Claire had been quiet after she got back to the funeral home the day before. It might have passed as a pensive mood, but really it was Claire trying to settle in to the idea that she'd wasted a weekend in L.A. just to blubber all over the art school dean she needed to impress. So she'd forced a smile and admired the pictures of Maya and let her ( Read more... )

The thing about waking up in Cal's room after a dance, Claire thought as she opened her eyes and sleepily looked around, was how familiar it was getting. Her dress was over the chair where she usually threw her clothes, Cal's typewriter sat at the ready on his desk, and even the clutter on Merlin's side had become a regular landmark ( Read more... )

Even at age five, Claire Fisher wasn't the type to bound out of bed ( Read more... )

Cal and Claire hadn't really stayed at the date that late; it just felt late to Claire because, after they danced, every moment got charged. She would go to look at him and he'd have this smile and it would make her smile and the butterflies would start up and they were back to Awkward Crushville, Population: Cal and Claire ( Read more... )

Claire Standish woke up with a start and quickly realized she didn't know where she was. It made no sense: The random jock party she'd been at the night before hadn't involved anything all that wild, and she wasn't some alkie who passed out places anyhow ( Read more... )

Claire had never in her life been so grateful to have laundry to put away as she was on Saturday. She even neatly stacked her shirts instead of just shoving them in a drawer, that's how grateful she was ( Read more... )

Claire had a little time before her flight, and she spent it haphazardly tossing things into her suitcase, dorm windows and door open wide to catch the warm breeze. She knew the weather wasn't seasonally appropriate for Maryland, but she still really appreciated it ( Read more... )

Claire had made more than a token effort at cleaning her side of the room; her clothes were stashed in more or less the right drawers, and her art supplies had been carefully placed inside her desk ( Read more... )

Claire didn't live with any animals, so she'd missed the latest bout of Fandom weirdness. She was preoccupied anyhow. Claire had heard radio, and Claire was not entirely convinced she even wanted to go out with Cal. Great, fine, she had red hair -- but clearly Cal liked blondes too, and it didn't take low self-esteem to see Amber was approximately ( Read more... )