You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ?

11

The look he shot me for my persistence was definitely annoyance. Forcing down a laugh that I was certain was trying to crawl up my throat, I smiled back at him.

Slowly, Nolan pointed to a bright-blue sticker I hadn't noticed was on the front of his hoodie.

It said: Want to learn more about astronomy? I'm here to help!

"You can ask anyone with this sticker on their shirt," he said. "We aren't supposed to actively bother people."

Not that you would, anyway, I wanted to say, but I managed to keep my mouth shut.

"Oh, so you mean I can ask you about constellations?" I said, flashing him a cheeky smile.

He stared flatly at me.

No wonder no one approached him with questions if he looked at them like that. Then again, I supposed people rarely approached him to begin with. He probably glared away everyone who even dared to skim over his blue sticker with their eyes.

"You want to ask me?"

This guy was full of surprises!

"Why not?" I said. "Since I'm already here. You guys are trying to attract more members with this event, aren't you?"

"They are. I'm not."

I snickered. "Why am I not surprised?"

Nolan took a deep breath, and then heaved an enormous sigh. "Okay. What do you want to know?"

Immediately, I could tell one thing from this action alone—he would not make a good tutor.

I hummed. Just how much of this stuff did he know? Maybe I should start easy.

"Well, I've heard of Big Dipper before. What does it look like?"

"It's easy to find," he said, raising his arm up to point at the sky, "once you know what it looks like."

"Where should I be looking?"

"Over there. Do you see that faint outline of those bright stars forming something that looks like a saucepan? There's the handle."

"Oh ... yeah, now that you mention it," I said. "It does look like a pan."

"That's the Big Dipper."

"That looks so cool. Did you learn this in the club? Maybe I should join, too," I said the last part half-jokingly.

The people here seemed nice, but I loved lazing around too much to juggle my participation in two clubs.

After a brief moment of silence, he answered, "No. I liked stargazing before I joined."

Wow. I actually learned something new about him. So he did have interest in things like a normal person.

"Are there any other constellations you can teach me about?"

"The Big Dipper isn't a constellation, it's an asterism," he said. "It's part of the constellation—"

"—Ursa Major, yeah, I know," I admitted. "For what it's worth, I think the Ursa Major is the cutest constellation. I'm just superficial like that."

"You seem familiar with all this," he said, narrowing his eyes at me. "What was the point of asking me?"

His green eyes looked even brighter in the darkness of the night.

I shrugged. "I wanted to know if you were familiar with it, too."

The ice in his eyes thawed a little. "Is it your hobby?"

"It's my older brother's," I confessed, looking down at the front of my hoodie. "He taught me everything I know about astronomy. He's in love with it, honestly. He would sooner marry the sky than find a girlfriend."