Kindred Spirits Read Free Page A

listen to
Troy’s stories,” she whispered.
    “We can switch back in the morning,” he said.
    “Do you know him?” she asked. “Troy?”
    “I didn’t know him before,” Gabe said, “but I have been sitting next to him for four days . . .”
    Gabe picked up his book.
    “Thanks,” Elena said again.
    Gabe didn’t answer.

TUESDAY
15 DECEMBER 2015
    It didn’t seem like Elena had slept, but she must have. She woke up slumped over her backpack with a patch of cold saliva on her chin.
    “Star Wars!” someone was shouting from a car driving by.
    “Star Wars!” Troy shouted back, raising his fist.
    Yes
, Elena thought,
Star Wars.
That’s what this experience needed: more Star Wars.
    Elena was going to rally.
    So this wasn’t the jubilant, communal, public display of affection she’d been expecting—it could still be
something
. It could still be memorable. She’d make it
memorable.
    “What does the Code of the Line say about going to Starbucks?” she asked.
    Troy answered: “Totally acceptable as long as you bring back some for us.”
    Elena walked the six blocks to Starbucks and hung out in the bathroom for a while, painting little Yodas on her cheeks. She had the Starbucks barista write character names on their cups. Troy
was Admiral Ackbar, Gabe was General Dodonna, and Elena was Mon Mothma.
    When she got back to the line, she took out her phone and carefully took a selfie of herself with the guys behind her. Gabe wouldn’t look at the camera, but Troy played along.
“
Third in line!
” Elena posted on Instagram. Which sounded much better than “
Last in Line!
”
    “I dig your face paint,” Troy said. “I’ve got a costume, but I’m saving it for opening night.”
    “Do you always wear a costume on opening night?” Elena asked.
    “Oh yeah. Usually I camp in it.”
    “I want to hear about your costumes,” Elena said.
    “You mean opening-night costumes? Or all my Star Wars costumes, including Halloween and May the Fourth parties?”
    “We want to hear about
all
of them,” she said, glancing over at Gabe. “Right?”
    Gabe was looking at her like she was out of her mind.
    After they got through Troy’s costumes, Elena quizzed him about highs and lows from past lines. Then she suggested they play Star Wars trivia, which she quickly realized wasn’t a
good idea, because she couldn’t answer any questions about the prequels, and she didn’t want Troy and Gabe to guess that she hadn’t actually seen them.
    Elena
could
have seen them by now. She could have watched all three prequels after her dad moved to Florida—but it still felt like she’d be betraying him. And even though her
dad had betrayed her by leaving, she didn’t feel like watching Star Wars movies just to spite him. That seemed like it really
would
corrupt her love for Star Wars. “
A Jedi
uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.
” (Yoda.)
    Elena’s mom drove by a few times that morning. Elena just waved and tried to look like she was having the time of her life.
    Nobody new got in line.
    The highlight of Tuesday afternoon was when a photographer from the newspaper came by to take their picture.
    “I’m looking for the Star Wars line,” he said. He had an oversized camera with a long black lens.
    “That’s us!” Troy said.
    “Oh.” He squinted at them. “I thought there was supposed to be a real line, like with people in costume.”
    “Come back on opening night,” Troy said. “My Poe Dameron will knock your socks off.”
    The photographer looked at Elena’s cheeks. “Is that Shrek?”
    “It’s Yoda,” Gabe snapped. “For Christ’s sake.”
    In the end, the photographer shot a close-up of Troy holding a photo of himself waiting in a much more interesting line fifteen years ago.
    It was a humiliating setback for them as individuals and for the line as a whole.
    (Ugh. They weren’t a
line
. They were just three cold nerds.) (They were three suckers who showed up for a party