Revenge of the Geek (7 page)

“I can’t help it,”Charlie said. “She’s feeding him carrot cake off her fork.”

“So?”

“So it’s hideous. And I think proximity to Phoebe is causing Finn’s IQ to drop. Maybe she’s a succubus,”Charlie remarked.

“A succubus drains away her victim’s life energy, not intelligence,”I said.

“Okay, then, she’s an intelligence succubus. I have to get out of here,”Charlie said, standing. “Are you ready to go?”

“Sure,”I said. I actually wanted to talk more about my disappointing
Ampersand
assignment, but as long as Phoebe continued feeding Finn carrot cake in full view, I wasn’t going to get the best out of Charlie.

Chapter Six

I
was still determined to befriend Nora, but she continued to elude me. She walked into Mrs. Gordon’s Nineteenth-Century American Literature class just as the bell was ringing and disappeared as soon as class was over. As lit was the only class we had together, I didn’t expect to see Nora again for the rest of the day, unless I happened to bump into her at lunch. So I was surprised when, just as we were waiting for physics class to begin, she walked in.

She headed straight for Mr. Forrester’s desk and handed the teacher a note. He took it from her, looked it over, and then gave her a curt nod.

“Take a seat,”Mr. Forrester said.

Charlie, who was sitting next to me, nudged me.

“I think that new girl is joining the class,”she whispered.

“I didn’t think we were allowed to switch classes once the semester started,”I replied.

Charlie shrugged. “Maybe the rules are different if you’re new.”

Nora turned and nervously looked around for an open seat. Because we so frequently worked with partners in physics, we sat at tables instead of desks. Each table had room for two students. Charlie and I shared a table at the back of the room. Finn sat in front of us with Tate Metcalf. The table next to ours was empty, so I waved at Nora and gestured for her to come sit next to us. She gave me a grateful smile and slid into the empty seat.

“You can work with Charlie and me,”I whispered across to her.

“Thanks,”Nora whispered back.

I smiled at her, but before I could say anything else, the bell rang. Mr. Forrester stood, clearing his throat wetly. Forrester was a thin, stooped man who favored short-sleeve, button-down shirts—today’s was a hideous brownish yellow—tucked into adjustable-waist pants.

“Today we’re going to begin the fascinating study of kinematics,”Mr. Forrester said. He held his hands in front of him, fingers spread, looking like a magician about to perform a trick.

“Sounds absolutely thrilling,”Charlie muttered as she opened up her laptop and prepared to take notes.

As I drove home from school that afternoon, I tried to pinpoint where, exactly, the smell in my yellow car was coming from.

Is it in the seats?
I wondered, rolling down the window. If so, maybe having the upholstery shampooed and vacuumed would take care of the problem. The thought of having to live with the repulsive stink indefinitely was too horrible to contemplate.

I pulled out of the school parking lot and turned left onto the main road. Up ahead, a familiar figure was walking down the sidewalk, head down and shoulders slumped. It was Nora. I put on my signal and pulled over. Nora looked up, clearly startled.

“Hi. Do you want a ride?”I offered.

For a moment, Nora looked unsure. But then she smiled shyly and said, “Okay, thanks.”

She walked around and climbed in the passenger’s side. Once she was buckled in, I pulled back out. I glanced over at her. She had an odd expression on her face while she attempted to covertly pinch her nose shut.

“I know. It’s awful, right? I probably should have warned you about the stink before you got in,”I said.

“It’s not that bad,”Nora lied unconvincingly.

“No, it really is that bad,”I said, laughing. “The car came this way. I think I’m actually starting to get used to it, as frightening as that is. Keeping the windows down seems to help.”

“What is it?”Nora asked.

“No idea. The previous owner must have had a serious BO problem. I keep trying to tell myself that a car, any car, even one that’s ugly, yellow, and smelly is better than no car at all,”I said.

“Speaking as someone who has to walk to and from school in the blistering heat, I can tell you that’s definitely true,”Nora said.

“Do you live far from here?”I asked.

