by Kelly Oram
“No way, dude! You guys showered together?”
“It was the highlight of my winter break.”
“Grayson!” Aves finally shrieked. “Shut up! We did not shower together!”
“We most certainly did. Were we not in the shower at the same time?”
“That’s not the same thing!”
“Was there not nakedness involved?”
She slapped her hands over her flaming face, completely mortified. I squeezed her to me even tighter, praying she’d forgive me eventually. I’d reached her limit and needed to pull back, but that was okay because every guy at that table was now looking at her differently. In fact, maybe I’d done too good of a job because some of their looks were starting to piss me off.
I sighed, trying to sound repentant and yet not at the same time. “All right, so we didn’t actually shower together. My jerk-off little brother, who’s been her best friend for nearly seventeen years, bailed on her out of the blue for Mindy the Psycho Perez. Our moms were going crazy, so Avery jumped in the shower to hide from them. I just happened to be in there at the time. Aves was fully clothed, sadly, and had her eyes closed the whole time, so she missed out on seeing all my good stuff. I swear her honor and virtue are both still fully in tact. Much to my dismay.”
I got a few snickers from my friends, and a groan from Avery, who still wouldn’t pull her face out of her hands.
“I covered for her, we had a moment, she looked amazing in a wet t-shirt, it was super hot, and yes, Aves, it was the highlight of my winter break. Until later that night when you let me take you out on a date, and then that was the highlight of my winter break.”
“Aw, you guys are dating now? That’s so cute!”
I smiled really big at my friend Pamela. She was the queen bee of the girls in this school, and the only one I really needed to like Avery. If I could win her over, Aves would be set. She was watching Avery and me with a dreamy smile—a very good sign.
“Not exclusively,” I said. “Aves is still free to play the field if she wants, but we’re definitely feeling out the possibility.”
I was anyway. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since New Year’s Eve. We needed to go out again and finish the date we’d started. The girl owed me a kiss.
“Oh my gosh, Grayson, we are not dating!”
So she still considered me the gross older brother. At least she was showing her face again. If you ask me, her social integration was going rather well.
“I thought we were past the denial,” I teased her. “Shouldn’t you be at acceptance now? Isn’t that what comes after denial?” Everyone frowned at me now. “You know, like when somebody dies?” I explained. “There are those stages . . .”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Owen snapped his fingers a number of times while he tried to figure out a way to explain. “You start out in denial, and then you get all depressed, and finally you learn to accept the truth.”
I looked down at Avery and smiled. “Well you were definitely depressed all weekend, so we should be good now, right? Acceptance? You want to go out this Friday? Maybe not ditch me halfway through dinner this time?”
I gave Avery the grin that I know she can’t stay mad at, and sure enough, she pursed her lips together like she was trying not to smile. “I was depressed about Aiden, not you, and I am nowhere close to reaching any sort of acceptance over that.”
“Oh, that’s because you have to get angry first,” Pamela said. “That’s one of those stages too.” She glanced across the cafeteria and scowled my brother’s direction. “Shouldn’t be too hard to do. I can’t believe he dumped you for that Mindy girl. I had trig with her last year. She is so awful. You know what? I’ll help you get angry, and then you can move on to acceptance and go out with Grayson because you’re so tiny and he’s so tall. It would completely adorable.”
Avery blushed, and even I had to fight back a small tightness in my chest.
“So true!” Pamela’s best friend Chloe agreed. “About your cuteness and about Mindy. She’s the worst. But you don’t need to get angry, you need to get even. Is that one of those stages?”
“I don’t think so,” Avery whispered shyly. She was actually talking to them now! Very, very good sign.
“Well it should be, because the key to curing a broken heart is not anger. It’s revenge.” She suddenly reached across the table and grabbed one of Avery’s hands. “Do you want to come over to my house today after school? Pam and I are awesome with makeovers. We can shake you up a bit and make you so desirable that Aiden will kick himself until he dies for dumping you.”
