The Summer I Became a Nerd - By Leah Rae Miller Page 0,29

say it. I want him to want a kiss, because I realize I’d do it so fast it’d make his head spin.

“I dare you to do your happy dance,” he says instead.

“Happy dance?”

“Come on, everyone has a happy dance.”

“But… I have to be extremely happy to do a happy dance. It’s not something I can just, you know, jump into.”

“How about I give you some inspiration.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and presses a few buttons. A song with an upbeat keyboard begins, and Logan stands up. The happy lyrics say something about a birdhouse and a bee. He waves his hand at me to follow. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he looks at me expectantly.

I stand up to face him and try to sway a little. He shakes his head as he turns the volume up.

“I just can’t, I’m not happy enough.”

“Pretend like the Natchitoches Central Chiefs just won the Super Bowl.” He bounces a little more enthusiastically.

“That’s good, I guess.” My sway becomes a little more pronounced. A smile takes hold, not because of the thought of the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, but because Logan is such an awkward dancer. He’s gone from bouncing to alternating snaps of his fingers as he bobs his head. Plus, he’s a little off rhythm.

“There’s a Tangled marathon on in two minutes!” He has to yell over the music now.

“That’s better.” I start nodding my head to the beat.

“It’s Christmas! You just got your Hogwarts acceptance letter, a copy of Action Comics #1, and a brand new car that runs on water!”

“Hell yeah!” I scream and let go.

My arms wave over my head. I jump and spin. My ponytail whips around, sticking to my lips, but I don’t care. I do the twist, and Logan does the robot. His ears are super red, and our breaths are turning into huffs. And yet, I can’t stop. I just keep dancing and singing along until we both collapse on a bench, laughing uncontrollably.

When we’re leaving, Logan pauses at the door, then doubles back.

“What is it?” I ask

He grabs the pen hanging by a chain above the guest book. “We forgot to sign.”

“That one doesn’t work, never has.” I hand him a pen from my purse. He hunches over the book to write.

When I try to see what he wrote, he closes the book and waves toward the door. “Ladies first.”

I laugh a little and shake my head as I go in front of him.

…

That evening, as I’m waiting for Logan’s show to come on, Eric calls. It’s weird because, when my song/ringtone plays, I automatically get all these happy feelings, and my stomach does somersaults. But, when I see who’s calling me, my heart drops.

I need to handle this. I can’t be hanging out with Logan, dancing with him and meeting his parents, and still technically be with Eric. It’s not fair to either of them. But I’d be losing the cheerleader-dates-the-quarterback piece of my carefully crafted popular persona, and I’m not ready to risk it. Not yet.

I don’t answer the phone.

#11

The next morning, I pull up to Terra’s house and reach into the backseat to get the multitude of plastic bags containing things like glitter pens, poster board, white T-shirts, and rhinestones. Terra comes out before I get to her door, followed by Rayann.

I internally roll my eyes. It’s not that I don’t like Rayann… Okay, I don’t like her. She’s a drama pirate. I always picture her standing at the bow of a boat with one of those telescopes that stretch out. “Thar she blows! Looks like so-and-so has been seeing someone else behind her boyfriend’s back, me matey.” I’ve had this exact conversation with her at least three times this past school year, minus the pirate-isms.

“Did you get extra glue sticks?” Terra asks, her super-curly hair bouncing as she takes some bags from me.

“Yep.”

“And glitter?”

“Yep,” I say again as we go inside. I wave to Terra’s mom as we cross through the living room.

“What about sparkles for the shirts?”

“Yep, I got everything on your list, and yes, I have my money for the ticket.”

“Great, I’ll put it in my account so I can be ready to clicky, clicky on the tour website and buy our tickets. Oh my God, this is going to be so amazing. Can you believe it? We are going to actually see Allison. In person. Hear her. With our own ears.” Terra dumps the contents of the bags on the floor