Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,24

wasn’t exercising on the Nevers list? He swung open the door,

expecting Brett to have forgotten his keys.

“Hi,” Gretchen said. She was in her soccer uniform, a grass stain

on her knee. Her face was flushed. “Your house was on the way,” she

said, looking down the street from the direction she came. The wind

whipped her hair in front of her face. “I thought after we ran into

each other at the mall you might try to do more than just say hi at

school. I thought you might . . .” She looked down at her soccer cleats

and shifted the weight of her backpack, which was black with a white

scuff mark across the bottom and a red button pinned on the right

shoulder strap. “Anyway, since you live so close, I figured I’d come by

and tell you that I want us to talk more.” She looked back up but only

met Dave’s eyes for a second before glancing away. A smile tugged at

the corners of her mouth, like it had when she had tried making a

joke at the Kapoor party. “You’re easy to talk to. And you’re nice. And

you make me laugh a lot.” A strand of hair had blown across her face

and into her mouth, and she laughed and pulled it back behind her

ear. “You seem great, Dave. And I thought that maybe you might be

thinking the same about me, but . . .”

A car rolled past the street behind Gretchen, blasting Mexican

ranchera music. Dave realized he’d been smiling for a while, and he

felt himself blush just at the realization. His T-shirt was dotted with

84 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

yellow stains from the Thai food he and Julia had had for lunch. It

was only yesterday that he’d given up on the prospect of anything

but friendliness with Gretchen, and now he felt a giddiness rising so

quickly it was useless to deny that it was there. Dave leaned against

the open door. “I’m glad you came. I’ve been trying to figure out what

to do with a bag full of human hair. Any ideas?”

Gretchen smiled, her big brown eyes lighting up. Her smile made

him feel like she’d just handed him a tray of freshly baked chocolate-

chip cookies.

“Dave, I have an idea!” Julia called out from inside the house. He

turned around to see her coming down the stairs, his laptop in her

hands. “We might have to hire hundreds of people to help make it

happen, but with Brett’s help we—” She stopped on the stairs when

she noticed Gretchen at the door. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hi, Julia,” Gretchen said, offering a shy wave. She looked back at

Dave. “Think about what I said. I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah.” Dave nodded. Gretchen gave him one last smile and then

turned away, taking the steps at the front of his house with a little hop.

Dave closed the door and turned to face Julia, his heart pounding. For

some reason he felt like he’d been caught at something. At mingling

with the clichés, at hiding a crush.

“Getting in with the popular kids,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Savvy political move.”

“Thanks,” Dave said, stuck by the door, waiting for his heart to

quiet down. His hands were shaking.

Julia lingered at the stairs, and Dave wondered if she could tell that

DAVE 85

political savvy was the furthest thing from his mind. Then she came

down and joined him by the front door, showing him the computer

screen. “Check this out. We can hire an explosives expert for only

three hundred dollars an hour, plus supplies. That’s cheaper than a

lawyer or a therapist! A bake sale for charity isn’t on the Nevers, but

maybe we can whip up some cupcakes with the PTA and raise money

for some dynamite.”

The rest of the evening, Julia rattled on about how blowing stuff up

was the sure way to win the public’s heart. She found epic music for

the video’s soundtrack, looked up junk cars on eBay, searched Google

Maps for nearby fields where they could blow up a car without

anyone getting hurt. She even started writing a script for the video,

chock-full of references to movies released in the last five years. She

took over his phone and started texting Brett about what he would

need to see get blown up in exchange for his vote for prom king. She

was funny, and charming, and energetic, and yet all Dave could think

about was Gretchen.

86 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

SOLVE FOR X

DAVE, JULIA, AND Brett were at one of the tables outside Fratelli’s,

the tangy smell of pepperoni thick in the air. Brett and Julia were

discussing the viral video, but Dave was lost in his thoughts.

Ever since he reached the right age for it, basically since he met

Julia,