Anna walked with Luke out to the track field before practice. She wasn't on the team or anything – running around like that didn't seem like something she'd ever want to do. But he liked it. So she walked out to the field with him and waited until practice started as often as she could. Then, she'd walk home on her own.

"Do you have any plans for this weekend?" Luke asked.

"Well, the Crown Theater's playing a movie I was thinking about going to." Anna said slowly.

She had been pretty excited about the idea herself, but she didn't really think it was something Luke would want to see. He always picked movies that had a lot more action in them than Anna was really used to. Normally, she was happy to see whatever he wanted, but she'd been kind of in the mood for something different for once.

"Yeah? What movie?" he asked.

"My Fair Lady." Anna replied hesitantly.

It was one of the first movies she'd ever actually seen in a theater, and the fact that it was going to be shown again had made her pretty excited. The theater was doing some kind of Classic Movie special on Sunday afternoons this month. Of course, classic movies were Anna's favorite. After she'd become a vampire, she'd shut herself up for years, refusing to do anything at all. But when she finally did decide to do something fun, movies had been her first choice. That had been over sixty years ago, and those old films had always held a special place in her heart that she figured her friends would never really understand.

She'd been planning on going alone – old movies didn't really seem like something any of her friends would be interested in. And she was most definitely used to going to the movies alone; she'd done it for decades before she'd met any of them, after all.

"What's it about?" Luke asked.

Anna sighed to herself; it still got to her sometimes when none of her friends remembered things she'd loved for years.

"Well, it's about a man who finds a girl on the street and makes her into a high-society lady."

"And I'll bet he falls in love with her by the end." Luke said knowingly.

"...Yeah."

"So it's a love story."

"Mostly." she admitted.

"Romantic comedy?" he asked hopefully.

"Kind of, I guess." Anna shrugged. Still, it probably wasn't as much comedy as Luke would want. "Anyway, I like it."

"You've seen it before?"

"A couple of times."

Anna couldn't quite bring herself to admit she'd seen it when it first came out. Luke might know she'd been around for a long time, but she still felt weird actually reminding him of that fact. And she couldn't quite remember if he knew she was a little over three hundred anyway.

"Well, that could still be ok..." Luke told her slowly.

"Really? You'd actually want to see it with me?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised." he told her, sounding just the slightest bit offended. "Besides, it's something different. So when's it playing?"

"12:15 on Sunday." she told him.

"Should I pick you up at 12 then?"

"Well...ok." Anna said.

It was a little hard to believe that he'd really just go. It was true that Luke seemed happy to do almost anything she suggested, but she still hadn't expected him to actually offer to go with her.

"Are you sure it's something you'd want to see?" she asked again, just to double-check.

"Sure, why not?" Luke grinned. "Besides, I've never seen it – it might be good to see something new once in a while."

"Well, it's not exactly new." Anna admitted.

"Well, new for me." Luke told her, shrugging. "So, I'll be there at noon."

"Eleven forty-five?" Anna knew Luke almost never managed to be on time.

"Sounds like a plan." he grinned.

▼△▼△▼△▼

At eleven forty-five Anna was ready and waiting. She didn't really expect Luke to show up on time, but it still seemed somehow wrong for her to not be ready herself. She sat down on the couch to wait for him, glad that at least now she had a cell phone. Anna remembered the first couple of times he'd shown up before she'd bothered to get one; she'd waited for him, wondering vaguely if he was actually going to come. Now, he at least sent her a message if he was going to be more than ten minutes behind schedule.

When she first started dating Luke, she'd asked him about how he always seemed to be running late. She'd been surprised he managed to make it to school on time with the way he was. Luke had been a little reluctant to admit it, but the only reason he was ever actually on time for school was because of Zev. Apparently, Zev called and woke him up every morning and was practically dragging him out the door twenty minutes before they had to be at school.

Anna was just glad Luke gave Zev and Conner rides to school in the morning. If he didn't, there was no way he'd ever be on time. As it was, they cut it close more often than not. And if he had to spend any more time in the office for tardiness, Anna wasn't completely sure he'd be graduating with the rest of them.

At 11:54 there was a knock on her door that pulled Anna from her thoughts.

"Sorry I'm late." Luke said, looking apologetic as usual. "I really was going to be on time. But I had a few...complications."

