rear window is an example of a 1950’s classic what?

iii. Click! I pull my camera away from my face to check the latest shot of Kai as Calypso from the world of myths and wisecracking demigods. I’m Sally Sparrow, the girl who faces the Weeping Angels statues in Doctor Who. Our cosplays are always sourced from one another’s closets—my colorful scarf is Kai’s, and Aspen’s jacket holds my trusty iPod blaring Fall Out Boy’s newest lyrics: “you will remember me, for centuries.” I feel a lot of kinship with Sally Sparrow. Our cameras and dishwater blond hair, sensitivity and love of old things. Seeing her lets my insecurities breathe easier. So too, with Percy’s girlfriend Annabeth Chase, but in her, I see who I want to be. Stronger. Smarter. There are so many powerful women in our fandoms. They protect their loved ones, slay monsters, debate aliens, show vulnerability in the face of danger, rule kingdoms. We don’t yet understand the fluidity of gender. All we know now is that Johanna Mason or Rose Tyler or Thalia Grace don’t care about finding a good husband or a good college, if their skirts are long enough, Bible study notes pretty enough. Here, we do not have to cosplay as good Christian girls. Here, we wear bow ties and leather jackets, Camp Half-Blood t-shirts and purple capes. We reach out of Midwestern woodland suburbs and touch the pillars of Mount Olympus and the endless interior of the TARDIS.

Linnea is late. Very, very late. It’s Kai’s fifteenth birthday, and we’ve already had dinner and cake, are watching an episode in the cozy nest we’ve made in the basement. David Tennant walks majestically through a wall of flames.

“The Waffle is getting toasted!” Aspen shrieks. “The Toasted Time Lord!” Kai collapses onto my lap.

But Linnea still hasn’t texted us back. Percy’s fatal flaw is loyalty. Linnea’s surely isn’t.

Betrayal stings like a tracker jacker. In the corner where we’ve hung a bedsheet for photos, someone sits on the concrete floor. Nico, again.

“Are the Waffles going to fall apart?” I whisper. Linnea has chosen others before me over and over. But I thought the Waffles, and what the Doctor means to us, would be enough to bind us four together unbreakably.

Nico shakes his head and flips a large, gold coin. He tosses it to me. “The Roman god, Janus,” he says. There’s a two-faced man engraved on the coin.

“God of doorways, and time.” Nico nods at the TV. “And duality.” “Duality,” I repeat.

“We’re a lot more alike than you think,” Nico says. He pulls a phone from his pocket, and his downcast face lights up. “It’s Will. I gotta go.” He stands, smiles at me. “You’ll find a Will someday.” Before I react, he walks into the adjoining room. Aspen falls asleep and Kai and I lay curled together, talking away the betrayal, talking of the future. But it feels so far away. The idea of my Will, unimaginable. Linnea shows up in the morning. She’s not very apologetic. We forgive her anyway.