“Oh, it would be so easy!” Pam agreed. “You’re totally adorable already, and with you dating Grayson? Wow. That is going to drive Aiden crazy!”
“Ooh!” Chloe squealed. “The best part about it all is that Aiden going crazy about Avery will drive Mindy absolutely insane with jealousy!”
Owen leaned close to me and muttered, “Dude. Girls are crazy.”
I had to agree, but inside I was getting really excited. This was exactly what I was hoping would happen. Pam and Chloe would be the perfect people to take Avery under their wings. They could show her all that girl stuff that I couldn’t help her with.
“Um.” Avery shrunk a little closer to me, but I gave her a nudge, forcing her to sit up on her own. “That is so nice of you guys, but I don’t need revenge. I don’t want to hurt Aiden’s feelings.”
I suppressed an eye roll. Obviously she hadn’t hit anger yet.
Aves tipped her head up to look at me and grimaced. “We aren’t dating. I just got my heart broken. I’m not really ready to date anyone, and, I’m sorry, I’m definitely not in the mood to be your flavor of the weekend.”
I chuckled and so did most everyone else. It wasn’t every day that I got shot down. It was kind of amusing. “I believe the term is flavor of the week,” I teased. “Not weekend.”
Avery looked at me skeptically. “Have you ever lasted an entire week with one girl?”
For a single beat there was silence, and then the entire table exploded into laughter. Everyone razzed me like crazy over the burn. The beauty of it was that Avery had been completely serious. Her innocence was genius.
Avery blushed of course, but I sat up a little straighter. I felt a strange fluttering of pride in my stomach. Avery had won them over! This was going to work. The first step to helping Avery Shaw was a complete success.
Avery
Despite my claims to Grayson that loving to learn didn’t make me a dork, the truth is, I knew I was a geek. I didn’t mind, though. I really did enjoy learning, and I spent my entire life in the blissful world of social obscurity. Grayson Kennedy changed all that in the span of a single lunch period.
Suddenly I was the subject of many rumors—the most popular being that I was Grayson’s new girlfriend. Everyone in school knew my name. People who’d never spoken to me before acted like we were best friends. It was crazy. Not that I didn’t appreciate what Grayson had done, but I wasn’t sure if he’d made things better for me, or worse.
I missed all of fifth period because I had to go to the nurse to take one of my pills that they keep on hand for when I can’t control my panic attacks. That led to my guidance counselor asking questions as to why I was having such bad anxiety. I threw her for a loop with the unprecedented change in social status. I guess that kind of thing didn’t happen a lot in high school.
The only truly relieving thing that came from all the madness was that Grayson and his friends had given me an idea for a science fair project—a project that I technically already had a decent start on, so even without a partner, I had a good chance of getting it done on time. By the time school was over that day, I had a full outline of my project scribbled down to show Mr. Walden in science club.
I’d been so busy putting my project outline together that I managed to block out all the whispers and stares. I hardly noticed when Aiden changed seats and completely ignored me in Honors English. Okay, I noticed,
and it killed me, but thanks to the outline (and the very powerful medication), I’d been able to live through it and not have another breakdown.
I was the last one to arrive in the science lab after school because Grayson’s friends Pamela and Chloe found me and tried to convince me to go with them to Chloe’s for a makeover. I said I had science club, but they wouldn’t leave until I’d promised to go with them the next day.
When I got to the science lab, Libby, my friend who’d been with me at lunch when Grayson hijacked me, tackled me. Since I’d missed fifth period, we hadn’t seen each other yet. “Oh my heck, Avery!”
Libby was my best, and only, girl friend. She was brilliant and nice and very spunky. She was very outgoing and so funny that anyone who gave her a chance loved her; but because she wasn’t as thin as the majority of girls in our school and had a tendency to wear pictures of cats on her clothes, most people didn’t give her a chance. Most people were shallow idiots.
