The Avery Shaw Experiment - By Kelly Oram Page 0,21

“Great! It’s settled then. Welcome to science club, Grayson.”

“Wait, what?”

Mr. Walden chuckled. “That’s my part of the deal. You want the extra credit, you take your brother’s place in the science club. You come to the meetings, work on your project with Avery, and you attend the actual science fair with the team in March.”

“You’re not serious, Mr. Walden. Join the freaking science club? That’s social suicide, not social science!”

“I am deadly serious. This is very important to Avery and the others. I will not let you take advantage of Avery’s work ethics. You will pull your weight and be a part of the team, or you can sign up for after school tutoring and hope you get your grade up before the end of the season.”

“Grayson, just say yes,” I begged. “We’ve already taken our photo for the yearbook. I’ll swear the gang to secrecy. No one will ever have to know.”

Grayson gaped at my friends, who’d been hanging on every word of our conversation and were all staring back at him in just as much shock.

“Please?” I whispered, taking his hand. “Do this for me?”

Grayson took one look at my desperate, pleading face and gave in.

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek as I squealed my thanks.

“And you said I’m cruel.” He shook his head as I stepped back. “All I ever do is tease you. You just turned me into a dork.”

Grayson

Okay, we will not discuss the fact that I am now an official member of the science club. I mean it. I almost said no to the entire deal because of the science club thing. Seriously, I think I’d rather fail physics and get kicked off the basketball team. But then Avery was there, hitting me full force with those big, hopeful eyes, and I couldn’t let her down.

She doesn’t understand the power she has with those beauties. I just joined the freaking science club for her! She thinks I did it for the extra credit, but I didn’t. I would have done the tutoring and begged to retake my final or something. It was all for her. What was wrong with me?

After school the next day—that first official day of the Avery Shaw Experiment—Avery survived a girls-only trip to the mall with Pamela and Chloe and got a complete makeover. She debuted the look that night when Pam and Chloe dragged her to my basketball game. I saw them walk in the gym ten minutes after the game started and promptly tripped over my own feet, losing us the ball.

The tight shirt and short skirt were majorly distracting—in the best way possible—and the strawberry highlights were totally inspired. I’d never seen the girl look more amazing. She turned all kinds of heads that night and didn’t even realize it.

I smiled to myself every time I overheard someone ask who the new hottie with Pam and Chloe was. Then I laughed when someone would answer that she was Grayson Kennedy’s new girlfriend.

The rest of the week Avery tutored me after practice. Then I forced her to do something fun and exciting and out of her comfort zone that would help her forget about Aiden. We did things that she and Aiden never did, went places they never hung out, and I introduced her to people he didn’t know.

She started referring to our time together as Life After Aiden. I called it Post Shower Avery and Grayson. She usually got mad at me for that. Usually. I considered the times she didn’t bother to yell at me a small victory.

One week turned into two and all of the sudden I was completely turned upside down. Avery had given me free reign of her social life, so I was supposed to be in control, but when it came down to it, I wasn’t in control of anything. Every choice I made was for her or about her. All of my free time was spent with her. It was like I was suddenly in a serious, steady, exclusive relationship but without any of the sexy benefits of a girlfriend. Crazy part was, I didn’t seem to mind. Well, I minded the no-kissing part a little bit. That was getting harder and harder not to do.

Finding new things to make her try was an addictive game. She was just so adorable when she was experiencing something for the first time. She viewed everything so analytically at first, and she was always terrified, but then once she