skirt-related bike crash.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me,” Teddy said.
Her phone buzzed, and she felt her stomach drop. Anxiety and excitement were so close together, it was like they were the same feeling. She couldn’t tell if she was terrified or thrilled or . . .
Waiting outside. Your neighbor is staring at me suspiciously. I think she’s afraid I’m about to ask her for candy.
Terrified and thrilled. Both of them, all at once, swirling in her body like a slightly nauseating cocktail.
Also it’s weird to text you. But emailing you to say I was here felt weirder.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Kirsten asked. “Because you’re staring at your phone with a look of what is either wide-eyed horror or wide-eyed excitement.”
Teddy’s head jerked up. “This is a date, right?”
Eleanor stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a collared dress covered in suns, moons, and stars. “Uh, yeah. He asked you out. This is a date.”
“What is this costume?” Kirsten asked. “You said you’d be going as something we’d recognize.”
Eleanor spun around. “I’m Ms. Frizzle, obviously. Of The Magic School Bus fame?”
“Ohhhh,” Teddy and Kirsten said appreciatively.
Eleanor sighed. “You guys aren’t the only ones who didn’t recognize the costume—none of my students did when I wore it to our class Halloween party, on account of they’re five and they don’t watch television from my youth.”
Teddy smiled. She knew Gretel would probably get the reference. And then thinking of Gretel reminded her that Everett was waiting outside, and suddenly, she felt hot. She fanned her face with her phone. “I haven’t been on a date since . . . well, since Richard and I started dating. And that barely counted, because I kind of started going over to his place and then we were together. But I don’t know how to do this! I’ve never dated! I—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Kirsten stood up and crossed the room, then put her hands on Teddy’s shoulders. “Do what I did on my first date with the Viking. Tell him he has frosting on his mouth and ask if you can lick it off.”
“But why would he have frosting on his mouth?” Teddy asked, panicked. “Are we going to a bakery?”
“Absolutely do not say that!” Eleanor shouted, shaking with laughter. “Kirsten is kidding!”
“I mean, that’s literally what happened, but sure, I’m kidding. It’s a joke! Don’t do that!” Kirsten shook her finger at Teddy.
“Be yourself, Teddy,” Eleanor said soothingly, putting an arm around her. “Be your normal, charming self. We love you. Everyone loves you. He will, too.”
“Okay,” Teddy whispered. “But what if he . . . doesn’t?”
“He will,” Eleanor said firmly as Kirsten nodded.
Teddy sighed and rested her head on Eleanor’s shoulder. “You’re very comforting as Ms. Frizzle, you know. How can I be a full-fledged grown-up and just figuring out something that most people learn at sixteen?”
“What did we tell you?” Eleanor said gently. “There’s no time limit on dreams. Don’t make Kirsten repeat that Colonel Sanders anecdote again.”
“Maybe I should stay here and hand out candy with you guys,” Teddy said quickly. “That sounds like a fun tradition I’d love to be part of.”
“Nope.” Eleanor steered Teddy toward the door, grabbing her purse and handing it to her. “You’re going out with your puppeteer crush and you’re gonna have a great time.”
She opened the door and all but pushed Teddy out.
“Don’t forget the frosting trick!” Kirsten called as Eleanor shut the door.
Teddy stood on the porch, blinking in the early-evening fall sunlight like a confused baby animal who’d just been born. She wasn’t sure she could do this. Go on a date? Who thought that was a good idea?
“Hey.”
She turned to her right to see Everett leaning against the wall, smiling that Everett St. James smile at her. And now she knew: it didn’t just look that way on TV. In person, it made her feel lit up from the inside, like a glowing jack-o’-lantern (but with better teeth).
“Hey,” she said softly.
“What was that about frosting?” he asked.
“Oh, you heard that?” Teddy exhaled. “That’s my roommate. It was encouraging in context, but don’t worry about it.”
“Okay! So,” he said, pushing himself off the wall, “you ready to ride a bike?”
“I was born ready,” Teddy said.
* * *
—
TEDDY DIRECTED EVERETT to the parking lot of a nearby high school. It turned out her cardigan, while cute, was no match for the autumn chill, so Everett loaned her his jacket, and Teddy was so distracted by how it smelled—spicy and sweet and perfectly warm—that she could