Lessons in Love (Flirt) (13 page)

“I hate to disappoint you, but Logan and I are going to be studying bio, not gazing into each other’s eyes—lined or not.” I shook my arm loose before we reached the bathroom door. “And we’re going to need all the time we can get, so I don’t want to waste any of it primping.”

“Oh, I see.” She smiled and stepped back. “Can’t wait even one extra minute to see him, huh?”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “Are you coming or not?”

I tried not to let her see how nervous I felt as we walked down the hall. Mostly because I knew I shouldn’t
be
nervous. It wasn’t as if this was the first time I’d helped a friend through a bio crisis. Far from it. Simone and the other girls asked me to help them study all the time. This was just like that. Right?

Logan was at his desk talking to Taylor when we came in. He jumped out of his seat when he saw me, his smile looking a little wobbly around the edges.

“Hey, Bailey,” he said as I dropped my bag onto my usual desk. “You, um, didn’t forget about helping me study, did you?”

“She definitely didn’t.” Simone plucked at Taylor’s sleeve. “These two are actually going to be hitting the books, so we might as well go find someone else to talk to.”

“Really?” Taylor looked surprised.

“I know, right? Studying in study hall—who ever heard of that?” Simone gave me and Logan a little wave. “Later, guys.”

The two of them hurried off. I sat down and pulled out my bio textbook. “Should we get started?”

“Yeah, okay.” Logan flipped open his own textbook, then cleared his throat. “Listen, I really appreciate this, Bailey. I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t pass this test.”

“It’s no big deal,” I said. “You can always transfer into an easier section. Or even into earth science. Zoe says it’s actually pretty interesting.”

“No, I can’t.” His words came out surprisingly sharp.

I guess he noticed my surprise, because he immediately looked sheepish. “Sorry for snapping like that. It’s just . . .” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know, maybe it’s stupid.”

“What?” I wasn’t sure why he looked so stressed all of a sudden.

“It’s my parents. They’ve never come right out and said they expect me to get straight As or anything, but . . .”

“You don’t want to disappoint them?” I nodded. “Been there. Still doing that.”

“Really?” He glanced at me, looking surprised.

I smiled. “Just because they run a restaurant, it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be disappointed in us if we can barely write out the specials board or add up a check.”

“Oh!” He looked pained. “I’m sorry, Bailey. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s cool, I’m just teasing you,” I said quickly. “But seriously, my mom was a straight A student herself, and Dad thinks education is super important. They definitely expect my sister and me to keep our grades up.”

“Right, same. And the thing is, it’s pretty easy for me to do well in most of my classes. It’s just that the past couple of years, the science and math classes have been getting harder and harder, and well . . .” He let out a hollow chuckle. “It’s starting to make me wonder if I even fit in in my own family.” He slid his eyes toward me. “That probably sounds really lame.”

“No, it doesn’t. Trust me, I get it. My family’s the same way. Everyone just assumes all the kids will grow up and work at Eats, but I’ve known since I was little that I didn’t want to do that. I can’t even imagine spending my whole life making sandwiches and scheduling produce deliveries and stuff.”

“Do they know that?” Logan asked. “Your parents, I mean.”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “But I can tell they don’t really get it.”

“Bummer.”

“No, it’s okay. They still support me and everything. It just feels a little weird sometimes when I realize I really am different from them.” I bit my lip, glancing across the room at Simone and Taylor. Now that I thought about it, I could’ve said the exact same thing about my friends.

Logan looked thoughtful. “I know what you mean,” he said. “Whenever I mess up at something sciencey, I start to wonder if they switched babies at the hospital when I was born or something.” He smiled. “Except that I definitely have my dad’s ears, so I guess not.”

I smiled back. For a second we just sat there smiling at each other. He really was a great guy, even if he wasn’t a science genius like his parents.

Which reminded me. Sitting here staring at each other and talking about our families wasn’t going to help him pass that test.

“Okay,” I said, trying to sound businesslike as I pulled my bio textbook closer and flipped through the pages. “Let’s get down to work.”

“Thanks again for the ride, Dad,” I said as my father steered into the school’s drop-off zone on Thursday morning. The buses hadn’t arrived yet, so only a few people were hanging out by the flagpole.

“You’re welcome.” Dad yawned as he threw the car into neutral. “Gives me an excuse to be late so someone else has to clean out the coffee pots.”

I smiled. “See you after school.”

“Don’t be late. Faculty meeting at the law school today, which always means a rush on coffee and pastries.” He reached over and tousled my hair. “Have a good day, Bailey.”

I took a few deep breaths of the cool morning air as I hurried up the school steps, trying to keep my mind on the task at hand. Logan and I had made a lot of progress the day before in study hall. I was still a little surprised by how much trouble he had with some pretty basic concepts, like the difference between a gene and an allele or how cell division worked. Hadn’t he learned anything from living with his parents all those years? But he was trying, and by the time the bell rang I felt pretty confident that he’d be able to squeak by.

When he’d begged me to meet him before homeroom for a little more cramming, though, how could I say no? That was why I’d asked Dad to drop me off on his way to work. My bus often didn’t get in until ten minutes before the bell.

