False Start - Jessica Ruddick Page 0,70

making out,” I said again. “It was simply a very enthusiastic goodbye kiss.”

My friends burst into laughter.

I wasn’t fooling them. But it wasn’t like Carson and I had been groping each other. Except I might have grabbed his ass. Oops. With an ass like his, though, who could blame me?

“Who’s the guy?” Nicole asked. “That’s what I want to know. And how the hell did you manage to keep this from your bodyguard? Because if you keep making out in public like that, Carson is going to find out, and then someone’s going to die.”

I waited for her to crack a smile, but she was serious. She didn’t know. If she had been close enough to call out to me, she would have. That meant she must have been far enough away that she hadn’t seen Carson clearly.

“Carson’s totally cool with it,” I said.

“Really?” Nicole asked. “I thought he broke bad on his teammate who tried to talk to you at Bleakers.”

“I wouldn’t say he ‘broke bad,’” I corrected. That seemed like so long ago. “There were words.”

“Why are you dodging the question?” Courtney asked. “Give us details! Who is this mystery guy?”

I grinned, not able to keep the ruse any longer. “It’s Carson.”

The girls squealed. Nicole grabbed my arm and squeezed. “Are you kidding me? I was in such a hurry, I didn’t get a good look, but I should have known. It was only a matter of time.”

If she says so. I certainly hadn’t been that confident, especially after years of secretly pining for him. The reality of it was a lot less romantic than historical romances made it sound.

Courtney sighed. “I need to find a man.”

Nicole nodded. “Girl, same.”

They looked at Hanima expectantly, waiting for her to chorus her agreement. “What?” she asked. “I don’t have to worry about this stuff. Arranged marriage, remember?”

“Huh,” Nicole mused. “You know, I never would have thought I’d be on board for that, but if I’m still single when I’m thirty, can your parents hook me up?”

Hanima rolled her eyes.

***

MISS HINCHEY, THE teacher in charge of the STEM program at Bleaksburg Middle School, nodded enthusiastically. “I’d love to have a partnership with VVU.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be with VVU exactly,” I explained as I shifted in the uncomfortable student desk I’d dragged over next to the teacher’s. “I can’t speak for anyone else in the engineering department, but WIE wants to get involved, specifically with underrepresented populations in STEM.”

“Even better. This is only my second year, but the number of students involved has already doubled.” The young teacher pursed her lips and drummed her fingers on her desk. “How do I put this nicely? Oh, forget it. It’s just us talking. Mr. Adams should have retired fifteen years ago, or at least given up the STEM program. The man still carried a flip phone.”

I cringed. “Not exactly cutting edge.” Even my technophobic grandmother had a smart phone. Though most of the selfies she sent me were of her forehead or partially blocked by a finger.

“Far from it. Don’t get me wrong. He was a nice man, just… past his prime.”

“I get it.”

“So anyway, I’ll need to get everything cleared with the principal, but I don’t see any reason why she would object.” Miss Hinchey grinned, making her look like she could be one of the middle school students instead of the teacher. She couldn’t be much older than me. “This is going to be awesome. I wish my school had had something like this. I might have ended up in a much different career.”

“Oh?” I’d only just met her, but she seemed perfectly suited to her position. I would bet anything her students absolutely adored her.

“I love teaching, but I wasn’t even exposed to the concept of STEM until I was in college.” She shrugged. “Maybe if I had been, I would have gone into engineering or scientific research.”

As I left the school, her words stuck with me, and I became even more determined to make this work. I wished I had taken the initiative sooner since I would be leaving VVU after this year. But if everything went according to plan, a system would be in place for WIE to volunteer with the middle school STEM program for years to come.

I couldn’t take all the credit for it, though. I never would have pursued the idea if Hanima hadn’t pushed me to be on homecoming court. I’d gotten so caught up in my own life that I’d forgotten how great it