“Three miles.”

“Three
miles
?”I repeated. “You walk that far every day?”

Nora flushed bright red and turned to look out the window, her shoulders hunched defensively.

“I’m sorry. That’s just a really long way to go, especially in August. Why doesn’t your grandmother drive you?”I asked.

“She can’t,”Nora said.

“Oh,”I said sympathetically. “I’m sorry. Is she disabled?”

Nora laughed. “No way. She plays golf in the morning, and usually goes out shopping with her friends in the afternoons. She says she’s too busy to chauffeur me around. I really need to get a bike.”

I digested this, trying to imagine my mom or dad requiring me to walk three miles to and from school every day in the late-summer heat, because they couldn’t be bothered to pick me up. It wouldn’t ever happen. Even my stepmother had dropped me off occasionally in the days before I had a driver’s license and a car.

“That stinks,”I said.

“Yeah, well, my grandmother was pretty up front about it when I moved here. She told me I could live with her, but I shouldn’t expect much from her.”

“So why did you move here?”I asked.

“My mom is getting married, and she and her fiancédecided they needed some alone time as newlyweds. My dad’s already remarried, but my stepmother isn’t all that fond of me,”Nora explained.

“I know how that goes,”I said.

“You, too? Stepparents are the worst. Anyway, my mom basically dumped me on my grandmother, who’s pretty bitter about the whole thing. She keeps telling me she’s done raising kids and is entitled to enjoy her retirement,”Nora said. I thought Nora sounded pretty bitter herself, but I couldn’t blame her. Her parents—and her grandmother—sounded like selfish jerks.

“I’m so sorry,”I said. “I sort of know how you feel. My mom moved to London last year, and I was basically forced to move in with my dad and stepmom. Trust me—my stepmom was
not
thrilled with the situation.”

“What’s your stepmother like?”Nora asked.

I considered this. Peyton and I had never gotten along, but I had to admit, she’d been making more of an effort lately.

“She’s not the warmest person you’ll ever meet,”I said carefully. “But the living situation isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It’s given me a chance to spend more time with my dad, and I’ve gotten to know my stepsister better, which has been good. We’ve gotten pretty close.”

Nora nodded. “Well, it’s just Gran and me, and she’s hardly ever home. I’m usually on my own at the condo, and I think I’m the only one in the building who’s under the age of seventy. But at least there’s a pool,”Nora said.

I hated the idea of Nora sitting alone in an empty apartment without anyone to talk to.

“What are you doing now?”I asked impulsively. “Do you want to come over to my house?”

Nora hesitated, but then finally she shrugged. “Okay. Why not?”

Chapter Seven

W
hen I pulled into the gravel drive of the beach house, there was a familiar red Mini Cooper parked next to Hannah’s black SUV.

“What on earth is he doing here?”I muttered.

“What?”Nora asked.

“That’s Finn’s car,”I said. Even if there was another red Mini Cooper out there, it probably didn’t have a bumper sticker that read: IF IT WEREN’T FOR PHYSICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT, I’D BE UNSTOP-PABLE.

“That funny guy from school?”Nora asked.

“If by funny you mean the annoying smart-ass, then yes. That’s Finn,”I said as I turned off the car and opened the door. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”

“He’s probably waiting for you,”Nora said as she also got out of the car. She seemed relieved to be away from the stinky smell and out in the fresh air.

“He didn’t mention he was coming over,”I said.

“Maybe he wanted it to be a surprise.”

I shuddered. “That’s a truly horrifying thought. The last time Finn tried to surprise me, he did it by posting gossip about me on a Web site.”

“Why?”Nora asked.

“Exactly. That is the eternal question when it comes to Finn.
Why?
”I slammed the door shut. “The answer is usually some typically twisted Finn logic that no normal, sane person would ever understand.”

“Are you guys together?”Nora asked, as we headed up the walk to the front door.

“Together?”I repeated. “Wait . . . you mean,
together
together? As in dating? You’re kidding, right?”

