He looked in her eyes. “Can I give you a birthday kiss?”

“Yes,” she said.

He put his lips on hers.

At first it was strange to be touching lips. Only Mama had ever done that. But the way he did it was different. It lasted longer. And he held his mouth a little open. He tasted like cookies and cream.

He moved back and looked in her eyes again. His irises were like black glass. “Like it?”

“Yes.”

He took her face in his warm hands. “You’re so beautiful. Do you even know that?”

She hadn’t known, but now she believed she was.

He kissed her again. A stronger, longer kiss. It was easier than she’d imagined. Her body felt good, like when she was reading about lovers kissing in a book. Except much better because it was really happening. To her.

After the kiss, they held each other. It felt so good, but too soon he took his arms down. “I guess I’d better get you home,” he said. “I hope you don’t get in trouble.”

She realized she had to go right away. Probably the bus would pass her house soon. Jackie’s house was the stop after hers. She imagined him looking out the window at her gate and road as he passed. She wondered what he would be thinking, if he might be a little jealous.

They folded the blanket and put it in the car. Raven took a last look at the peculiar site of her first kiss.

“Does your mother watch the cameras for when you arrive?”

“I don’t know.”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t.” He looked at her as he drove. “If it works out okay with her, do you want to go out again?”

“Yes,” she said, though she couldn’t imagine how it would happen again.

As they approached her house, she had him stop far enough from the gate that the cameras couldn’t catch her getting out of the car. They kissed before she got out. “Good luck,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”

He drove past the gate rather than turn around. It would have been better if he hadn’t passed the gate before she appeared in the cameras, but it was too late to fix that.

She pressed the code into the pad to open the gate and walked the winding lane to the log house. Once behind the protection of the gate, she usually felt like her true self, Daughter of Raven. But after being with Chris, she felt different. An exciting, happy kind of different.

Mama didn’t answer when she knocked. She was out with the earth spirits. That happened fairly often. Raven turned off the alarms she’d triggered.

The silence of the house comforted her. Mama didn’t know she was late.

Raven would make something special for dinner. Today was her birthday in the human world. Today she had been kissed. She felt more human than usual, as if the raven inside her was sleeping.

3

Raven and Chris became a thing, as the kids at school said. They sat together in the lunchroom, and Raven risked letting him drive her home again. They went for a walk in a park. Another day they went to a Mexican restaurant because it was raining. When Mama still hadn’t said anything, they went out a fourth time, returning to the Starlite Drive-In with milkshakes.

Reece took her aside at school to warn her, same as Jackie had. He said Chris had a lot more experience than she did. She asked if he trusted Chris, the same question she’d asked Jackie.

“It’s not so much whether I trust him,” Reece said. “It’s more about if I can trust you.” He saw she was angry and said, “You know you’ve lived . . . in a different way than most kids. Your normal isn’t the same as his normal. You know what I mean?”

She saw no reason to reply. He was stating the obvious.

“He’s been with girls, and you’ve never been with a guy.”

“So what? There has to be a first time for everyone.”

“I know. But he might assume things and go too quickly. You’ll think you have to . . .”

“I’m not stupid, Reece!”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you. Chris is—he’s been kind of obsessed with you. You should know that.”

“Obsessed?”

“Yeah. For a long time. Didn’t you see it?”

“No.”

“Well, we all did. He knew we thought he was too old for you, so you know what he did? He waited for your birthday to ask you out. You turned fifteen—which sounds a lot older than fourteen—and he won’t be eighteen until August. So numbers-wise, you’re only two years apart. How ridiculous is that? He actually thought that made a difference.”

“It’s not ridiculous.”

“He planned it out.”

“Why is that so bad?”

“Because it shows he’s kind of nuts about you.”

“Would I want to be with a boy who isn’t nuts about me?” She thought of Jackie. Of all the boys she knew, he was the one she’d wanted to give her a first kiss, but he certainly wasn’t nuts about her.

“Just go slow, okay?” Reece said.

“Okay.”

He held up his hand. “Still friends, Bird Girl?”

“Of course.” She slapped his hand.

Reece’s speech had the opposite effect from what he’d wanted. She now trusted Chris more. The next time they went out after school, he took her to an abandoned house he thought was cool. They made out a lot in there. She let him touch her under her shirt.