU can apply for. Did you want more?"

Cole laughed. "No, I just meant if we were able to move on to more fun things."

"We still have to plan our next meeting," Nya said, pulling out her phone. "But that reminds me. Hey, Zane? I don't think I've got your phone number or any of your social media. Can I add you to a group chat so we can message easily if we need to change meeting details?"

Zane pursed his lips momentarily, looking conflicted.

"Or not?" Nya said. "I mean? If you don't want? We don't have to?"

"You may certainly have my phone number," Zane said, cutting off Nya's uncertain ramble. "However, I do not have much in the way of social media, and I would caution that my phone is far from new. It sometimes may struggle to stay updated on group chats."

"Got it," Nya said. "So should I text you individually if there's a big update?"

Zane smiled a little. "That would be helpful."

"Ready when you are," Nya said, listening as Zane rattled off his phone number. She added, fingers flying over her phone screen, "I'm putting you and the rest of us into a new group chat now that we've got your info, I'm titling it-"

"Mission Rink Rescue," the rest of the room (minus Zane) chorused.

Nya paused. "Am I that predictable?"

Lloyd laughed. "Yes!"

"Very much yes," Kai added.

Briefly, Nya weighed the pros and cons of throwing her phone at one of her brothers, then she quickly decided against it. After all, she had only one phone, and two brothers. It wouldn't be fair to leave one out.

"Anyway!" Nya said over the conversation that had quickly started about what other things she was predictable in. Sometimes, the word "anyway" felt like her catchphrase when it came to this group, she thought with fond resignation. "Any ideas where to have the next meeting?"

"My dorm room!" Jay said loudly, spinning himself again for emphasis.

"If your awful roommate would ever leave us alone," Kai said.

"Does Nadakhan even attend classes?" Skylor asked. "Or does the guy just hang around campus to make your life miserable?"

"That is a fair question," Jay said overly-brightly. "I'd guess the second option."

"Hate that," Kai said firmly.

"We could meet at the ice rink itself," Cole suggested, getting them back on track at least for the moment. "Depending on how we time it, we could meet after figure-skating practice, so Zane and I would already be there, then have the meeting."

"Or," Nya said slowly, watching Zane fiddle with his phone. "Zane, as the newest to the group, would you like to have the next meeting at your dorm room?"

Zane froze, looking down at his phone. Slowly, very slowly, he looked up and off to one side. "Is… Would that be a requirement?"

Nya traded a confused glance with Cole, the resident Zane expert, who looked just as confused as she felt. Nya said back, equally slowly, "I mean, no? It's just something I wanted to offer, you know, to be inclusive."

"That is a… Considerate offer," Zane said. Then he was quiet.

The rest of the room went quiet too, waiting.

A notification sound chimed, a rather old-timey sounding one at that, and Zane looked down at his phone. Sounding some weird mix of relieved and strained, he said quickly, "Ah. I must go. Apologies."

In the blink of an eye, he was on his feet and out the door.

"Was that my fault?" Nya asked after a moment. "That was my fault again, right?"

"Not so sure about that," Pix said, staring contemplatively at the door still swinging slightly ajar.

"It's hard to say," Cole said. "But Zane wouldn't just leave us. The ice rink is important to him, and I think spending time with us might be starting to be important to him too. That won't be the last we see of him."

But actually, that was the last Nya saw of him, at least for a while.

Zane missed the next Mission Rink Rescue meeting.

When Nya went to the library at the time Zane had quoted to her as when he usually spent time there, he wasn't in his usual nook, nor in any other spot she could find in the library.

Cole offered that Zane was still attending figure-skating practice, just very focused and not seeming open to talking, but then when Nya showed up at the next figure-skating practice, Zane wasn't there either.

Jay and Pix, who each evidently shared a different class with him, reported that he was barely on time, which was "way out of the normal for the guy" according to Jay, and he was rushing out at the bell, which was "in character but even more hurried than usual" according to Pix.

Nya didn't know what she'd done wrong.

"If you even did anything wrong," Kai pointed out, flopping down to sit beside her on Cole's bed.

"I had to have done something wrong," Nya said, emphasizing the word "something" with all of her frustration. "Otherwise he wouldn't be avoiding us!"

Cole hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe? But maybe not. But also maybe."

"Real helpful, there," Nya said sarcastically.

"Eh. You get what you get." Cole shrugged and turned back to his homework.

"Maybe he's not avoiding us," Lloyd said slowly, sitting up from the floor. "Maybe he's the-opposite-of-avoiding something else."

Nya wrinkled her face in confusion. "What?"

"I think I see what you're saying," Kai said. "Maybe he's really busy with something else."

"But what?" Nya asked.

Nobody had an answer to that. So Nya kept looking for an answer on her own.

That didn't mean she was able to put everything else off, unfortunately. Classes had to be attended, projects had to be completed, and she was still really undeclared for her major, which meant meetings with Ms. Mystake for Mission Studying Settlement. Then there was the ongoing intramural hockey tournament, which was plenty to manage on its own.

"There," Nya said to herself, stepping back from the board at the ice rink. She'd written in a few more requests for practice times for their team. Their second game would come up faster than they'd know it, and they'd need to be ready.

Brushing her hands off, she started to head for the doors, her footsteps quiet among the silence of the empty rink.

The near-silence, actually.

Wait, what was that muffled sound? Was it coming from one of the gender-neutral bathrooms? What would someone be doing in a gender-neutral bathroom that sounded like-

Oh.

Oh, that was someone crying in there.

Nya hesitated at the realization, just a few steps from the rink doors. She wavered for a moment, but no, she wouldn't be okay with it if she just left whoever it was, sobbing alone in a random bathroom. Nya turned around and headed for the bathrooms.

She stopped outside the gender-neutral bathrooms. Leaning against the wall of the single-stall door where the crying seemed to be coming from, Nya announced herself with a soft but drawn-out, "Heeey."

The crying quieted but continued.

"Are you okay?" Nya asked, trying to make whoever it was feel supported. "I mean, of course you're not okay, you're sobbing in some bathroom, and sobbing kind of hard too, but-"

The crying got even quieter.

Nya mentally slapped her own forehead. So much for being supportive. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I don't want you to feel alone in whatever you're dealing with. College, and becoming an adult, and all that, it's hard, isn't it? If you'd let me, I want to help."

The bathroom door opened.

Tears streaked down high cheekbones, and usually well-cared-for blond hair stood at messy angles as, of all people, Zane hurried out of the bathroom and right out of the entire ice rink with nothing more than a muttered, "My apologies."

Nya stood there for a moment, stunned into watching him go.

She'd been confused and curious before.

Now, she was more confused, more curious, and entirely concerned.

"Okay," Nya said to herself. "Okay then. I guess I'm adding another mission to my list. Time to call everybody together for Mission Helping Hand."