Nora nodded. “Why? He’s sort of cute.”

“Ugh,”I said. “I mean, that would be like dating my brother. If I had a brother. And if that brother spent all of his free time playing disturbing video games.”I shook my head and opened the front door. “I’m going to forget you even suggested it.”

Nora giggled. It was the first time I’d really heard her laugh. I grinned back at her.

When I opened the front door, Willow was already there waiting for me, her long body wriggling happily.

“Hi, girl. This is Nora,”I said, stroking my dog’s pretty brindle head.

Nora hesitated, looking warily at Willow. Which was odd. People usually love meeting Willow. She was sweet and beautiful and not even the tiniest bit aggressive. Willow’s only enemy was Madonna, Hannah’s white puffball of a cat. Every time the two of them got into a tussle, Willow came out on the losing end. She’d had her nose scratched enough times that it made her jumpy to even be in the same room as Madonna.

“I’m not really a dog person,”Nora said.

“Don’t worry. Willow’s really sweet,”I said.

Willow stuck out her long nose and sniffed in Nora’s direction, but didn’t approach her. Instead, the greyhound turned back to me for some more love. I was surprised. Normally, Willow loves to meet new people. I gave her back one last scratch and then said, “Come on. Let’s go find out what Finn’s up to.”

It didn’t take long to find him. Finn was sitting at the kitchen table, tapping away on Hannah’s laptop, while she—wearing a Bluetooth earpiece—stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. The whole thing was bizarre. Hannah and Finn barely knew each other. And, to make the scene just that much odder, Avery Tallis was perched on one of the tall stools lined up next to the kitchen island.

Avery—who had a thin, pointed face and short, dark hair—used to be at the beach house all the time, back when she and Hannah were best friends. But then Hannah discovered that Avery had stolen an expensive cashmere sweater out of Peyton’s closet, and that had—I thought—ended their friendship.

What is Avery doing here now?
I wondered.

Avery turned to look at me with narrow, clever eyes, and smiled slyly. Avery didn’t like me. It all started when I wouldn’t do her math homework for her, and her dislike for me had only grown once I started dating Dex. Avery had wanted to go out with him herself.

“Hi, Miranda. How’s life at that weird geek school?”Avery said.

“Just fine, thanks,”I said coolly. It was one thing when the kids at my school called it Geek High. It was a joke, an affectionate nickname. It sounded completely different in Avery’s sneering tone.

Finn and Hannah looked up from the laptop.

“Hey, M,”Finn said. “How’s it shaking?”

“It’s shaking just fine. What are you doing here, Finn?”I asked.

“He’s helping us launch our new Web site. For Match Made,”Hannah explained.

“Match Made?”I repeated.

“That’s what we’re calling the new matchmaking service. You know, it’s from that saying ‘A match made in heaven.’”

“Or a match made in hell,”Finn murmured.

“Don’t you like it?”Hannah asked, looking at me anxiously.

“Actually, I really do like it. But who’s the
we
? You and Finn?”I asked, hoping, hoping, hoping that wasn’t it. The idea of Finn being involved in a matchmaking service was truly horrific. He would see it as a goal—no, not just a goal, but a personal calling—to set up the most hideous, disastrous dates possible, just to amuse himself.

“No, not Finn. He’s just helping with the Web site. Avery and I are going to run the business,”Hannah said. “Hi. Are you a friend of Miranda’s?”

In my shock at finding Avery—not to mention Finn—in our kitchen, I had completely forgotten about Nora. Especially since she’d been so quiet, standing behind me, just inside the kitchen door. Nora looked nervous, her shoulders hunched, one arm wrapped around her torso. It seemed she was trying to take up the smallest amount of space possible.

“Nora, I’m sorry,”I said, turning to her. “Come on in and meet everyone. Well, you know Finn. This is my stepsister, Hannah, and this is her”—I hesitated for a beat—“friend Avery Tallis. Everyone, this is Nora Lee.”

“Hi,”Avery said, flashing Nora the same fake smile she’d given me.