Christian 10

Christian is ten and thinks before he does anything. He takes alarm clocks apart to see how they work, keeps the notebook and notices right away when the numbers don't add up. Questions he can't answer won't leave him alone. He's slower than Daria, but he gets there.

Twice a week he dances at Mr. Ivanov's dance studio, ballroom and Latin, with his partner Marie. That's where he's learning how to ask someone to dance, how to lead and how to say thank you afterward. With numbers he's careful; when he dances, he lets go. To him it's the same thing: patterns that work out. So far, the only one at school who knows is Daria.

Christian is an only child and lives right next door to Daria. He slips through a gap in the hedge into her backyard, where the four guinea pigs live. In winter he builds them a multi-level cage indoors, and he's figured out what they cost per year. Over summer break he helps Grandpa Werner in his watchmaker's workshop by the sea: measure twice, cut once.

He knows his weak spot. Sometimes he stays quiet when he should say stop, and tells himself: later. Right now he's learning to speak up about his worries in time. And to let himself be seen.