Behind me, Tara giggled. I couldn’t blame her. Even I knew I looked like an idiot now.

Avery gave me a sympathetic smile. “No. It’s not a trick question.”

“Um, okay. Then . . . no? It won’t roll itself down the lane?”

“Exactly.” She stepped aside. “So throw the ball.”

I gave her another confused look but decided to trust her and chucked the ball toward the pins.

“Is the ball going to stop?” she asked.

“Not until it hits the back wall.”

“Right.”

At that moment the ball went crashing into the pins, knocking down all but two of them. It did in fact stop when it slammed into the back of the lane.

“There you go,” Avery said as if that explained everything. “Newton’s first law of motion. You understand it perfectly.”

Everyone laughed at this except me. It was possible that I was more confused than I had been in class.

Avery picked up another bowling ball. “An object at rest . . .” she said and held up the ball,“will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Such as you throwing it. An object in motion . . .” She threw the ball down the lane toward the remaining two pins. “Continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted on by an unbalanced force, such as hitting the back wall or the pins, or the friction of it rolling down the lane. If there were nothing to stop the ball, it wouldn’t stop.”

“You mean like how asteroids in space will just go forever until they crash into something?”

“Exactly!” Tara squeaked.

“So in other words, an object won’t move unless something gives it a push, and it won’t stop unless something makes it.”

The whole group of nerds clapped because I got it, but I felt myself frown. “What, you mean that’s it? That’s the whole law?” It couldn’t be that simple.

“Yes. That’s all there is to it.” Avery laughed. Actually, everyone laughed.

“Well, why didn’t Mr. Walden just say that in the first place?”

They all laughed again. So glad I could entertain them all.

Avery tried to stop laughing for my sake but couldn’t quite manage it. She was so cute that it was worth looking like an idiot. “Come on, Einstein,” she teased. “Pick up your ball. Laws two and three are just as easy. Once you have them down, we’ll see if you’re any better at bowling than you are at pool, and while we’re at it, we can explain a few things like mass, momentum, velocity, force, inertia . . .”

I felt myself cringe. I kind of thought I’d find the smart-girl talk hot, but mostly it just freaked me out when she used words like velocity and inertia.

“Well, the bowling part sounds fun anyway.” I grinned. “You up for a little friendly wager?”

Man, I loved watching her blush.

“No!” she said. “Definitely not. I’ve had my fill of friendly wagers, and certain people cannot be trusted to be gracious losers.”

I laughed. The girl had a point.

Avery

After bowling I offered to help Grayson write a paper on his applied physics lesson at the bowling alley. “As part of science club if you write up a report on what you learned during our activities, you get to exchange it for a missed homework assignment or a failed quiz in Mr. Walden’s class.”

“Seriously? Mr. Walden doesn’t seem that cool.”

I sighed. “Grayson, most teachers are pretty cool when it comes to that stuff. Believe it or not, they actually want to see their students succeed. If they see you really applying yourself, they’re usually pretty flexible.”

“If you say so. But if we’re going to write a paper, let’s go to my house. My mom’s been extra moody since she and Kaitlin got in their fight. Maybe if she sees you, it’ll soften her up.”

Grayson saw the expression on my face and said, “Don’t worry, Aiden and The Leash Holder spend most of their time at her house.”

I had no more excuses, so I called my mom and went to Grayson’s house for the first time since winter break.

The Kennedy house, even though it’s three times the size of the cozy two-bedroom my mom and I rent, has always felt like a second home to me. I even sort of had my own room. Well, technically it was a guest room, but I kept a bunch of my stuff there since I was over so much. It felt nice to be back, but at the same time it felt different.

“Avery! Hi, honey!”

Cheryl was sitting at her desk with a stack of papers piled practically to the ceiling. She was a private tax accountant, so January through April she basically lived in her office. The rest of the year she had a lot more freedom to hang out and do stay-at-home mom things like cook and hover.

I stepped into the office and gave Grayson’s mom a hug. “Hi, Cheryl. I hope you don’t mind that I came over. I know it’s been awkward since New Year’s.”

“You’re always welcome here, you know that. You’re practically family. You’re supposed to get in fights with my boys.”

“I don’t think it’s a fight,” I said sadly.

Cheryl’s eyes softened. “You guys will work it out.” She cast her eyes to Grayson and found her smile again. “But you and Grayson have sure become a lot closer, so all isn’t lost, right?”

“Right.” I wanted to feel happy, but I had to get something off my chest. “Cheryl, I am so sorry for what happened with Aiden. I just want you to know that I don’t blame him.”

Grayson snorted in disgust. I ignored him and continued the speech I’d been rehearsing since Grayson asked me to come over. “Please don’t be mad at my mom anymore. I know she kind of went over the deep end with the protective bit, but that was my fault. I shouldn’t have freaked out so much. I should have understood Aiden better. He didn’t really do anything wrong and—”

“Avery, stop!” Grayson snapped, startling both Mrs. Kennedy and me. “You may not feel angry yet, but I do. I can’t listen to you stand there and defend him. Aiden doesn’t deserve it. He treated you like crap!”

“Grayson, calm down.”

“It’s true, Mom! He bailed on her for the science fair, and even though he said he still wanted to be her friend, he hasn’t spoken to her in weeks. The first day back from school she sat down at their lunch table with all of their friends, and he was going to ask her to not sit with him anymore. He was going to make her leave her own lunch table!”

Cheryl gasped, and I quickly shook my head. “He was probably just going to ask me to switch seats with Libby so that I wasn’t sitting right next to him.”

“Like that’s any better!” Grayson crossed his arms tightly over his chest and glared at me when I started to defend Aiden again. “Tell her what he did on Thursday.”

“He had every right to—”

“No he didn’t, Avery!”

“Grayson! Stop yelling at her.”

“Mom! She went to watch his debate on Thursday to be nice and prove that she was okay with his choices. She wanted to introduce herself to Mindy and let them both know that she could be their friends. Aiden got pissed off that she showed up and made her leave. He acted like her wanting to be there for him made her some kind of psycho stalker!”

I didn’t realize that my eyes were closed or that tears were leaking out of them until Grayson’s arms came around me and he said, “No more tears, Aves. He’s not worth it.”

“Aiden really did all that?” Cheryl asked in a small voice.

I couldn’t answer her, but I felt Grayson nod.

“Aiden is being a world-class jerk, and Kaitlin has every right to be pissed off at him. All of his friends are pissed off at him. I can’t even stand to be around him because I just want to beat him senseless. You need to get over your fight with Kaitlin, and you need to have words with your freaking son. That bitch he’s dating is turning him into an asshole.”

“Grayson, watch your mouth!”

“Well, she is,” Grayson muttered.