The Avery Shaw Experiment (7 page)

I was going to have to be very careful about this transition, but there was no way I could leave her to deal with Aiden and Mindy on her own. That would get her pulled from school in a matter of days.

“Well done, Aves,” I whispered as I planted a kiss on the side of her head. “Hardest part’s over now.”

I stuck a tater tot in front of her face until she rolled her eyes at me and ate it. Not that I was a fan of feeding people or anything, I was just stalling as I figured out the best way to proceed with my friends.

“Have you really been through so many girls at this school that you’re stealing them from the geeks now?” my best friend Owen Jackson teased.

“Nah, Avery’s cool. We’ve been like this”—I crossed my fingers—“since before she was born. Really. I used to read picture books to her while she was still in her mom’s stomach.”

A couple of the girls gave us pouty little “Aww’s,” and I knew we would be fine. The guys would be a little trickier, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

“Didn’t I just take her picture for the
science club
before break?”

I cringed inwardly. That was the one thing my friends might not be able to swallow about Avery. I’d been hoping they wouldn’t realize that until they knew her better. I’d forgotten that Mark was the photographer for the yearbook staff.

I plastered a wicked smile on my face and said, “Well, yes, but we’re going to forgive her that one nerdy offense because Avery looks really hot in the shower.”

Avery choked on the food in her mouth and started coughing. I hoped I hadn’t just stopped her heart permanently, but I needed the guys to see her as dating potential and science club president was pretty much the opposite of that.

“No way, dude! You guys
showered
together?”

“It was the highlight of my winter break.”

“Grayson!” Aves finally shrieked. “Shut up! We did not shower together!”

“We most certainly did. Were we not in the shower at the same time?”

“That’s not the same thing!”

“Was there not nakedness involved?”

She slapped her hands over her flaming face, completely mortified. I squeezed her to me even tighter, praying she’d forgive me eventually. I’d reached her limit and needed to pull back, but that was okay because every guy at that table was now looking at her differently. In fact, maybe I’d done too good of a job because some of their looks were starting to piss me off.

I sighed, trying to sound repentant and yet not at the same time. “All right, so we didn’t actually
shower
together. My jerk-off little brother, who’s been her best friend for nearly
seventeen years,
bailed on her out of the blue for Mindy the Psycho Perez. Our moms were going crazy, so Avery jumped in the shower to hide from them. I just happened to be in there at the time. Aves was fully clothed, sadly, and had her eyes closed the whole time, so she missed out on seeing all my good stuff. I swear her honor and virtue are both still fully in tact. Much to my dismay.”

I got a few snickers from my friends, and a groan from Avery, who still wouldn’t pull her face out of her hands.

“I covered for her, we had a moment, she looked amazing in a wet t-shirt, it was super hot, and yes, Aves, it was the highlight of my winter break. Until later that night when you let me take you out on a date, and then
that
was the highlight of my winter break.”

“Aw, you guys are dating now? That’s so cute!”

I smiled really big at my friend Pamela. She was the queen bee of the girls in this school, and the only one I really needed to like Avery. If I could win her over, Aves would be set. She was watching Avery and me with a dreamy smile—a very good sign.

“Not exclusively,” I said. “Aves is still free to play the field if she wants, but we’re definitely feeling out the possibility.”

I was anyway. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since New Year’s Eve. We needed to go out again and finish the date we’d started. The girl owed me a kiss.

“Oh my gosh,
Grayson
, we are
not
dating!”

So she still considered me the gross older brother. At least she was showing her face again. If you ask me, her social integration was going rather well.

“I thought we were past the denial,” I teased her. “Shouldn’t you be at acceptance now? Isn’t that what comes after denial?” Everyone frowned at me now. “You know, like when somebody dies?” I explained. “There are those stages . . .”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Owen snapped his fingers a number of times while he tried to figure out a way to explain. “You start out in denial, and then you get all depressed, and finally you learn to accept the truth.”

I looked down at Avery and smiled. “Well you were definitely depressed all weekend, so we should be good now, right? Acceptance? You want to go out this Friday? Maybe not ditch me halfway through dinner this time?”

I gave Avery the grin that I know she can’t stay mad at, and sure enough, she pursed her lips together like she was trying not to smile. “I was depressed about
Aiden
, not you, and I am nowhere close to reaching any sort of acceptance over that.”

“Oh, that’s because you have to get angry first,” Pamela said. “That’s one of those stages too.” She glanced across the cafeteria and scowled my brother’s direction. “Shouldn’t be too hard to do. I can’t believe he dumped you for that Mindy girl. I had trig with her last year. She is
so
awful. You know what? I’ll help you get angry, and then you can move on to acceptance and go out with Grayson because you’re so tiny and he’s so tall. It would completely adorable.”

Avery blushed, and even I had to fight back a small tightness in my chest.

“So true!” Pamela’s best friend Chloe agreed. “About your cuteness and about Mindy. She’s the worst. But you don’t need to get angry, you need to get even. Is that one of those stages?”

“I don’t think so,” Avery whispered shyly. She was actually talking to them now! Very, very good sign.

“Well it should be, because the key to curing a broken heart is not anger. It’s revenge.” She suddenly reached across the table and grabbed one of Avery’s hands. “Do you want to come over to my house today after school? Pam and I are awesome with makeovers. We can shake you up a bit and make you so desirable that Aiden will kick himself until he dies for dumping you.”

