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that’s where I went too. I really am just a big nerd.”
    Adam looks at her. “You’re not a nerd,” he says.
    â€œOh, no?” Victoria says. “And why is that?”
    â€œYou’re pretty,” Adam tells her. “And popular. People think you’re cool. Nerds hang out in the library all the time and play chess and stuff. Nerds don’t have any friends.”
    â€œWow,” Victoria says. “You’ve thought a lot about this, huh?”
    â€œNerds are losers,” Adam tells her. “You’re most definitely not a nerd.”
    Victoria laughs. “Okay, Mr. Big-Shot Cool Guy. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a nerd. Popularity isn’t everything.”
    Adam looks at Victoria with her creamy skin and sparkling green eyes and her adorable little smirk.
    Easy for you to say , he thinks.

84.
    â€œSteph says you have a brother,” Victoria says. “He doesn’t live with you guys?”
    Adam shakes his head. “He moved out a year ago, I guess,” he says. “He’s big into independence and stuff. He wanted to be on his own.”
    â€œWhat does he do?” Victoria says.
    â€œHe works at the doughnut shop across from city hall,” Adam tells her. “He, uh—” He looks at her. “Did Steph tell you about the accident?”
    â€œA little,” Victoria says. “Just that he got hurt.”
    â€œHe’s a paraplegic,” Adam tells her. “He was playing hockey, against Nixon, actually, and he got body-checked the wrong way. He has to be in a wheelchair now.”
    Victoria frowns. “That’s awful,” she says, because that’s what people always say, but Adam can see that she means it. “That must be really hard for him.”
    ( It’s hard on everybody , Adam thinks.)
    â€œIt is,” he says. “But he’s doing okay. He has his own apartment and he does most things himself. I think he’s happy.”
    She looks at him. “Do you?”
    Adam pauses. “I hope so,” he says.
    They’re both quiet. Then: “We should see him,” Victoria says. “I’d like to meet him.”
    Adam looks at her. “What, like, now?”
    â€œNo,” she says, reaching for his hand. “Not now, but sometime. I mean, if you think he would be cool with it.”
    Adam laces his fingers between hers. Thinks about taking her to meet Sam. Showing her off to him.
    â€œYeah,” he tells Victoria. “I think he’d like that.”

85.
    Adam kisses Victoria again at the end of their second date. A little longer, this time.
    She’s still cool with it.

86.
    So things are going well with Victoria—
    (they’re going great )
    â€”except
    â€” except —
    things are going great with the homework stuff, too.
    Too great.

87.
    Adam rolls up to his locker on a Friday afternoon.
    Mr. Powers just dropped another lab assignment. Mrs. Stewart has an English paper brewing. And Mr. Shoemaker wants a chapter summary on his desk first thing Monday.
    It’s the weekend. Everybody has plans.
    (“I’m going skiing,” says Leanne Grayson.)
    (“Swim meet,” says Paul Nolan.)
    (“I’m getting drunk,” says Rob Thigpen. “Screw the rest of you guys.”)
    They’re crowded around Adam’s locker like drug fiends, jostling one another, shoving their homework in his face.
    (Practically begging Adam to help them.)
    It’s not an unpleasant feeling. But then Adam snaps back to reality.
    Sara Bryant’s already cornered him about physics.
    Jessie McGill’s already cornered him about English.
    He’s supposed to take Victoria out again on Saturday, and he has to visit Sam, too.
    But Adam can’t tell the gods he won’t do their homework. Gods don’t know the word no . It’s not in their vocab.
    And Adam isn’t going to be the guy to teach it to