"It's ok." she told him. She was used to it by now, after all. She didn't even bother to ask him what happened; he probably just lost track of time again.

"You ready?" he asked, opening her front door wider for her.

"Of course." she told him, smiling.

They walked out to his car – a classic Mustang he'd gotten a little over a year ago when he turned sixteen. Anna smiled when she saw the car. She remembered when those cars first came out, they'd been almost impossible to get. Her neighbor had been on the waiting list for months. When the dealer finally called him, they'd let him know they had one in stock – it would be blue or nothing. She wondered if Luke knew how hard they'd been to get. Were they still that popular? Probably not.

Luke drove like a maniac – probably a side effect of being chronically late. They got out of the car and hurried across the parking lot. Anna was just glad she'd told him to pick her up early – otherwise, they'd probably be late to see her favorite movie. And even though she'd seen it many more times than was probably normal, she couldn't stand to miss any of it. She turned to ask Luke something, but a shadow moved just over his shoulder.

"What's that?" Anna asked.

"What?" Luke asked, looking confused.

"Nothing – I just thought I saw something."

"Didn't see what it was?" Luke asked. He actually looked somewhat amused.

"No." Anna admitted. "What was it?"

"The complications I ran into earlier." Luke told her.

"And what complications would those be?" Anna asked, trying not to be annoyed. She really wished he'd just tell her these kinds of things.

"Summer." he said. If anything, his grin got wider – like he thought the whole thing was funny.

"Summer? Really?" Anna peered over his shoulder. Summer was a girl in their grade at school. But why would she be following Luke around town?

"Yep." Luke told her. "She's been trying to keep tabs on me."

"Really?" Anna asked. She hadn't noticed before today.

"Yeah. Apparently what I'm doing is really interesting to her." Luke said it like a joke, but if he hoped that would be enough to get Anna to let it go, he was in for a surprise.

"Why?"

Anna knew that Luke's and Summer's groups didn't exactly get along. Of course, Summer knew what Luke and his friends really were. And Summer was part of a group that called themselves fae. Anna didn't really know why, but the two groups couldn't stand each other. Could that be the reason she was spying on Luke? But what could he be up to that would make Summer care enough to follow him?

Anna would never have actually said anything bad about Summer, but that didn't mean she was stupid; she knew Summer wouldn't have willingly devoted time to stalking Luke unless something important was going on.

"Guess she doesn't have anything better to do." Luke shrugged.

Anna got the feeling he wasn't saying everything, and she wanted to know. Besides, he knew practically everything about her – even how old she was. Or, close to it. So didn't that mean she could know a little bit about what was going on in his life? She decided to try a different tactic.

"How long has she been following you?"

"Couple days."

"And you have no idea why?"

"Nope." Luke shrugged, checking his phone for the time. Anna couldn't tell if he was worried about missing the first part of the movie, or if her chronically-late boyfriend was just avoiding eye contact.

She didn't say anything for a minute. It was obvious he wasn't telling her something big. And while she hated to be nosy, she really didn't like knowing that he was keeping her in the dark about something. Especially since he and his friends seemed to be involved every time any of the girls had something big going on. She must have looked more annoyed than she thought because Luke looked at her thoughtfully for a minute before sighing.

"She just wants to find out what's going on with us – at home, I mean."

"But why? Why does that matter to her?" Anna asked again. She really hated going around in circles like this. Why couldn't he just answer her honestly for once?

"It's nothing." Luke told her. Anna knew she didn't look convinced, so he continued. "She just wants to make me worried, that's all."

"I'm sorry." Anna told him finally. She wanted to tell him that everything would be ok, but how could she when she didn't even know what was wrong?

It was obvious that she wasn't going to get anything more out of him today – maybe Zev would tell Mia something. Anna made a mental note to ask her in the next day or two. Besides, she knew if she kept asking it would only make him more defensive. If she pretended to drop it, she'd have a better chance at figuring it out later.

"Don't worry about what Summer's doing." Luke told her, grinning. He seemed to be a lot happier now that he thought Anna wouldn't be asking him any more questions. "Let's just have fun at the movies. Eventually, she'll get bored and leave."

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely." Luke told her. "Now, I want to see what's so great about this movie you've been taking about."