“Oh, it would be so easy!” Pam agreed. “You’re totally adorable already, and with you dating Grayson? Wow. That is going to drive Aiden crazy!”

“Ooh!” Chloe squealed. “The best part about it all is that Aiden going crazy about Avery will drive Mindy absolutely insane with jealousy!”

Owen leaned close to me and muttered, “Dude. Girls are crazy.”

I had to agree, but inside I was getting really excited. This was exactly what I was hoping would happen. Pam and Chloe would be the perfect people to take Avery under their wings. They could show her all that girl stuff that I couldn’t help her with.

“Um.” Avery shrunk a little closer to me, but I gave her a nudge, forcing her to sit up on her own. “That is so nice of you guys, but I don’t need revenge. I don’t want to hurt Aiden’s feelings.”

I suppressed an eye roll. Obviously she hadn’t hit anger yet.

Aves tipped her head up to look at me and grimaced. “We
aren’t
dating. I just got my heart broken. I’m not really ready to date anyone, and, I’m sorry, I’m definitely not in the mood to be your flavor of the weekend.”

I chuckled and so did most everyone else. It wasn’t every day that I got shot down. It was kind of amusing. “I believe the term is flavor of the week,” I teased. “Not weekend.”

Avery looked at me skeptically. “Have you ever lasted an entire week with one girl?”

For a single beat there was silence, and then the entire table exploded into laughter. Everyone razzed me like crazy over the burn. The beauty of it was that Avery had been completely serious. Her innocence was genius.

Avery blushed of course, but I sat up a little straighter. I felt a strange fluttering of pride in my stomach. Avery had won them over! This was going to work. The first step to helping Avery Shaw was a complete success.

Avery

Despite my claims to Grayson
that loving to learn didn’t make me a dork, the truth is, I knew I was a geek. I didn’t mind, though. I really did enjoy learning, and I spent my entire life in the blissful world of social obscurity. Grayson Kennedy changed all that in the span of a single lunch period.

Suddenly I was the subject of many rumors—the most popular being that I was Grayson’s new girlfriend. Everyone in school knew my name. People who’d never spoken to me before acted like we were best friends. It was crazy. Not that I didn’t appreciate what Grayson had done, but I wasn’t sure if he’d made things better for me, or worse.

I missed all of fifth period because I had to go to the nurse to take one of my pills that they keep on hand for when I can’t control my panic attacks. That led to my guidance counselor asking questions as to why I was having such bad anxiety. I threw her for a loop with the unprecedented change in social status. I guess that kind of thing didn’t happen a lot in high school.

The only truly relieving thing that came from all the madness was that Grayson and his friends had given me an idea for a science fair project—a project that I technically already had a decent start on, so even without a partner, I had a good chance of getting it done on time. By the time school was over that day, I had a full outline of my project scribbled down to show Mr. Walden in science club.

I’d been so busy putting my project outline together that I managed to block out all the whispers and stares. I hardly noticed when Aiden changed seats and completely ignored me in Honors English. Okay, I noticed, and it killed me, but thanks to the outline (and the very powerful medication), I’d been able to live through it and not have another breakdown.

I was the last one to arrive in the science lab after school because Grayson’s friends Pamela and Chloe found me and tried to convince me to go with them to Chloe’s for a makeover. I said I had science club, but they wouldn’t leave until I’d promised to go with them the next day.

When I got to the science lab, Libby, my friend who’d been with me at lunch when Grayson hijacked me, tackled me. Since I’d missed fifth period, we hadn’t seen each other yet. “Oh my heck, Avery!”

Libby was my best, and only, girl friend. She was brilliant and nice and very spunky. She was very outgoing and so funny that anyone who gave her a chance loved her; but because she wasn’t as thin as the majority of girls in our school and had a tendency to wear pictures of cats on her clothes, most people didn’t give her a chance. Most people were shallow idiots.

She threw her arms around me and forced me to jump up and down with her. “Can you believe that happened?”

“What exactly are we talking about? Aiden getting a girlfriend? Or Grayson almost killing him in front of the whole school?”

“I’m talking about how your romantic, hot new boyfriend came to your rescue in front of everyone! Seriously, Avery. Didn’t you just
die
?”

I flushed at her phrasing. “Grayson’s not my boyfriend, and yes, I did almost die, actually. That’s why I missed calculus today. I had to go take a pill and have a major freak out in the guidance office.”

“Seriously, Aves? You had to go to the office?”

Libby looked over my shoulder at the new voice. I didn’t need her bugged-out eyes and squeak of excitement to tell me who was behind me sounding so concerned.

Before I could ask Grayson what he was doing at science club, he grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me over as if searching for signs of distress. “You okay?”

“Yes. I keep special medication in the nurse’s office for emergencies, so I’m okay now.”

Grayson’s face fell. “You had an episode?”

“It wasn’t too bad. There were just so many people staring and whispering after lunch.”

“I’m sorry. That was all my fault.” Grayson crushed me to his chest. “I knew I shouldn’t have made a scene like that, but Aiden was being such a jerk, and I totally lost my temper. Forgive me?”