Of course, when I’d told Simone, she’d seemed to think it was some kind of date. I was lucky she hated waking up any earlier than she absolutely had to. Otherwise she probably would have shown up that morning wanting to cram me into a ball gown and heels.

And that definitely wasn’t what this was about. I was totally focused on getting Logan through this test. I’d spent over an hour after dinner last night planning out what we needed to review to ensure that he could go into it feeling confident.

I stopped at my locker just long enough to shed my jacket and grab a few books. Then I headed for the library, which was where Logan and I had agreed to meet.

After Mr. Ba’s classroom, the library was my favorite spot in the entire school. It had been renovated and expanded a few years earlier. There was a big central atrium with lots of natural light and huge wooden tables where people could study, a whole row of computer monitors along the outside walls, and tidy rows of books beyond that.

As I pushed through the big glass doors, I could already see Logan sitting at one of the pine-topped tables. But he wasn’t alone.

He spotted me right away and raised one hand in a wave. “Bailey!” he called out. “Over here.”

Ling looked up and smiled as I approached. “Oh, hi, Bailey,” she said. “I was just about to text you to say you could sleep in after all.”

“What?” I was still so focused on my study plans that it took me a moment to clue in to what was going on.

Ling reached over and put a hand on Logan’s arm. “Logan was just telling me about that placement test. Since I was here, I figured I’d help him study.”

“You—huh?” I blinked at her. The “since I was here” part wasn’t so strange. Ling lived five blocks from school and was a morning person. She was often at school before the rest of us.

No, the weird part was “I figured I’d help him study.” Not that Ling was stupid—far from it. She was one of those people who got good-to-excellent grades without having to expend much effort. Translation? She hardly ever actually studied for anything. And often mocked those of us who did. In other words, not what most people would consider an ideal tutor for a struggling student.

“I said I’m
helping him study
.” She enunciated each word carefully.

I still wasn’t quite taking this in. “But you’re not even in our class.”

“So what? I have Mr. Ba for first period, remember?” There was a hint of annoyance in her smile now. I knew she was losing patience with me—expecting me to back off and let her do her thing.

Usually when Ling got that look on her face, it was best to let her have her way. Otherwise things tended to get messy.

Still, I hesitated. After talking with Logan the day before, I knew how important this was to him. He didn’t need Ling flirting instead of helping right now. Even if she did actually try to help him study, there was only so much she could do—while she
was
in one of Mr. Ba’s other tenth-grade bio classes, it wasn’t an accelerated class like ours.

Logan spoke up. “It’s cool, Ling. I need all the help I can get. Maybe all three of us can study together?”

“What a good idea.” She shot him a brilliant smile. “Oops, except I just remembered something—I passed Zoe on my way here, and she was looking for Bailey. Said she left something important in your locker yesterday.” She shot me a meaningful look.

For a second I felt stubborn. Why should I let Ling chase me away?
She
was the one who was butting in on
my
plans, not the other way around.

Then again, what did it matter? I’d already done my job. Logan knew the material—anything we could cover this morning would only be a review. Maybe it was a good thing if Ling could distract him from stressing out about the test for a while.

And if that was the case, I shouldn’t mind stepping aside. Not unless this meeting was more to me than a study session. Which it wasn’t. Logan and I were just friends. I needed to remember that.

“Oh. Okay, yeah.” I took a step backward, clutching my biology textbook to my chest. “I’d better go see what Zoe wants.”

“Are you sure?” Logan looked anxious.

Avoiding his eye, I backed up another step. “Yeah. Ling can help you—it’ll be fine.”

I turned and scurried away without a backward look.

“Ugh. I hate when Mr. Ba makes us touch mold.” Simone squirted another dollop of soap onto her palm. “It never feels like I can get it all off my hands.”

We were scrubbing up after that day’s bio lab. It had been an interesting one involving some mold spores we’d been growing since the beginning of the month. But for once I hadn’t been able to focus. I was all too aware that Logan was up there beyond the sliding doors in the classroom side of the room taking his placement test.

“Yeah,” I said, still distracted. “Eau de Rhizopus Stolonifer. It’s the next hot thing.”

Simone laughed, then reached for a paper towel. “Let’s get out of here.”

We grabbed our stuff and exited into the hall through the door at the back of the lab area. My gaze shot immediately to the other door—the one leading into the classroom area. It was closed. That meant Logan was still taking his test.

Simone hoisted her backpack onto one shoulder. “Ready to head to lunch?” she asked.

“You go ahead.” I shot another glance at the closed classroom door. “I want to wait and see how Logan did.”

“Oh, right.” Simone immediately gave me a critical once-over, then fluffed up my hair and straightened my shirt. “Want me to wait with you?”

“No, go ahead. No sense both of us being late for lunch.” I tried to sound casual.

“You want to be alone with him, huh? Okay.” She smirked. “I’ll try to keep Ling from rushing over here to offer her assistance.”

I’d told her about that morning’s library situation, of course. She’d been horrified but unsurprised. The war between Ling and Megan was still escalating—the two of them were barely speaking except to trade the occasional insult.

As Simone hurried off toward the cafeteria, I stepped over and peeked in through the glass part of the classroom door. Logan was bent over his test paper, face scrunched up with concentration. Mr. Ba was at his desk and saw me looking in. I stepped back quickly, but a moment later the teacher opened the door and joined me in the hall.