“And Cooper agreed to this?” Her tone indicated she’d thought Cooper had more sense.
“He’s the one who suggested it.”
“Mmmm,” she murmured knowingly. “Does his planinvolve making out and then having zero commitment to you afterward? Maybe the boy has ulterior motives.”
“Ew, no.” I scrunched my nose. “Neither of us would ever suggest that.”
“Ew?” Selena repeated. “Did you just ‘ew’ to making out with the hottest guy in our class?”
“He’s not the hottest,” I said, although no other names came to my mind right off. “Henry is really good-looking. So is Jasper.”
“Both of those guys have girlfriends.”
Which was irrelevant to the case since it was all theoretical. “Cooper isn’t my type.” Jocks were all brawn and ego. Who wanted to put up with that?
Outside, rows of houses and immaculate lawns went by, doused by the morning sunshine. I hardly saw any of it. My mind kept circling around my conversation with Cooper. “He and I talked about how to go to the homecoming dance without actually going with each other, which means I definitely need a date to the dance. I can’t get dressed up, take pictures with him for our parents, and then be forced to hide out at your house all night. I refuse to let Cooper believe that no one thinks I’m worth springing for dinner and a corsage.”
Selena huffed and her voice turned snippy. “In this scenario, didn’t you just say thatIwould be sitting home during the homecoming dance? What are you implying about me and my corsage-less status?”
I hadn’t meant it that way. Selena was pretty even though she never did anything with her hair, hardly put on any makeup, and seemed content to wear nothing but jeans and T-shirts. The real reason she didn’t date was that she refused to flirt. Shethought flirting made women look stupid. And also, she could be intimidating when it came to smart-people things.
Last year, I set her up with my date’s friend so we could double to prom. After dinner, her date made some offhand comment about an alternate universe, and she spent the entire limo ride telling him that people misunderstood quantum theory. She got quite passionate about it when he made the mistake of defending the multiverse using movie references. Big mistake. And then Selena couldn’t understand why the guy spent most of the dance scrolling on his phone instead of paying attention to her.
If I never hear about the complexity of wave function collapse mechanisms again, that will be just fine.
I ignored the offended look she sent me now. “Right, you might go to homecoming, and then how would we explain to your parents that I’m over at your house, dressed up and hanging out in your room without you? I need to find a date.”
“Neither you or Cooper should go,” she insisted. “You won’t be able to pull it off.”
This is another thing about super smart people. They think everyone else is incompetent. “I think we can manage to pull it off.”
She sighed and shook her head knowingly. “I guess I should start making some homecoming dance disaster bingo cards. First square: At the last minute, your parents volunteer to chaperone and wonder why you’re dancing with other people.”
“You can’t fit that all in one square.”
“They’ll be big cards.”
After some more of her bingo card pronouncements of doom, I asked her opinion about guys who’d be good homecoming date candidates. The guys in drama were out. Two were my exes, and I wasn’t about to get back together with Mr. Self-Destructive or Mr. Codependent. The other guys in drama either had girlfriends, were too wild, or were too young.
That was the problem with being a senior girl. Fewer choices. My mind landed on my physics lab partner, Boden Parish. His thin frame and boyish features made him appear younger than a senior, but that was fine. Despite being tall myself, when I didn’t wear makeup, strangers routinely thought I was about fourteen years old.
Boden was on the serious, quiet side. He always laughed at my jokes, sometimes giving them more laughter than they deserved. That was probably a sign of interest.
“What do you think of Boden?” I asked her. “He’s cute. Plus, he’s smart. Maybe I should ask him if he’d be my trig tutor.”
“I can help you with math,” Selena said.
I love Selena for wanting to help me, I do. But she understands math so well that she doesn’t really know how to explain it to normal people. She also has no patience when I want to stop midway through my homework to talk about completely unrelated subjects.
Guys never mind stopping to talk.
“Thanks,” I said, “but if he comes over to help me with a math assignment or two, we’ll get to know each other, and if things go well, I can drop hints about homecoming.”
“Which reminds me of another bingo square. If your fathergoes to the homecoming football game with Cooper’s mother, how will you explain that you’re sitting with Boden?”
No idea. I adjusted my sunglasses. “I have a month to figure something out. Maybe I’ll tell our parents that Boden and one of the cheerleaders are doubling with Cooper and me, and that’s why we’re sitting together. I might also have to tell my father and Ms. Nash that Boden has an extreme phobia of strangers to keep them from talking to him.”
Selena looked upward. “New bingo square: Your parents ignore your instruction, introduce themselves, and tell Boden he and the cheerleader make a cute couple.”
