She shakes her head. “Nope. You’ll charm her for the rest of her life and she’ll never not be smitten by you.”

I wave my hand. “She’ll get bored of me.”

“Nope.”

I give her a look. “After this semester, I’ll leave Edenbury and go back to L.A. and she’ll forget all about me.”

“A robot never forgets, unless she deletes you from her system. But as long as you’re here, she’ll treat you like you’re royalty.” She gets to her feet and heads to my laptop that’s sitting on my desk with all the other clutter. “This is your gaming laptop?”

“Yeah.”

She studies it. “Pretty impressive, but nowhere as good as Minnie.”

I laugh. “True.”

My phone rings with a video call. “It’s my parents.”

“You can take it. I don’t mind. I’ll just check out your laptop and see how inadequate it is compared to mine.”

“Thanks.” I accept the call and watch their faces pop up on the screen. “Hey, Declan,” Dad greets. “How’s your day so far?”

I’m about to answer, but Mom bends forward, squinting. “Who’s that?”

Mia’s head snaps up. I didn’t realize she’s in the shot.

“That’s Mia Park,” I tell my parents.

Mom nods as Mia comes to stand next to me. “Of course. Mia. How are you, honey?”

Mia smiles and waves. “I’m good. Great, actually. It’s so good to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Hart.”

Dad returns the greeting as well.

“Mia and I are doing the play together,” I remind them.

“Yes, and we’re looking forward to seeing the two of you ‘kill it’ as you kids say,” Dad says. “We know the play will be incredible.”

“Thanks,” Mia and I say.

My parents ask me about my day and we talk about other things. Mia gets a phone call as well and excuses herself, leaving my room.

Mom bends forward, so close I only see half her face. “Declan.” She sounds all excited. “You and Mia are getting quite close, aren’t you?”

“We’re getting friendly, yeah.”

“You know what I mean.”

My eyebrows scrunch. “No, not really.”

Dad laughs. “What your mother is trying to ask is if you and her are…”

My eyes widen. “Me and Mia? What? No. Of course not!”

Mom frowns. “But she’s so nice and pretty. Such a sweetheart. I remember one time when we were on set and I lost my way and she helped me. Such an adorable thing.”

My cheeks feel hot for some reason. “Mom, we’re just friends.”

Her eyes widen with curiosity. “But do you like her?”