9. You’re inventive. I’ve got to hand it to you—the glitter bomb was impressive
10. Which means you’re also smart.
I stared at my phone. Besides number two, the list hadn’t been BS qualities at all. How had she known I was hardworking, organized, or responsible? What had my mother told her about me when they’d talked at the last game?
The item Madeline left off the list also struck me:Talented.
People always told me how talented I was at football. If I’d asked anyone else at school to make a list of my good qualities,talentedwould’ve been the first thing on most people’s lists. The oversight probably hadn’t meant anything on Madeline’s part except that she didn’t think about sports unless she had to. But I wasn’t insulted that talent hadn’t crossed Madeline’s mind; I was relieved.
It was a reminder that there was more to me than just football. And I was glad that she saw that.
16
Madeline
On Wednesday morning, Selena was in a good mood. While we met to feed Mascot, she told me about her chemistry study session with Boden. “He was so adorable. While we were going over this equation, he told me, ‘The reaction has a perfect rate when the two elements are highly compatible, kind of like us.’”
I opened the bag of cat food that I now kept in my convertible’s trunk. “Thatisadorable. I’m glad you guys are hitting it off.”
“There’s more.” She smiled and got a dreamy look in her eyes. “So I said, ‘Yeah, I feel like we’re bonding over this reaction.’ And then he said, ‘We better be careful or we’ll end up like sodium and water. Highly reactive and impossible to ignore.’”
“Wow,” I said. “How many chemistry puns are there?”
“So many,” she said.
I poured cat food into a bowl for Mascot. In return, he regarded me with aloof disinterest. I picked up the bowl, showing it to him, and called, “We both know you’re going to eat every last kibble as soon as I leave.”
He took a couple of sauntering steps toward us, then stopped and waited for us to go, like we were too threatening to trust.
“I haven’t even told you the best part,” Selena said, pressing her hands together. “As we finished up our homework—and by the way, yes, I did tell him I thought we had great chemistrybecause that pun is pretty much required—he pulled a piece of paper out of his backpack, handed it me, and said, ‘I’m running an experiment.’ The paper had the words,Hypothesis: If asked to the homecoming dance, Selena will say yes. He looked at me and said, ‘I need to test the theory. Would you help me out?’”
Ah, mad-cute and so on-brand for Boden. I put my hand to my chest. “Brainy and precious wrapped into one, just like you.”
“Just like me,” she agreed with a smile. “I told him that the preliminary data looked promising.”
“Wait, was that actually a yes?” Selena didn’t have much experience with guys. “That sounds like you’re thinking about it and might turn him down.”
She blushed. “Oh, I don’t think there was any uncertainty. Because after that, I kissed him.”
My mouth literally dropped open. Selena was usually one to dodge kisses from interested guys, not give them. I let out a squealing laugh that alarmed Mascot so much he darted under the garbage dumpster. “That’s a clear answer.”
As we headed back to my car to put away the cat food, I sighed happily. “Who would have thought that our grumpy physics teacher would end up playing Cupid and bringing the two of you together?”
“Actually, I think it was more that you blatantly ignored my instructions not to set me up with one of Boden’s friends that brought us together.”
I had finally come clean and explained to her that I’d been hinting at a double date.
I shook my head in mock disagreement. “Nah, that makes me sound like a bad friend. So I’m going with: It was Mr. Johnson’s doing. All of his time in physics has given him a magical ability to tell who should be with each other.”
“The only problem,” Selena said, her voice slowing, “is that Boden wants to go to dinner with three other couples. They’re splitting a limo, and there’s only room for four couples. I told him you would probably want to double with us.” The end of her statement curled into a question.
If I had a date, I’d want to double with them, but so far that hadn’t happened, and even if I did find a date, who knew what hoops I’d have to jump through because fake dating Cooper made everything more complicated. I didn’t want Selena to lose out on her chance to go with Boden’s friends. “Say yes to the limo,” I told her. “If I go, we’ll hang out once we get to the dance.”
“You’ll find a date,” she reassured me.
“Right,” I said, though my confidence didn’t match my tone. My confidence had ghosted me.
Every time I saw Selena that day, she talked nonstop about how great Boden was.
