Frankie had been - there wasn't really any other way to describe it - a bit distracted, lately. It wasn't that there was a whole lot happening, at least, not when compared to recent weeks, but what was happening was enough to keep him sufficiently occupied even when doing basically nothing.
There was Gandalf, who was as much of a pain as he was adorable, and as much as Frankie was glad to accept the responsibility of his grandfather's dog, he would insist on constantly forcing his new master to chase him halfway around the village on a semi-daily basis. There was Nikki, who had shown up out of the blue as people did, several years older and now his teacher - there was something just wrong about that - and there was Ava, which was a situation so simultaneously complex and heart-poundingly thrilling that everything else almost paled into insignificance.
He was sure his mum or one of his Professors were any minute going to ask if he wasn't ill, the amount of times he blanked out when he was meant to be paying attention to something they was saying.
Despite all this, however, he was dimly aware that he wasn't the only one in a state of perpetual turmoil about his life. "Hey," he said, as he drew up beside Al and punched him good-naturedly in the shoulder. "Here for the free food?"