The Avery Shaw Experiment - By Kelly Oram Page 0,1
mouth after seeing the pout on his face.
Some people have gifts all right. Grayson Kennedy could charm the pants off of any girl he met, and frequently did if the rumors around school were to be believed. Which they were.
“I love you too, honey,” Cheryl said, “but you stink. Go shower, please, and then get in here and do these dishes.”
“The dishes?” Grayson whined, heading for the fridge.
Thankfully Cheryl intercepted the milk and handed Grayson a glass before he could slobber all over the carton. “Yes. The dishes. It was your turn to do them after lunch. If they’re not done before dinner, then you will be in charge of all the dinner dishes as well, and Avery will be off the hook tonight.”
“Sweet,” I called over my shoulder from the living room. “By all means, Grayson, put it off a little longer.”
Grayson finally noticed Aiden and I on the couch. “What are you two dorks doing?”
“Learning about steroids,” I said cheerfully. “You should probably know that using them can cause acne, testicular atrophy, decreased sperm count, prostate enlargement, and gynecomastia.”
Grayson looked rightfully appalled. “Gyneco-what-ia?”
“Enlarged breasts in men,” Aiden translated. “So you should lay off the juice before you have to start borrowing Avery’s bras.”
I gasped at the mention of my underwear and whacked Aiden’s shoulder hard.
Behind me, Grayson laughed. I knew he was about to deliver a comeback, but I refused to look at him. Seconds later his breath was warm on my neck. He whispered just low enough that his mother couldn’t hear what he said. “I like my bras colorful and lacey, Aves. Not sure your collection would do it for me.”
Total mortification. Grayson may be as close as family to me, but he was still one of the hottest, most popular guys in our whole school. He, discussing my bras in that low, sexy voice that could stop a girl’s heart on the spot, made my lungs constrict. Plus, he was right of course. My bras were all of the plain white cotton variety.
“Mom! Grayson’s picking on Avery again!”
Aiden’s shout startled me back from my panic attack. Grayson was still watching me, a wicked smile playing on his lips, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I sniffed once and then pretended to gag. “Ugh. Your mom’s right. You really reek. Please go sweat all over someone else.”
Grayson laughed his way back into the kitchen in search of more cookies.
“What is it that makes your brother a walking hormone?” I asked Aiden. “Is it all the physical activity, you think? I mean with the working out, the snowboarding, and the basketball, he’s got to be on an endorphin high like, what, eighty-five percent of the time? Do you think there’s a correlation between the two? Like the more active the athlete, the bigger the sex-craved maniac?”
Aiden shrugged. “Probably. Think about the reputations of professional athletes.”
“Ha! Maybe that should be the topic of our experiment for science club this year.”
Aiden gave me a weird look. “How, exactly, would you go about testing that theory?”
I thought about the practical application that would be required for an experiment like that and promptly blushed again.
“Fine,” I relented, though the thought of Aiden and me working up a sweat together only to then go work up another one with a hot make-out session was highly appealing. “But we need to come up with something soon. The fair is in March this year. It doesn’t give us a lot of time.”
Aiden’s entire body suddenly went stiff. I glanced at him just in time to watch his face turn a little green.
“What’s the matter with you?” I wanted to make a joke about him being strung out due to steroids or something, but he looked too freaked to tease. Something was really wrong with him, so I paused the TV, sat up straight and gave him my full attention.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Aiden gulped. “It’s just . . . I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
“About what?”
He took a big breath and then let it out. “I’m not going to do the science fair this year.”
It took a minute for this news to sink in. We’d been partners at the Utah State Science Fair every year since sixth grade.
“What?”
“Um . . . well . . . you see . . . Miles Fuller moved over break, so the debate team needs one more person or they won’t be able to compete anymore. Mindy Perez and I had public