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3.) Wave

4.) Smile

5.) Space

Bren wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he thought Arlo looked nervous as Holly’s eyes took in the list. She ran her fingers along the curve of her headphones for a full ten seconds before she pointed at smile.

Arlo’s expression brightened and Holly looked up at Bren, wearing a look that was half-smile, half-stare.

“Oh, uh, have a good day at school,” Bren said, trying to make sure his smile wasn’t as confused as he was.

Holly stared somewhere around Bren’s chin for another couple seconds then took the stack of cards back from Arlo and zipped them into her bookbag.

Arlo got up and flashed Bren a grin of his own as Holly turned to leave. Bren made to wave but stopped himself—apparently, they weren’t on waving terms yet.

“Thank you.”

Bren didn’t realize she was talking to him until Arlo nudged him in the ribs. He smiled back at her and she trotted off towards the front doors. By the time they got back to the car, the question was still rattling around in his head.

“Hey, so—the cards?”

Arlo shrugged as he swapped the song over from Once Upon A December to something else.

“I told you she’s shy.”

“Yeah, but cards?”

“They were my dad’s idea,” Arlo said as he eased the wheel to skirt around the row of parents dropping their kids off, half-smiling. “She said that sometimes when people asked her questions it was too hard to think of the answer with them looking at her. So the cards kind of do that part for her.”

“Sounds kinda like someone else I know.”

Arlo laughed but shook his head. “I mean, maybe a little? But Holly’s sort of on a whole different level.”

He wasn’t frowning or anything, but Bren thought there was something off in the way he smiled as he nodded along to one of the Joni Mitchell songs he’d never learned the name of.

“Everythin’ alright, Robolad?”

He put his hand on Arlo’s knee and he smiled.

“Yeah, just.” He sighed and turned down the volume as they pulled up to a red light.

“My parents have been trying to get her in to see a specialist for a couple months now.”

Bren’s mind wandered back to the time in primary five when he’d missed an entire day to answer questions and play a bunch of weird games with a teacher he’d never seen before. He hadn’t fully grasped what it had meant back then, but by second year he’d put two and two together. Since nothing really changed for him after that, he’d guessed the counselor had told his teachers that he was just annoying.

“That’s not a bad thing, though, yeah?”

Arlo shook his head again. “No, I mean—if it means we get a better idea of how to support her, I’m all for it. I just”—he skipped the track forward when a bouncing club song started up—“want her to be able to be a kid, I guess.”

Bren grinned and he gave Arlo’s knee a shake.

“You know, you don’t gotta worry about everythin’, Robolad.”

Arlo glanced out of the corner of his eyes.

“It’s my hobby.”

Bren’s smile grew. “I thought I was your hobby.”