“We’re roommates. I might have some sway with her.”
He raises an eyebrow.
“Either way, you’ll be around her. I learned in psych that proximity is the single biggest predictor of attraction. This gives you more proximity!Andyou can make fun of me as much as you want.”
“Like you could stop me.” But he’s smiling.
“Deal?”
“On two conditions. One, classes still come first.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“And two, you can’t tell anyone about Quidditch until I tell you it’s okay.”
“What? No way! I’m already debating whether I should announce it at lunch tomorrow or try to get ahold of a broom and act it out.”
His eyes widen. “You have to promise. This is something I want to do by myself for now. If the others find out, they’ll all want to come and there will be teasing. I’ll never live it down.”
“Fine.” I look down my nose at him. “But who’s trying to hide themselves now?”
He scowls, but the arrival of pizza distracts us. It’sdelicious. I don’t know if they have a different recipe in Northampton orsomething, but I can’t get the slices into my mouth quick enough.
“It’s not a competition, you know,” Dev says, laughing.
“Maybe not for you.”
I swipe another slice for good measure and sit back, surprised by how fun it is to have dinner with him. Partially because I get to troll him mercilessly about Quidditch now, but it’s not just that. All this time, I figured Dev only cared about getting straight As, but we’re actually more similar than I realized. It’s nice knowing someone else with a wacky interest they don’t like sharing publicly. I like being in on the secret.
“You know, if you want to get to know Will better, you should ask about his family. You can learn a lot about people that way. Have you tried that?”
“Actually, we did discuss it,” I say in a superior voice.
“And?”
“And...” I purse my lips. Hmm, I guess I don’t really know much. “I know he has a bad relationship with his dad...” I pause. “He has a younger sister. Oh, and his mother loves to travel!”
Dev nods. “Well, that’s something, I guess. Did you tell him about your family?”
“A little. There wasn’t much to say. I don’t really know my father, and Mom... well, she’s more in love with Britain than I am. Before I came here, we had a two-week movie marathon of every BBC book adaptation ever created. But that’s not the kind of info that’s going to endear me to Will.”
“Not necessarily. I think it’s cool you did that. Are you guys close?”
I hesitate. I don’t usually like talking about Mom in-depth—it always seems dorky to say how much I like spending time with her. Aren’t teenagers supposed to hate their moms? I’ve just never felt like that. She annoys the crap out of me sometimes, but she’s also one of my closest friends.
“Yeah,” I reply slowly. “I’ve basically lost touch with people from my old school since we moved, so she and I are together most nights and weekends.” I pick at an olive and wait for a snarky comment.
“Same,” he replies without the slightest judgment. “Not about the moving stuff or movie marathons—my parents don’t watch a lot of movies—but mostly I’m either at school or with my family.”
“That’s cool.”
“Was it hard moving schools? That sounds miserable.”
“I don’t miss Virginia. My old friends back there... I guess you could say they outgrew me. I was actually relieved when mom got the job offer in DC. Then Crystal befriended me and I couldn’t believe my luck.” I shrug. “But we all know how that turned out.”
“Eh, give it two months. You don’t know Andy the way the rest of us do—he’ll be onto someone new before we get back to America.” He points at me. “And if you hadn’t transferred to Waterford, then you’d never have gotten the chance to eat this very delicious pizza. So it all worked out.”
“Very true.” I make a show of taking a big bite. When I’ve finished chewing I ask, “So, are you liking it over here? Or do you miss your family?”
