The Avery Shaw Experiment (13 page)

“You’re a popular. A beautiful people. A jock. No offense, but that’s very bad for our reputation. Why do you think we were so happy to keep your presence in our club secret?”

I laughed in astonishment.
Who knew
?

“
I
happen to appreciate your beauty,” Libby announced. “As well as your willingness to sink to our level of nerdiness for Avery’s sake, even if you won’t own up to it to your friends. Your devotion makes up for your less-fortunate qualities, but I’m sorry, we simply cannot have a member of our science club not understand the basic laws of motion. This is a science club emergency.” Libby looked around the group. “It’s time Grayson gets his first lesson in applied physics.”

I was scared when the geeks dragged me out to the parking lot, but as it turned out “applied physics” was just some nerdy version of bowling. Actually, as far as punishment for failing a class goes, I could have done a lot worse than having to attend science club.

Once we were at the bowling alley, I caught Avery watching me as I laced up my bowling shoes. She did that every now and then during science club as if she still expected to see Aiden’s face instead of mine. It always made me a little sad when I noticed her missing my brother, so I did my best to put a smile on her face every time it happened.

“What? No pool hall?”

Her answering smile was small, but it was real.

Libby snorted. “Not if you want a chance at winning.”

Brandon puffed out his white-dress-shirt-clad chest and threw an arm around Avery’s shoulders. “Avery is a master pool player.”

“So I noticed.”

The knowing look I shot Avery made her blush. It hadn’t been her pool skills I noticed that night so much as the way she looked every time she leaned over the table to take a shot. I’d most likely have the same problem bowling today. Too bad she wasn’t still wearing that dress.

I changed the subject before I started drooling. “So which one of you is the genius nerd bowling prodigy?”

“Actually, none of us are very good bowlers,” Levi said. “It’s just one of the more simplified ways to explain Newton’s Laws of Motion. Athletes tend to be kinesthetic learners, so hands-on demonstrations usually work much better than lectures.”

Kinesthetic learner? Was I supposed to know what that was?

Levi sighed, reading the confusion on my face. “Kinesthetic learners are people who learn by physically carrying out an activity rather than just watching a demonstration or listening to a lecture. Judging by the way you cannot ever sit still for more than five minutes, I am going to assume that you are either a kinesthetic learner or you suffer from ADHD.”

He seemed to want an answer to this. “Uh . . . I’m not ADHD.”

“Good. Then this should work.”

“What should work?” I was starting to get scared again. If it weren’t for the amused look on Avery’s face, I might have bolted from the building.

“Since you are most likely a kinesthetic learner, for this study session we will have you physically put Newton’s laws into motion.”

“Uh . . . okay . . .” Sometimes their geekspeak was too much. Why couldn’t he just say, “I think you’re a moron, so I’m going to dumb it up for you with something I think you can relate too like this dense inanimate object.”

I wanted to be pissed off, but Avery was still sitting across the lane from me with this adorable grin on her face, so I couldn’t find it in me to be offended by her smart friends.

“So, beefcakes,” Libby said, startling me from my Avery staring. “How’s about you pick up your ball, and let’s get this party started. I happen to be a visual learner, so I am quite excited to have some eye candy to enhance my learning experience for a change.”

That finally did it. I smiled. “You frighten me, Libby. You really do.”

“She frightens us all,” Brandon said, and then looked at me. “So, Grayson, my physics-ly challenged friend.” He snorted. “Newton’s first law of motion. What is it?”

I sighed, recognizing the beginnings of actual studying. I had hoped “applied physics” was really just code for “bowling,” but I guess not.

Everyone was waiting for me to answer, so I tried to remember what I knew of Newton’s Laws. “What goes up, must come down?”

When the entire group groaned, Avery took pity on me. “That’s a rough translation of the law of gravity.”

“Well, can we start with that one? Because that’s the one I sort of understand. Gravity I get.”

I got another round of groans for this, and Avery giggled as she explained why that was wrong.

“Gravity isn’t one of the three laws of motion, but those are just as simple. Here . . .” At my look of doubt, she got up and handed me my bowling ball. “Is this ball going to throw itself down the lane?”

Was she messing with me? “Is this a trick question?”

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.