For Nevermore Season 1

stuff.”
    Tori barely looked up as her mom kissed her on the cheek and said she’d be back as soon as the interview was over. Noella and Jen traded smiles, then she flew from the house and left the girls to their conversation. After they exhausted the subject of Phineas and Ferb , they naturally fell into conversations about 30 or so other subjects. Noella found Tori surprisingly easy to talk to, considering she was only eight years old.
    She didn’t seem eight, at least not like Noella remembered eight for her or any of her friends, back when she had more than a pair.
    Most girls at eight liked to talk about themselves, the things they were into, and were busy seeking approval from peers, or those a bit older than them, and just starting to create a sense of identity. Tori didn’t. The only things Tori said about herself were in response to questions Noella asked. It seemed as though Tori would have been perfectly fine to talk about Noella and her life the entire time, even though Noella found the subject supremely boring.
    From what little Noella did discover about Tori, she liked her a lot. Her favorite movie of the year had been Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows , of course. And she wasn’t one of the fan girls who insisted that the last book shouldn’t have been split in two. They could have split the book in three and that would’ve given Tori one more movie to love. Tori’s good taste went beyond movies, too. Her favorite new song was “Pumped Up Kicks,” by Foster the People, and her favorite book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo , which Noella found slightly horrifying, both that she loved it and that she’d read it.
    “You’ve read that?”
    “Oh yeah,” Tori nodded. “My mom says if I can understand it, I can read it.”
    “And you still like Phineas and Ferb ?”
    “Of course I do, and so do you!” Tori reminded her.
    Noella was glad when Tori said she hadn’t seen The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie. She said, “Do you want to see it?”
    “Totally, but my mom said just because I can read it doesn’t mean I can see it. So I have to wait until it’s on cable and she’s asleep.”
    Noella laughed, impressed that she already had a plan. Noella then changed the subject. She didn’t ask Tori about her dad. Maybe she’d get there next time, but there was no reason to touch a topic that might be painful, even if it would explain her family’s sudden flight to Aurora Falls. Noella let Tori navigate nearly the entire conversation. After dancing around a dozen or so questions Noella could tell Tori didn’t really care about, she finally got to the one which she did.
    “So, do you like any boys?” Noella asked.
    Tori laughed, “Ew, no way.”
    “Take my word for it, you’re way too young.”
    Tori shook her head. “I don’t think I’m too young. I just think all the boys I’ve known have been yucky. If I met a boy who wasn’t suck a jerk face, I might like one. Apparently, I’ll eventually go boy crazy whether I like it or not. Unless all the books and movies have been lying to me.”
    Tori laughed, then pressed the question. “So do you have a boyfriend?”
    Noella thought of both Sam and Dante. One real and unavailable and the other imagined, and almost always there, in her head anyway.
    “There is someone,” she said, “But he doesn’t think of me like that.”
    Tori smirked, “Well, isn’t that the oldest story in the book?”
    Noella threw a couch pillow at her. “You’re not even old enough to know about the oldest story in the book.”
    “Seriously, he doesn’t like you at all? ” Tori’s eyes were wide, as though she truly cared about Noella’s answer.
    “Well, he likes me, but only as a friend. And now he’s making a lot of new friends, and I don’t think he finds me terribly interesting, at least not like he used to.”
    “He’ll get bored of the new friends soon. Then he’ll remember that you’re interesting,” Tori said, again surprising Noella with her junior wisdom.
    “What about you?” Noella said, “Have you made any friends since you moved in?”
    Tori shook her head. “Nope, zero friends for Tori. Exactly one less than I had in St. Louis.”
    “No, you have one friend,” Noella said, squeezing her hand. She waited until Tori met her eyes, then added. “I’ll be your friend, I promise.”
    “Does it get easier?” Tori asked. “You know, making friends.”
    Noella gave Tori a sad smile. “I think it’ll get easier when