so it was usually pretty boring.
But that day, after lunch, he saw the empty seat beside me and he sat down. The bell hadn’t rung yet, and the classroom was only half empty.
“Hey,” he said, setting his bag down on the floor near his feet.
I glanced around, wondering why he’d chosen to sit next to me today of all days. The most he ever did was say hi or give me a wave from across the room. “Hey.”
For some reason, even though we’d been riding home together the past few days and that wasn’t weird or awkward anymore, this still felt that way.
We never really hung out anymore, not in class or after sports games. I’d kept my distance until now.
Last semester had been a completely different story, though. We had had three different classes together, we’d almost always sat together, plus I’d been at all of his football games due to cheer. We had been pretty much inseparable.
At first, David and a few of his friends had kind of eyed us a little, but he’d never really said anything. We all just spent a lot of time together because of football.
But now everything felt different.
We’d gone from being close friends to only having my brother in common.
Before, I’d thought that maybe things could be different between us.
That we could be close, and it wouldn’t be a problem. That maybe David would get used to the idea of us, little by little.
So we’d gotten pretty close.
But it had definitely caused problems or Aaron wouldn’t have sent that message the day after the winter dance.
I’d learned that this was how things were supposed to be.
So what if he had technically been my friend first?
The fact was that he was David’s best friend now.
That mattered.
So beyond a, “Hey,” I didn’t really know how else to feel or react to Aaron sitting with me in class again.
What was he doing?
Class began, and Coach Collins had us do a lab to help us learn the difference between physical and chemical reactions.
Aaron turned to me, an easy-going grin on his face. His long legs almost reached the whiteboard a few feet away. “Want to be my partner?”
Umm… I fidgeted with my pencil. “Okay.”
“Cool,” Aaron said, and left to pick up our supplies.
A few minutes later, I was trying to relax and not overthink things. Aaron had the instructions and I didn’t want to get too close so I just followed his lead from across the desk.
He measured out baking soda and vinegar and let me pour the ingredients into the beaker.
In an instant, the frothy bubbles overflowed from the beaker onto the table, quickly heading for the edges. I screamed and got up, not wanting the mixture all over my favorite jeans.
Aaron jumped up too, looking somewhere between shocked and horrified. “Whoa!”
We watched the bubbly mixture spill onto the floor, heading for our backpacks. Aaron moved them out of the way in a flash.
I covered my hand with my mouth, not sure what to do or how this had happened.
Coach Collins came over and looked disapprovingly between us and the mess. “Guys! What is going on here?”
“Sorry,” I replied, taking another step back. “I think we put in too much of the ingredients or something.”
“Ya think?” the teacher replied in an annoyed tone.
Aaron looked at the sheet with the instructions. “Oh, I see…” He looked at us sheepishly. “Yeah, I definitely messed up the amounts.”
“How?” the teacher asked in disbelief, hands on her hips.
I looked around. Nobody’s else experiment had gone all over the floor. So much for keeping my distance to avoid trouble.
Aaron blushed a little. “I didn’t really check the instructions. I just put in a cup of each.”
“Aaron!” I took the sheet from him. “Did you even read this?
He gave me a sheepish look and held up the beaker he’d used to measure. “What? I thought that’s what these were for.”
The teacher’s mouth dropped. “They’re to hold the mixture.”
Aaron held up the other beaker. “So one wasn’t to measure and the other to hold it?”
We both stared at him.
“Oh,” he said lamely.
Aaron Garcia was cute, but clearly, reading instructions wasn’t his forte.
I shook my head, trying my best not to laugh at him. “Okay, you’re not in charge anymore.”
Coach Collins pressed her palm to her forehead and closed her eyes. “That would be wise. Please clean this up.” Then she walked away, still flustered, to help another group. “Become a high school teacher, they said. It’ll be fun, they said,” I heard