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impressive moo. Girls used to eat it up when I did them back in fifth grade. They’d hang around me for entertainment, which is just what I wanted at the time. Guys who didn’t have any entertainment value were ignored. I was a kid who refused to be ignored.
    I still refuse to be ignored.
    I look at Nikki while I’m doing the sounds, but I get zero reaction from her. Nada .
    Until she scans me up and down like I’m a creature from another planet. “Are you for real?”
    “As real as they come, mi chava .” I stand and hold out my hand. “Dance with me.”
    She eyes my scabs and winces. “What happened to your hand?”
    “Long story involving me and a snake. The snake won.”
    She obviously doesn’t believe me. “Why don’t you dance with that girl over there?” she says, pointing to this girl I was introduced to named Yvette. She’s one of Brittany’s aunts’ cousin’s kids or something like that. She’s got dyed blond hair and a fake tan. Brittany said she’s on the swim team at school, and last year won state in the two-hundred-yard freestyle. Great body, but not my type.
    “You want me to dance with someone besides you?”
    “Yes,” she says, sticking her cute nose in the air like a princess.
    I shrug. “Suit yourself.”
    Whatever. If that’s the way she wants it, she can sit here and be miserable. I look at the dance floor. My three-hundred-pound aunt Rosalita is waving me over. Last time I danced with her, she stepped on my foot and almost crushed my bones.
    Just as I’m about to leave Nikki alone to drown in her own misery, Alex pats me on my shoulder. Standing next to him is Dr. Cruz, Nikki’s father.
    “Alex tells me you’ll be applying to Purdue to study aeronautics engineering after graduating high school,” Dr. Cruz says to me with the slightest hint of an accent.
    I stand. “That’s the plan, sir.”
    “Good for you. I really respect that you’re following in your brothers’ footsteps and working hard.”
    “I respect that, too,” the woman standing behind him says. Nikki’s mom, obviously. “It’s admirable. Boys who have drive and ambition will definitely go far in life.”
    I think I hear Nikki snort when I get her parental approval.
    Dr. Cruz pats Nikki on the top of the head. “I see you’ve met my daughter, Nikki.”
    “Definitely. I asked her to dance, but—”
    Dr. Cruz practically drags his daughter off the chair. “Dance with Luis.”
    “I don’t feel good,” she mumbles.
    “Come on, sweetheart. At least pretend to have fun.”
    “I don’t want to have fun or pretend to have fun, Dad.”
    “Don’t be rude,” her mother scolds, then urges her toward me. “Dance with the boy.”
    I hold out my elbow for Nikki to take, but she struts her hot little Latina body to the dance floor without waiting for me.
    “Good luck,” Dr. Cruz calls out to me.
    A fast song is playing, and Nikki starts dancing with a bunch of people randomly. I watch her as she pretends to loosen up. I know she’s faking it because she’s not really smiling … she’s not frowning, either. She’s just … here.
    I try and dance close to her, watching as her body moves to the music. She’s not a good dancer … she’s downright awful. She doesn’t seem to notice she looks ridiculous as she jerks her body like a robot around the dance floor. She won’t even look at me. In fact, she’s busy moving from group to group so nobody can claim her as their partner.
    Until a slow song comes on.
    Nikki stops abruptly. I reach out for her waist and gently urge her toward me. We’re face-to-face now. She looks up at me with long eyelashes that almost touch her eyebrows and eyes that I could melt into if she’d let me. There’s no mistaking the electricity pulsing through the air between us. If we got together, it would be explosive … in a really good way. She’s intimidating, which is sexy as all hell. I don’t get intimidated easily.
    “ Hola, corazón ,” I say, and wiggle my