Heron Lake Plateau And you know dogs, they need ample time outside

The Beta shrugged her white-streaked shoulders. Feelings weren't very possible to control sometimes and it wasn't like Niamh had developed them on purpose. It was bad enough that nothing could ever come of them, so Towhee hated to see her beat herself up over it too.

"That's what you should do," the yearling said in reply to Niamh's joke, "find someone single to crush on instead. Like, um." She consulted that mental checklist again. So many of them were too young or, like, unworthy. "You could always try to fall in love with Tegan." She only said it because it was so ludicrously funny, not just because it was Tegan but because it wasn't like Niamh could just cherry-pick her next crush.

Deciding that shifting the focus was a better tact, Towhee decided to make her own confession: "I've never even had a crush before. What's it even like?"