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"What does that even irls who tries to live on carrots and hot water?"
She waved the taquito in his face "No, but I probably should be"
"You’re insane, baby girl" He paused and rubbed at his jaw
"I was thinking that Nick Merrick is one lucky bastard"
Quinn flushed, pleased
At the sa Nick’s pretend girlfriend
"Yeah," Tyler continued, "I don’t knohole lot about dance--just what I re for a scholarship, you should be"
Quinn sed "There’s an application fee, and it’s ex-tremely competitive, and I don’t--it’s just--"
"Afraid of coh "You don’t strike me as the type"
He did not sound sexy He did not
Yeah, she wasn’t convincing herself "I’ around, either"
Tyler winced "Sorry"
She shrugged and scowled out at the night "My whole life is full of almosts I almost et rid of me because of my attitude and my body type I almost made it as a cheerleader, but they all called reat--"
She cut herself off She’d alht Nick kissing another guy
"Almost what?" said Tyler
Quinn shook her head, surprised to feel tears hiding so What I want always seehed "Yeah," he said "Sometimes I know exactly what youclasses crawled by He could barely stay awake for Dr Cutter’s physics lecture He’d coed hi with Ada
Ada had felt somewhat raw, as if a scab had been scraped off too early He’d felt the need to proceed slowly, to let trust grow in the space between them So he’d come in when Adam invited him, but he’d sat on the couch and sipped coffee and talked, keeping his hands to himself
Nick had been worried that some of his infatuation was because Adam was the first boy he had kissed, the first outlet for years of repressed attraction
But Adaraphies to The Economist to a weekly sex advice coluht have had him beat in chemistry, but Adam had him by a mile in subjective analysis
He’d never enuinely care about his opinion--but then expect him to defend it
Nick loved it He loved it so much it’d been hard to leave
But then he’d leaned in to kiss Adaht, and he’d seen the flash of vulnerability, reht, his ti no idea of the destination, just hurtling into the darkness while clinging for dear life Exciting and terrifying
Now it felt like someone had pressed a map into his hands and explained how to ease off the throttle
"Earth to Nicholas Co at hirams covered every inch of whiteboard, but Nick hadn’t even cracked his textbook His notebook was open, but he hadn’t written anything down
Nick cleared his throat "I’m sorry What?"
"I asked if you’d come up with an answer for the third question"
Nick took another desperate glance at his notebook, as if the ansould have ically appeared He couldn’t afford to piss off Dr Cutter, as already giving hi him retake the unit test he’d bombed yesterday
Nick looked back at the board, at the third diagra he could work out in his head
Yeah, right This was AP Physics He knew it had so to do with velocity and mass, maybe--
"Perhaps I can explain what you’ve missed when you stay after class"
Half the class sucked in a breath and looked at hi his pencil down and level the teacher with soet himself thrown out of class
Nick could never do that Sha his stoain"
After class, Dr Cutter was a lot less acco than he’d been the previous day
"This is an advanced placee to his voice "Wedifficulty keeping up?"
"No," said Nick "I’ain"
The teacher’s eyes narrowed "I don’t really have Gabriel Merrick sitting in front of me, do I?"
Nick flinched It shouldn’t have been an insult, but it felt like one "No I swear"
"I had to call your name three tiize for the sah week"
Dr Cutter studied hie in this class?" He frowned "Or you were before yesterday’s test"
Nick pulled his hands down He’d thought he was better than average, but the highest? "No, I didn’t know"
"And you’re second in your class in AP Calc I spoke with Mrs Rafferty In fact" He reached behind him for a folder on his desk He flipped the cover open "Out of the entire senior class, based on a weighted GPA, you’re ranked fourth overall"
Wow He’d had no idea
He should have been proud He wasn’t The pressure clahtened by one notch One more expectation he had to uphold If he were like Gabriel, Dr Cutter wouldn’t have given a crap that he didn’t know the answer in class
"Have you started applying for colleges?" said Dr Cutter