Read Online Times Squared by Julia DeVillers - Free Book Online Page A

again?”
    â€œKatelyn.”
    â€œAdam.”
    â€œRuss.”
    The three eighth graders slowed down to join us.
    â€œYeah,” Tess repeated. “I’m hanging out with Katelyn, Adam, and Russ. What are we talking about?”
    â€œWe’re quizzing each other on factorization and common multiples,” Adam said. “You wouldn’t understand.”
    â€œTess was the winner of last year’s mathathon,” Nick informed them.
    â€œAnd you chose drama over math?” Katelyn frowned.
    â€œUgh,” Adam said. Russ nodded. The three of them sped up and left us behind.
    â€œDrama versus mathletes?” Tess said, loudly anddramatically. “We’re all Geckos! Can’t we just get along?!?”
    Okay. Even I had to smile at that.
    A few minutes later we were sitting around some modern statue eating steaming pretzels in paper wrappings. Mrs. Nicely was on a nearby bench, surrounded by bags from the toy store. We all had our slickers on and hoods up.
    â€œWill somebody please tell me what is going on?” Tess demanded, taking a bite of pretzel.
    â€œIt’s nothing,” Nick said. “I just thought . . . well, I totally misunderstood a situation.” Nick did not look at either of us. He looked—sad.
    Maybe if I talked about the Ferris wheel deal, I could figure out why.
    â€œSo,” I began, “here’s my problem.”
    â€œIf it’s math-related, I can’t help you,” Nick said. He had yellow mustard on his cheek. I did not get the pretzel/mustard combination, but whatever.
    â€œNo,” I sighed. “You’re actually part of the problem. You two know that Payton and I switched places by accident, right?”
    They both nodded. Boy, it was weird to be talking about twin switching with someone other than Payton,but Tess and Nick had told me they’d known we’d traded places right away.
    Which was why Nick had looked so cozy with my twin on the Ferris wheel.
    Wait. Shouldn’t Nick be in a good mood after that ride with Payton?
    â€œWhen I accidentally got stuck in Payton’s group, Sydney noticed . . .” my voice trailed off. Sydney noticed what? I had thought Sydney and everybody had noticed Payton and Nick acting like they like liked each other. Like more than just friends.
    But now that Nick was acting weird, what was I going to say? Sydney’s telling people that it was I, Emma, who was flirting with Nick, instead of Payton, and she is going to make sure Ox finds out about it, when really it was Payton and Nick who were so happy on the Ferris wheel together . . .
    But Nick didn’t seem so happy now. This was way too confusing. If this were a math equation, it would be like (N + P) – (N + E) + (E + O) + (S + O) = (E – O) + (P – N).
    â€œSydney noticed what?” Tess broke into my overthinking. “That you two switched places! Oh no, is she going to tell on you? Like Jazmine did when she busted you two the first time?”
    â€œNo, that’s not what Sydney’s going to blab . . . ,” I started to say, but got cut off by a shriek from Mrs. Nicely.
    â€œChildren!” she said, jumping up. “We are due at the theater in exactly six minutes! Where did the time go?” She grabbed all her bags and took off at a brisk walk.
    I noticed one of the mathletes (Russ?) check his GPS and announce: “We have eleven blocks to go. That’s one point eight three blocks per minute. Time equals distance divided by rate.”
    â€œWe’ll make it in time if we hurry,” Katelyn(?) said. “Taking into account variables like the traffic signals and taxi aggression.”
    Reality check! Those people already had their math brains churning, while I was once again distracted by personal problems.
    â€œLet’s go,” I sighed, dropping my wrapper in my backpack until I could properly dispose of it. I had eaten