“Between the laugh out loud dialogue and Maddie and Logan’s pulse-skipping romance, I longed for the Flash’s speed so I could read the book over again and again!”
- Cole Gibsen, author of the KATANA series (Flux)
“Leah Rae Miller’s debut is charming, funny, clever and utterly geek-tastic! But beyond that, I appreciated the book’s message that the road to happiness is to be true to yourself first.”
- The FlyLeaf Review
“An extremely adorkable read about being comfortable in your own skin. Get ready to bring out your inner nerd!”
- Sara Book Nerd
“THE SUMMER I BECAME A NERD is everything you want in an ideal summer; it’s fun and bright, with the perfect mix of romance and nerdiness. You’ll devour this book with as much enthusiasm as the main character devours the latest comic book.”
- Alice in Readerland
“A total feel good romance with plenty of laughs and smiles, and just the right amount of emotion.”
- A Good Addiction
“A sweet and fun summer read that turns the tables on the popular guy/nerdy girl scenario and refreshingly features a popular girl who wants to let her nerd flag fly. I highly recommend it.”
- Just a Couple More Pages
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Twitter; Facebook; Boston Celtics; Mylar; Wolverine; Captain America; Toyota Corolla; Magic: The Gathering; Marvel; DC Comics; Ant-Man; The Avengers; Booster Gold; Blue Beetle; Fables; Vertigo; Superman; Sandman; Power Girl; Lumina; The Hulk; Peter Parker; Chili’s; Wal-mart; New Orleans’ Saints; Xbox; Honda Accord; Yoda; Iron Man; Disney World; Infinity Crisis; Supergirl; X-Men; iTunes; YouTube; Sea Monkeys; Akira; Tater Tots; Battlestar Galactica; Candyland; Lego; Lara Croft; Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; Tangled; Batman; Green Lantern; Natchitoches Central Chiefs; Hogwarts; Action Comics; Pirates of the Caribbean; Sith; Jedi; Lightsabre; Dumbledore; Lord of the Rings; Barbie; Smurfs; Jeep; Cup O Noodles; Plexiglass; Windex; Jimmy Choo; Animal Man; La-Z-Boy; Home Shopping Network; Star Wars; Queen Amidala; Volkswagen Beetle, Hello Kitty; Rolling Stone; Wookie; Evil Dead; Darth Vader; Lord Voldemort; Padowan; The Matrix; Hot Topic; Gandalf; Chevy Suburban; Gollum; Princess Leia; Super Bowl; Scrooge McDuck; Dumpster; Jabba the Hut.
For my parents, Clyde and Nancy.
Prologue
When I was in junior high, the school I went to held a Halloween festival every year in the gym. There were all these little booths where we could bob for apples or throw darts at balloons for crappy little prizes like plastic spider rings and whistles that didn’t work. There was a “jailhouse” that was really just a big cardboard box with a door and a window with black spray-painted PVC pipes as the bars. We could pay a dollar to send someone to “jail” for one minute. For some reason this turned into a declaration of love if a boy sent a girl to jail.
The biggest part of this festival was always the costume contest, probably because the winner actually won cash. In sixth grade, I was determined to win this contest. I spent weeks before the festival making my costume. I figured if I went as something the judges—who were just the softball coach, the head of the cafeteria, and the principal—had never seen before, I was sure to win.
At the time, I was really into this comic book series called The Pigments. My favorite character was Spectrum Girl. She had a pink afro and this awesome cape. The cape was what I spent most of my time on. I got these long, wide strips of fabric in every shade of the rainbow, then lined the edges of each strip with bendable wire so the strips would stick out behind me and be all wavy so it would look like I was flying.
On the night of the festival I was so pumped I almost threw up as I waited in the wings of the stage. The other