She threw her arms around me and forced me to jump up and down with her. “Can you believe that happened?”
“What exactly are we talking about? Aiden getting a girlfriend? Or Grayson almost killing him in front of the whole school?”
“I’m talking about how your romantic, hot new boyfriend came to your rescue in front of everyone! Seriously, Avery. Didn’t you just die?”
I flushed at her phrasing. “Grayson’s not my boyfriend, and yes, I did almost die, actually. That’s why I missed calculus today. I had to go take a pill and have a major freak out in the guidance office.”
“Seriously, Aves? You had to go to the office?”
Libby looked over my shoulder at the new voice. I didn’t need her bugged-out eyes and squeak of excitement to tell me who was behind me sounding so concerned.
Before I could ask Grayson what he was doing at science club, he grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me over as if searching for signs of distress. “You okay?”
“Yes. I keep special medication in the nurse’s office for emergencies, so I’m okay now.”
Grayson’s face fell. “You had an episode?”
“It wasn’t too bad. There were just so many people staring and whispering after lunch.”
“I’m sorry. That was all my fault.” Grayson crushed me to his chest. “I knew I shouldn’t have made a scene like that, but Aiden was being such a jerk, and I totally lost my temper. Forgive me?”
I carefully untangled myself from Grayson’s grip. My face was flaming from his attention. I knew all of science club was watching us. That may have only been four other people besides me, but they were pretty much the only four friends I had. I was sure they thought I was crazy by now.
“What are you doing here?” I finally asked.
Grayson shrugged. “Detention,” he said and then smirked. “Got a lot of texts after lunch today. Did you know that you’re my girlfriend?”
I ignored that comment and said, “You’re taking Mr. Walden’s class?”
“Failing his class, actually,”
“Failing!”
Grayson gave me a sheepish smile. “Physics isn’t my best subject. Bombed the final.”
“Bombed is a good word for it,” Mr. Walden said, walking into the room with a fresh mug of coffee.
“Do your parents know?” I asked.
“Yeah. They got the report card right before break. That wasn’t so bad. It’s Coach that was pissed. I’m benched until I can get my grade up.”
“You can’t play basketball? But you’re a senior. If you don’t play the rest of this season will you still be eligible to play for Utah Valley next year?”
“School policy.” Grayson ran a hand through his hair like he was really stressed out but then looked at me, startled. “How’d you know I want to go to UVU next year?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve practically lived at your house my entire life. I know where you want to go to college.”
“I have no idea where you want to go to college,” Grayson said, frowning.
“That’s not very surprising.”
Grayson’s frown grew even bigger. “Where do you want to go to college?”
“I’ll tell you if you agree to let me help you with your physics grade.”
“You mean like tutoring?”
“Sort of.” It was my turn to smile at him for a change. I’d just gotten the most brilliant idea. I looked over at Mr. Walden, who was watching us from his desk with a surly expression. I suspect the only reason he didn’t have Grayson doing extra homework yet was that Grayson was talking to me, and Mr. Walden loved me.
“Hey, Mr. Walden?”
Mr. Walden’s eyes narrowed, but he must have been listening to our conversation, because he looked very curious. “Is it important, Avery? Science club is waiting for you, and Mr. Kennedy has a date with some trigonometric functions.”
Grayson winced, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at him.
“I assume Aiden spoke to you about quitting science club?”
Mr. Walden sighed. “He did. It’s a real shame.”
“Did he tell you that he wouldn’t be doing the science fair with me, either?”
“Aiden wouldn’t be so irresponsible as to quit on you with such short notice. Everyone else is already paired.”
I pushed back the urge to cry again. “I’m on my own.”
“That is so disappointing. I’m sorry. I’ll have to speak with him.”
“That’s okay, Mr. Walden. I do have a project in mind, and I was just wondering . . . well, I need a partner, and Grayson could use some extra credit.”
