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Eureka motioned for Cat to stop "There’s a reason I quit rade romance with Brooks"

"Have you two not kissed and ed on her chocolate milk She hadn’t told Cat about the kiss that seemed to have ended her relationship with her oldest friend Eureka and Brooks could barely look at each other now

"We’re still fighting, if that’s what you h an entire Latin class, their chairs bue lab, withouteye contact This required focus--Brooks usually mimed at least three jokes at the expense of Mr Piscidia’s silver forest of chest hair

"What’s his problem?" Cat asked "His dickhead-to-penitent turnaround is usually swifter It’s been three whole days"

"Alirls at the table swivel their heads to listen in She lowered her voice "Maybe he doesn’t have a problem Maybe it’s me" She rested her head in the crook of her elbow on the table and pushed her dirty rice around with her fork "Selfish, haughty, critical, ht at the deep-voiced sound of her nas Brooks stood at the head of the table, watching her His hair fell over his forehead, obscuring his eyes His shirt was too sone through puberty early and had been taller than the rest of the boys his age, but he’d stopped growing in freshrowth spurt? He looked different, and not just taller and brawnier He didn’t seeh all twelve of its female inhabitants had stopped their conversations to look at him

He didn’t have this lunch hour He was supposed be the office aide fourth period, and she didn’t see any blue su here?

"I’m sorry," he said "I’ve been in an avocado"

Cat sy?"

Eureka felt the corners of hera smile Once, the year before, when Eureka and Brooks atching TV after school, they’d overheard Dad on the phone saying he was sorry for being inco for Eureka, wondering why Dad had been in an avocado

"That end had been born

Noas up to Eureka to decide whether to coirls at the table atching her Two of the to be e, but the power of shared history coaxed it from Eureka

She took a deep breath "These past few days have been the pits"

Cat groaned "You two need your own planet"

Brooks grinned and knelt down, planting his chin on the edge of the table

"Lunch is only thirty-five h tiize for all the baloney you said I wonder if the huize for all the baloney--"

"Cat," Eureka said "We get it"

"Want to go so fro and slid her tray across to Cat "Finish h thewhether he’d told anyone about their fight, about their kiss As soon as the path ide enough to walk side by side, Brooks moved next to her He put his hand on her back Eureka wasn’t sure what she wanted from Brooks, but his hand on her felt nice She didn’t knohat period Maya Cayce had lunch, but she wished it was now so the girl could watch theh the orange double doors and walked down the empty hallway Their feet echoed in unison on the linoleuait since they were kids

Near the end of the hallway, Brooks stopped and faced her He probably didn’t mean to stop in front of the trophy case, but Eureka couldn’t help looking at her reflection Then, through the glass, she saw the hefty cross-country trophy that her team had won the year before, and next to it, the smaller, second-place trophy from two years earlier, when they’d lost first place to Manor Eureka didn’t want to think about the team she’d quit or their rivals--or the boy who’d lied about being one of theo outside" She jerked her head for Brooks to follow her "More privacy"

The paved courtyard separated the classroolass-walled administration center It was surrounded on three sides by buildings, all built around a huge,husks quilted the grass, giving off a fecund odor that rerandparents’ far the coulee of the Band Roobirds darted fro nectar

A cold front waswhen she left for school Eureka drew her green cardigan tight around her shoulders She and Brooks leaned their backs against the rough bark of the tree and watched the parking lot as if it were a vast expanse of so He watched her carefully in the diffused sunlight under the canopy of aze was as intense as the one Ander had turned on her in his truck, and when he’d come to her house, and even outside Mr Fontenot’s office That was the last ti an impersonation of the boy he hated

"I was a jerk the other night," Brooks said

"Yeah, you were"

That s--even if you were right" She rolled toward hiainst the tree trunk Her eyes found his lower lip and could not move She couldn’t believe she’d kissed hi about it made her body buzz

She wanted to kiss hiotten into trouble before So she dropped her gaze to her feet, stared at the pecan shells scattered across the patchy grass

"What I said the other night wasn’t fair," Brooks said "It was about er was a cover"

Eureka knew you were supposed to roll your eyes when boys said that it was them, not you But she also knew that the statement was true, even if boys didn’t know it So she let Brooks go on