Nerd

“How are your classes, sweetie?” I stab a carrot with my fork and then decide against it and put my fork down, grabbing my glass of tea instead. “Honey, you’re barely touching your food.” I pick up the fork with the speared carrot, thinking about it, then changing my mind and putting it back down again. “Benjamin Daniels.” The tone of my mother’s voice catches me off guard and I glance up.

“Ma’am?” I ask innocently.

“You aren’t even paying any attention,” she accuses.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize. “I just have a lot on my mind.” I push the carrot off my fork and decide to poke at the roast, thinking maybe I’ll give it a try.

“What’s got you so distracted, baby?” she asks. My father glances up from his dinner and I hear my brother laugh.

“He has a crush on the new girl,” Justin informs them.

My dad nods appreciatively, like that’s a good, normal thing for a teenage boy to be distracted by.

“A girl?” my mother asks, her tone bright. “What girl? There’s a new girl? And you like her?”

Justin snorts. “A popular girl. I heard she’s hot.”

“Justin, honestly!” my mother scolds him.

“How do you even know any of this?” I demand. “You’re in middle school.”

“Miller told Elliot about the girl and that you liked her but that she’s way out of your league and Elliot told me.” He smirked. Damn Miller. I told him to stop telling his punk ass brother shit about me.

“No one is out of Ben’s league.” My mom defends me. I roll my eyes and Justin snorts again.

“Yeah, he just chooses not to date a Victoria’s Secret model.” He jokes.

“Justin, please, Ben can date whoever he wants. Ben is smart and handsome. You both are.”

“Mom, face it. We’re both socially inadequate dorks who are going to end up alone,” Justin says.

Mom opens her mouth to say something but I cut her off. “Can we please not talk about this?”

My mom nods, and we eat in silence for a few moments. “So tell me about this girl,” my mom finally says, trying not smile too eagerly.

I shake my head, embarrassed. “Mom, please, can we not?”

“No, I want to know about this girl! What’s she like? Is she pretty? Is she nice?” She demands, putting her fork down, crossing her arms across her chest and staring me down.

“Fine,” I sigh, giving up. “She’s really pretty. She’s beautiful. Her name is Kate Burrs. She moved here from England. She was my partner this morning in my history class. She’s really smart and really beautiful, and girls like that don’t talk to me, and I don’t talk to them, but I like talking to this girl. Now. Can we drop this?”

My mom, obviously satisfied with this information, nods, smiles, and picks her fork back up and starts eating like there was no confrontation at all. No awkward conversation. I, on the other hand, was thoroughly embarrassed and a little angry at myself.

“May I be excused?” I ask.

My parents glance up at me. “Sure,” my father says, nodding. My mother shrugs and smiles at me. My brother gives me a look that basically translates to ‘you’re a fucking lunatic,’ but I don’t care. I don’t care about any of that. I just want to finish my homework and go to bed. I want to forget about today and just look forward to tomorrow. Because tomorrow is another day with Kate—another day to talk to her, to get to know her, and to get her to know me, the real me. I’m better than Mike, ten times better for her than him. I just need to get her to see that.



“Alright,” Mrs. Lovett begins. “Let’s get going, notebooks out, let’s move! We’re starting a new project. You’ll get in groups of two—and, yes, you may pick your own partners but don’t begin discussing this now—and I will assign you a section from chapter three that you will create a PowerPoint presentation on. All major facts and details need to be mentioned. Do not leave anything out. You will teach your section to the class. I will hand out papers outlining the PowerPoint and the minimum requirements.” She pauses. “Any questions?” No one raises their hand. “Alright. You may choose your partners now.”

I sat there for a minute, assuming Miller would be my partner, as always. People were getting up and moving around. I didn’t notice when she sat down in front of me.

“Hello,” Kate says. I glance up and just stare at her. She smiles. “Will you be my partner?” she asks.

“Oh,” I nod. “Uh, yeah. Of course. Yeah, totally.” I know I sound like an idiot, but I can’t stop. “Sounds great.”

She laughs lightly. “Okay, good. Thanks.”

“No problem,” I smile, shaking my head to myself, cursing my stupidity.

“So… are we going to do this at your place or mine?” she asks, grinning.