Mr. Walden blinked. So did Grayson. “You want me to do a science project with you?”
Grayson sounded comically horrified, but even more hilarious was the disbelief in Mr. Walden’s tone. “You want Grayson to be your partner?”
I gave them both a look. “You haven’t heard the project yet. It was Grayson’s idea to begin with.”
“Mine?” Grayson sounded startled.
“Yes, yours. And you’re already doing it anyway. Sort of. Remember your experiment in the cafeteria this afternoon? My project is sort of like that.” I handed Mr. Walden my outline. “I’m going to prove that the cure for a broken heart lies in the seven stages of grief.”
As Mr. Walden read over my outline, Grayson looked at me skeptically.
“Actually, Avery,” Mr. Walden sounded impressed, “this is a very intriguing project. Very sound. The judges will really love the personal element too.”
“I know the project isn’t technically physics—I’ll help him study that too, of course, to bring up his grade in class—but if he did the science fair with me, could it earn him enough extra credit to get him playing again? The team needs him, and it’s his senior year. It would be awful for him to miss out.”
Mr. Walden thought it over and then sighed. “I suppose as long as you were turning in weekly progress reports, I could talk to Coach Safford.”
Grayson gasped. “For real, Mr. Walden? I can play? I don’t have to miss any games?”
The look on Grayson’s face told me he didn’t usually have teachers willing to help him out. Sometimes it paid to be a nerd. I’d have to point that out to him later.
“If you do the work.”
Grayson scooped me up into his arms and spun me in circles. He’s so tall that my feet were at least a foot off the floor. “Holy shit, Aves! You’re the best! I totally owe you forever!”
“Language, Mr. Kennedy,” Mr. Walden scolded, but I noticed him bite back a grin when Grayson wasn’t looking. He watched us for a moment longer and then said, “Actually, I believe you might be on to something with Grayson, Avery. The, uh, social aspect of this experiment is undeniably in his field of expertise. I believe he could do well with this project.”
I laughed. Yes, Grayson would be the perfect partner.
Grayson put me down and eyed Mr. Walden and me warily. “Okay, what? I’m scared now. What in the world are you talking about? There is no way I
am an expert in any form of science.”
“Not physics, chemistry, or biology maybe.”
“Actually, now that you mention it, I do all right with biology, if you know what I mean.”
“Mr. Kennedy,” Mr. Walden warned in a tired voice. “Avery, are you sure you want him for a partner?”
I laughed again. “I’m sure. Grayson was born for social science.”
“Social science?” Grayson asked. “What is that?”
“I’ll explain everything if you agree to be my science fair partner.”
Grayson looked positively torn. I think he wanted to help me, and he knew he needed the extra credit, but he also looked like doing a science project might actually be the death of him.
“What would I have to do?” he asked. The question seemed to cause him physical pain.
“Nothing too awful. No equations, anyway. Since I’m going to be the test subject, all you have to do is help me through the seven stages of grief. I need an impartial perspective, and you’ve already helped me get past the shock and denial stages. I managed the bargaining on my own. Sadly, it was rather pathetic, but then if you hadn’t encouraged me to lay it all out to Aiden, I probably wouldn’t have done that, either. So, really, you’ve helped me through them all so far. Now all you have to do is help me through the rest. Help me past my guilt and then the anger. Cheer me up when I get depressed, and finally, walk me through acceptance.”
Grayson stared at me, dumbfounded. “You’re saying that you want me to take you out and help you get over Aiden in any way I deem necessary—”
“I don’t think I ever said that.”
“Nope. I’m the unbiased opinion, remember? If we do this, you have to do what I say.”
“Within reason,” I argued.
“Within reason,” Grayson agreed. “I make you forget my brother ever existed by taking you out on lots of really fun dates, and I get extra credit for that?”
“You’d have to keep a journal of it all. We’d have to catalog our experiments, compile our findings into an organized study, but yes. Basically.”
